ICMR-NIN Launches SHINE 2026 To Spark Scientific Curiosity In Kids
Kulkarni encouraged students to ask questions, explore new ideas and view science as a means of finding solutions to societal challenges.
Hyderabad: Early exposure to science and research can help children develop curiosity, scientific thinking and an appreciation for evidence-based approaches to health and nutrition, said Dr Bharati Kulkarni, director of the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), Hyderabad. She was speaking at the inauguration of the science and health innovation for nextgen explorers (SHINE) 2026, a two-day outreach programme that began on Tuesday for schoolchildren.
Kulkarni encouraged students to ask questions, explore new ideas and view science as a means of finding solutions to societal challenges. Around 800 students from nine schools participated in the programme at the ICMR-NIN campus on Tuesday. Nearly half were from government schools serving children from underprivileged communities and the outskirts of Hyderabad, giving them an opportunity to interact directly with scientists and take part in demonstrations and hands-on activities. The activities included nutrition games, diet surveys, demonstrations of home-based food adulteration detection techniques, work physiology demonstrations, period awareness, anaemia testing, a mobile laboratory and food chemistry analysis.
The outreach also extends beyond Hyderabad, with hundreds of children taking part in SHINE activities at ICMR-NIN-affiliated Model Rural Health Research Units at Janampet in Mahbubnagar, Telangana, and Chandragiri in Andhra Pradesh. SHINE is an ICMR initiative aimed at building scientific curiosity and awareness of health, nutrition and research among school-going children.
