Navi Mumbai, Jul 21 (PTI) German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck on Friday launched an initiative to bring Indian kids closer to science and stimulate their curiosities.

Kids Lab is located inside BASF's innovation facility here and is funded by the German chemicals major as part of its corporate social responsibility.

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Habeck is on a three-day visit to the country, which started with meetings in the national capital on Thursday, and had a series of engagements in the financial capital on Friday, which included the launch of the lab.

Markus Kamieth, member of the board of executive directors at BASF, said the lab "is an attempt to bring young children close to science, get their curiosity stimulised to become future scientists".

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The company has been running such labs in the Asia Pacific region for over two decades, and over 3 lakh children have benefitted from it, Kamieth said, adding that there will be a special thrust on getting children from underprivileged backgrounds to the lab.

Kamieth said all the experiments, which are conducted or shown to students will be centred around the pressing issue of climate change.

Habeck, who is the Federal Minister for economic affairs and climate action of Germany, did not make any public remarks but spoke to over a dozen startups at the same facility ahead of the launch. He was appreciative of India's startup ecosystem and digitalisation in the brief remarks before the informal interaction.

Earlier in the day, Habeck, who is accompanied by a delegation consisting of Parliamentarians and industry executives, met Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other senior government officials.

"We had an excellent discussion on green and sustainable energy," Fadnavis said on the microblogging site Twitter and added that the association between the state and the European nation is very old.

The two decided to collaborate more on green hydrogen, electric vehicles and renewable energy during the meeting, Fadnavis said.

After launching the Kids Lab, the delegation visited other CSR projects run by BASF in the satellite city of Navi Mumbai and was also scheduled to visit a Siemens facility.

After the Mumbai leg, the delegation headed by Habeck will be travelling to Goa for a G-20 meeting.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)