Since its inception in 2015, India International Science Festival has been organised with a purpose of to engage common people of the country to celebrate the achievements and advancements of India's Science & Technology; and project it globally. The IISF has emerged as a unique platform for integration of science and people from the various strata of society. The event is organized by Ministry of Science & Technology Earth Sciences, Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, CSIR - NISTADS along with Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA).
This year due to the prevailing COVID 19 pandemic situation, large congregations were not possible therefore it was envisioned by Hon’ble Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan Ji to organize IISF 2020 in a virtual environment with a hope to engage a much larger number of participants and stakeholders not only from India but also abroad. Graphisads got the opportunity to execute the event through National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC). The event was executed by them along with Almond Virtex which was the Virtual Platform Technology partner.
Commenting on the event, Mukesh Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director- Graphisads, highlighted that the event created a milestone as it got the Guinness World Record for “The Largest attendance for a Virtual Science Conference in one week.” It is a huge achievement for us to step into the Virtual Events world with such a big milestone. We would like to thank NFDC, Almond Virtex and most of all the Client who placed their trust in us to execute such a huge project. Mr. Abhinav Jain, Co-founder & CEO Almond Virtex added “It was a huge learning to work on this event and know more about Indian Science and its various Facets. This experience shall help us a long way in our future.”
The highlights of the events were:
- Honourable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi ji graced the inaugural function. Honorable Vice-President of India Sh. Vankaiah Naidu ji was the Chief Guest of Valedictory Function.
- Various Union Ministers, Governors, Celebrities took part in different sessions like Gajendra Singh Shekhavat, Shri Parshottam Rupala, Shri Raj Kumar Singh, Shri Rattan Lal Kataria, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Shri Pullela Gopichand, Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy, Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan, Dr.Najma Heptulla, Shri Arif Mohammed Khan, Shri Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Shri Prakash Javadekar, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shri Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao, Shri Mahendra Nath Pandey, Dr.Vinay P. Sahasrabuddhe, Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya, Dr.Sonal Mansingh among others.
- More than 250 experts, resource persons across the globe shared their views and guided many young and innovative students and researchers.
- More than 1 lakhs delegates precisely 1,22,179 registered on the portal and 1, 11,249 visited IISF portal.
- More than 400 sessions conducted through 41 events, and more than 1000 international delegates from 81 countries covering 70% of the globe participated in IISF-2020.
- Mega Science and Technology Expo was prime attraction of IISF-2020 wherein more than 300 government departments and agencies showcased their achievements in S&T.
- More than 500 recognitions in the form of prizes, certificates, appreciation were given for the best paper, best poster, essay, debate, painting, quiz, models, films productions etc. in IISF-2020
- First time in the history of IISF, Vaigyanika, covered beyond the Hindi and English like Punjabi, Konkani, Gujrati, Aasami, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada and Telugu through, poem, science fiction, book review, book fair etc.
- International Science Film Festival of India witnessed the participation of 634 films from 60 countries. Sri Amitabh Bachhan, Sri Shekhar Kapoor and Mike Pandey noted Bollywood dignitaries interacted with the delegates.
- Five Guinness records are created in the IISF-2020, which is the record in itself when the IISF is concerned.
- As a pre event activities pan India 88 curtain raisers, 68 outreach programs and four Vigyan Yatras covering 138 organisations were organised.