Lok Sabha Question No. 1956 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-30
Subject: Payments through Direct Benefit Transfer
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Ravindra Kushawaha, Ravi Kishan Shukla, Subrata Pathak

## MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1956 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30/07/2021

Payments through Direct Benefit Transfer

## 1956.  SHRI RAVINDRA KUSHWAHA:

SHRI RAVI KISHAN:

SHRI SUBRAT PATHAK:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ǒव£ान और Ĥौƭोिगकȧ मंğी be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the schemes of his Ministry under which payments through Direct Benefit Transfer have been made;
- (b) the details of the transaction cost paid by his Ministry since inception of DBT, scheme wise;
- (c) whether there has been an excess payment made to the National Payments Corporation of India for DBT transactions so far;
- (d) if so, the steps taken by his Ministry to recover the excess payment made so far; and
- (e) the details of the corrective steps taken to check recurrence of such lapses in future?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

ǒव£ान और Ĥौƭोिगकȧ तथा पृØवी ǒव£ान क े राÏय मंğी ( èवतंğ Ĥभार) (डॉ . ǔजतɅġ िसंह)

- (a)  The details of  schemes of Ministry of Science & Technology under which payments through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) have been made are as follows:

(i)  In  order  to  attract  young  talent  towards  pursuing  scientific  career,  the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is implementing 'Innovation in Science  Pursuit  for  Inspired  Research  (INSPIRE)',  an  umbrella  scheme  to communicate  excitement  of  creative  pursuit  of  science  to  students.  The scheme  also  aims  to  build  the  required  critical  human  resource  pool  for strengthening and expanding the Research & Development (R&D) base.

INSPIRE Awards MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge) attracts talented school students at an early age of 10-15 years studying  in  Class  6-10  to  pursue  science.  Under  INSPIRE  Award  MANAK scheme, in a financial year, ten (10.0) lakh ideas are being targeted from more than five (05) lakh middle and high schools across the country, out of which one (1.0) lakh ideas are being shortlisted for an initial award of Rs. 10000 /- each, paid directly into bank accounts of the students through Direct Benefit Transfer for preparation of project/model/showcasing of idea. After a series of District Level  and  State  level  exhibitions,  the  top  60  innovations  are  selected  from National Level Exhibition for whom incubation support is provided.

INSPIRE Internship aims at providing exposure to  top 1% students at Class X Board level by organizing Science Camps either during summer or winter and providing an opportunity to interact with science icons from India and abroad, including Nobel Laureates, to experience the joys of scientific pursuit. These science camps nourish the curiosity of students in science, help them to think out of box and attract students at an early age of 16-17 years to enroll in science subjects for further studies.

The  Scholarship  for  Higher  Education  (SHE)  component  of  the  INSPIRE Scheme aims to encourage meritorious students to  study basic and natural sciences in Bachelor of  Science (B.Sc.) and Masters of  Science (M.Sc.) through attractive scholarship and mentorship opportunities. The selections under SHE is based on performance (top 1%) in Class XII examinations of State/Central competitive examinations like IIT-JEE, etc. The scheme offers 12,000 scholarships every year to meritorious students in the age group 17-22 years @ Rs. 0.80 Lakh per

School Examination  Boards  and in selected national level year for a maximum period of five years.

The INSPIRE Fellowship component of the INSPIRE Scheme offers 1000 Fellowships every year to bright students in the age group of 22-27 years to pursue Ph.D. in basic and applied sciences including engineering, medicine, agriculture and veterinary sciences. This is offered to (i) students who secure 1st Rank in Post Graduate examination at the university-level or ii) INSPIRESHE  Scholars  who  secure  minimum  70%  marks  (or  CGPA  equivalent)  in aggregate in their M.Sc. or Integrated M.S./M.Sc. level examinations, and who are eligible for admission to a Ph.D. Programme in any recognised university/academic institution of the country. The Fellowship is provided for a maximum of 5 years to pursue a full-time Ph.D. programme.

The INSPIRE FACULTY FELLOWSHIP component of the INSPIRE Scheme provides opportunities to 100 applicants every year with Ph.D. qualification in the age group of 27-32 years for 5 years to carry out post-doctoral research in basic and applied science areas including engineering, medicine, agriculture and  veterinary  sciences.  It  aims  at  the  following:  (1)  to  provide  attractive opportunities to young achievers for developing independent scientific profiles; (2)  to  provide  them opportunities for independent research, so that they are able to effectively compete for long-term positions that become available in various academic and research institutions of the country; (3) to augment the scientific manpower in academic and research institutions.

- (ii)  The  Disha  Progrmme  for  Women  in  Science  provides  opportunities to   women  scientists  and  technologists  in  science  and  technology  domain especially those who had break in their career.
- (iii)  Department  of  Scientific  &  Industrial  Research  (DSIR)  operates  a  DBT Scheme  called  PRISM  (Promoting  Innovations  in  Individuals,  Start-ups  and MSMEs). Under the scheme,  financial assistance is extended to independent innovators to convert their innovative ideas into working models/prototypes/processes.   An  amount  of  INR  20.00  lakh  (Rupees  twenty lakh) is given for Proof of Concept  (PoC) in Phase  I. On  successful demonstration of PoC in Phase I, an amount of INR 50.00 lakh is   provided to successful PRISM innovators for scaling of PoC ideas into marketable products for  pre-commercial  seeding  subject  to  condition  that  innovators  bring  an equivalent amount from Commercial Banks/Venture Capitalist.

(iv) In the year 1983, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) started the National Eligibility Test (NET) for award of Junior Research Fellowship and

the  JRF-NET  is  one  of  the  biggest  platform  for  awarding  highest  number  of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF)-NET in the area of basic sciences. At present, CSIR has been supporting about 8500 research fellows in about 700 institutes across the country. The biggest beneficiary of the CSIR fellowship programme is the University system and the national laboratories.

- (v) Department of Biotechnology- Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) is providing fellowships  to  biotechnology  students  for  pursuing  doctoral  research  in universities and / or research institutions in the country. The candidates are selected through "Biotechnology Eligibility Test (BET)". Based on the performance in BET, two categories of merit lists are prepared (Category-I and Category-II). Candidates  selected  under  Category-I  are  eligible to avail fellowship under the program in any University/Institute in India, where   selected candidate registers for PhD Programme. Top 275 students in BET are selected under Category-I. Candidates selected under Category-II are eligible to be appointed in any DBT sponsored project and avail fellowship from the project equivalent to NET/GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering), subject to selection through institutional selection process.
- (vi)  Department  of  Biotechnology-  Research  Associateship  (RA)  Programme: DBT Research Associateship programme was started in the year 2001 for postdoctoral research in frontier areas of Biotechnology and allied areas at premier institutions across the country. The fellowship is initially awarded for a period of  two years and support can be extended for 1-2 years based on review of progress.  The  objective  of  DBT-RA  program  is  to  train  and  nurture  young scientists and generate critical mass of trained manpower in modern areas of biology and biotechnology.
- (b)  No transaction cost was paid by the Ministry for any of the DBT schemes since their inception.
- (c)  No payment was made to the National Payments Corporation of India for Direct Benefit Transfer transactions, so far.
- (d) Since no payment was made, question of recovery of excess payment does not arise.
- (e) Since no lapses occurred, question of any corrective step does not arise.

*****