Press Reports

CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) opens up to public every year on 26th September on occasion of CSIR’s Foundation Day. But given the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the CCMB festival has been restructured this year. Instead of a single day, the event will run onlineover a whole week, from Sept 21st to 26th, 2020 (http://tiny.cc/ccmbopenweek). The event is open for anyone above 12 years of age, and with an access to a smartphone and internet.

The festival includes discussions with scientists on the various topics of life sciences that CCMB involves itself in with a glimpse at some of the experiments. There are panel discussions on various urgent and contemporary issues in science and policymaking. The range of sessions include fundamental questions of life and its structure to pertinent questions of translations to the impact that science makes on society, and some of the problems that India should focus on for grooming a healthy understanding of science among the public. The sessions will run from 10 am to 6pm each day, divided into different slots.

CCMB has organized a variety of activities for the attendees this year including quiz, essay writing, art, and even for asking questions. These aim to build a platform to hear back from different sections of public on how their lives are intertwined with the different questions that CCMB addresses. “It is urgent and important for scientists to engage actively with public. While CCMB has always been very enthusiastic about its Open Day, this year is unique where we can finally stretch it to a whole week. We hope that we will be able to exchange our thoughts and listen to public in greater depth in this new format”, says Dr Rakesh K Mishra, Director, CCMB.

Every year, the Open Day is visited by 10,000 and more people from the city of Hyderabad. This year with digital tools, the Open Week aims to reach people across the country.