National Science Day (NSD) is celebrated in India every year on 28^th February to commemorate discovery of the Raman Effect by Prof. C. V. Raman who was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1930 and Bharat Ratna in 1954. Each year RRCAT celebrates the NSD by holding an Open House for the school and college students, teachers, family members and guests of RRCAT staff members and invitees from the public. Over the years, this event has become extremely popular among the school and college students, teachers, as well as the general public. However, this year due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation, RRCAT celebrated the National Science Day - 2022 (NSD-2022) in an online mode under the ^“Azadi Amrit Mahotsav”^”.

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Students and teachers of schools and colleges were invited to join the online virtual program for celebration of National Science Day at RRCAT. More than 650 students and teachers of 42 schools and 12 colleges fromIndore and nearby cities joined the online program. In addition, live streaming of the whole program, for a duration of more than 5 hours, was arranged on YouTube so that more students, teachers, RRCAT and DAE employees, their family members, and special invitees could take benefit of the program from their home, school, college or office. More than 2100 visitors viewed the NSD-2022 program on YouTube. The function was compered by Dr. Mangesh Borage. To begin with the celebration, Shri Rajesh Arya, Chairman, Public Outreach committee and Convenor, National Science Day (NSD-2022) Organizing Committee brought out the importance of curiosity in the students and innovations in his opening remarks delivered in Hindi language. He also advised students to remain inquisitive and innovative. Dr. S. K. Majumder, Co-convenor, National Science Day (NSD-2022) Organizing Committee welcomed the participants and formally introduced Dr. Shankar V. Nakhe, Director, RRCAT, to the participants on this occasion. He informed participating students that the NSD is celebrated to commemorate the path-breaking discovery of Raman Effect and also elaborated on the importance of celebrating National Science Day.

Director, RRCAT addressed the participants and informed them about that the theme for this year for National Science Day is “Integrated Approach in Science and Technology for Sustainable Future”. He also explained the importance of this theme and emphasized importance of integrated approach to enhance the speed of development. He explained this year’s theme of NSD in an interesting manner by citing the approach adopted by the Indore city in using advanced S&T methods for “sustaining the cleanliness of Indore in environment friendly and economic manner”. He further elaborated that several projects carried out at RRCAT have implemented this year’s theme of sustainable development in true letter and spirit. He brought out the achievements of Indian scientists of ancient and recent times. The recent major achievements of RRCAT in different areas were also very briefly mentioned. He gave an overview of Laser and Accelerator activities being pursued at RRCAT and explained several applications. A few short movies depicting importance of hygiene and cleanliness were also shown in the beginning of the program to drive home the message of “Swachcha Bharat Abhiyaan” to the participants.

The participants of NSD-2022 were shown an online tour of various laboratories and scientific activities of RRCAT through video clips on exhibits and technologies developed at RRCAT. The video session of about 120 minutes covered five broad topics which included Raman effect and Biomedical applications of laser, Laser science and technology, Accelerator science and technology, Science and technology of cryogenics, and Superconductivity and Advanced manufacturing. Videos on each of the topic preceded with a commentary by an expert explaining the technology for the benefit of the participating students and other participants. The video session included the video clips on Synchrotron Radiation Sources (SRS) Indus-1 and Indus-2, Infrared free electron laser (IRFEL), Radiation Processing Facility (ARPF), Raman effect, Raman probe, OncoDiagnoScope, TuberculoScope, Neel Bhasmi, how to make laser i.e. basics of laser, laser cutting, laser marker, paint removal by laser, laser surface texturing, laser additive manufacturing, artificial cloud formation, Shital vahak yantra (Shivay), superconducting maglev train, Computer numerical control (CNC) lathe machine, water jet cutting machine, demonstration of glass blowing, etc. and also on the experiments set up to explain the basic principles of Physics, technologies and cryogenics.

The major highlight of the celebrations was the online interaction session of the school and college students with the panel of experts involving senior scientists and engineers of the Centre, who answered the queries of the students related to science, technology, engineering and medicine. The students interacted with the expert panel of RRCAT by communicating their questions through chat-box as well as live online interaction. The interaction session of about 150 minutes received overwhelming and enthusiastic response from the students. A separate interactive online session was conducted for about 40 specially abled students(hearing and speech impaired), who interacted with the Director and other experts. Experts tried to address their queries with the help of interpreter-teachers available at the special school during the interaction session of about 45 minutes. The overall response of specially abled students was extremely enthusiastic as demonstrated by the number of queries they put during the interactive session.

The NSD-2022 program was highly appreciated by the participants, as was clear from the feedback messages received from the teachers and the students. The function ended with the concluding remarks of the Director, who wished that the proceedings of the day would have definitely ignited the young minds and enticed them to the wonderful world of science and technology. The whole event was managed, under keen supervision of Dr.S. V. Nakhe, Director, RRCAT, by an Organizing Committee with Shri Rajesh Arya as the Convener and Dr. S. K. Majumder as the Co-convener. The committee had made elaborate arrangements for the event with the help and cooperation of a large team of experts, employees, volunteers and security personnel to make the event a grand success.