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The INSPIRE programme of the Department of Science and Technology nurtures scientific talent through four components spanning school to postdoctoral stages.
INSPIRE MANAK promotes innovation among students aged 10 to 17, in Classes VI to XII.
INSPIRE Scholarship for Higher Education awards 12,000 scholarships annually of Rs 80,000 per year each, to students aged 17 to 22 in natural and basic sciences.
INSPIRE Fellowship supports full-time PhD for up to five years at Rs 37,000 per month as Junior Research Fellow and Rs 42,000 as Senior Research Fellow.
INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship supports postdoctoral researchers generally aged 27 to 32 with Rs 1,25,000 per month and a Rs 35 lakh research grant over five years.
The attrition problem in science careers is not concentrated at one point; it occurs at every transition. A curious fourteen-year-old may never see science as a career; a bright science graduate may leave for engineering or management because basic science pays nothing early on; a PhD student may abandon research for want of a stipend that supports a family; and a fresh postdoctoral researcher may leave the country because no independent position exists in India at that stage. INSPIRE is designed as a pipeline addressing each of those transitions in turn rather than as a single scholarship. MANAK catches interest at school age by asking students to develop original ideas rather than reproduce syllabus content. SHE makes choosing natural and basic sciences at undergraduate level financially viable against the pull of professional courses. The Fellowship funds the doctorate at rates that make full-time research a livelihood. And the Faculty Fellowship addresses the hardest gap of all - the postdoctoral stage, where a researcher is too senior to be a student and too junior for a permanent faculty post - by providing five years of salary plus an independent research grant of Rs 35 lakh, which lets a young scientist run their own line of work rather than serve someone else's.
Simple Analogy: Building a scientist is a relay, and INSPIRE puts a runner at each handover rather than betting everything on one leg.
GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology: Research Ecosystem; GS Paper 2 > Education
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Science
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Science talent schemes and research fellowships appear regularly in SSC general awareness and occasionally in UPSC Prelims.
Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research - the Department of Science and Technology's talent programme with four components.
Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge - the school-level component for students aged 10-17.
Scholarship for Higher Education - 12,000 scholarships annually at Rs 80,000 per year for natural and basic sciences.
Junior and Senior Research Fellow - the two stages of doctoral fellowship, at Rs 37,000 and Rs 42,000 per month respectively.
Five-year postdoctoral support at Rs 1,25,000 per month with a Rs 35 lakh research grant.