Why in news?

• As a part of the on-going Indian Science Congress, 2019, Science Communicators’ Meet was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar.

India’s achievements:

• India’s ranking in global innovation index has jumped from 81st in 2015 to 60th in 2017 and 57th in 2018.
• India is now at the 6th position in scientific publications and 10th in patent filing.
• Digital payments have surged to 8 folds in the last five years to 2070 crores. There has been 2048% growth in Aadhar Enabled Payment System transactions while transactions in UPI grew 1500 times in the last 24 months.

Aim of the Science Communicators’ Meet:

• The aim of the Science Communicators’ Meet is to cultivate and build up a more closely knit science communication community in the country responsible for disseminating science information to all stakeholders. The specific objective of the meet is to bring different science communicators together to discuss the development and optimum utilization of existing & new media and arenas in order to strengthen the dialogue between the research community and the society. The Communicators’ meet will provide opportunities for practitioners of science communication to discuss communication strategies receive critical feedback and spread the scientific way of thinking among people and make science accessible to them.

Women Science Congress:

• Minister of Textiles & Industry Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani inaugurated the Women’s Science Congress as a part of the on-going Indian Science Congress,2019 with the focal theme
• “Future India: Science and Technology. The Women’s Science Congress has been organised to showcase the contribution of women in Science, Technology and the Society.