Ramdas Iyer, Project Coordinator and Head of the Raman Science Centre and Planetarium since June 01, 2015 will be relinquishing charge on the May 13, 2019 after four years of eventful service at the Centre. He has been transferred to the National Science Centre at Delhi on public interest.
During his tenure, he brought in many new facilities and changes at the RSC like acquiring and installing an Aircraft and a helicopter engine from the Indian Air Force, building the Raman Innovation Centre and a permanent gallery on Water – The Elixir of Life, besides totally renovating the Planetarium. He also brought in a new and unique facility, the Science on a Sphere, the fifth such facility in the Country after Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
He set up and commissioned a 86.45 KW Solar power plant thereby cutting the power costs of the Centre by over half despite increased load Coordination, planning, survey, obtaining permissions and sanctions, structural work, installation, troubleshooting and commissioning, thereby achieving over 50% saving in electricity bills.
He was instrumental in putting together a unique venture called NAVIN (Nutan Avishkar Vichar in Nagpur) and IDEA (Innovation Driven Entrepreneurial activity) with Vidarbha Industries Association, Vigyan Bharati, Principals of all Colleges in Nagpur and venture capitalists to create a self contained ecosystem to take an idea turn it into a product and commercialise it.
He organised numerous educational activities and set up several temporary exhibitions and oversaw a marked increase in visitor figures and revenue as well as spending of creating new assets for the welfare and learning of Nagpurkars. He developed the park with several new exhibits and creating a new lawn and planted many trees in a shrub ridden jungle behind the building.
“I leave with the satisfaction that I leave RSC a far better place than it was when I received its charge, and I did it with the cooperation of all Nagpurkars. I hope Nagpurkars share this view of mine. It has been a pleasant four years. But move on I must to serve others elsewhere, but I also will carry this tenure in my heart forever with fondness” says Iyer.
