1,197 students from TN selected for INSPIRE Award

CHENNAI: As many as 1,197 students from government and aided schools across Tamil Nadu have been selected for the prestigious Innovation of Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) award for the academic year 2024-25.

INSPIRE is a flagship programme under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The INSPIRE Awards–Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge (MANAK) is being awarded by DST along with the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) India, an autonomous body that functions under the DST.

The selected students will be given Rs 10,000 each to work on their experiments and exhibit them. "The students will exhibit their experiments at the district level. Those who excel at the district level will be nominated for the State-level competition," reads the notification.

The INSPIRE award will be given to 25 students from Coimbatore, 11 students from Pollachi, 19 students from Ariyalur, and 58 students from Chennai among others.

The initiative aims to motivate students between 10 to 15 years of age group and studying in classes 6 to 10, to come up with innovative ideas in science and technology.

Another objective is to target one million original ideas and innovations and bring out the best creativity among school children across the country. In September 2022, schools in Tamil Nadu nominated the best three original ideas from each school and innovations of students, and registered in the online portal of the department.

"Using the Rs 10,000 given to the selected students, they would have to work on innovative experiments and multiple ideas. Their experiments will be presented on a particular day. A college faculty with science background will finalise participants for the State and national levels, where they'll compete with students across the country," said a government teacher.