VISITOR’S AWARDS, 2021

BACKGROUND

The President of India, in his capacity as Visitor of the Central Universities, annually confers Visitor’s Awards to promote healthy competition amongst Central Universities and motivate them to adopt best practices from around the world in pursuit of excellence. The process of Visitor’s Awards are governed by Gazette Notification No. 253 dated 24 October, 2014 and its subsequent amendments

2. Presently, the Visitor’s Awards is categorised in the following categories and sub-categories as per amendments issued vide Gazette Notifications No. 11 dated 05 January, 2018 and No. 335 dated 12 October, 2018:

Sl.No.	Title of the Award	Details
1.	Visitor’s Award for Innovation	Citation and cash reward will be presented to the winning entry. The total value of the cash reward will be Rupees Two and Half Lakhs. If there are two or more recipients, the cash reward will be shared equally between them, subject to the condition that, each awardee will receive a minimum of Rupees One Lakh.
2(A).	Visitor’s Award for Research (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences)	-do-
2(B).	Visitor’s Award for Research (Physical Sciences)	-do-
2(C).	Visitor’s Award for Research (Biological Sciences)	-do-
3.	Visitor’s Award for Technology Development	-do-

3. According to the Notification dated 05 January, 2018 (as stated above), the Selection Committee for the Visitor’s Awards, 2021 shall constitute of the following persons, in which five persons of eminence are nominated by the President and names of two special invitees are approved by the Secretary to the President:

S.No.	Nomenclature of the ex-officio post
i)	Secretary to the President – Chairperson
ii)	Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education – Member
iii)	Secretary, Department of Science & Technology – Member
iv)	Secretary, Department of Biotechnology – Member
v)	Executive Vice-Chairman, National Innovation Foundation – Member
vi)	Director, IIT Delhi – Member
vii)	Professor, IISc.- Bangalore – Member
viii)	Five persons of eminence in the field of academics, research and other relevant fields to be nominated by the President – Member(s)
ix)	An Officer from the President’s Secretariat – Member Secretary
x)	Any other Special Invitee(s) as decided by Chairperson

APPLICATION PROCESS

4. Online applications are invited from all the Central Universities for each category of the awards. The Selection Committee goes through a rigorous procedure to select the finalists and recommends their names to the President of India, who is the Visitor of all Central Universities, for conferment of Visitor’s Awards. Once the President of India approves the recommendations of the Selection Committee, the names of the winners are announced and awards presented by the President of India in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

5. The President's Secretariat hereby commences the process for Seventh Visitor’s Awards. Eligible candidates, i.e., student and faculty (individual or group) from Central Universities are invited to submit their applications on or before 31st October, 2021.

Application may be submitted online by clicking the link given below

APPLICATIONS FOR THE VISITOR'S AWARDS, 2021

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