The 88th Session of the Indian Science Congress had been the first science congress of the new millennium. It was held for the first time on the campus of the prestigious Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and deliberated on an important theme, namely Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security. The Congress was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 3rd January 2001. It also had the largest attendance of more than 3500 delegates from all over India, including 100 delegates from abroad. For the first time in the history of the Indian Science Congress, a "Vision Statement" on the theme of the congress, emanating from wide consultation among the scientists, was released by the Prime Minister. The Congress was also attended by many farmers and children. The exhibition on "Agrovision 2001" was also organized in which many public and private sector institutions/organization/firms had participated. It attracted very large number of visitors. The programme of the Congress was organised in eight plenary sessions namely,

i) Improving Productivity and Alleviating Poverty,
ii) Post-Harvest Processing and Value Addition,
iii) Managing Resources for Increased Farm Sustainability,
iv) Complementing New Technologies with Traditional Knowledge,
v) Nutritional Needs for Human Health,
vi) Livestock for Nutrition and Financial Well-Being,
vii) Environmental and Agricultural Development, and
viii) Public Policies for Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security.

Also four Public Fora were organized on: Science and Technology; GMOs and Genomics; How food secure is India?; and WTO and Indian Agriculture. The evening lectures were delivered by eminent scientists Dr. Abdul Kalam on Networking Multiple Technologies for Nation Building, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan on Shaping our Agricultural Future and Dr. R.S Paroda on Shaping Agricultural Research for a Rainbow Revolution in India. Besides these, the concurrent technical sessions were organised in 16 different sections namely:

In addition, seven fora and two committees on Home Science, and Science and Society had also organized impressive scientific deliberations. In all these science programmes, many eminent scientists and public figures known for their significant contributions participated and provided useful insights. Young students also participated in a large number. For the first time, three prize winners from a debate competition on the theme organized at all India level among agricultural universities also addressed the scientists. Also some farmers had addressed the Congress for the first time. Yet another significant feature of the Science Congress was the participation of almost 500 science students every day from different schools in Delhi, beside around 100 students coming from different States. They had also displayed several innovative science experiments.

While inaugurating the science congress the Prime Minister released a "Vision Statement" as scientists' perception on Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security, which defines our future goal as:

"By 2020, India will be free of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and become an environmentally safe country. This, we believe, will be possible to achieve through accelerated social and economic development- by harnessing the advances in science, and blending them with our indigenous knowledge, wisdom and unique sociocultural ethos. We believe India can banish poverty and emerge as a developed nation by promoting growth through efficient and sustainable use of our human, natural and other resources".

The delegates participating in the Congress had further deliberated on the theme of the congress and offered valuable inputs towards implementation strategy, which would enable us to accomplish above goal.