Kolkata: The Bengal govt has urged science and technology researchers across universities in the state to write the abstracts of their theses in Bengali. The ones that may be of interest to international audience will be translated into English.“A decision has been taken to urge science and technology researchers at educational institutes to write abstracts of their research papers in their mother tongue, that is Bengali,” the state minister of IT, electronics, science & technology and biotechnology, Kalyan Chakraborti, said at a meeting with university heads on Friday.He said the initiative to write research abstracts in Bengali would start with the upcoming State Science & Technology Congress, where discussions would be held in Bengali. “Science cannot be truly understood if one does not understand Bengali… In future, CM Suvendu Adhikari will inaugurate a science initiative focused on the Bengali language.”At the meeting with 50-odd university heads, minister Chakraborti asked for abstracts in Bengali for the upcoming science congress, which will be held in the city on Sept 16 and 17. “We want abstracts in Bengali in the same format as the ones written in English. But AI should be avoided,” the minister said. “The abstracts and papers with global perspectives will be translated into English.” A govt circular has been issued to universities asking for abstracts in Bengali for the science and technology meet.Arnab Halder, a chemistry professor at Presidency University, said it would be difficult to write abstracts in Bengali until technical terms are developed in the language. “There should also be scientific journals in Bengali. A research paper may not serve its purpose from the global perspective if written in the vernacular,” he said.Partha Pratim Roy, a physics professor at JU, said, “Many scientific terms don’t have Bengali equivalents. All over the world, scientific research papers are written in English, which is an international language.”The minister said the govt is working with the vision of “science for people, science for employment, and science for Bengal’s development”. “Our department has aided more than 500 research and development projects. We are also planning to set up an ecosystem for biotechnology in Bengal in the future,” he said.Nandini Chakravorty, additional chief secretary, department of science & technology and biotechnology, said, “We are working towards integrating resources, universities, research institutions to comprehensively develop Bengal as the next science and research hub of India.”(With inputs from Dipwali Mitra in Kolkata)
