The Steel & Mines Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar announced the winners of the National Geoscience Awards – 2013 in New Delhi today. Congratulating the winners, he said, it is indeed a great pleasure for me to honouring renowned geoscientists in India who have made considerable achievements in this field.

Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said, Ministry of Mines confers the National Geoscience Awards for honouring and recognising individuals and teams of scientists for their extraordinary achievements, outstanding contributions in the field of fundamental or applied geosciences, mining and allied areas at the National Level every year. The National Geoscience Award for Excellence carries an award money of Rs 5,00,000/-, National Geoscience Awards carry an award money of Rs.2,00,000/- each and the award money for Young Researcher Award is Rs. 50,000/- The award includes award money, a certificate, a trophy and a citation.

The National Geoscience Awards-2013 presentation ceremony will be held at Cultural Center, Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi on 6^th April 2015. Shri Pranab Mukherjee, President of India will be conferring the awards in the presence of Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Steel & Mines, Shri Vishnu Deo Sai, Minister of State for Steel & Mines, Secretary Mines & Chairman, Award Making Authority, Dr. Anup K Pujari, senior officials and Heads of organizations related to geoscientific fields.

For the year 2013, twenty three geoscientists are being given the awards in eight fields covering five awards for Mineral Discovery and Exploration field, five awards for Coal, Lignite and Coal Bed Methane Discovery and Exploration field, three awards for Groundwater Exploration field, two awards for Mining Technology field, two awards for Geo-Environmental studies and one award each for Mineral Beneficiation field, Sustainable Mineral Development field, Basic Geosciences field, Ocean Development field and Geo-Information System field. Dr. Indra Bir Singh, a 72 year Professor from Lucknow University is being conferred with Award of Excellence for outstanding contributions made by him in the field of Sedimentary Geology. 

National Geoscience Awards

The National Geoscience Awards are the prestigious awards in the field of geosciences in the country. Earlier known as National Mineral Awards, these were instituted in the year 1966 by the Ministry of Mines, Government of India. In the year 2009, these were rechristened as National Geoscience Awards (NGA) and their scope was expanded. The objective of these awards is to honor individuals and teams of scientists for their extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions in the field of fundamental / applied geosciences, mining and allied areas to provide incentive for striving towards excellence. Any citizen of India who is a professionally qualified geoscientist / engineer / technologist / academician with significant contribution in any field of earth sciences is eligible for the award. The awards are conferred on persons/teams who, in the opinion of the Award Making Authority, have made outstanding contributions in the particular field of their endeavor with due consideration to the totality of the achievements of the nominee(s).

Nominations are invited annually for NGA under three categories viz. Award for Excellence (one no.), National Geoscience Awards (19 nos. in 16 fields) and Young Researcher Award (one no.).  The Award for Excellence is conferred on an outstanding geoscientist / engineer / technologist / academician with an exceptionally high lifetime achievement for a sustained and significant contribution in any of the 16 disciplines. The National Geoscience Awards are given to persons/teams in recognition of their meritorious contribution in any of the 16 disciplines.

The selection of the awardees is a three tier process involving screening by expert committees at two levels and the final selection by the Award Making Authority, chaired by the Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Mines.

Till date i.e. NGA-2012, 698 geoscientists have been conferred with the National Geoscience Awards.

The list of the awardees of National Geoscience Awards – 2013:

YSKataria/NGA