The Union Ministry of Science and Technology had lauded the efforts of Chhattisgarh students for sending 55,565 nominations for MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) awards under the INSPIRE scheme.
Despite the Covid-19 crisis, Chhattisgarh ranked third in the country in the number of nominations. In an appreciation letter to the Principal Secretary ( School Education), Dr Alok Shukla, the Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ashutosh Sharma, said 3,391 nominations have been selected for MANAK awards of Rs 10,000 to each student. The ‘Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Department of Science & Technology (DST). The awards aim to motivate students in the age group of 10-15 and studying in Classes 6 to 10. The objective is to target one million original ideas and innovations rooted in science and societal applications to foster a culture of creativity and innovative thinking.
Under this scheme, schools can nominate five best original ideas/innovations of students.