“Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge” (MANAK), a scheme under the flagship programme, Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), caters to:

Correct — D, The school children studying in classes 6 – 10 in the age group of 10 – 15 years. INSPIRE Awards MANAK is run by the Department of Science and Technology together with the National Innovation Foundation – India, an autonomous body of that department, and it targets school children of classes 6 to 10 in the 10-15 age bracket. The mechanism explains the target group. Teachers nominate original ideas from their students; about ten lakh ideas a year are sought from more than five lakh middle and high schools; roughly one lakh are shortlisted, and each shortlisted student receives Rs 10,000 by direct benefit transfer to build a prototype, which then goes forward to district and state exhibitions and a national fair. The expansion of the acronym gives it away too — a Million Minds is a school-scale number, not a laboratory-scale one. The wrong options are not invented; each describes a different part of INSPIRE, which runs as a ladder from school to faculty.

• (a)The college students studying in the undergraduate programme in the age group of 19–25 years. — That is the Scholarship for Higher Education, the SHE component, which supports undergraduate and postgraduate students of the natural and basic sciences. A different rung of the same ladder.
• (b)The research scholars in recognized research laboratories of national importance. — That is the INSPIRE Fellowship for doctoral research and the Faculty Fellowship for young researchers, not MANAK.
• (c)The college teachers of the country. — No INSPIRE component targets college teachers as such; the nearest is the Faculty Fellowship, which supports young researchers taking up academic positions, and it is not MANAK.

INSPIRE — Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research — is the Department of Science and Technology's programme for drawing talent into science, and it is built as a ladder by age. MANAK works at school level, classes 6 to 10, rewarding original ideas with a prototype grant. The Scholarship for Higher Education supports undergraduate and postgraduate study in the basic sciences. The Fellowship supports doctoral research, and the Faculty Fellowship young researchers entering academic positions. MANAK is delivered with the National Innovation Foundation, whose own mandate is scouting grassroots innovation.

Read the acronym before reading the options. Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge describes a scheme meant to reach a very large number of people, which fits schools and not national laboratories. The wrong options are constructed by moving one rung up the INSPIRE ladder each time, which is why they feel plausible: undergraduate scholarship, doctoral fellowship, faculty. Learn the four components together and the item collapses. The choice of partner is also informative — the National Innovation Foundation exists to find and support innovation that comes from outside formal research systems, and a school-children's idea competition is exactly the kind of thing it was set up to run.

• MANAK stands for Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge.
• It targets school children of classes 6 to 10 in the age group 10-15 years.
• It is executed by the Department of Science and Technology with the National Innovation Foundation – India, an autonomous DST body.
• Each shortlisted student receives Rs 10,000 by direct benefit transfer to build a prototype.
• The scheme seeks about ten lakh ideas a year from more than five lakh middle and high schools, shortlisting about one lakh.
• INSPIRE's other components are the Scholarship for Higher Education (undergraduate and postgraduate), the INSPIRE Fellowship (doctoral) and the Faculty Fellowship.

• Assuming a scheme with 'research' in its parent programme's name must be aimed at researchers.
• Confusing MANAK with the Atal Tinkering Labs, which are also school-level but run under NITI Aayog.
• Attributing MANAK to the Ministry of Education; it belongs to the Department of Science and Technology.

As a target-group item like this one, or as an acronym expansion, or by asking which body executes the scheme along with DST.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The National Innovation Foundation – India, which executes the INSPIRE Awards MANAK scheme along with DST, is best described as

  • (a)A statutory regulator for patents
  • (b)An autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology that scouts grassroots innovation
  • (c)A public sector undertaking manufacturing scientific instruments
  • (d)A wing of the Ministry of Education overseeing school science fairs

  Answer(b) An autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology that scouts grassroots innovation — its mandate is to find and support innovation arising outside formal research institutions.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under INSPIRE, the Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) component is meant for

  • (a)School children of classes 6 to 10
  • (b)Undergraduate and postgraduate students of the basic and natural sciences
  • (c)Doctoral research scholars only
  • (d)Serving college teachers

  Answer(b) Undergraduate and postgraduate students of the basic and natural sciences — SHE is the rung of the INSPIRE ladder above MANAK.