INSPIRE Award - MANAK

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Context

Government presented INSPIRES awards to 60 Start-Ups and financial support to 53,021 students.

Background

Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India is implementing 'Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scheme since 2010.
The scheme covers students in the age group of 10-32 years and has five components.
The first component, INSPIRE Award aims to motivate students, in the age group of 10-15 years and studying in classes 6 to 10, to pursue Science and a career in Research.

INSPIRE Award - MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge)

About

The INSPIRE Award - MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) is being revamped and executed by Department of Science & Technology and National Innovation Foundation-India to align it with the action plan for "Start-up India" initiative.

Note: National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF), is an autonomous body of Department of Science & Technology

Aim and Objective

The scheme aims to help build a critical human resource pool for strengthening, expand science and technology system.
It also focuses on increasing the research & development base by inviting students from all government and private schools throughout the country and by enabling them to send their original & creative technological ideas/innovations on.

Mechanism

Under the INSPIRE AWARDS - MANAK Scheme, students are invited from all government or private schools throughout the country, irrespective of their educational boards (national and state) to send original and creative technological ideas/innovations focusing on common problems and come up with solutions on their own. Once the student has thought of an idea, he/she can submit their ideas to the Principal/Headmaster of their schools.

Award

Fially, there is Disbursement of INSPIRE Award of INR 10,000 into the bank accounts of short-listed students through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme.

Final Thought

The scheme rightly targets one million original ideas/innovations rooted in science and societal applications to foster a culture of creativity and innovative thinking among school children.