National Science Day - 2020

February 28th is celebrated as National Science Day all over the country, commemorating the discovery of the Raman Effect by C.V. Raman, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

Each year, Science Day is celebrated at the Radio Astronomy Centre (RAC). The Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT), which is the world's most powerful telescope operating at low radio frequencies, was built and is being operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

Although the prime activity at NCRA and ORT is to carry out frontline research in radio astronomy and astrophysics, and develop state-of-the-art instrumentation for this purpose, NCRA and ORT observatory also have programmes to popularise science and technology among the general public, especially the student community. The Science Day celebrations comprise a major component of our outreach programmes.

Science Day events are usually held on 28th of February, in order to cater to the tremendous response from the general public, especially the students from the schools and colleges in the rural and semi-urban areas. The programme consists of a grand Science Exhibition, where children from the schools and colleges exhibit their science projects, and prizes are given for the best entries in different age groups. There are also exhibits and live demonstrations from various research institutes and science popularisation groups.

The RAC and the science exhibition will be open to the public from 9.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. on 28th February.