Dr. Saroj Ghose @ 85 : the Bhishm Pitamah of Science Museums/Centres in India

Saroj Ghose @ 85 : the Bhishm Pitamah of Science Museums/Centres in India

Images : Courtesy Wiki Commons and NCSM.

This day - the 1st September 2020, marks the 85th birth anniversary of Dr. Saroj Ghose, the founding Director General of National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), the premier scientific autonomous institution, which governs most Science Centres and Museums across India including our Centre - Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai (NSCM). Saroj Ghose was born on 1st September, 1935 in the very year in which Bharat Ratna, the Honourable former President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee was born. Incidentally Dr Ghose was quite close to Pranab da who departed for his heavenly abode yesterday and was cremated with full state honours in Delhi in front of the grieving nation. I shall be writing a separate eulogy for the one and only Pranab da, this blog however is a tribute to Dr. Saroj Ghose on his 85th birth anniversary. Age may have caught with Dr. Ghose, but his unending energy, commitment and passion to continue to serve the Museum community and other cultural institutions in in general and the Science Museum / Centres in particular, remain unperturbed. The words of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who famously said, ‘na tired na retired’ so vividly are applicable to the octogenarian, Dr. Ghose, who remains very active even today. The COVID-19 pandemic and the passing away of one of the doyens of Indian political system -  Bharat Ratna, the Honourable Shri Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India, has restrained NCSM from celebrating his 85th birth anniversary in the manner, which beholds his outstanding stature.

 

Dr. Ghose, one of the founding fathers of NCSM - the preeminent one at that - has been an inspiration for most of us the current Directors of NCSM and it is under his tutelage and mentorship that we have grown up and have been indoctrinated with his undying spirit, passion and commitment to serve our organisation. Dr Ghose, the only child of his parents, was born on 1st September 1935. He was a precocious child who completed his high school and matriculation from Narkeldanga High School with record distinction and highest marks. He holds an extraordinary academic career and graduated as an Electronics Control Engineer from the Jadavpur University and immediately thereafter decided to take the path less treaded by engineers - a career in museums. He joined the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM) - our mother Museum, as a Technical Officer in 1958. Back then graduate engineers were in great demand and had excellent career opportunities not just in private sectors but also in the public sectors, which were coming up across the country under the category of ‘Temples of Modern India’, a term that Pandit Nehru had coined for these Public Sector Companies, which were hiring the best of minds from the engineering background and offered the best of remuneration. The BITM was yet to open its doors to the public, when Dr. Ghose chose to join the museum. The genesis of starting a public science and technology museum - the BITM, in India has an interesting history which is inextricably linked to Dr Ghose.

 

Bharat Ratna, Dr. B.C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, after visiting the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, was so impressed with the Museum that he envisaged building a similar museum back home in India and Calcutta (Kolkatta now) was his obvious choice. Dr. Roy, approached Ghanashyam Das Birla - the benevolent industrialist with nationalistic approach, for donating a suitable plot of building and land for establishing a Museum on the lines of the famous Deutsches Museum.  The Birla’s were known for their philanthropy, particularly in the field of education. G.D. Birla willingly agreed to part with the 19 A Gurusaday Road plot of land and their existing building to Dr. Roy for the establishment of the said museum on its premises. Dr. Roy called up then Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, and sought his help to support his initiative for starting a world class technology museum in Calcutta. The Prime Minister of India, who also happens to be the President of the premier scientific research institution – the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) society, assigned the task of developing the best possible ‘Technology Museum’ to the then Director General of CSIR, Prof M. S. Thacker. Dr. Thacker with support from Dr. Amalendu Bose established the BITM and it was during this period of its development that Dr. Ghose joined the CSIR team of Dr. Bose and worked as a Technical Officer in the development of the BITM. The BITM was formally opened to the public on 2nd May 1959. Ever since BITM, where Dr Ghose spent most part of his service, has played a pivotal role in the Science Museum movement in India and it has served as the mother museum for our organisation - the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). BITM, therefore, has an extraordinary connect with Dr Ghose and other NCSM employees, particularly those who started their career in NCSM from the precincts of BITM, including Dr Ghose and yours truly. One of the main attractive features of BITM is that it is housed in the historic and architecturally beautiful building, on 19A Gurusaday Road. This historic building with its majestic elevation with a porch and a pediment that is a mishmash of various European architectural styles, was constructed by N. Guinn & Company in 1922. It was in this historic building that Dr. Saroj Ghose started his career, working under the then Curator Museums - Dr Amalendu Bose.

 

Dr. Saroj Ghose, while in service at BITM, completed his Masters - MS in Control Engineering - from the Harvard University and during his stay in US, he was actively engaged with research work at the Smithsonian Institution from September 1964 to January 1965. It is this connect with the Smithsonian institution, which motivated him to pursue his Doctoral work at the National Museum of American History under the guidance of Dr. Bernard Finn, Curator of the Electricity Collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington DC, and an expert in history of electrical engineering, communication including telegraphy and submarine. Dr. Ghose obtained his PhD from the Jadavpur University. As soon as Dr. Ghose returned back to India from the US in 1965, the then Curator Museums, Dr. Amalendu Bose decided to shift to Bangalore from Calcutta, where CSIR had just completed and opened the second museum - Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum (VITM). The Visvesvaraya Museum was developed as a centenary tribute to the living centenarian - the legendary Sir M. Visvesvaraya, in Bangalore. Before moving out from Calcutta, Dr. Bose handed over the charge of BITM to the young Dr. Ghose. 

 

At the age of 29 years, Dr. Ghose shouldered the high responsibilities of the BITM. It was during this period that Dr. Ghose realised that the benefits of the BITM, which by then had very well established, is reaching only to the people of Calcutta and that too mostly the well to do section of society. He, therefore, conceived a bold and ambitious plan to try and take science to the door steps of the people who find it difficult to visit BITM. He prepared a well researched and thought out plan, which went on to receive high acclaim from UNESCO, for  the first Mobile Science Exhibition (MSE), which on its approval from the DG CSIR was launched by BITM  on November 17, 1965 at the Ramakrishna Mission School-Narendrapur in Kolkata. Subsequently, the MSE buses became a trade mark of BITM and NCSM and these buses travel across the state of Bengal and India to different schools in remote areas. The extraordinary importance of this remarkable idea can be appreciated from the fact that during the first 100 days of the NDA-2 Government, under PM Shri Narendra Modi, NCSM launched 20 new MSE buses in September 2019, which are an addition to the 23 existing fleet of MSE buses. Millions of students from different parts of the country - small and medium towns and villages, have been benefitted with this programme, which takes science to the doorsteps of the people and the genesis for this profound idea stemmed from the vision of Dr. Ghose. The aim of the programme was to promote learning of science and cultivation of scientific temper among the rural masses.

 

The first two museums under CSIR came up in quick succession in 1959 and 1965 in Calcutta and a Bangalore respectively but then the plan for the next museum, proposed to be set up in Bombay (now Mumbai) received major setbacks. What started as a plan to establish a Mafatlal Museum of Science and Technology, for which the Industrialist had pledged land and money, did not materialise and finally at the behest of Dr. Saroj Ghose, Dr. Amalendu Roy, agreed to the proposal of Dr. Ghose to receive a garbage dumping ground in Worli for the establishment of a Science Museum in Mumbai. Tonnes of city garbage had piled up in this area and the very thought of working in this god forsaken space appeared to be daunting and filled with major health hazards for those who adventured to take up this challenge. By then there were some other administrative issues, which cropped up and the authorities of CSIR rightly or wrongly debated if the Museums could be a part of the CSIR and not surprisingly decided that the museums don’t come under the objectives of CSIR. A task force was, therefore, constituted by the CSIR and the government to report on this issue and as expected the task force recommended that the museums be detached from CSIR and a separate autonomous body be formed, which could work under the aegis of the Department of Education. Thus the two existing museums BITM and VITM and the project in Mumbai were all clubbed under a new scientific institution, National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), which was formed in 1978. NCSM is currently functioning under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The separation of the two museums and the staff from the parent body CSIR and the formation of NCSM came up with their own shares of opportunities and agony leading to unprecedented strikes by employees besides other administrative issues. This was one of the most turbulent period through which the newly formed NCSM was passing through. It was during this trying times that Dr. Ghose came up with yet another innovative idea of developing a open air science park at Mumbai. The plan for the development of the major Science Museum / Centre in Mumbai envisaged that it could only be completed latest by middle of the 1980s considering the massive construction of the building and developing exhibits and models to fill up that building. Therefore, the suggestion of Dr. Ghose to start a science park in the first phase, before the main science centre project, was appreciated by Dr. Bose.

 

Unfortunately the Mumbai project, which had started some time in the middle 70s  was already inordinately delayed and therefore urgent action to fast forward the project was a dying need and this need was accentuated after the formation of a NCSM. Any further delay in the project would not have gone down well with the CSIR and the Ministry. It was during this period and the subsequent formation of NCSM that the new idea of Dr. Ghose to develop the project in Mumbai in two phases - first phase to be developed as a open air science park and to keep that facility open to the public and in the second phase to develop the main project of completion of the massive building and development of exhibitions, appeared exciting and Dr. Bose, the Director of NCSM, gave a go ahead for the work on the science park. 

 

The open air Science Park of the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai (NSCM) a brain child of Dr. Ghose, was a trendsetter for the Science Museum movement not just in India but globally. The first two Government science museums in the country -  BITM and VITM, did not have an open air Science Park, which is now one of the major attractions of most science centres of NCSM including the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai. Incidentally the science park in Mumbai, spread across six acres of land, was inaugurated on 22nd December 1979. The park remained open to the visitors while the work for the main Science Centre continued. The Nehru Science Centre was formally dedicated to the nation on 10th November 1985, by the then Prime Minister of India, Shri Rajiv Gandhi. The science park of NSCM is the first such science parks in India and most likely it is also the world’s first science park, which has inspired other science centres in US to adopt this unique concept. Incidentally the UNESCO recognised this new concept as an unique informal science learning ambience and the open air science park of Mumbai was featured majorly in one of the UNESCO publications. The science park has several hands on outdoor science exhibits demonstrating fundamental principles of science in mechanics, levers, pendulum, optics, etc. Adding to the attraction of the science park are the vintage locomotive vehicles (precious artefacts) of yesteryears - the Railway locomotive engines (steam and electric), Horse drawn Tram Car carriage, Tramcar, HAL HF 24 Marut Fighter aircraft and the Steam Waggon. These precious historic artefacts were acquired by the NSCM from different sources in India in which Dr Ghose was actively involved. Even to this day the science park of NSCM continues to attract and appeal to a very large audience. The dumping ground of Worli was transformed into the current stage of a lush green area with science park courtesy the vision of Dr Ghose. The proposed Science Museum Metro station, which will connect Colaba to Bandra must owe its credit to the science park project which started in 1979 from the vision and idea of Dr. Saroj Ghose, during the International Year of Children. 

 

Dr. Amalendu Bose retired as the first Director of NCSM in early 1979 and by then NCSM had 3 units under its wing - BITM, VITM and Sreekrishna Science Centre, Patna. Dr. Ghose took the reins of NCSM under the most turbulent times as stated above. There were plenty of issues of staff members which was a result of separation of NCSM from its parent body - the CSIR. Staff agitation was the most common feature in Calcutta, Bangalore and so also in Mumbai during this period. Dr. Ghose had to immediately address these nagging staff problems including union problems, which the staff had formed with allayed fears in Calcutta and Bangalore. He also had to prove to the authorities in the Department of Education that separation from CSIR was beneficial not only to the staff of NCSM but also to the country at large. Dr Ghose had no time to rest and had to plunge into the expansion mode while also addressing administrative problems that plagued NCSM. He started a new concept of setting up Science Centres in different scales, which he classified as National level Centres (in metropolitan cities) Regional level Centres (in state capitals) and District level Centres in small towns and district headquarters. The massive success of the opening of the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai by the then PM, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, who was very excited to see the NSCM, helped Dr. Ghose not only to establish a personal rapport with the then HRD Minister Mr. Narasimha Rao but it also helped him in upgrading his status from Director, NCSM to DG, NCSM, the position of which he occupied from 1986 until his retirement in 1997 (post the two years extension that he got post his superannuation). 

 

From three units under NCSM, which Dr. Ghose inherited, he scaled up the science museum movement at a rapid pace. He developed two National Level Science Centres in Mumbai and Delhi, both opened by the Honourable Prime Ministers the later in January 1992 by Shri Narasimha Rao. He developed many more Regional Science Centres including two Centres in the west zone at Nagpur and Bhopal and several others. By the time he retired, Dr. Ghose had scaled up the achievements of NCSM from 3 units in 1978-79 to 20 units in 1997. He conceived another major idea to start a massive Science City, the scale of which he envisaged must be much bigger than the four existing national level Science Centres and the result was the establishment of the Science City in Kolkata, which now receives nearly 1.5 million visitors annually and is perhaps the only self sustaining museums in the country. The District Science Centres in places like Purulia, Gulbarga, Dharampur and Tirunelveli have carved their niche in these districts and are immensely benefiting the society. He also started the Central Research and Training Laboratory under NCSM.

 

Dr. Ghose was an exemplary task master and was kind of a terror to many, particularly to those who were found wanting when it came to efficiency and timely delivery of results. But to those who came upto his expectations and beyond he was overwhelmingly supportive and gave them the best of opportunities, which are hard to imagine now. I was one of those lucky ones who received the best of opportunities from Dr Ghose. Within eight months of my joining the council (June 1986) in January 1987, Dr. Ghose provided me an opportunity to undertake air journey, which was a rarity in those days. The official eligibility of air travel during those days was only for the Curators in in senior grade, which would have accrued to me not before another 10 years. Courtesy Dr. Ghose I travelled by Air for video recording the progress of science centre works in Guwahati, Delhi, Lucknow and Patna. The newly appointed curators to the council are put through the probation period of two years and I was under probation from June 1986 to June 1988. It was during this probation period that I received some of the unimaginable incentives from Dr. Ghose, with whom I had the honour to work quite closely. Dr. Ghose had taken up a massively successful Festival of India (FOI) exhibition, which was organised in different Science Centres in US during the period 1985. This exhibition besides appealing to the American audience, it also helped in taking the significant achievements of ancient Indians in the field of science and technology to the western audience. Egged by the success of the FOI in US, Mr. Sam Pitroda, conceived of a larger FOI exhibition to be taken to the erstwhile USSR during the period from September 1987 to March 1988. NCSM was one of the major participants in this exhibition which also included most other S&T institutions of India. This exhibition was organised in Leningrad, Moscow and Tashkent. Even while I was on probation, Dr. Ghose had approved my name for deputation to Moscow for this exhibition for a period of 45 days from middle November to end December, 1987. This perhaps will be the best of my life time experience. Coming from a small town in north Karnataka, that too from a backward district Raichur and from a humble family background, I had not even seen a hill station in north India let alone having to experience snow. What I experienced when I landed in Moscow is something which will eternally remain etched in my memory, a snow cladded capital with -20 degrees centigrade, and the Moscow river completely frozen. Adding to this was an opportunity to see the 1987 Russian revolution celebrations, which took place at the Kremlin on the 17th December 1987. Once every ten years this revolution was celebrated by the erstwhile USSR and incidentally this was the last of the celebration since the USSR broke up subsequently. This is one experience, which no money can ever fetch for anyone. It was during this period that we were also taken to the Panorama Borodino (as it was then called) a panorama museum. It was this museum, which inspired Dr. Ghose to conceive of the Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre (KPSC), which features the battle of Kurukshetra that is painted and portrayed in the massive panorama. Although the KPSC was opened post the retirement of Dr. Ghose in the year 2000 by the then PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the credit for this project must also go to its visionary Dr. Ghose. KPSC has paved the way for many more such panorama projects in India, which are very popular.

 

When he started planning for the setting up of the Science City Project in Kolkata, NCSM was hard pressed for funds for this project. It was during this period that Steven Spielberg had created history by producing science fiction film on Dinosaurs. His film the Jurassic Park became a global blockbuster and in India this film was a roaring success. The success of the film motivated an American company, Dynamotion, to develop animated life like moving Dinosaurs and show them in exhibitions and this exhibition became a roaring success in US. The American company tied up with an Indian agency, Hariparvat, to bring this exhibition to India. Dr. Ghose had read about this news and immediately decided that NCSM should develop the ‘Dinosaurs Alive’ exhibition featuring some 20 robotic Dinosaurs and open this exhibition in July 1996 at the Science City in Kolkata before the arrival of the American Dinosaur exhibition. Dr. Ghose called for a meeting of Mechanical engineer curators of NCSM and I was the only Electronic engineer curator, who was in this team to plan for this exhibition. This meeting was organised in NSC, Delhi in February 1996 and Dr. Ghose announced that we must develop all the 20 odd Robotic Dinosaurs departmentally in the four major national level science centres and assemble them at Science City and that this exhibition must be opened before the American Dinosaur exhibition which was scheduled to arrive in India by July 1996. Lo and behold, all of us who were tasked with this responsibility including yours truly who was tasked to develop electronics controls and sounds for these dinosaurs ridiculed Dr. Ghose for his ‘Tughlaqui’ dream and felt that it is impossible for us to adhere to this target. But then the fear of Dr. Ghose and so also his infectious optimism rubbed on each one of us and we all worked almost 12 hours a day non-stop and the Dinosaur Alive exhibition, was opened in first week of July 1997, ahead of the target. This was one achievement which none of us who were part of the project ever felt we could achieve. The success of the exhibition at Science City, Kolkata, NSC Delhi and RSC Lucknow was overwhelming and the exhibition earned almost 2 Crore Rupees in revenue for NCSM and this money was used to fund the deficit for the Science City, Kolkata project. This exemplifies the compulsive optimistic approach of Dr. Ghose, which we have all inherited and it is this habit that makes NCSM take up extremely challenging projects such as the National Museum of Indian Cinema, which we have developed on turnkey basis for the Films Division in Mumbai and several such other projects of national importance including the VEM in Varanasi, Uniting India: Sardar Patel Exhibition and many such other projects, which NCSM undertakes. 

 

The Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre - the first of its kind in India - that portrays episodes from the epic battle of Mahabharata in the larger than life panorama digital prints that are enlarged from the painstakingly hand painted canvases and commissioned in vast cylindrical building, is an outcome of the vision of Dr. Ghose. During one of his visit to Russia, Dr. Ghose had visited the famous Panorama Borodino - as it was then called in the Center of Moscow. It presented a life like visuals of the panorama of the Battle of Borodino. The panoramic painting, which depicted the battle was pained on a massive canvas which was 115 meters long and 15 meters high. The paintings depicted the decisive moment of the battle. Dr. Ghose was so impressed with what he saw that when he came back to India he immediately visualised a project where he could replicate this idea of a larger than life panoramic paintings, which could portray the epic battle of Mahabharata. He also decided that this panorama must be established at Kurukshetra, the very place where this epic battle is believed to have taken place. Although this project was opened in the year 2000 by late Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, three years after the superannuation of Dr. Ghose, it owes its genesis to Dr. Ghose. The KPSC, not surprisingly receives visitors in excess of 6 Lakhs every years, and this visitor figure can only be matched by national level science centres.

 

This year -  2020, marks the silver jubilee of the Internet in India, which was introduced in india on 15th August, 1995. It is to the credit of NCSM that within one year of the public launch of Internet in India the National Science Centre, Delhi created history by opening a public facility ‘Cyberskool’ which boasted of a free internet facility for our visitors. This facility was fully funded by Intel and the same was opened by Craig Barrett in May 1996, and I had the honour to be the coordinator for this project. Dr. Saroj Ghose graced the inaugural program. Although Dr. Ghose had no direct involvement in this project, for which I was the project in-charge, yet he is to be credited primarily because of the extraordinary faith that he had in me for handling this project, which had Forex implications and so also some tricky administrative matters of agreement etc to be signed with Intel, Singapore. The ‘Cyberskool’ facility further accentuated the technology implementation in NCSM and today when it comes to implementing state of the art technology in museum design and interpretation, NCSM stands out.

 

Dr. Ghose retired from NCSM in August 1997 but then he continued to remain active in his profession. Post retirement Dr. Ghose shifted his attention to history museums, which until then were adopting traditional approaches with objects and antiquities and 2D visuals hung on the wall and artefacts encased in glass cabinets. This drab and passive presentation in museum display were not helping museums in reaching to a larger audience. Dr. Ghose immediately realised that he could put to use his vast experience of creating interactive exhibits and state of the art technology, which he had seen in NCSM, in the traditional museums to increase visitor participation in history museums. He also had an overwhelming international exposure owing to the coveted position of President of ICOM, which he held for six long years from 1992-98. It was during his presidency of ICOM that he showed the strength of India in the field of Museums to the international museum community. He also exhibited the extraordinary capabilities of India back in producing international quality ICOM publications at half the international cost. He created a NDL - National Digital Laboratory, including setting up state of the art DTP section in NCSM, which designed and printed most ICOM publications from India and my dear friend and colleague of NCSM, Shri S.P. Pathak held a special position with Dr. Ghose for his creation of all these facilities. However, Shri Pathak and I, who were perceived as the favourites of Dr Ghose, had to pay a very heavy price for this.

 

Dr. Ghose put to use all his intellect, international experience and his state of the art technology know how, which he had gathered while serving as the DG of NCSM and as President, ICOM in creating some of the best story telling museums in the country. These museums and projects include Kolkata Panorama for Kolkata Museum Society, Parliament Museum, Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum etc. He was also the Museum Advisor to the President of India. He also played a key role in the development of Gujarat Science City, Ahmedabad. He extensively introduced Digital tools in all these projects to bridge large gaps in collections, provide contextual information and form a well-knit story around individual artefacts. He introduced seem less Multi screen panoramic projections to create immersive visualization, which provided visitors a feeling that they are standing in the midst of an event surrounding them. Long before the modern buzz words VR and IR technology took centre stage in India, Dr. Ghose was able to envisage their utility in museums. He understood that VR (Virtual Reality) can take visitors to a historic past, breaking the barriers of time and space. He extensively introduced Animatronics, with computer-controlled pneumatic/hydraulic movements to create period setting to present historic personalities in life like situations. Fortunately, we are now witnessing that these technologies are extensively being used in conventional art museums and the credit for introducing these technologies must go to Dr. Ghose. 

Dr. Ghose played a pivotal role in the development of the Gujarat Science City, the third Science City in the country, which was established in Ahmedabad by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat. He continues to play an advisory role to the Gujarat Science City. Dr. Ghose had prepared the DPR for the Science City project on behalf of TCS who were the main consultants for the project. This was some time during 2000-01 and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India and the project proposal had reached the PM office for its review. Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni was the OSD to the Prime Minister and I had the honour to know him in connection with a project of establishing a modern computer lab facility at the Delhi Kannada School. One fine day I got a call from Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni asking me to meet him in his office in the PMO. Shri Kulkarni discussed about the project and handed me the DPR, which was submitted by TCS to the Government of Gujarat who in turn had sent it to the PMO. I was asked. Y Sudheendra Kulkarni to study the project and submit a precise recommendation on the merit of the project. As I started going through the DPR it took me no time to understand that this was prepared by Dr. Ghose, and later I learnt that TCS who were appointed by the Government of Gujarat to be their consultants for the Science City Project in Ahmedabad, had engaged Dr. Ghose to prepare the report for them. The report had a tell tale mark of Dr. Ghose imprinted all through. As expected the report was quite comprehensive with the scope of the project, which was spread across three 3 phases. In a way the review and approval of the project by the PM office was based on my report, which I submitted to Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni. The Government of Gujarat were supported by the Government of India in the first phase and the vibrant science city that we see now in Ahmedabad is a result of Dr. Ghose’s vision. 

 In recognition of his services to the museums, Dr. Ghose has been conferred with many national and international awards and recognitions and some of these include ; The  'Indira Gandhi Prize' from the Indian National Science Academy, the ‘Hari Om Trust Award' from University Grants Commission for Popularization of Science in 1988. In 2001, NCSTC, Govt. of India, awarded him 'National Award' for the best effort in science popularization amongst children. He received the ‘Padma Shri’ in 1989 and 'Padma Bhushan' in 2007. In 1996, Dr. Ghose received 'Primo Rovis International Prize' from the Trieste International Foundation. The ASTC, an internationally acclaimed Association of Science and Technology Centers, USA, conferred on him the prestigious Fellowship in 1997. He is the only Asian who has been elected as the President of the International Council of Museums twice 1992-98. 

On this auspicious occasion of the 85th birth anniversary of Dr. Ghose, I join the entire NCSM family and all the stakeholders of NCSM and most other museum community in India and abroad in praying for the continuing good health of Dr. Ghose and may he continue to inspire and motivate not just all of us in NCSM but the whole of India.

 

Wishing you very happy birthday Dr Ghose Sir and prayers for your good health and long life with your continuing creative contributions to Indian society.

 

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