Bhubaneswar: Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik has written a letter to Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh to continue the UNESCO Kalinga prize.
The prize, one of the prestigious international awards in the field of science, was instituted by legendary Biju Patnaik in 1952, with a generous grant of 1000 pounds to UNESCO, Paris from Kalinga Foundation Trust in the year 1951.
So far, the prize has been awarded to 72 great scientists including seven Nobel laureates such as Louis de Brogile, Julian Huxley, Bertrand Russel, Karl von Frisch, Arthur C Clarke, Fred Hoyle and Sergei Kapitza amongst others, Shri Patnaik said.
UNESCO Kalinga Prize is the only international award from India in the field of popularisation of science and over the years, it has been a highly coveted prize and has also become a symbol of Odia identity at the international level, he pointed out.
Shri Patnaik said after completion of 50 years of the prize, in 2002, when late Atal Bihari Vajapayee was the Prime Minister, it was decided that the department of Science and Technology of government of India, Odisha government and Kalinga Foundation Trust will act as the partners/donors for the prize and share the expenses of the prize in the ratio of 6:4:4.
“However, I am now pained to learn that the Ministry of Science & Technology, government of India has decided to stop supporting this prize,” he said.
The former Odisha CM said ‘Kalinga prize’ is not just a symbol of ‘Odia pride’ but it had set a legacy for independent India in the comity of nations globally.
He urged the Union Minister to imagine the kind of efforts Biju Babu would have put as a 36 year old young man travelling all the way to Paris and to negotiate with UNESCO to set up an International Prize for popularisation of science.
“This foresight and courage of Biju babu has been an inspiration for generations of Odias. Biju babu’s love for his land epitomised in naming the award after ‘Kalinga’, has always lifted the spirit of people of Odisha,” he mentioned in the letter.
Shri Patnaik categorized the ‘Kalinga prize’ as not just an international award but it is a great legacy which people of Odisha are proud of and identify with.
He sought personal intervention of Singh for continuation of the UNESCO Kalinga Prize and honour the Odia ‘identity and pride’ and associated with it.