JAMMU: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today formally released the Dogri language version of national Science monthly magazine published by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, at Brigadier Rajinder Singh Auditorium in the University of Jammu. He also announced that the Kashmiri language version of the same magazine will be launched soon.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly favours use of vernacular languages for promoting science communication and also to provide a level playing field to every aspiring youth to compete in science without facing any disadvantage on account of ignorance of English or Hindi languages. He pointed out that of late, there are many youth in different streams who have topped in the All India competitions after doing their graduation in their mother tongue and cited the example of one of the five toppers in IAS/Civil Service Exam few years ago who had done his entire education upto BA in Telugu medium.

Vice Chancellor University of Jammu, Prof Umesh Rai, Vice Chancellor Central University Jammu Prof Sanjeev Jain, Director IIM Jammu Prof B.S. Sahay, Director IIT Jammu Prof Manoj Gaur, Director AIIMS Jammu Dr Shakti Gupta,former Vice Chancellor Prof Manoj Dhar as well as senior members of academic faculty and students were present on the occasion. Among the prominent scholars and writers of Dogri language were Prof Lalit Mangotra, Prof Sushma Sharma HoD PG Department of Dogri, Jitendra Udhampuri and others. All of them profusely thanked and appreciated Dr Jitendra Singh for providing the academic community this dual gift of science and Dogri.

The Minister said, in a technology driven world of knowledge and progress we owe it to the youth of this country to provide them with appropriate curriculum, literature and options to study Science in the language of their choice and be able to compete with the students of English or Hindi medium.

He said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strong conviction in this regard is borne out by the fact that after the historic decision of 5th August, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir became the only UT/State in the country to have five official languages i.e. English, Hindi, Urdu, Dogri and Kashmiri.

While it is an established fact, said Dr Jitendra Singh, that language has no correlation with excellence in Science and countries like Russia, Japan and China have risen to be the first line leaders in scientific progress without the knowledge of English language, the contradiction in India is that for nearly two centuries we followed Lord Macaulay's policy of education as a result of which all the important textbooks and literature in science is available and read mostly in English language. In this regard, he solicited the help of science-knowing Dogri scholars to help translate the English language science textbooks into Dogri language without compromising the essence and meaning of expression.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the next 25 years of Amrit Mahakal when India rises to the world pedestal, this will be primarily on the strength of our scientific prowess and capacity of our StartUps who will be essentially technology driven. It is therefore equally important to focus on the scientific capacity- building of StartUps and youth in the age group of 30s who have another 25 active years to contribute till the year 2047 and whose scientific potential can be utilised to the maximum extent, regardless of which language they speak or read, he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, PM Modi's special thrust on promotion of Science and Technology is fully visible in revolutionary decisions like unlocking of Space Sector for private players, joint ventures in Atomic Energy initiatives and ably amplified in 75,000 Startups with 100 Unicorns in a very short span of time.

The Minister said, promoting Science communication and education in Indian languages is one of the key focuses of the present government and the efforts are on to make available science textbooks in vernacular languages to the students, He said, a group of resource persons has been tasked in this mission.

Dr Jitendra Singh thanked the Post Graduate Department of Dogri language in University of Jammu and sought continuous support for effective translation of the science literature in Dogri language.

The Minister said, when the most advanced countries like Russia, Japan, Germany and China can have the best of science literature and projects in their mother tongues, India has also taken the lead to communicate modern science and technology in all the Indian languages. He said, our learning becomes deeper when we study in our mother tongue.

It may be recalled that in December, 2021, Dr Jitendra Singh released Science monthly magazine in Hindi, Urdu and English at CSIR, New Delhi