Deen Dayal SPARSH (Scholarship for Promotion of Aptitude & Research in Stamps as a Hobby): Do you know what philately is? Not many have heard the term philately which means collection, appreciation and research activities on postal stamps. Are you one among those few in school who show extreme interest in collection and study of postal stamps? Then you must know about a new scheme called Deen Dayal SPARSH (Scholarship for Promotion of Aptitude & Research in Stamps as a Hobby) Yojana launched by Ministry of Communications, Government of India.
What is SPARSH?
SPARSH is a Scholarship Scheme designed and implemented by the department of posts, Ministry of Communications, Government of India for school children who are interested in philately. The objective of this scheme is to encourage and widen the access to philately across the nation among the school children.
Objective:
Ministry of communications in the document released on SPARSH has described the objective as “Promoting philately among children at a young age in a sustainable manner that can reinforce and supplement the academic curriculum in addition to providing a hobby that can help them relax and de-stress”
Annual scholarships:
- Under Deen Dayal SPARSH scheme, annual scholarships will be awarded to the school children by Ministry of communications.
- The total amount of scholarship will be Rs. 6000/- per annum @ Rs. 500/- per month
- 920 scholarships will be awarded to students pursuing Philately as a hobby. Students with good academic records will be preferred over the rest.
- In every postal circle maximum 40 scholarships will be given to 10 students each from Classes VI, VII, VIII and IX.
- The scholarship amount will be distributed quarterly to regular students studying in recognized schools.
- Students will be selected as per the procedure laid down under SPARSH. The ministry has said that there is no bar on already selected students to apply for the scholarship next year.
Selection process:
- The execution department of the scheme will release the notification to circle-wise enroll students under the scheme.
- List of the topics on which project has to be made will be listed in the notification
- Selection under this scheme is made based on the evaluation of project work on philately & performance in philately quiz conducted the respective postal circles.
Eligibility:
- Applicant should be a student in recognized schools in India
- The student will be selected only from the schools having a Philately Club and the student should be a member of that Club.
- In case of the schools not having a Philately Club, a student having his personal Philately deposit account will also be considered for the scholarship.
- The applicant should have a sound academic record. He/she should have scored at least 60% marks or equivalent grade point in the recent final exams. For SC/ST students 5% relaxation has been provided.
Payment of scholarship:
- Selected students should open a joint bank account with their parents in India post payment bank or post office savings bank in a branch which has a core banking facility.
- Once the communication having the list of selected students from the postal circle is passed on to the payments banks in the post offices, the scholarship will be disbursed on quarterly basis.
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