Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA) developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development that aims to inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and love for Science and Mathematics in school children was lauched in New Delhi by the former President, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam on….. Under Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, government schools will be mentored by Institutes like IITs/ IIMs/ IISERs and other Central Universities and reputed organisations through innovative programmes, student exchanges, demonstrations, student visits, etc to develop a natural sense of passion towards learning of Science and Maths. Dr. Abdul Kalam speaking on the launch focused on developing the spirit of innovation and experimentation among students. He further laid stress on four qualities of uniqueness: Great Aim, Quest of Knowledge, Hard Work, and Perseverance. Emphasising the value of learning he added “we learn to live, we learn to think and we learn to learn”. Smriti Irani, union HRD minister said that that RAA is an initiative by Ministry of HRD to encourage students to learn sciences beyond the classrooms. It is an effort to take forward the Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India, ‘Make in India’ and ‘Teach in India’. She also emphasised the fact that more and more women should be encouraged to participate in the field of science and technologies. She talked of efforts made by INTEL for nurturing scientific temper among girl students. She also mentioned Google India’s initiative of Code to Learn Contest which will enable students to learn in the Google campus and announced that Phase II of RAA will be launched in January, 2016 for higher education under which model science labs will be established in all districts of the North Eastern States. The event was also attended by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology & Earth Sciences; Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region besides a number of school children.
