The Union  Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Shri S. Jaipal Reddy today  conferred following Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India Awards in a function held here:

(i)             Dr. Jagdish Chandra Bose Hindi Granth Lekhan Puraskar

(ii)           Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA)

(iii)         National Bioscience Award for Career Development.

Speaking on the occasion the minister said scientific innovations needs to be translated for the benefit of society. He congratulated the young achievers for their prize wining zeal and expressed the hope that these awards will motivates the young scientists for further innovations.

A brief details of these Awards are:-

Dr. Jagdish Chandra Bose Hindi Granth Lekhan Puraskar Yojana

The Department instituted this award to promote the writing of books on Biotechnology in Hindi so the general public can acquire the knowledge on the subject and use of Hindi could be promoted.  Under this scheme awards are given to those writers who has originally written the books on Biotechnology in Hindi.  Under this scheme the first prize is of  Rs.1.00 lakh, the Second prize is Rs. 0.50 lakh and Rs. 0.25 lakh is third prize.  Two consolation prizes of  Rs.  0.10 lakh  each are also supported.  7 Awards of 2009 & 2010 were conferred to day.

Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA):

The 'Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award' (IYBA) has been instituted in the year 2005.  This is an attractive, career oriented scheme to identify and nurture outstanding young scientists with innovative ideas and desirous of pursuing research in frontier areas of biotechnology.  Young Scientists below 35 years are considered for this Award. The scientists without regular employment are also eligible for this award. These awardees will be paid a fellowship of Rs. 40,000/- per month with a grant- in -aid of Rs. 50.00 Lakhs for a period of 3 years which is common both for regular and non-regular awardees.  The awardees those are in regular positions will receive a cash award of Rs. 1.00 Lakh per annum for all the 3 years.  69 Awardees of the of the years from 2008-2012 were conferred on this day with a gold plated medal, a certificate and a citation.   All of them have already received budget and pursuing their Research Very effectively.

National Bioscience Award for Career Development :              

The Department of Biotechnology has instituted the National Bioscience Award for Career Development in 1999 to recognize outstanding contributions of young scientists below 45 years of age in basic and applied research in the areas of biosciences and biotechnology including agricultural, biomedical and environmental sciences with potential for application/product and technology development and to provide grant for research project for 3 years for their career development.  Each award carries a cash prize of ` 2.00 lakh and a project research grant of          Rs. 15.00 lakhs @ Rs. 5.00 lakhs per year for a period of 3 years, for career development.   49 Awardees of the of the years from 2008-2012 were conferred each  with a trophy, a certificate and a citation on this day. All of them have already received budget and pursuing their Research Very effectively.

Earlier Dr. K. Vijayraghawan, Secretary Deptt. of Biotechnology, Government of India gave a holistic account of the working of DBT.

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                      ST/-