MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE PRIME MINISTER`S OFFICE; AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)
(a) & (b): There are 69 research institutes/laboratories functioning under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The State-wise list is given in the Annexure. Further, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) is setting up an Innovation Complex at Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, which would focus on translational research. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has also established a national Biotechnology Information Systems Network (BTISNet) with 168 centres at various levels covering all the States.
(c) & (d): With the objective of attracting best talents in science, the Government has formulated and initiated a programme entitled `Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE). It comprises of the following components:
(i) INSPIRE Awards wherein two lakhs students selected every year from schools are given Rs. 5000 each for making a Science projects/models and exhibiting the same at District, State, Regional and National level.
(ii) INSPIRE Internship wherein every year 50,000 students are provided opportunities for interacting with eminent scientists and academicians including Nobel Laureates through Science Camps organized in various Academic/Research Institutions all over India.
(iii) Scholarship for Higher Education which aims to enhance rates of enrollment of talented youth in science intensive higher education programs by providing scholarships and mentorships. The scheme offers 10,000 Scholarship every year @ Rs.0.80 lakh per year to students who are top 1% in Class XII examinations, for undertaking Bachelor and Masters level education in basic and natural sciences.
(iv) Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) implemented by Indian Institute of Science, which also encourages students of Basic Sciences to pursue a career in research.
(v) Assured Opportunity for Research Careers (AORC) which aims to attract, retain and nourish talented students. It has two sub-components, (1) INSPIRE Fellowship (age group of 22-27 years) which offers 1000 fellowships every year to First Rank holders at the Master`s level pursuing doctoral degree in both basic and applied sciences including engineering and medicine and (2) INSPIRE Faculty Award wherein 1000 Tenure-track Research Positions in Universities/ Research Labs/Academic Institutions are awarded annually for pursuing an independent research career in basic and applied sciences.
The numbers of awardees under each component during the last three years (until March 2014) is given below.
Components Scheme under INSPIRE No. of Awardees (during the last three years) INSPIRE Awards 6,64,673 INSPIRE Internship 1,61,872 Scholarship for Higher Education 37,607 Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana 1106 INSPIRE Fellowship 2841 INSPIRE Faculty Award 473
To encourage and attract the best talents to science and engineering research, CSIR also conducts the National Eligibility Test (NET) for awarding Junior Research Fellowships. These research fellows pursue their doctoral research in R&D organizations and academic institutions. Besides above, with the objective to nurture young budding scientific talent and to nourish the objective of pursuit of science and engineering research, CSIR has increased the number of prestigious Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship (SPMF) from 2012-13 onwards.
The number of Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) awarded by CSIR and UGC through CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowships (SPMF) during the last three years is given in the table below:
Year Number of fellowships awarded JRF-NET SPMF CSIR UGC Total 2011-12 2139 2135 4274 27 2012-13 2468 2400 4868 59 2013-14 2532 2400 4932 65 Total 7139 6935 14074 151
Further in order to enhance creativity, to generate awareness about Intellectual Property and to instill interest in Science amongst school children, CSIR has instituted two invention awards, titled ‘CSIR Diamond Jubilee Invention Award for School Children’, and ‘CSIR Innovation Award for School Children’ which are given annually to school children through selection from the innovations received from them.
The Department of Biotechnology is already implementing several programmes to attract best talent for science. The programmes and the number of students benefited include: post graduate M.Sc. / M.Tech. programmes in 71 universities / institutions benefiting 3000 students in last three years ; Junior Research Fellowship Scheme (300 students); DBT Research Associates Scheme (210 students); Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowships (138 researchers) for attracting talent from abroad; Star College Programme benefiting more than 100 colleges; and Innovative Young Biotechnology Award benefiting 93 young scientists.
Download PDF Files
