By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Sept. 17: Nepal is celebrating the 8th National Science Day on Thursday by organising programmes virtually. National Science Day is celebrated on Asoj 1, according to the Nepali calendar. This year the day is being marked with the theme 'Science for health and quality life'.
The Ministry for Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) has decided to celebrate this year’s science day by organising a virtual meeting with stakeholders which will also be addressed by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
Likewise, in another programme organised by BP Koirala Planetarium, Observatory and Science Museum Development Board on Wednesday in the context of national science day, Minister for Education, Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel said the value of science and technology was realised more during this pandemic.
Minister Pokharel said though the target of the government in science and innovation could not be achieved due to the pandemic, some remarkable progresses were made in this sector.
National Science Technology and Innovation Policy, 2067 is the major achievement of this sector, he said. Minister Pokharel informed that the government had been formulating action plan and regulation of the policy for its implementation.
Minister Pokharel informed that Nepal ranked second in innovation after India in the SAARC countries whereas in the global context it is upgraded to 95th position this year from 109th position a year ago.
"The government has targeted to make human life easy from the use of technology mainly in health and education sector. Therefore, the government has focused to produce more human resource in science and technology along with development of infrastructure," Pokharel said.
The country has about 90,000 scientists and the government has targeted to utilise the human resource, he said. The minister further informed that the government had brought the concept of smart NAST.
Sanat Kumar Sharma, director of the planetarium, said the planetarium had been working to connect science with education of the country so as to support the development of nation. At the function, Minister Pokharel inaugurated the planetarium website named www.planeta-observatory.gov.np/.