KVPY exam: Why govt scrapped the aptitude test and merged it with INSPIRE fellowship?

The KVPY exam has been scrapped and will not be conducted from this year onwards. The DST had earlier announced that it has decided to club the aptitude test with INSPIRE fellowship.

With the scrapping of KVPY exam by the Department of Science and Technology, DST, students who were interested in science and research studies have been left in a lurch. It was announced last month by the DST that the KVPY exam will be clubbed with INSPIRE fellowship. "DST has decided to subsume KVPY with INSPIRE. KVPY Aptitude test will not be conducted from the year 2022 onwards. Ongoing KVPY fellows will continue to receive fellowship as per norms from DST,” stated the official notice issued by DST on the official website of KVPY.

The Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) was instituted in 1999 and it aimed at encouraging students to study basic and natural science subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and pursue research as a career by providing fellowships to interested and deserving students. The aptitude exam to select deserving students was conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and was followed by an interview. However, in 2020 and 2021, the fellowship was provided on the basis of just the aptitude test and no interviews were conducted owing to COVID-19 circumstances.

Also Read: KVPY Exam cancelled from 2022 onwards, DST to club KVPY with INSPIRE fellowship

As per officials, the scrapping of the aptitude test won't hamper the number of fellowships that were offered every year under KVYP,

According to sources, the DST used to offer anywhere between 250 to 300 KVYP fellowships each year and this number will be protected even though the scheme has been merged with the INSPIRE programme. “There is no discontinuation of the fellowship, only the exam has been stopped. The fellowships still be offered, but under another programme,” the DST official said.

The decision of KVPY scrapping was made at a “high-level meeting” held on June 1 to review KVPY, as per reports. As per an officer, the review on June 1 showed that the operational cost of the exam was too high. “It actually cost us more to conduct the exam than the value of the fellowships that were being awarded. So we decided to drop the exam and use the saved money towards awarding more number of fellowships. So in future we will start awarding more than 300 such fellowships,” the officer said. He further said, “In any case, while a large number of students were taking the exam, not many were opting for basic sciences after. Students were using this national level test as a rehearsal for the IITs, for example. So the purpose of the exam was not being fulfilled. The exam should have been stopped earlier, but since INSPIRE (started in 2007) was still new, that was not done. There is no need for this exam, which will be a duplication of other exams that students take. So we decided to scrap the exam and subsume the scheme under INSPIRE."

KVPY-INSPIRE Fellowship

The INSPIRE programme provides fellowships at the national level for top students of JEE, NEET, National Talent Search Exam (NTSE), International Olympiad medalists, etc. Namita Gupta, head of the KVPY-INSPIRE programme has said that the scholarships for the ongoing KVPY fellows will continue. “New students do not have to give an extra exam in the form of KVPY. Any student generally appears for five to six exams," she added.

“Within a certain ranking (within top 10,000), if they want to pursue basic science, they can apply to these institutes and for INSPIRE scholarship. The work of DST has always been limited to providing scholarships, (previously) based on KVPY examinations,” she further said.

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