Government hikes prize money for National Science Drama fest winners

NEW DELHI: To encourage students participation, the Government today said that the prize money at various levels of annual National Science Drama Festival would be hiked substantially, with the national-level winners getting Rs five lakh as against Rs 10,000 awarded at present.

At the zonal level the prize money would be hiked to Rs one lakh from the present Rs 6,000 to the winning team and it will be hiked to Rs five lakh at the national level from the current level of Rs 10,000, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said.

Interacting with students at the National Science Drama Festival held here, Irani said her Ministry would also launch the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan from the coming academic session to encourage inventions and inculcate interest in students in the subjects of Science and Mathematics.

"The learning outcome in class VIII level is dropping and is at about 30 per cent at present. I want to encourage more and more students to inculcate a passion for Science and Maths to raise the level of learning outcome," she said.

In this respect, she hoped for support from the Ministry of Culture which organises the festival.