National Science Centre, Delhi
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| Established | 1992 |
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| Location | Bhairon Road,  India
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| Coordinates | 28°36′48″N 77°14′43″E / 28.6132428°N 77.2453003°E |
| Type | science museum |
| Visitors | 521260 [As on 31 March 2010] |
| Director | Rama Sarma Dhulipati |
| Curator | 5 |
| Website | nscdelhi.org |
The National Science Centre established in 1992, is a science museum in Delhi, India. It is part of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), an autonomous body under India's Ministry of Culture. It stands close to Gate no 1, of Pragati Maidan overlooking the Purana Qila.
The National Science Centre is the northern zonal headquarters of the National Council of Science Museums. The first Science Museum under this Council, the Birla Industrial & Technological Museum came up on 2 May 1959 at Calcutta. Thereafter another Museum, the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum was opened in Bangalore in 1962. These Museums were inspired by the vision of Dr.Bidhan Chandra Roy, the first Chief Minister of West Bengal and was encouraged by pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who always had a soft corner for scientific temper. Dr. Amalendu Bose, a young chemistry graduate at that time, was recruited by Dr.B.C.Roy to commission the first Museum at Calcutta. Thereafter several smaller centres came up, but for over two decades, there was a lull in the science museum movement in India.
The coming to power of Rajiv Gandhi saw a fresh impetus for science popularisation. The Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai came up as the third major Science Centre. During this period, the movement also witnessed a shift from traditional science museums like the London Science Museum, the Deutsches Museum etc. to what were called 'Science Centres' in the line of the Exploratorium in the USA. With Rajiv Gandhi inaugurating the Mumbai Centre, the Science Centre movement embarked on a period of explosive growth, with science centres opening in most state capitals of India. With Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai Centres functional, a need for a big Centre in the Nation's capital in Delhi in the north was felt, and work started in earnest in 1984. Starting with a small shed near a municipal swimming pool in R K Puram and thereafter within a shrub forest in Timarpur, the National Science Centre was conceived, designed, built and made operational in 1992. It was inaugurated on the 9 January 1992 by the then Prime Minister of India, P.V.Narasimha Rao and is situated between the Gate Nos. 1 and 2 of the Pragati Maidan exhibition grounds, on the Bhairon Road, across Purana Qila, Delhi. It is open all seven days a week from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM except on the Indian Festival days of Holi and Diwali. The building was designed by noted Indian architect Achyut Kanvinde.
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