The President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu will be conferring the prestigious National Geoscience Awards - 2022 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre, New Delhi on 24th July 2023 in the august presence of Minister of Coal, Mines & Parliamentary Affairs Shri Pralhad Joshi and the Minister of State for Mines, Coal & Railways Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve. The Ministry of Mines confers National Geoscience Awards every year in three categories:
- National Geoscience Award for Life Time Achievement,
- National Young Geoscientist Award
- National Geoscience Award in various fields of geosciences.
Instituted in 1966, the National Geoscience Awards (NGA) is a symbol of recognition and appreciation for exceptional individuals and organizations that have demonstrated excellence, dedication and innovation in the realm of Geosciences.
The awards are presented in the field of Mineral Discovery and Exploration, Basic Geosciences, Applied Geosciences and Mining, Mineral Beneficiation and Sustainable Mineral Development.
This year for NGA 2022, 168 nominations were received under different award categories and examined through a three-stage screening process. Nominees for 10 National Geoscience Awards under different categories, which include one National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement, eight National Geoscience Awards under different fields and one National Young Geoscientist Awards have been selected. These 10 NGA awards will be presented to 22 Geoscientists by the President of India.
The National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement will be conferred upon Dr. Om Narain Bhargava, well known for his pioneering work in the Himalayas spanning over the last four decades. The National Young Geoscientist Award will be presented to Dr. Amiya Kumar Samal, Assistant Professor of Banaras Hindu University who has made significant contribution in understanding the variation of Sub-Continental Lithospheric Mantle (SCLM) below different Archean cratons of the Indian shield.
The National Geoscience Awards will be conferred in the august presence of distinguished geoscientists, scholars, policymakers and industry leaders.
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About National Geoscience Awards: -
Introduction
The National Geoscience Award is one of the oldest and most prestigious national awards in the field of geosciences, instituted by the Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India in the year 1966. Before the year 2009, these awards were called as National Mineral Awards. The objective of this National Level Award is to honour individuals and teams for extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions in various fields of geosciences.
In the year 2022, as per the guidelines/ suggestions issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the National Geoscience Awards have been rationalized and the e total number of awards has been reduced from 21 nos. to 12 nos. The National Geoscience Award was on-boarded on the National Awards Portal i.e. www.awards.gov.in and nominations for the NGA -2022 were invited through this award portal in online mode for the following three award categories-
(i) National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement (SINGLE AWARD),
(ii) National Geoscience Award (TEN AWARDS), and
(iii) National Young Geoscientist Award (SINGLE AWARD).
Selection procedure for the Award
The selection process of the awardees is very well defined and has three levels of committees to finally select an awardee. The Secretary, Mines & Chairman, Award Making Authority (AMA) constitute 4 Sectional Scrutiny committees (SSCs) as the first-level committees and a Screening Committee of Experts (SCE) as the second-level committee for discipline-wise evaluation and scrutiny. The recommendations of SSCs are put up to SCE. The nominations for the National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement and National Young Geoscientist Award are not evaluated by SSC and are directly put up to SCE. The recommendations are finally evaluated and considered by the apex authority i.e. Award Making Authority (AMA).
Awardees for the National Geoscience Awards-2022
For the National Geoscience Awards- 2022, a total of 173 nominations were received. The number of valid nominations under the three award categories is 168. Out of the total 12 Awards, the AMA has finally selected 10 awards which include 4 individual awards, 3 team awards & 3 joint award. The 04 individual award also includes the one award for National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement and another award for National Young Geoscientist Award. The details are as follows-
S.N. | Category of Award | Number of Awards |
1. | National Geoscience Award for Lifetime Achievement | 1 award |
2. | National Geoscience Awards | 8 award
(3 Team Award + 3 Joint Award + 2 individual Awards= 20 awardees) |
3. | National Young Geoscientist Award | 1 award |
Total
|
10 Awards
(22 Awardees) |
The list of awardees for the National Geoscience Awards 2022 is as follows-
NATIONAL GEOSCIENCE AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT – 2022 | |
Dr. Om Narain Bhargava Honorary Professor Department of Geology Panjab University, Chandigarh |
|
NATIONAL GEOSCIENCE AWARDS– 2022 | |
SECTION- I – Mineral Discovery & Exploration | |
Field (i): Mineral Discovery & Exploration (excluding fossil fuels) of economic and/or strategic importance and application of innovative techniques
|
Team Award
Team Award |
Field (ii): Coal, Lignite and Coal Bed Methane Discovery & Exploration of economic and/or strategic importance and application of innovative techniques and Oil, Natural Gas, Shale Gas and Gas Hydrates Discovery & Exploration (including project development and planning leading to exploitation of resources and reservoir management)
Geological Survey of India (GSI) team comprising of
|
Team Award |
SECTION- II - Mining, Mineral Beneficiation and Sustainable Mineral Development | |
Field (iv) Mineral Beneficiation (including mineral processing, project development for utilization of low-grade ores & production of value-added mineral products and mineral economics) and Sustainable Mineral Development (including mine closure, project development, institutional development and capacity building)
Shri Pankaj Kumar Satija Managing Director, Tata Steel Mining Limited Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
|
Individual Award |
SECTION- III – Basic Geosciences | |
Field (v): Basic Geosciences including Stratigraphy, Structural Geology, Paleontology, Geodynamics, Geochemistry, Geochronology and Isotope Geology, Ocean Development (Oceanography and Marine Geology), Glaciology and Arctic & Antarctic Research including Geo-Scientific Expeditions; and science surveys/baseline geoscience data collection including Geological and Geochemical mapping & survey, and Systematic Thematic mapping
Department of Geology and Geophysics IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal
Scientist E, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Goa and
Department of Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata |
Individual Award
Joint Award |
SECTION- IV – Applied Geosciences | |
Field (vi): Applied Geology: Engineering Geology, Geothermal Energy, Seismotectonics, Geostatistics, Remote Sensing and Geo-Information System (including spatial data management applications and data integration); Groundwater Exploration (including project development, hydrogeological studies and management of groundwater resources; Geo-Environmental Studies relating to mining, urban, industrial, coastal and desert management, paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, medical geology, climate change and studies related to their impact on ecosystem.
Director, Geological Survey of India, Jammu and
Scientific Officer, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai
|
Joint Award |
Field (viii): Natural Hazard Investigations including scientific studies related to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, floods and tsunamis.
Deputy Director General, Geological Survey of India, Kolkata and
Scientist – F, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun
|
Joint Award |
NATIONAL YOUNG GEOSCIENTIST AWARD– 2022 | |
Dr. Amiya Kumar Samal
Assistant Professor Department of Geology Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi |