MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES
(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)
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(a) The details of schemes of Ministry of Science & Technology under which payments through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) have been made are as follows:
(i) In order to attract young talent towards pursuing scientific career, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is implementing ‘Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)’, an umbrella scheme to communicate excitement of creative pursuit of science to students. The scheme also aims to build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Research & Development (R&D) base.
INSPIRE Awards MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) attracts talented school students at an early age of 10-15 years studying in Class 6-10 to pursue science. Under INSPIRE Award MANAK scheme, in a financial year, ten (10.0) lakh ideas are being targeted from more than five (05) lakh middle and high schools across the country, out of which one (1.0) lakh ideas are being shortlisted for an initial award of Rs. 10000 /- each, paid directly into bank accounts of the students through Direct Benefit Transfer for preparation of project/model/showcasing of idea. After a series of District Level and State level exhibitions, the top 60 innovations are selected from National Level Exhibition for whom incubation support is provided.
INSPIRE Internship aims at providing exposure to top 1% students at Class X Board level by organizing Science Camps either during summer or winter and providing an opportunity to interact with science icons from India and abroad, including Nobel Laureates, to experience the joys of scientific pursuit. These science camps nourish the curiosity of students in science, help them to think out of box and attract students at an early age of 16-17 years to enroll in science subjects for further studies.
The Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) component of the INSPIRE Scheme aims to encourage meritorious students to study basic and natural sciences in Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and Masters of Science (M.Sc.) through attractive scholarship and mentorship opportunities. The selections under SHE is based on performance (top 1%) in Class XII examinations of State/Central School Examination Boards and in selected national level competitive examinations like IIT-JEE, etc. The scheme offers 12,000 scholarships every year to meritorious students in the age group 17-22 years @ Rs. 0.80 Lakh per year for a maximum period of five years.
The INSPIRE Fellowship component of the INSPIRE Scheme offers 1000 Fellowships every year to bright students in the age group of 22-27 years to pursue Ph.D. in basic and applied sciences including engineering, medicine, agriculture and veterinary sciences. This is offered to (i) students who secure 1st Rank in Post Graduate examination at the university-level or ii) INSPIRE-SHE Scholars who secure minimum 70% marks (or CGPA equivalent) in aggregate in their M.Sc. or Integrated M.S./M.Sc. level examinations, and who are eligible for admission to a Ph.D. Programme in any recognised university/academic institution of the country. The Fellowship is provided for a maximum of 5 years to pursue a full-time Ph.D. programme.
The INSPIRE FACULTY FELLOWSHIP component of the INSPIRE Scheme provides opportunities to 100 applicants every year with Ph.D. qualification in the age group of 27-32 years for 5 years to carry out post-doctoral research in basic and applied science areas including engineering, medicine, agriculture and veterinary sciences. It aims at the following: (1) to provide attractive opportunities to young achievers for developing independent scientific profiles; (2) to provide them opportunities for independent research, so that they are able to effectively compete for long-term positions that become available in various academic and research institutions of the country; (3) to augment the scientific manpower in academic and research institutions.
(ii) The Disha Progrmme for Women in Science provides opportunities to women scientists and technologists in science and technology domain especially those who had break in their career.
(iii) Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) operates a DBT Scheme called PRISM (Promoting Innovations in Individuals, Start-ups and MSMEs). Under the scheme, financial assistance is extended to independent innovators to convert their innovative ideas into working models/prototypes/processes. An amount of INR 20.00 lakh (Rupees twenty lakh) is given for Proof of Concept (PoC) in Phase I. On successful demonstration of PoC in Phase I, an amount of INR 50.00 lakh is provided to successful PRISM innovators for scaling of PoC ideas into marketable products for pre-commercial seeding subject to condition that innovators bring an equivalent amount from Commercial Banks/Venture Capitalist.
(iv) In the year 1983, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) started the National Eligibility Test (NET) for award of Junior Research Fellowship and the JRF-NET is one of the biggest platform for awarding highest number of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF)-NET in the area of basic sciences. At present, CSIR has been supporting about 8500 research fellows in about 700 institutes across the country. The biggest beneficiary of the CSIR fellowship programme is the University system and the national laboratories.
(v) Department of Biotechnology- Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) is providing fellowships to biotechnology students for pursuing doctoral research in universities and / or research institutions in the country. The candidates are selected through "Biotechnology Eligibility Test (BET)". Based on the performance in BET, two categories of merit lists are prepared (Category-I and Category-II). Candidates selected under Category-I are eligible to avail fellowship under the program in any University/Institute in India, where selected candidate registers for PhD Programme. Top 275 students in BET are selected under Category-I. Candidates selected under Category-II are eligible to be appointed in any DBT sponsored project and avail fellowship from the project equivalent to NET/GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering), subject to selection through institutional selection process.
(vi) Department of Biotechnology- Research Associateship (RA) Programme: DBT Research Associateship programme was started in the year 2001 for post-doctoral research in frontier areas of Biotechnology and allied areas at premier institutions across the country. The fellowship is initially awarded for a period of two years and support can be extended for 1-2 years based on review of progress. The objective of DBT-RA program is to train and nurture young scientists and generate critical mass of trained manpower in modern areas of biology and biotechnology.
(b) No transaction cost was paid by the Ministry for any of the DBT schemes since their inception.
(c) No payment was made to the National Payments Corporation of India for Direct Benefit Transfer transactions, so far.
(d) Since no payment was made, question of recovery of excess payment does not arise.
(e) Since no lapses occurred, question of any corrective step does not arise.
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