Guwahati, Dec 5: A two-day Global Sustainable Development Summit 2016 towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goals began at NEDFi Convention Centre, Guwahati, on Monday. The Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), a National Institute of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, in association with North East Development Foundation (NEDF) organised the summit.
A large number of scientists, academicians, researchers, media, members of civil society, students and people from all walks of life are participating in the two-day summit, which got underway this morning.
Addressing the inaugural function, Prof. Dinabandhu Sahoo, Director IBSD and Chairman of the Global Sustainable Development Summit 2016, urged the people to work towards fulfilling the 17 sustainable development goals with 169 targets, which are fixed by United Nations. Prof. Sahoo urged the participants to join hands to cover the three dimensions of sustainable development for economic growth, social inclusion and environment protection. He further emphasised that IBSD has taken several initiatives for the environmental protection and socio-economic development of the region.
IBSD has chosen 5 sustainable development goals namely ‘No poverty, Climate action, Life on land, Peace justice & strong institutions and Partnership for the goal’s from grass root levels to global level, which are in tune with the mandate of the institute.
While addressing the gathering, KV Eapen, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Assam, appreciated the initiative taken by IBSD in this direction. He agreed to extend all possible help from the State government to join hands towards the implementation of this initiative.
Dr Syed Kazi, Honourary President of NEDF; Prof SK Srivastava, Vice Chancellor North Eastern Hill University (NEHU); Dr. Anil P Joshi, Director of HESCO, Dehradun; Prof. SK Barik, Director of National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow; Dr. Ajay Parida, MS Swaminathan Foundation, Chennai; Dr. Pratibha Jolly, Principal of Miranda House, Delhi University; Dr. Anula Maurya, Principal of Kalindi College, Delhi University; Biswajit Roy Chowdhury, Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS), Kolkata; and government officials as well as stakeholders from all the eight North Eastern states are participating in the summit.
Prof Sahoo invited the people to join hands to develop partnership programmes so that the benefit can be reached to the people. He further said we have to help ourselves and be the change rather than waiting for the change to happen. The two days technical sessions are open to the people who are interested in contributing towards implementation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
