DST Collaborates with IBM to Foster STEM Education & Careers for Girls

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has joined hands with the leading tech giant IBM with the aim to foster a robust STEM ecosystem that encourages critical thinkers, problem solvers and the innovators of the upcoming generation. As DST collaborates with IBM, the program has been named Inspire Awards- MANAK (Million Minds of Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) and has the core objective to build 1 million ideas from the domain of science provided by the school students. Behind such endeavours, the main purpose of the partnership between DST and IBM India is to integrate Science and Technology in basic education by launching short term courses, online classes, workshops for the students in India.

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Owing to the collaboration, DST and IBM India have announced the launch of two programs that aims to propagate learning in STEM. Promoting the youth towards pursuing a career in STEM, the first program is DST’s Vigyan Jyoti programme that is exclusively for the meritorious girl students from classes 9th to 12th so that they can pursue their higher education in STEM. Along with this, the second collaboration is with the organisation Vigyan Prasar which is a part of DST. The scheme would include ‘Engage With Science‘, a technology-oriented engaging platform that will work in association with India science OTT channel. 

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Initially, the Vigyan Jyoti program was launched in the year 2019 by DST to promote girl-child education in the STEM field, thus, it avails scholarship, science camps, visit to local science institutions, career counselling as well as lectures from prominent female scientists. Currently, in 58 districts the program has been implemented by Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, in which around 2900 students have participated. By the coming years, the program aspires to spread its roots across various districts and cities by including more students and schools. 

As DST collaborates with IBM, it has been announced that the female Tech experts of IBM India will have special inspirational and interactive sessions with girls students in which day will be enlightened with perks and benefits of pursuing a career in STEM. Adding to this, Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India mentioned, “This partnership will leverage technology to reach out to students and give them an experience of interactive learning. The new learning platform will supplement classroom teaching and help students in deriving insights from it and implementing them to solve real-world problems. It will also help address the learning needs of both students and teachers in this post-COVID-19 scenario. The programs will also give an opportunity for rural students to help understand and plan their journey from school to college, do research and build a career of choice in the field of science and technology.” 

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In the alternate collaboration with Vigyan Prasar, IBM will launch interactive day to day activities including seminars and workshops by experts of the field for the students on the India Science OTT. The venture seems to be the platform where students can interact, participate and get involved in various sampling content including big data, cloud, etc. along with the usage of AI/ML components and gamification tools. 

As DST collaborates with IBM, the news is surely great for girl students venturing into STEM studies as they can avail better educational and professional opportunities with this glorious partnership! Stay tuned to Leverage Edu as we bring you educational news from around the world and until then, check out our exclusive blogs on courses, careers & more!