National Science Day 2023

The National Science Day (NSD) was celebrated at The Bhawanipur Education Society (BES) College on the 28th of February, 2023 to celebrate the discovery of the eponymous optical phenomenon, the Raman Effect, by the great Indian physicist, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on this very day way back in the year 1928. The Government of India has mandated this day to be celebrated as National Science Day since 1987 after a proposal from the National Council for Science and Technology Communication was accepted to recognize the groundbreaking scientific discovery of the great Sir C.V. Raman.

The BES College, in association with the Seminar/FDP/Workshop Committee of the Science Section, worked tirelessly for the past few months towards celebrating this notable day. The events were carefully planned out to uphold the motto of this year’s NSD theme – Global Science for Global Well-being. The theme-based events included performances that not only holistically assessed the overall scientific temper of the contestants but also showcased how healthy competitiveness could actually put justice at the helm based on sound logic.

The events included an essay competition which was open to some well-reputed schools and The Bhawanipur Education Society College students. This event was organized to gauge the writing skill of the participants. The student of The BGES School, Suvam Srivastava was adjudged the winner of this round in the school category. Sagnik Chakraborty of the Department of Chemistry of the BES College emerged victorious in the college category.

Another theme-based event to assess the communication and presentation skills of students was an oral presentation competition which was again divided into two categories. The winners in the school category were Subhasini Das and Bhakti Kothari from The BGES school. Students from Hartley’s High School, Sindhuja Sanyal, and Samadrita Maji deserve special mention as they took time out of their busy school curricula and participated in the event inspired by their accompanying teachers. The presentations of the school students emphasized how mental well-being is instrumental in deciding a nation’s overall well-being and showed that they are on the right track to embody wellness as part of their wealthy beings. The college students also illustrated the importance of mental well-being. They, too, emphasized that a society can only progress if its members are mentally sound to take sound decisions. The students of the Department of Electronics of this college, Gourab Chowdhury and Rudra Pratap Naskar, put forward the argument that progressing in technology is not equivalent to progressing as human beings because it only brings materialistic pleasure devoid of holistic happiness. This justification pleased the judges and eventually, they emerged as the winners of this round in the college category.

As it is said, the best is reserved for the last, the most exhilarating event was the quiz competition among the Science Section departments which proved to be the apt finale to the day’s proceedings. The rounds were really taxing and wrung out the best from the contestants. The quiz session not only taxed the mind but also soothed it with exciting questions and still more exciting answers. After grueling four rounds of interrogation, the team Mathematics stood out victorious. This session served as a platform for exploring the cognitive skills of the future residents of India based on scientific temper and information.

The judges for the events opined that the celebration of NSD is an exemplary initiative to cement the fissures of disbelief and to mend the wear and tears of fabricated facts so rampant nowadays. A few of the judges and young doctors from Spain, Italy, and Germany commended the initiative on NSD. Overall, they appreciated the intention behind such a celebration, and their words inspired the contestants.

The celebration came to an end with the valedictory session. The coordinators of the huge day-long exercise of science, with science, and for science, Dr. Utsa Das, Dr. Yeasin Sikdar, and Ms. Shawni Dutta were felicitated. Dr. Suman Mukerjee, Director General, and Mr. Dilip Shah, Dean of Students Affairs, praised the celebration and spoke in favour of science as the path to sustainability. Finally, the Teacher-in-Charge, Dr. Subhabrata Ganguly, Dean of Science, Dr. Samir Kanti Datta, and Vice Principal of Science, Dr. Pinki Saha Sardar commended the commitment of the entire unit of Science Section in making the event worthy of remembrance and serve as launching pad for students taking up science as their road ahead.