Igniting Passion To Solve India's Unsolved Problems

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology & Earth Sciences, speaks to Careeers360’s Editor-in-Chief Mahesh Sarma on the innovative schemes undertaken by his ministry to foster passion for science…

- Mahesh Sarma

Q. Department of Science & Technology (DST) has one of the finest scholarships, Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), which starts from the sixth standard. What has been its success rate, given that you have got amazing numbers there?

A. Yes, the programme has been very successful. Lakhs of students have been helped through it. If we take a look at some decades back, the thrust on science stream among the students was diminishing as there was not enough push for the subject. However, we are seeing a renewed passion for science and I am proud to say that we have significantly contributed to this by supporting science as a subject, facilitating infrastructural improvements, including teaching, laboratories and state-of-theart equipment, and supporting students through financial aids, at not only school level but also at graduation, post-graduation, doctoral and postdoctoral levels. Over the last couple of years, more than 10 lakh students have been helped and over 50,000 scholarships at post-doctoral level have been provided under INSPIRE.

Q. Could you share information about other programmes being run by DST to further the cause of science among students...

A. We are helping students through many other programmes, like ‘Jigyasa’. By moving away from chalk and board method, through Jigyasa we are taking almost one lakh students to the state-of-theart CSIR laboratories where they witness science from very close quarters. They see an atomic clock in the National Physical Laboratory, where they can see real atom and other principles of physics and chemistry coming to life. When I was a young student, I had access to these concepts only through books or teachers’ narratives. I believe that if I had access to all these laboratories and saw things from up-close, I probably would have preferred to become a scientist than a doctor.