New Delhi, 23rd Oct 2012 (Bharat Sandesh Bureau):– The Second National-Level Exhibition and Project Competitions (NLEPC) under the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) Award Scheme concluded with the national awards presentation ceremony today. Punjab’s entry by Sahil from Amritsar came up with a mobile-operated wireless switch, using which an appliance can be switched on or off with a missed call
Bihar bagged the first prize, Maharashtra second, and Punjab and Chhattisgarh joint third in the competitions. Alok Kumar Sharma, a class-X student from Bihar, won the gold medal and a cash prize of Rs 20,000 for a project on preservation of soil moisture to facilitate agriculture in hilly areas. Alok’s concept involved covering wet soil with a thick layer of fodder to preserve the moisture in soil, which would turn into high quality manure by next year with a balanced pH level.
Viraj Dinesh Gapchop of Maharashtra received the silver medal with a cash prize of Rs 10,000, while Sahil Divedi from Punjab and Arun TA from Kerala won the bronze medal and a cash prize of Rs 5,000 each.
Sahil from Amritsar said: “I have come up with a mobile-operated wireless switch. You can connect any appliance, big or small, to the shoe of the switch and turn it off or on with just a missed call. This way, one can jumpstart a water motor in the fields of Punjab while sitting in Delhi using a mobile phone.”
In all, 13 entries were received from Punjab, 22 from Haryana, five from Chandigarh, 20 from Himachal Pradesh and 16 from Jammu and Kashmir. The 1,138 INSPIRE finalists displayed some of the finest ideas like safety measures for a nuclear reactor to avoid nuclear explosions like the one in Fukushima, Japan, a concept of extracting biofuel from algae and residential architecture that would implement zero energy concept.
The participants took home a cash prize of Rs 2,500 this time. Last year, 788 entries had made it to the finals. A total of 3.1 lakh entries at district level were received by INSPIRE. Organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology, INSPIRE is a national programme that aims at attracting students with talent in science and research.
Union Minister for Science and Technology Vayalar Ravi said: “The government plans to introduce a New Science and Technology Policy by 2013 which will focus on building the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding science and technology, and research and development base in the country.”
