Until he became President in July 2002, A P J Abdul Kalam was associated with India's missile development programme and had been a regular at almost every science congress, held annually in various parts of the country in the first week of January.
But protocol prevents the first citizen of India from attending the 90th Indian Science Congress to be held at the Jnana Bharathi campus of the Bangalore University from January 3-7, 2003 since, in keeping with the norm, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would be inaugurating the event while Union Minister of State for Space Vasundhara Raje is to inaugurate the Space Summit.
"We are doing our best to ensure that the President continues to participate in the congress as before, keeping in mind his long association with the Indian space program," an Indian Space Research Organisation spokesperson told rediff.com in Bangalore on Tuesday.
Hence, Kalam would address the delegates from his office in New Delhi with the help of a satellite link, to be set up by ISRO.
The organisation is also making arrangements to telecast the inaugural session and prime minister's speech on January 3 to the nation through Doordarshan.
Besides, "The proceedings would be available on the Internet from our web site," the spokesperson said.
"We are expecting around 6000-7000 delegates from all over the country and overseas, including students, technologists, industrialists, managers and policy makers," ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan said.
About 3,500-odd delegates have already registered with the organisers.
"The objective is to provide an impetus and a systematic direction to scientific inquiry. The event also aims at drawing the attention of the people to the science and technology requirements of the country," Kasturirangan said.
The focus of the congress would be 'Frontier Science and Cutting Edge Technologies' in the context of the country's needs.
"The focus of the congress is apt in this era of globalisation, when safeguarding national interests has become imperative, especially, for developing countries like India," Kasturirangan said.
He said that India would project the success of its space program, which aims at distributing the fruits of technological advances among the people, and its contribution to the development of the nation.
Expressing concern over the decline of Indian scientific papers appearing in international science journals and the dwindling number of students opting for information technology and business management courses, Kasturirangan said there is a need for revitalising scientific enterprise in India.
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