Centre will explore production of 'zero emission' firecrackers, minister Harsh Vardhan says

CHENNAI: The central government will invest time and money to develop 'zero emission' firecrackers that would impact the environment less, said Union minister of earth sciences and environment Harsh Vardhan on Monday.

Vardhan was speaking at the valedictory session of the India International Science Festival at Anna University in Chennai, when he reiterated the contents of a tweet he sent on October 15. "After Diwali, the government will organise a conclave of scientists where the technology to produce emission less firecrackers will be discussed," Vardhan said.

The minister added that the zero emission crackers would be made available for sale by next year's Diwali. "These (crackers) will have zero side effect and cause zero damage to children. Next Diwali, everybody can celebrate the festival happily - traders, children and families, without damaging the environment," he said.

The announcement by the environment minister comes in the wake of a Supreme Court ban on sale of firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR region till October 31.

Vardhan said that the government would begin fellowships for budding filmmakers to produce documentaries based on science, technology and environment. The fellowship will be institutionalised within a period of one year, he added.

Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu, state fisheries minister D Jayakumar, higher education minister K P Anbalagan and minister of state for earth sciences Y S Chowdary also participated in the event.

Naidu called on the government to step up investment in science and technology but said that he would like to see corporate and industry bigwigs contribute towards helping R&D grow, adding that it would not be right to expect the government to do all the work to promote R&D.

"Corporate firms and industries should join hands and set up an exclusive corpus for encouraging innovative, out-of-the-box R&D projects that could provide long lasting answers to problems faced by the people," he said.

Naidu called on universities to create an atmosphere for bright research scholars to flourish and not be affected by "rules and red tape."

Earlier, Union minister of state for earth sciences Y S Chowdary urged entrepreneurs to set up science startups in rural areas. He said while science and technology would create more new jobs, young Indian workforce would need to "detrain and re-train" in order to become employable in this sector.