Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik flagged off the exposure visit for winners of the 12th Edition of Tata Steel’s Young Astronomer Talent Search (YATS) programme here on Monday.
The winning group of 20 students will now go on an exposure visit to one of the premier facilities of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, to get a first-hand experience of space science in action.
The Chief Minister also launched the 13th edition of YATS (2019-20) on this occasion.
With overwhelming participation of students in 2018, the next edition was launched with an aim to make YATS much more enriching for participating students.
The theme for YATS 2019 is “Unravelling the wonders of the universe” and will include two more competitions such as — an open-quiz (for students of classes 6th to 10th) and an essay competition (for students of classes 9th and 10th).
Ashok Chandra Panda, Minister of State for Science & Technology, Public Enterprises, Social Security & Empowerment of persons with Disability (Independent Charge), Government of Odisha, Kailash Chandra Sahoo, Additional Secretary, Science & Technology Department, Government of Odisha & Director, Pathani Samanta Planetarium, Kulvin Suri, Chief, Corporate Communications, Tata Steel, India &South-East Asia (SEA), Debashis Jena, Chief Resident Executive (CRE), Tata Steel, Bhubaneswar were present on the occasion.
Tata Steel is organizing this flagship event, YATS, in collaboration with Pathani Samanta Planetarium since 2007 to acknowledge the exemplary contribution of Pathani Samanta, legendary astronomer of Odisha, and encourage youngsters to showcase innovative concepts on various themes of space science and astronomy.
In last 12 years, 1,38,000 students have participated in YATS and160 winning students have had the opportunity to visit various facilities of ISRO in India.
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Ms Kalinga