Popularisation of science and dissemination of scientific information to a wide section of the Indian citizenry has been a major mandate of CSIR, being fulfilled by CSIR-NIScPR’s Popular Science Division (PSD).
Popular Science Magazines: The PSD endeavours to take science to the people through its three well-known popular science magazines: Science Reporter (English monthly), Vigyan Pragati (Hindi monthly) and Science-ki-Duniya (Urdu quarterly). The magazines provide topical coverage of scientific issues from around the world; interviews with S&T experts; profiles of scientists and S&T institutions; inputs on contemporary issues from top S&T experts, science administrators and science policy makers. The magazines also provide a platform for budding science writers to showcase their S&T writing talent. Besides, the magazine also provide access to light reading material such as humour, amazing scientific facts, inventions, discoveries, science fiction, science cartoons, puzzles, quizzes and much more.
The popular science magazines of CSIR-NIScPR are widely circulated throughout the country. Riding on their contemporary content, exquisite production quality and timeliness the magazines are today counted among the largest selling popular science magazines in the country.
R&D Newsletters: CSIR-NIScPR’s Popular Science Division (PSD) also brings out CSIR’s R&D monthly newsletters, viz. CSIR News and CSIR Samachar, which showcase and disseminate information about the R&D accomplishments of CSIR laboratories among various stakeholders.
Rajbhasha Unit: The Popular Science Division also incorporates the Rajbhasha Unit of CSIR-NIScPR. The Rajbhasha Unit ensures implementation of the official language policy as mentioned in the constitution of India (From Article 343 to 351). Efforts are being made for progressive use of Hindi in the Institute and helping the officials of the Institute in compliance of Acts/Rules/Policies and directions such as use of bilingual forms and issuance of bilingual orders/circulars/notifications and other Rajbhasha related rules specified in Official Language Acts and as directed by the Department of Official Language (Ministry of Home Affairs), Government of India.
The Rajbhasha Unit organizes every year workshops, lectures and training programmes on different topics to promote official work in Hindi. It also celebrates the Hindi Maah (hindi Month) every year. During this period, different competitions are organized such as Noting & Drafting in Hindi, Essay writing, Poem recitation, Debate, News reading, Typing in Unicode, Quiz, etc.
The Rajbhasha Unit has been awarded the first prize under the medium category offices (empanelled under TOLIC) for the best performance in implementing Rajbhasha policies among institutions four years in succession – 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-2019.
The Rajbhasha Unit also publishes the Rajbhasha Patrika called Nav Sanchetna. This is a half-yearly Hindi publication that strives to provide a platform to the staff of the Institute to write features, stories, poems, analytical articles and reports in Hindi.
Popular Science Books: As part of the science popularisation mandate of CSIR-NIScPR, the Popular Science Division (PSD) also brings out popular science books on various contemporary S&T topics, written by experts and presented in a lucid and well-illustrated format.
Audio-Visual Media: CSIR-NIScPR’s Popular Science Division plans to initiate S&T information dissemination through audio-visual media as well. The plans include programs on emerging fields of Science, Technology & Medicine (STM); news features; documentaries on Indian scientific establishments; interviews of eminent scientists; programs on upcoming scientific projects, science policy, career opportunities, etc.
