Purpose, Eligibility, Nature & Method of Visitor’s Awards are given to promote healthy competition amongst Faculties/Students

F. No. 20-01/2023-CU.Cdn.—In pursuance of President Secretariat’s Notification No.73-Pres/2023 dated 23rd May, 2023, transferring the subject matter relating to Visitors Awards to this Ministry, it is hereby notified that the Visitor’s Awards are given to promote healthy competition amongst Faculties/Students of the Central Universities and motivate them to adopt best practices from around the world in the pursuit of excellence. Awards are given in the following categories:

Sl. No.	Title of the Award	Area/Fields of Awards
1.	Visitor’s Award for Innovation	For unique innovation developed and displayed by individual or group of the Central Universities during the year
2(A).	Visitor’s Award for Research (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences)	For path-breaking research carried out by individual or group of the Central Universities during the year
2(B).	Visitor’s Award for Research (Physical Sciences)
2(C).	Visitor’s Award for Research (Biological Sciences)
3.	Visitor’s Award for Technology Development	For technology developed by individual or group of the Central Universities during the year.

• Citation
• Cash Rewards

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 subject to the condition that, each awardee will receive a minimum of Rupees One Lakh.

To encourage excellence through competition. These awards would help to promote healthy competition amongst Faculties/Students of the Central Universities and motivate them to adopt best practices from around the world in the pursuit of excellence.

All faculty members and students of all the Central Universities will be eligible for the Visitor’s Awards.

There will be only one award in each category/sub category and these Awards will be given annually.

A panel of awardees would be prepared by a Selection Committee for final selection by the President, in the capacity as Visitor of Central University. The Committee will have the following composition :

• Secretary, Department of Higher Education – Chairperson
• Secretary, Department of Science & Technology – Member
• Secretary, Department of Biotechnology – Member
• Director, IIT Delhi – Member
• Director or Professor to be nominated by the Director, IISc, Bangalore – Member
• Executive Vice Chairman, National Innovation Foundation – Member
• Five Persons of Eminence in the field of Academics, Research and other relevant fields to be nominated by Hon’ble Minister of Education – Members
• Joint Secretary, Department of Higher Education (Handling Central Universities) – Member Secretary
• Any other special invitee (s) as decided by Chairperson.

The selection committee will invite online nominations in the prescribed formats in the web portal. The selection committee will devise its own procedure to select the awardees, which will be put in the relevant portal.

The committee shall form screening committee (s) for the purpose of shortlisting the nominations received and which shall submit their recommendations to the Selection Committee. The screening committee shall consist of experts from the relevant field as mentioned in the para 1 above, other than the members of Selection Committee.

The awards shall be presented by the President of India at the time of Annual Conference of the Vice Chancellors of Central Universities or in Visitor’s Conference held annually.

The names of the recipients of awards will be displayed on the web portal and also published in the Official Gazette.

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