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Shri Ajit Kumar Seth, IAS,
Cabinet Secretary to Govt. of India today formally inaugurated the 4th
National Level Exhibition and Project Competitions (NLEPC ) here at Pragati
Maidan, New Delhi. He visited the various stalls and saw the Science models
brought by the children from different parts of the country and appreciated
their amazing innovatives. Shri Seth was accompanied by Prof. K.Vijay
Raghavan, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Former Secretary
DST Dr. T.Ramasami, Smt. Rita Menon and other senior Scientists and officers
from the M/o Science& Technology.
Speaking to media person Shri
Seth said the young buds have definitely showed their mettle and the future
awaits them for a prestigious contribution in the field of Science and
technology. He said the unique programme of Ministry of Science
and Technology Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research
(INSPIRE) is a National Programme implemented for attraction of talent
amongst students to study science and pursue career with research is a right
platform for such events.
The basic objective of
INSPIRE is to communicate to the youth of the country the excitement of
creative pursuit of science, attract talent to the study of science at an
early age and thus build the required critical human resource pool for
strengthening and expanding the science and technology system and R&D
base. The programme was launched on 13th December 2008. The
implementation started during 2009-10.
INSPIRE Programme covers
students in the age group 10-32 years, and has five components: INSPIRE Award
(for 10-15 age group), INSPIRE Internship at a science camp with
opportunity for interaction with global science leaders (for
16-17 age group), INSPIRE Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) @ Rs 80000/
per year for continuing education at B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels (for 17-22 age
group), INSPIRE Fellowship for doctoral research (for 22-27 age group)
and INSPIRE faculty for assured career opportunity (for 27-32 age group).
In so far as INSPIRE Award
component is concerned, more than 11 lakhs INSPIRE Awards have been sanctioned
till date. About 47.61 % of the awardees are girls and 25.85% SCs/STs. (state
wise details at Annexure-I). An amount of ` 673.81 crores has been spent
so far on the scheme, out of which ` 118.25 crores have been released to the
States/UTs to meet the expenditure in connection with organizing competitions
at various levels. More than 7 lakh awardees have participated in the
DLEPCs, and about 50000 best entries of DLEPCs have participated in the SLEPCs.
Under the INSPIRE Internship,
as on date, about 1046 Science Camps have been held covering about 2.33
lakh students in the age group of 16-17 years, 40 Nobel Laureates
and about 8000 resource persons participated in these camps.
About 46000 scholarships for students in the age group of 17-22 years have been
given and about 4100 INSPIRE Fellows in the age group of 22 -27 years have been
enrolled so far. Finally, under the Faculty Award for Assured Career, 573
individuals have been awarded inspire faculty fellowship for initiating
research work in various universities/ academic institutions/ laboratories in
the country.
The first component, viz
INSPIRE Award, is implemented centrally through the States/UTs. Under this
scheme, during the five year plan period two students are selected from each
school of the country for an INSPIRE Award of Rs.5000/- each for preparing a
Science Project / Model. These awardees, who are students from classes
6th to 10th, then participate in a three tier competition: District, State and
National Level. The projects exhibited are evaluated by a jury of
experts. All the 29 states and 7 UTs are participating in the scheme.
Merit based selection of
students for INSPIRE Awards is done by the Head Master / Head Mistress /
Principal of each school, who is required to send nomination of best children,
having aptitude for science, with all relevant details, to the District Education
Authorities, who will send these to DST through State Education
Authorities. All middle and high schools in the country, (having classes
6th to 8th) including private schools, are eligible to
participate in the scheme.
Out of the 2573 projects participated
in the three NLEPCs held so far, Patent Facilitating Centre (PFC) of TIFAC
along with its team of patent experts scrutinized the exhibits and scouted the
patentable inventions for patenting. 85 projects from 1st NLEPC were
selected by PFC for filing patents with provisional specifications. After
detailed examination, 10 patents have been filed with complete specification
(As per the Annexure IIA). From 2nd NLEPC, 33 patents were filed
with provisional specifications, and after further examination 6 patents are
being filed with complete specification within prescribed time limits (As per
the Annexure IIB). From 3rd NLEPC, after detailed examination, 12
patents have been filed with provisional specifications and are being pursued
for filing with complete specifications (As per the Annexure IIC).
Considering its large
scale, DST has started to e-manage the entire INSPIRE Award Scheme
by using State-of-Art latest Information Technology which enables e-filing of
nominations by the schools across the country, its processing by the District
and State authorities as well as DST in accordance with the norms of the
scheme. More than 2.5 lakh schools across the country have already registered
under the online system.
The 4th NLEPC under the INSPIRE Award Scheme has been
organized by Department of Science & Technology hardwork and
innovative zeal to learn Science. The Exhibition is open for
visit by school children / teachers from 1000 hrs to 1300 hours on October 7,
2014. Free entry will be facilitated from Gate No. 7 of ITPO.
Annexure-I
5
Annexure-IIA
9
Annexure-IIB
List of Projects/
Awardees of 2nd NLEPC in which Patent are being Filed with complete
specifications.
13
Annexure-IIC
List of Projects/
Awardees of 3rd NLEPC in which provisional Patent have been Filed.
15
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