PIB | 08 Jul, 2022
Union
Minister Jitendra Singh has asked government agencies, including Department of
Science & Technology, Technology Development Board and BIRAC, to
reach out to potential Start-Ups and support them, in addition to
offering support to those who themselves reach us.
This way, we will not
miss out on many a deserving innovative mind whose Start-Ups initiative
may not have taken off because of inadequate support or resources, he
said.
Addressing
students and faculty at an interaction meeting on "Innovation in
Science Pursuit for Inspired Research" (INSPIRE) Program beneficiaries
at Moradabad, UP, Singh called for launching a massive
countrywide hunt for innovative young minds and potential Start-ups, as
they are the ones going to shape India’s future economy.
The
Minister highlighted that INSPIRE scheme is expanding R&D base of
the country by building a pipeline of quality human resources and
cultivating a talent pool.
He emphasised that India needs to attract
talented young students into science and give them a supportive,
creative, and challenging educational environment from their school days
so that they can become successful entrepreneurs and job givers through
innovative ventures. More than 100 students / beneficiaries of INSPIRE
Fellowships, INSPIRE Scholarships and INSPIRE-MANAK participated in the
programme.
Referring
to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio address 'Mann Ki Baat',
in May this Year, wherein Modi said, “Today India's Startup ecosystem
is not limited to just big cities, but entrepreneurs are emerging from
smaller cities and towns as well which shows that in India, the one who
has an innovative idea, can create wealth”, Jitendra Singh said, as
per various reports, about 50% of Startups hail from Tier-2 and Tier-3
cities, spanning many states and cities where opportunities and
resources are comparatively less.
Taking
a cue from Prime Minister’s call for right mentoring of Startups, Singh said, Department of Science and Technology will take up
the mentorship role to promote start-ups in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as
wealth creators and problem solvers in varied areas like industries,
agriculture, dairy sectors as well as in areas like E-commerce,
Fin-Tech, Ed-Tech and Bio-Tech.
He expressed satisfaction that Uttar
Pradesh is fast catching up in the Start-up ecosystem, which was earlier
mainly confined to Southern States.
Jitendra
Singh said, DST conceptualised, designed, developed, and is now
implementing INSPIRE Scheme to attract meritorious youth to study
natural sciences subjects at the college and university level and to
pursue research careers in both basic and applied science areas
including engineering, medicine, agriculture, and veterinary sciences.
INSPIRE Scheme caters to students in the age group 10-32 years with
several components.
Referring
to INSPIRE Awards MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration
and Knowledge), Singh said, this is a unique initiative to
attract talented school students at an early age to study science and
pursue research career apart from fostering a culture of innovation
among them. Scheme caters to school children in the age group of 10-15
years and studying in Class 6-10.
He said, INSPIRE Award MANAK scheme
targets ten lakh ideas from more than five lakh middle and high schools
across the country every year. Out of these, one lakh ideas are given
INSPIRE Award of Rs. 10,000/-each. So far, more than 16 lakh students of
6-10th classes have presented their ideas on a national S&T
platform.
Similarly,
INSPIRE Internship aims to provide exposure to the top 1% students at
Class X Board level by organising Science Camps either during summer or
winter which provides them opportunity to interact with science icons
from India and abroad, including Nobel Laureates, to experience the joys
of scientific pursuit.
Annually 50,000 students who are among the top
one percent in their class X Board Examination and pursuing science in
11th class are benefited through these summer/ winter camps. So far,
more than 1900 INSPIRE Internship Camps have been organised across the
nation and about 4 lakh students of 11th & 12th classes availed this
opportunity.
Scholarship
for Higher Education (SHE) component of INSPIRE aims to encourage
meritorious students to study basic and natural sciences at
undergraduate level through attractive scholarship and mentorship
opportunities. Selections are based on performance (top 1%) in Class XII
examinations of State/Central School Examination Boards and/or in
selected national level competitive examinations like IIT-JEE etc.
So
far, more than 1.3 lakh Higher secondary students have been offered
INSPIRE scholarships to pursue a career in natural and basic sciences.
INSPIRE
Fellowship component 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. So far, around 10,000 fellowships have been awarded
to postgraduate students for carrying out doctoral degrees in both
basic and applied sciences for building research careers in S & T.
INSPIRE
FACULTY FELLOWSHIP component provides opportunities to 100 persons
every year with Ph.D. qualification in the age group of 27-32 years for 5
years to carry out post-doctoral research in both basic and applied
science areas including engineering, medicine, agriculture and
veterinary sciences.
So far, around 1400 faculty fellowships were
awarded to the young doctoral students to establish themselves as
independent researchers in the Global S&T Community for building a
career in Research and Development.