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The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is revamping a popular outreach programme, conceived to hook children early on to science and research, and tweaking it to reflect a thrust on technology and exposing children to the “innovation cycle.”

The INSPIRE Awards (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research), as they are now called, will be rechristened MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) from this year. Since the scheme’s inception in 2010, around 13.85 lakh students have been funded according to the INSPIRE website. This, according to officials, is a “reformulation” of the existing programme and reflects a thrust on original ideas, which aim to use technology to solve problems, rather than merely display a clever idea for an exhibition. This year, if all goes to plan, 60 of the best ideas would be worked upon by professional engineers and designers and taken up for potential commercial development with intellectual property rights for the children. The DST is also concerned that too many children — goaded by competitive parents and schools — weren’t being creative enough and relying on readymade exhibits.

To address that, it will employ the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) — the Gujarat-based organisation that specialises in scouting for rural innovators — to winnow ideas that weren’t original.

“We are not looking for high technology,” said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, “We just want to recognise the spark in the idea… cultivate independent thinking and recognising problems from surroundings and suggesting solutions.”

The existing INSPIRE Awards programme, according to Mr. Sharma, emphasised science-fair models rather than take students through the innovation chain. Science fairs organised in schools, he rued, have spawned an industry of its own, like “coaching classes.” The NIF would use its database to ensure that recycled ideas were largely eliminated and original ones emerge. “It doesn’t have to look attractive or require professional help. [The NIF] will have an army of people to assess this,” he added, “So it’s a re-incarnation of INSPIRE.”

The INSPIRE Awards are part of a larger INSPIRE programme, initiated by the previous government in 2010 to attract — and retain — talented students, collegians and doctorates to careers in science via scholarships and early-career support.