Celebration of International Women’s day- 2021 and “Malti Purohit Memorial Award” ceremony by UCOST AND NASI- UK Chapter

On 8^th March, 2021 International Women’s Day was celebrated at UCOST.  Theme of this year’s women’s day is “Women in Leadership- Achieving an equal future in COVID-19 World”.  On this occasion, Uttarakhand State Science & Technology Council for Science & Technology (UCOST) and NASI- UK Chapter initiated “Malti Purohit Memorial Award” in the memory of late Mrs. Mallti Purohit, beloved wife of Padam Shri Prof. A. N. Purohit. She was a journalist, teacher and a well known social activist also. Former Secretary of Uttarakhand Mrs. Vibha Puri Das was the Chief Guest of the day. Prof. A. N. Purohit started his address by sharing, his memories with his beloved wife, late Mrs. Malti Purohit and idea behind starting this award ceremony for women scientist in her memory. Mrs Kiran Badola, daughter & Mr. Akshay Purohit son of Prof. Purohit and late Mrs. Malti Purohit was also present during the award ceremony. Dr. Rajendra Dobhal, Director General, UCOST welcomed everyone. He also shared his memories with late Mrs. Malti Purohit and idea behind starting this award for women scientist doing excellent work in their field.  He said as we all know that Council has a huge connectivity and we are updated about activities and innovations going in field of Science and Technology, so we nominated Dr. Ranjana Pathania (Prof. IIT Roorkee) for her research in field of Antibiotic resistance. Dr. Ranjana Pathania gave a detail presentation on topic “Antibiotic Resistance – the other pandemic?”  She said that antibiotics, laid down the foundation of modern medicines and in the World without Antibiotics, major Surgery like -Hip or knee replacement, Cancer chemotherapy, Preterm infants and Organ Transplantation won’t be possible. After her presentation, Dr. Kiran Bhatt Todaria gave brief introduction of her work. She is only female (also local) who is in this business of travel and tourism for last 30  years. She contributed for the benefit and expansion of the Adventure tourism, its people with dedication and continuous self development.Dr. D. K. Tyagi, well known news reader of Akashvani and Doordarshan who has also worked at Radio Japan was also present there. Apart from this, Award to the leading scientist/researchers from Uttarakhand was also conferred during this occasion jointly coordinated by UCOST, DAV PG College, Dehradun  and Dolphin PG Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Dehradun. Online Research proposals and presentations from different districts of Uttarakhand were invited. For the evaluation & screening, Dr. B. P. Purohit (consultant DBT, GoI Project, UCOST, Dehradun), Dr. Aparna Sharma (Senior, Scientific Officer, UCOST) and Dr. K. N. Bhardwaj (Scientific Officer, UCOST) were the jury members. The first award was earned by Dr (Mrs) Sonu Ambwani, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar , Dr Vanadana Dhingra, AIIMS Rishikesh & Dr Meenakshi Rana, UOU, Haldwani were both second, Dr Priyanka Maiti, GBPNIHE, Almora got the third position. The 4^th, 5^th, 6^th   position were earned by Ms Garima Punetha, Govt PG College, Berinag, Pithoragarh, Dr Sarla Saklani, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, Prof Anita Tomar, Govt Degree College, Thatyur, Tehri Garhwal respectively.  Dr. Prashant Singh, DAV PG, College & Dr Agarwal, Dolphin Institute, Dehradun coordinated the webinar on women’s day. Dr. D. P. Uniyal (Joint Director), UCOST, Coordinated the whole session. Dr. B. R. Arora (Former Director- Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology) presented vote of thanks to all guest, awardees and whole UCOST staff present there.