About the INSPIRE Scholarship Scheme
The term INSPIRE stands for “Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research”. It is an innovative programme sponsored and managed by the Department of Science & Technology for attraction of talent to the sciences.
This scheme was launched on 13th November 2008.
Main Features of INSPIRE Scheme
The striking features of INSPIRE is to communicate to the youth of the country the excitement of creative pursuit of science, attract talent to the study of science at an early age and thus, build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening the Science & Technology systems and expanding the research & development facility.
Through this scholarship scheme, various types of financial incentive is provided to the students who are pursuing their education in science stream.
The INSPIRE scheme has three components which are schemes for early attraction of talent, scholarship for higher education, and opportunity for research careers in science. The government offers various types of awards, internships, scholarships, and fellowships through this scheme so that each and every student can get the opportunity to pursue higher education.
Through this scheme, the government offers scholarships of Rs 80000 to around 10000 students every year. The age of the applicant should be 17 to 22 years. The student must be pursuing courses in sciences at the BSc, BS, and integrated MSc/MS level in the following areas of study:
Physics
Electronics
Astronomy
Geology
Statistics
Mathematics
Astrophysics
Biophysics
Genetics
Biology
Zoology
Botany
Microbiology
Anthropology
Marine biology
Ecology
Oceanic science
Chemistry
Biochemistry
Geochemistry
Geophysics
Atmospheric science
Students who have passed the KVPY (Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojna), NTSE, Olympiad Medallists, and Jagadish Bose National Science Talent Search (JBNSTS) and are pursuing Natural/Basic Sciences courses are eligible.The students pursuing basic science or natural science from IISER, NISER or Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Basic Sciences at the University of Mumbai are eligible.
So, we can say that the main feature of this programme is that it does not believe in conducting any competitive exams for identification of talent at any stage. It believes in the efficacy of the existing educational structure for identification of talent.