Lok Sabha Question No. 301 (STARRED), answered on 2015-12-21
Subject: National Talent Search Examination
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: NAGENDRA KUMAR PRADHAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 301

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 21.12.2015

## National Talent Search Examination

- *301. SHRI NAGENDRA KUMAR PRADHAN: Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government identifies and recognises students with high intellect and academic talent  and  provides  scholarships  under  the  National  Talent  Search  (NTS)  Scheme  in  the country; (b) if so, the details thereof and the salient features of the scheme along with the number of scholarships awarded under the scheme, for the last three years and the current year, State/UTwise; (c)  the  extent  to  which  the  Government  has  been  able  to  nurture  scientific  temper  amongst students, as a result of this scholarship scheme; (d) whether the Government has any proposal to set up Model Science Labs in the country and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise; and (e) the details of funds allocated, released and expenditure incurred on setting up of such labs
- during the above period, State/UT-wise?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (e)  A statement is laid on the table of the House.

****

STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  THE  LOK SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  301  ASKED  BY  SHRI  NAGENDRA  KUMAR PRADHAN  REGARDING  NATIONAL  TALENT  SEARCH  EXAMINATION,  DUE FOR ANSWER ON 21.12.2015.

(a)  &  (b)  Yes,  Madam.    The  National  Talent  Search  (NTS)  Scheme  is  a  prestigious  school level scholarship scheme, which aims at identification of talented students and awarding them scholarship to pursue their further studies and to nurture their talent.  The salient features of the scheme are as under:

-  Every year about 1000 scholarships are awarded.
-  Students  who  are  studying  in  Class  X in  any  recognized  school  in  the  country  are eligible to appear in the NTS examination.
-  Talented students are identified through two- tier examination process. NTS Stage-one is conducted by States and Union Territories, which is a screening exam. There is quota earmarked  for  all  the  States/  UTs.    The  state  quota  is  computed  on  the  basis  of  the student's enrolment at secondary level with a minimum of 10 for Union Territory and 25 for a State.
-  Only the students selected by the States/UTs on the basis of their screening examination are eligible to appear in the stage-II examination.
-  NTS  Stage  II  examination  is  conducted  by  the  National  Council  of  Educational Research & Training (NCERT)
-  There is a provision of reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates based on national norms of 15 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively. There is also provision of 3 percent reservation for physically challenged students.
-  .The scholarship is provided at the following rates from the year 2014-15 :

Scholarship of Rs. 1250/- per month for classes XI & XII.

Scholarship of Rs. 2000/- per month for under graduate and post graduate programmes.

Amount  of  scholarship  for  Ph.D  in  accordance  with  University  Grants  Commission (UGC)  norms.

-  The awardees studying Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Languages, Commerce, Vocational  Studies  and  Fine  Arts  are  eligible  to  receive  scholarship  upto  Ph.D.  level, whereas the awardees studying professional courses in medicine, engineering, technology,  management  and  law,  are  eligible  to  receive  the  scholarship  upto  second degree level.
-  In  order  to  nurture  the  talent  of  these  young  scholars  over  the  years,  NCERT,  in collaboration  with  institutes  of  high  repute  such  as  Indian  Institutes  of  Technology ( IITs), Indian Institutes of Science Education  and Research  (IISERs), National Institutes  of  Technology  (NITs),  Tata  Institute  of  Social  Sciences  (TISS),  Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Regional Institutes of Education (RIEs) conducts one-time nurturance programme (face to face mode) for awardees.  The nurturance programme mainly focuses on providing awareness and opportunities to the awardees to excel in the  academic  area  of  their  interest  by  way  of  exposing  them  to  different  areas  of knowledge.

The State/UT wise details of number of scholarships awarded under the Scheme for the last 3 years and the current year are at Annexure-I.

(c)        Though  development  of  scientific  temper  is  expected  to  be  indirect  outcome  of  this Scheme, the extent of the same has not been measured or quantified so far.

(d) The  Central  Government has  launched  the  Rashtriya  Avishkar  Abhiyan  (RAA),  a convergent  framework  across  Sarva  Shiksha  Abhiyan(SSA),  Rashtriya  Madhyamik  Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Higher Education, which aims to encourage children towards learning Science and Mathematics and to develop a sense of curiosity and interest in inside and outside classroom activities related to Science and Mathematics. One of the interventions under RAA is  strengthening  of  school  Science  and  Mathematics  laboratories.  The  RAA  framework provides for strengthening of School Science laboratories based on set standards.

(e) In 2015-16, under RMSA, Rs. 10826.57 lakh has been approved under the initiative for various  activities  including  training  of  science  and  mathematics  teachers,  organization  of science exhibitions at District, State and  National  level, special teaching  for learning enhancement, provision of Maths and Science kits and excursion trips to science museums etc. The State wise approval for Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan under RMSA is at Annexure- II.

*****

ANNEXURE-I STATE/UT  WISE  DETAILS  OF  NUMBER  OF  SCHOLARSHIPS  AWARDED UNDER THE SCHEME FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS AND THE CURRENT YEAR

| S. No   | State/UT             |   2012 | 2012 (Additional)   | 2013   |   2014 |   2015 (current year) |
|---------|----------------------|--------|---------------------|--------|--------|-----------------------|
| 1       | Arunachal Pradesh    |      2 | 0                   | 2      |      2 |                     0 |
| 2       | Assam                |      5 | 0                   | 9      |      7 |                     1 |
| 3       | Manipur              |      1 | 0                   | 1      |      1 |                     0 |
| 4       | Meghalaya            |      1 | 0                   | 2      |      0 |                     0 |
| 5       | Mizoram              |      1 | 0                   | 1      |      2 |                     0 |
| 6       | Nagaland             |      0 | 0                   | 0      |      0 |                     0 |
| 7       | Sikkim               |      0 | 0                   | 0      |      0 |                     0 |
| 8       | Tripura              |      4 | 0                   | 2      |      2 |                     1 |
| 9       | Andaman &Nicobar Is. |      0 | 0                   | 0      |      1 |                     0 |
| 10      | Bihar                |     28 | 2                   | 36     |     30 |                    11 |
| 11      | Jharkhand            |     18 | 4                   | 26     |     13 |                    23 |
| 12      | Odisha               |     49 | 3                   | 30     |     45 |                    46 |
| 13      | West Bengal          |     20 | 3                   | 22     |     15 |                    22 |
| 14      | Chandigarh           |      7 | 1                   | 9      |      8 |                    11 |
| 15      | Delhi                |     42 | 2                   | 40     |     35 |                    52 |
| 16      | Jammu &Kashmir       |      0 | 1                   | 3      |      4 |                     0 |
| 17      | Haryana              |     47 | 3                   | 32     |     44 |                    42 |
| 18      | Himachal Pradesh     |      3 | 1                   | 4      |      9 |                     6 |
| 19      | Punjab               |     38 | 5                   | 46     |     30 |                    36 |
| 20      | Rajasthan            |    118 | 6                   | 126    |     88 |                   137 |
| 21      | Uttar Pradesh        |     59 | 13                  | 99     |     87 |                    72 |
| 22      | Uttarakhand          |      6 | 1                   | 7      |      2 |                    10 |
| 23      | Chhattisgarh         |     20 | 1                   | 31     |     18 |                    18 |
| 24      | Daman &Diu           |      0 | 0                   | 0      |      0 |                     0 |
| 25      | Dadra &Nagar Haveli  |      0 | 0                   | 0      |      0 |                     0 |
| 26      | Goa                  |      3 | 0                   | 3      |      5 |                     0 |
| 27      | Gujarat              |     33 | 3                   | 3      |      8 |                    21 |
| 28      | Madhya Pradesh       |     36 | 2                   | 91     |     66 |                    57 |
| 29      | Maharashtra          |    174 | 3                   | 126    |    112 |                   103 |
| 30      | Andhra Pradesh       |    141 | 11                  | 109    |     48 |                    12 |
| 31      | Karnataka            |     77 | 4                   | 64     |     76 |                    66 |
| 32      | Kerala               |     28 | 2                   | 36     |     45 |                    32 |
| 33      | Lakshadweep          |      0 | 0                   | 0      |      0 |                     0 |
| 34      | Puducherry           |      1 | 0                   | 3      |      0 |                     0 |
| 35      | Tamil Nadu           |     37 | 2                   | 76     |     41 |                    39 |
| 36      | Telengana            |      0 |                     | 0      |      0 |                    37 |
| 37      | Abroad               |      1 |                     | 1      |      0 |                     2 |
|         | Total                |   1000 | 73#                 | 1040*  |    844 |                   857 |

ANNEXURE-II

BUDGET APPROVED FOR FOCUS ON SCIENCE AND MATHS UNDER RMSA DURING 2015-16

|   S. No. | States/Uts               |   Budget approved (Rs. in Lakh) |
|----------|--------------------------|---------------------------------|
|        1 | ANDAMAN &NICOBAR ISLANDS |                           24.76 |
|        2 | ANDHRA PRADESH           |                          488.69 |
|        3 | ARUNACHAL PRADESH        |                           58.36 |
|        4 | ASSAM                    |                         1933.45 |
|        5 | BIHAR                    |                          681.43 |
|        6 | CHANDIGARH               |                            0    |
|        7 | CHHATTISGARH             |                          600.93 |
|        8 | DADRA &NAGARHAVELI       |                            7.4  |
|        9 | DAMAN&DIU                |                            7.26 |
|       10 | DELHI                    |                          106.68 |
|       11 | GOA                      |                           67.16 |
|       12 | GUJARAT                  |                          245.52 |
|       13 | HARYANA                  |                           58.32 |
|       14 | HIMACHAL PRADESH         |                          145.27 |
|       15 | JAMMU &KASHMIR           |                          206.2  |
|       16 | JHARKHAND                |                          343.97 |
|       17 | KARNATAKA                |                            3.75 |
|       18 | KERALA                   |                          386.06 |
|       19 | LAKSHADWEEP              |                            5.28 |
|       20 | MADHYA PRADESH           |                          323.3  |
|       21 | MAHARASHTRA              |                          896.2  |
|       22 | MANIPUR                  |                           95.31 |
|       23 | MEGHALAYA                |                           52.14 |
|       24 | MIZORAM                  |                           51.82 |
|       25 | NAGALAND                 |                            9.06 |
|       26 | ORISSA                   |                          136.32 |
|       27 | PUDUCHERRY               |                           40.2  |
|       28 | PUNJAB                   |                          291.94 |
|       29 | RAJASTHAN                |                          974.69 |
|       30 | SIKKIM                   |                           23.44 |
|       31 | TAMIL NADU               |                         1553.82 |
|       32 | TELANGANA                |                            0    |
|       33 | TRIPURA                  |                          280.81 |
|       34 | UTTAR PRADESH            |                          316.95 |
|       35 | UTTRAKHAND               |                          150.04 |
|       36 | WEST BENGAL              |                          260.04 |