Jayanta Sthanapati

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) India is a research and development (R&D) organisation established as an autonomous body by the Government of India in 1942. It promotes scientific knowledge, boosts industrialisation, and stimulates economic growth. With headquarters in New Delhi, CSIR is now one of the largest publicly funded R&D organisations globally. In 1947, CSIR established four institutions, one of which was the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which is relevant to our narrative. Initially, NPL functioned at the Department of Physics of the University of Delhi for three years. In 1950, it moved to its permanent institution building at Pusa in New Delhi.

The CSIR, a large network of laboratories engaged in industrial and basic research, was also instrumental in initiating the science communication and popularisation movement in the country. In 1956, it opened a modest Science Museum and, in 1959, a small Planetarium on the NPL premises. Unfortunately, the first endeavour of the CSIR did not last long due to…read more on NOPR