ISRO YUVIKA 2020: The Young Scientist Programme Stands Cancelled Due to COVID-19

ISRO YUVIKA 2020 or Young Scientist Programme, as part of which select school students are trained for a period of two weeks in Indian Space Research Organisation’s centres across India, has been cancelled this year. In March 2020, ISRO had announced the names of students who had been shortlisted to take part in the programme. 3 students from each State or Union Territory were to be selected to participate in this programme covering CBSE, ICSE and State syllabus, and 5 additional seats had been reserved for OCI candidates across the country.

“The Young Scientist Programme(YUVIKA) was scheduled to be held during May 11-22, 2020. In the wake of COVID 19 pandemic and the associated difficulties in organizing the programme, the YUVIKA 2020 stands cancelled,” says ISRO on its website.

The ISRO Young Scientist Programme is an initiative that was started by the Indian Space Research Organisation last year to arouse and encourage scientific curiosity among school students. Students who have completed 8th standard and currently studying in 9th standard in the academic year 2019-2020, from ICSE, CBSE, as well as state syllabus were asked to apply for the programme.

However, holding the programme under current circumstances would indeed be impossible as students and their guardians would be required to travel through train and stay at ISRO centres and guest houses. The Young Scientist Programme 2020 was scheduled to be held at the following ISRO centres:

• Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram.
• U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru.
• Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad.
• North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC), Shillong.