The prime activity of SVAK is the annual conduct of Kannada Vijnana Sammelana (Karnataka Science Congress) to enrich Kannada for science communication, to popularize Vijnana among the common people, and to empower Karnataka with science, engineering and technology as developmental tools. These Kannada Vijnana Sammelanas are invariably held in Karnataka Universities / R & D Institutions and the focal theme is based on the interest of the host Institutions.
The Kannada Vijnana Sammelana is held annually on 15th September, the birth anniversary of Bharata Ratna Sir. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, a great visionary-engineer-statesman and the architect of modern Karnataka and the first to introduce the concept of “Swadeshi” in the country. It is also on this day in 2004 that Swadeshi Vijnana Andolana Karnataka was itself formed.
To commemorate these, SVAK honours eminent and erudite scholars of Karnataka in modern and traditional sciences with the prestigious Visvesvaraya Vijnana Puraskara. The receipients include Prof. C. N. R. Rao and Dr. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, who themselves received the Bharata Ratna Awards from Govt. of India. We have already instituted the Bhimsen Joshi Samskritika Vijnana Puraskara from 2014 onwards and the CNR Rao Vijnana Puraskara from 2016 onwards in the field of Physicochemical, Biological and Materials Sciences.