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Ankur Bisen | 31 July 2026 | The Wire
The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) was established in 1914 by two British chemists – Professor J.L. Simonsen and Professor P.S. MacMahon – in Kolkata with the intent to promote scientific enquiry and build the foundation for scientific research in the country.
Modelled on the lines of British Association for the Advancement of Science, the flagship idea of the ISCA was to organise an annual gathering of scientific researchers from across the country, and encourage them to share work that can enable advancement of research through collective wisdom, constructive criticism and knowledge sharing.
This flagship event later came to be known as the Indian Science Congress (ISC) that would be organised in the first week of January every year, where the Indian scientific community would gather to discuss and share ideas.
The first general president of this science congress was Ashutosh Mukherjee, father of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the ideological fountainhead of the current regime. After independence, the ISCA came under the supervision of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru set the convention for inaugurating the science congress as one of the first events of the new year as its general president. He rarely missed any of the ISC meets till his demise in office. By then he had left a rich legacy – that the serving prime minister of India would inaugurate the annual science congress – and prime ministers, thereafter enthusiastically followed this tradition.