Mobile Science Exhibition | 06 Sep 2019

Recently, the first-ever Mobile Science Exhibition (Science Explorer) for the Ladakh region was launched by the Ministry of Culture in Leh.

  • Apart from this, 25 new Mobile Science Exhibition buses for Aspirational Districts of India were also launched.

Aspirational Districts Programme

  • It was launched in January 2018, with an objective to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
  • 117 districts have been identified until now, at least one from each state.
  • Each district is assigned a Prabhari (in-charge) officer from the Centre (of the additional secretary or joint secretary rank); a Prabhari officer from the State (of the rank of Secretary to State government) who will work in cooperation with the district administration.

Mobile Science Exhibitions

  • Mobile Science Exhibitions (MSE) are basically science exhibitions on buses based on various themes of science and technology.
  • It is an attempt of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) to communicate science in rural and remote areas.
    • The MSE or Museo-bus travels from school to school in rural areas and organize exhibitions there throughout the year.
    • Its mission is ‘If the people cannot visit the museum, let the museum visit the people at their doorsteps’,
  • The topics chosen for these exhibitions are:
    • Measurement
    • Machines in everyday life
    • Food & Health
    • Chemistry & Life with a focus on Water
    • Energy
    • Hygiene & Sanitation
    • Space Science for Human Welfare
  • MSE is the largest and the longest-running outreach programme of NCSM.
  • The First MSE was launched by Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM), Kolkata in the year 1965.
    • Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM), Kolkata is the first science museum of India, opened in 1959.

National Council of Science Museums (NCSM)

  • In 1978, the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) was established as a central coordinating agency for national science museums.
  • NCSM, an autonomous Science & Technology institution under the Ministry of Culture jointly with the Department of Science & Technology (DST).
  • NCSM is the world’s largest network of science centres and museums that functions under a single administrative umbrella.

Source: PIB