OREANDA-NEWS. July 09, 2015. The Minister of State (Independent Charge), Shri Prakash Javadekar today chaired the first meeting of Science Express Climate Change Special (SECCS) attended by Union Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State of Science and Technology, Shri Y.S Chowdhary. The Science Express will focus on the theme of Climate Change this year. Shri Javadekar said that the meeting had been called to decide the overall contours of the theme.

Today’s meeting elicited various suggestions, including involving state governments in a big way, as well as involving children, volunteers and experts from various institutions of the Ministries involved in the running of the Express. The Science Express is a joint initiative of three Ministries and Departments – Ministry of Railways, the Department of Science & Technology and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The train has had a highly successful run for the last eight years. Students from schools and colleges and lakhs of people come to see the train. Shri Javadekar said that there is an umbrella of 117 organisations on the theme of Climate Change.

Officials from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Science & Technology participated in the meeting. The representatives of Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad presented an outline of the exhibits to be put up in different proposed coaches of Science Express Climate Change Special. Last year’s theme of Science Express was Biodiversity.

The next meeting of SECCS will be held at Ahmedabad on the 17th and 18th of this month.