Young school going innovators will soon get a platform to showcase their ideas what with the DST (Department of Science & Technology) launching the INSPIRE-MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) scheme next year, that will be implemented by Ahmedabad-headquartered National Innovation Foundation (NIF).
This was announced by President Pranab Mukherjee as he gave away the ninth Dr A P J Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards 2016 to 31 innovative students on 7 Nov. at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.
He also said that the INSPIRE-MANAK scheme would boost the IGNITE model developed by NIF- an autonomous body of DST and by Honey Bee Network which awards student innovators on APJ Abdul Kalam’s birthday on October 15.
Started in 2008- 173, the awards have been given to 246 students for their ideas/innovations at the IGNITE awards.
“Taking forward the ‘INSPIRE’ program run by DST, now under the new scheme, around 10 lakh innovative ideas will be scouted from five lakh schools across India and from them, one lakh will be awarded Rs 5,000. Further, the NIF will help turn innovation of school going students into proof of concept stage,” said Vipin Kumar, Director and Chief Innovation Officer at NIF.
“This initiative will be launched in a full fledged manner on April 1, 2017. Also, around 1000 best innovations will receive Rs 20,000 from NIF,” he said.
Source: The Indian Express