CDS (I) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 13 of 120

Correct — A, had a break in their career due to family reasons. That is the defining feature of the programme rather than one of its incidental benefits. The Department of Science and Technology describes KIRAN as aimed at women scientists and technologists between the ages of 27 and 57 who had a break in their career, primarily on account of family responsibilities, and who wish to return to the mainstream. The design follows from the diagnosis. Indian women enter science degrees in large numbers and thin out sharply in research careers, and the point at which most drop away is marriage, childbirth and caregiving. A scheme built for that problem cannot be a field-specific research grant, because the barrier is not the subject; it has to be an age-relaxed re-entry route with a fellowship attached, which is what the Women Scientist Scheme provides in its three streams — one for research, one for technology development, and one for training in intellectual property rights and patent work.

• (b)are pursuing innovative research in life sciences. — Narrows the programme to a single discipline, which it never was. The fellowships are open across science and engineering, and the first stream is defined by the applicant's career history rather than by her subject.
• (c)have collaborative projects with labs in foreign countries. — Describes an international-collaboration programme, which is a different instrument. The women's schemes are principally about re-entry into Indian research and training institutions, not about partnerships abroad.
• (d)have leading edge projects in Nano-Science and Technology. — Nano-science has its own dedicated mission in India, and pointing a re-entry scheme at a single frontier field would defeat its purpose. The candidates KIRAN is built for are typically returning after years away from the bench, not arriving with a leading-edge project already running.

KIRAN gathers the Department of Science and Technology's work on women in science under one roof. Its best-known components are the Women Scientist Scheme in three streams — research, technology development for society, and training in intellectual property rights, which has produced a body of women patent professionals — together with institutional support for women's universities through the CURIE programme and Women Technology Parks. Fellowship support runs by category, and the age band of 27 to 57 is deliberately wide because the whole point is to accommodate people who have been away.

Full forms of Indian scheme acronyms rarely tell you what the scheme does, and this one is a good example — nothing in 'Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing' announces a career break. The way to answer is to remember which problem each programme was set up against. Three of the options here describe research-funding criteria of the ordinary kind and only one describes a person's circumstances, which is the signature of a re-entry scheme. Bringing this up to date matters for the same reason: as of the 2021 exam KIRAN was the umbrella name, but the Department has since restructured this work as WISE-KIRAN, standing for Women in Science and Engineering, under which the fellowships now run with names such as WISE-PhD, WISE-PDF, WISE-SCOPE and WISE-IPR, alongside CURIE, Vigyan Jyoti and GATI. The purpose is unchanged; the labels a candidate meets today are not the ones on this paper.

• KIRAN targets women scientists and technologists aged 27 to 57 who had a break in career, primarily due to family responsibilities.
• Its fellowship streams are the Women Scientist Scheme A for research, B for technology development, and C for training in intellectual property rights.
• Institutional support comes through CURIE, for research infrastructure in women's universities, and through Women Technology Parks.
• It is run by the Department of Science and Technology, not by a single research council.
• The programme has since been restructured as WISE-KIRAN, Women in Science and Engineering, with components including WISE-PhD, WISE-PDF, WISE-SCOPE, WISE-IPR, CURIE, Vigyan Jyoti and GATI.

• Trying to read the purpose of a scheme out of its acronym; the full form here says nothing about career breaks.
• Assuming any women-in-science programme must be a research grant in a named field.
• Quoting the 2021 component names as current when the programme now runs as WISE-KIRAN.

As an identify-the-scheme item on its target group, or as a match-the-following pairing science schemes with the ministries and departments that run them.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The CURIE programme of the Department of Science and Technology is meant to

  • (a)fund individual fellowships for women returning to research after a break
  • (b)strengthen research infrastructure in women's universities
  • (c)send Indian women scientists to laboratories abroad
  • (d)provide scholarships to girls in senior secondary science classes

  Answer(b) strengthen research infrastructure in women's universities — CURIE is the institutional arm of the programme, distinct from the individual Women Scientist fellowships.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Women Scientist Scheme stream that trains participants in intellectual property rights and patent practice is

  • (a)WOS-A
  • (b)WOS-B
  • (c)WOS-C
  • (d)CURIE

  Answer(c) WOS-C — it opens a patent-professional career route, while WOS-A funds research and WOS-B supports technology development for societal problems.