733 govt, govt-aided students selected for INSPIRE award

CHENNAI: For 2022-23, 733 government and government-aided students in Tamil Nadu have been selected for the Innovation of Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) award, a flagship programme under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The selected students will be given Rs 10,000 each to work on their experiments and exhibit it on the yet-to-be announced date by the Union government. The INSPIRE Awards – MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge), being executed by DST with National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF), an autonomous body of DST.

It aims to motivate students in 10-15 year age group and studying in classes 6 to 10 to come up with innovative ideas in science and technology. It also wants to target 1 million original ideas and innovations and bring out the best creativity among school children across the country. In September 2022, schools in TN nominated 3 best original ideas from each school and innovations of students and registered in the online portal of the department.

A government teacher explained, “With Rs 10,000 given to selected students, they’d 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 state and national levels, where they’ll compete with students across the country.” Speaking further, the teacher pointed out to DT Next that, earlier the amount was credited to school headmasters bank account, but in recent years, the amount is being credited to students’ account. “Though it might be a good decision to credit Rs 10,000 amount to students account, there are instances where parents do not use the money for projects. In fact, at most times teachers are not kept informed about the credit too. Hence, we urge for some policy change in crediting the amount,” urged the teacher.