Vigyan Prasar Activities in Tripura

For quite some time Vigyan Prasar has been trying to initiate various science popularisation activities in Tripura. For two years (July 1999-February 2001) Shri Sanjay Banerjee was working as Fellow of Vigyan Prasar. Shri Banerjee initiated a number on activities. A three-day workshop on science communication was organised by Vigyan Prasar at Agartala during March 22-24, 2000. The objective of the workshop was to assess the current status of popular science activities in Tripura and to identify the organisations/individuals engaged in science popularisation activities with whom Vigyan Prasar can join hands. As a follow up of the workshop Vigyan Prasar continued interacting with different organisations and individuals. As a result the following three activities have been initiated.

• A three month long (13 episodes) radio programme (jointly with AIR, Agartala) explaining scientific basis of miracles. It will be a weekly programme of half an hour duration. To finalise the topics of different episodes and to identify the script writers, a workshop was organised at Agartala on 30th June, 2001. The workshop was inaugurated by Prof. Mihir Kanti Dev Vice Principal, MBB College, Agartala and Chairman, Tripura State Pollution Control Board. Representatives from different drama groups of Agartala namely Natyabhumi, Roopam, CILPA, Patabhumi, Dakshini, Kabitalok, Cinedelve and Kabyalok attended the workshop. It is expected that the programme will go on air by the end of September 2001. A Committee of experts from Agartala will monitor the contents of the programme. Tripura Science Forum, a voluntary organisation engaged in science popularisation activities, has agreed to help Vigyan Prasar in monitoring the programmes.
  
  
• A 26-episode quiz programme jointly with Doordarshan Kendra, Agartala and Tripura Science Forum.
  
  
• Science pages in Newspapers.