National Technology Day

Every year, May 11 is commemorated as the National Technology Day.

Background

It was on 11th May 1998, that India had a prideful accomplishment of successfully conducting Nuclear Missile Test at Indian Army’s Pokhran range. It’s after this 1998 monumental event that our Former Prime Minister of India, Late Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared India a full Nuclear Country. Since 1999, 11th May is being observed as National Technology Day, with an aim to commemorate the achievements of scientists, researchers, engineers and all others involved in the field of science and technology. 

Ministry of Science & Technology is the anchoring entity for the celebrations in the country.

NTA 2024

This year, the National Technology Day would be celebrated on 11th May 2024 with the theme 'Promoting Clean and Green Technologies for a Sustainable Future'. The Rastriya  Vigyan Puraskar is announced on National Technology Day.

National Technology Awards

To celebrate this special day, the Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India by the virtue of its mandate, honours technological innovations that have helped in the national growth under the aegis of ‘National Technology Award’ from the year 1999. The second category for SSI units was introduced in 2000, which was later renamed as ‘MSME’ category. Further, in order to recognize and reward the remarkable work done by startup incubator, DST instituted ‘Technology Business Incubator’ category in 2004. From 2017 onwards, the ‘start-up’ category has been introduced to encourage & promote technologies developed by start-ups having potential for commercialization. Similarly, from 2021 onwards a new category for ‘Translational Research’ in Science and Technology has been introduced by TDB. 

For the year 2024, TDB has invited applications for National Technology Awards (“Rastriya  Vigyan Puraskar”) under four categories in the  field of Science, Technology and Innovation. The National Award recognizes outstanding and inspiring scientific, technological and innovation contributions of  researchers, technologist and innovators.

The Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar shall be given in the following 13 domains, namely: Physics, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Mathematics & Computer Science, Earth Science, Medicine, Engineering Sciences, Agricultural Science, Environmental Science, Technology & Innovation, Atomic Energy, Space Science and Technology, and Others.

1. Vigyan Ratna (VR): Maximum of three awards to be bestowed to recognize life time achievements & contributions made in given field of Science and Technology.
2. Vigyan Shri (VS): Maximum of 25 awards to be given to recognize the distinguished contributions in given field of Science and Technology.
3. Vigyan Yuva: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (VY-SSB) award: Maximum of 25 awards to be given to recognize and encourage young scientists who made an exceptional contribution in given field of Science and Technology.
4. Vigyan Team (VT) award: Maximum of three awards may be awarded to a team comprising of three or more scientists/researchers/innovators who have made an exceptional contribution working in a team in given field of Science and Technology.

To view the list of awardees, click here.

Source : DST