Union Ministry of Science & Technology on 11 October 2014 launched The Maithreyi International Visiting Professorship in New Delhi. The programme will be jointly supported by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Union government.
Under the scheme, India will invite 12 leading international science scholars from across the world to visit India as Visiting Professors. Every year the visiting professors will deliver three talks, one each in a school, a college and a research institution.
The video version of the talks will be recorded in Hindi & English and possibly in several other Indian languages. A live web-interaction session with the Visiting Professor on Rajya Sabha Television is also envisaged. All these talks will be made available worldwide on the Internet.
The programme will be beneficial in the sense that through it 36 talks and 12 TV/Radio interactions every year with world’s best professors will bring the greatest in the scientific world face-to-face to all of India.
The globally accessible recordings of the talks will also take science back to the whole world. Sharing knowledge worldwide will inculcate Maithreyi’s desire for knowledge amongst the young and make knowledge the agent of change.
Background
The name Maithreyi has been derived from the epical story of saige Yajnavalkya who had two wives-Maithreyi and Katyaayanee. When Yajnavalkya wished to leave for the forest and thus divide his property amongst his wives, Maithreyi asked him whether she could become immortal through this wealth. Yajnavalkya replied that through wealth one merely became one amongst the many wealthy but it was knowledge which made one immortal. Maithreyi, then declined her share of his property and asked Yajnavalkya to teach her the way of attaining knowledge and, through that, immortality.
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