On this day the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science was founded in Kolkata by Mahendra Lal Sircar, a physician.
The association, which would later come to be regarded as one of the premier science organisations in India, with which scientists such as C.V. Raman and Meghnad Saha would be associated, was conceptualised by Sircar as an institution that would foster research in the various science disciplines by Indians. The association was supported by public contributions.
Sircar was a remarkable personality. He was one of the first MDs to graduate from the Calcutta Medical College, a nationalist and an advocate of science and women’s education.
Now the association is an autonomous body funded by the department of science and technology of the government of India and by the government of West Bengal.
