Students from across the country participated in the 7^th National Level Exhibition and Project Competition under INSPIRE Awards – MANAK scheme (NLEPC).

The two-day national level science fair, which witnessed more than 800 innovations under one roof, concluded successfully at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. It was jointly organised by the Department of Science and Technology, (DST) New Delhi and National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF) on Tuesday 15th February 2019.

Advertisement

The INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) Award’s MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) programme is a flagship scheme of the DST and NIF.

Aligned with the action plan for the Start-up India initiative, the scheme aims to help build a critical human resource pool to strengthen and expand the science and technology system and increase the research and development base of the country by encouraging students from class 6 to class 10 from all government and private schools throughout the country to come out with innovations and ideas for solving various societal problems.

A total of 60 students were conferred with an award for their outstanding innovations at the award function held at the science fair.

Miss Sulochana Kakodia for her innovation Fully Automatic Toilet Cleaning Machine from Madhya Pradesh, Master Sayen Akhtar Shaik for Plastic safety cap opener of LPG cylinder from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Master Marripelli Abhishek for Paddy filling Machine from Telangana were among the awardees who were conferred with first, second, and third prize respectively.

This year, a total of 2.88 lakh ideas and innovations were scouted in collaboration with States and Union Territories. Out of these, over 50,000 were shortlisted and provided with financial support of Rs 10,000 each for developing prototypes. After a series of district and state level exhibitions and competitions, 800 of them were selected to participate at this national level exhibition and contest held at Indian Institute of Technology.