PM Modi inaugurates National Technology Week 2023; to lay foundation stone for multiple projects worth over Rs 5,800 crore

National Technology Week 2023 (Image credit: All India Radio)

To mark the National Technology Day 2023 on May 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate multiple scientific projects worth more than Rs 5800 crore. The 25th year of National Technology Day commences on May 11 and will run through May 14. Modi kicked off the occasion by inaugurating National Technology Week 2023, with the themed - School to Startup 'Igniting Young Minds to Innovate' - at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

Defence Minister Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh and other dignitaries were also present at the event. The Prime Minister also released a commemorative stamp and coin on the occasion.

The projects whose foundation stone PM Modi would lay include Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – India (LIGO-India), Hingoli; Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Jatni, Odisha; and Platinum Jubilee Block of Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, according to the notification released by the Prime Minister's Office.

LIGO-India, which will be developed in Maharashtra's Hingoli, will be one of the handful Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave observatories in the world. The LIGO-India will work in synchronisation with two observatories operating in the United States; one in Hanford, Washington and the other in Livingston, Louisiana.

The projects that will be dedicated to Nation include Fission Molybdenum-99 Production Facility, Mumbai; Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Plant, Visakhapatnam; National Hadron Beam Therapy Facility, Navi Mumbai; Radiological Research Unit, Navi Mumbai; Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Visakhapatnam; and Women & Children Cancer Hospital Building, Navi Mumbai.

Rare Earth Permanent Magnets are produced primarily in developed countries. The facility for the production of the Rare Earth Permanent Magnet has been developed on the campus of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at Visakhapatnam. With this facility, India will join a select group of nations with the capacity to produce Rare Earth Permanent Magnets, the press release added.

The celebration of National Technology Day was started by former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 to honour Indian scientists, engineers and technologists, who worked for India’s scientific and technological advancement and ensured the successful conduct of Pokhran tests in May 1998. Since then, National Technology Day is observed every year on May 11. It is celebrated with a new and different theme every year. This year's theme is ‘School to Startups- Igniting Young Minds to Innovate’.