Respect students’ freedom of expression: CSIR director

CSIR director general Shekhar C Mande condemned recent incidents of violence at JNU at the inauguration of a skill development centre at CSIR-IMTech

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) director general and secretary of department of scientific and industrial research (DSIR) Shekhar C Mande said authorities should respect students’ freedom of expression.

Mande was speaking on the sidelines of inauguration of the High-Tech Skill Development Centre, a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership between CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTech), Sector 39, and Merck, a science and technology multinational company, on Friday.

He said that the Indian constitution guaranteed citizens the right to express their views and India was a vibrant democracy. Primarily, JNU was the manifestation of that particular aspect, he said.

“Citizens should be allowed to express their views in whichever form they want without resorting to violence. Any kind of violence should be condemned in strongest terms. Recent acts of violence in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia,amia, is highly condemnable,” he said.

“Our manifestation should not result into violence,” he added.

“We may differ in views. I don’t have to agree with everything you say and vice-versa, but we can always debate on issues and peacefully resolve them.Disagreements shouldn’t lead to bashing up people and public property,” he said.

Mande said, “In India, 65% of the youth population falls in the working age group (15-59 years) and more than 54% of its total population is below 25 years of age. To to reap this demographic advantage, India must develop skill. I am happy that CSIR-IMTech and Merck have a role to play in India’s skill development.”

Equipped with next-generation technologies such as single-molecule biomarker detection, the High-Tech Skill Development Centre at CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTech), Sector 39, will help accelerate healthcare research and train Indian students and researchers in latest life science technologies.

Acting director of CSIR-IMTech, Manoj Raje, said collaboration with companies such as Merck will bring a paradigm shift in the way knowledge alliances were created in public-private partnership mode.

“The centre established in CSIR-IMTech would focus on research, development and training in the areas of drug discovery, affordable healthcare, diagnostics, cancer and agriculture biotechnology,” he said. The curriculum will enable users to get real-time analysis of samples as a part of workshops and training modules, he said,

It will also be useful for the graduates aspiring to work in pharma, biotech, food and fermentation industries, he added.