200 awards to scientists rationalised to avoid duplicity, bring transparency: Govt

The Centre has rationalised 200 awards to scientists to avoid duplicity and bring transparency and the move may not have any significant impact on the morale of the scientific community, Union Science and Technology minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, some of these awards were processed by different agencies through inadequate guidelines, arbitrary eligibility, evaluation and selection criteria.

The department of Science and Technology had rationalised nearly 200 awards in a bid to avoid duplicity and bring greater objectives, transparency and efficiency, he said.

Singh said during the analysis of the award guidelines, secondary research and best practices, it was observed that the awarding process followed for different awards lacked standardization and were not making a desired impact on society as well as the science and technology ecosystem.

There may not be any significant impact on the morale of the scientific community. Rather, the rationalization of the awards with greater transparency, objectives, efficiency and through enhancing the stature of the existing awards, would boost the morale of the scientific community, he said.