The Department of Science and Technology under this Ministry has initiated two inter-related schemes namely `Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)’ and the `Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE)’ which aim to promote scientific attitude among children, attract students to study science and pursue careers in research. The `Scholarship for Higher Education’ provides scholarship for pursuing science at under-graduate level based on the performance (top 1%) at the Class XII Board examinations.
During the last three years of implementation of the scheme: SHE, 45 INSPIRE Scholarships have been awarded to the students of the state of Punjab based on their performance at the Board examination and so far about Rs 52 lakh has also been disbursed to these students. In addition, under the INSPIRE Scheme, INSPIRE Awards to 10599 students @ Rs 5000/- per student and 39 INSPIRE Fellowships @ Rs 4 lakh per student for pursuing doctoral research in Punjab have also been given.
The Minister of State for Environment and Forests (I/C), Shri Jairam Ramesh gave this information in a written reply to a question by Sardar Shukhdev Singh Dhindsa in Rajya Sabha today.