Earth Sciences Awards

Nature of the award: The National Mineral Awards shall be of two categories as stated below: 

(A) National Mineral Awards, hereinafter referred to as the ?Awards? .
(B) National Mineral Award for Excellence, hereinafter referred to as the ?Award for Excellence?.

Number of awards: Fourteen (14) annual Awards shall be given to scientists , technologists / engineers individually or to teams in recognition of their meritorious contribution in any of the fields under the following three sections, except Field (vi) & (xiv) in which there is a provision for two awards each. Thus the total awards will be sixteen (16).

Fields covered :
Section-I: Minerals and Geo information Fields
i) Mineral discovery (excluding coal & lignite and oil & natural gas) of economic and/or strategic importance. 
ii) Mineral exploration (excluding coal & lignite and oil &natural gas) including application of innovative geophysical    geochemical techniques etc.
iii) Mining technology, including development and application of new methods and innovative techniques through research & development, leading to increase in productivity / conservation of mineral resources( excluding oil & natural gas), systematic mine planning, concurrent mine reclamation, waste utilization etc
.iv) Mineral beneficiation/project development and planning leading to exploitation of mineral resources (excluding oil & natural gas) etc.
 v) Geo information System: development, structuring and implementation of geo information systems; databases, maps, manuals / publications in various fields of geosciences, mining and allied areas (including scientific expeditions and global programmes). 

Section -II: Basic and Applied Geosciences Fields
vi) Geology: Stratigraphy, structural geology, ,tectonics, seism tectonics, petrology, palaeontology, mineralogy, geomorphology,  mineral economics, mineral chemistry, mineral physics etc.
vii) Applied Geology: Engineering geology, hydrogeology, glaciology, geothermal exploration, remote sensing etc.
viii) Geophysics / Applied Geophysics: Application of geophysical methods to the study of earth sciences, geomagnetism, seismology, ground, airborne & marine geophysical survey techniques and instrumentation.
ix) Geochemistry as applied to earth sciences, geochronology, isotope geology etc. 
x) Environmental Geosciences and management studies including coastal and desert environmental management, medical geology etc 
xi) Disaster Management: Management of natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, safe geo tourism, volcanic events including management of disasters in underground mines etc.
xii) Ocean Development: Oceanography, Antarctic research, Marine Geology etc.

Section-III: Fuel Minerals Fields
xiii) Studies on coal and lignite including their discovery, exploration & development etc.
xiv) Studies on oil & natural gas including their discovery, exploration using various geophysical methods /techniques, project development and planning leading to exploitation of oil & natural gas resources / reservoir management etc.

Award for excellence: The Award for Excellence (single award) shall be made to an outstanding scientist / technologist / engineer with an exceptionally high lifetime achievement for his/her sustained and significant contributions in any fields) of Geosciences, Mining and allied areas. 

Award: 
(a) Each Award will carry a cash prize of Rs. 100,000/-*, a certificate, citation and trophy. 
(b) In case of each Award a maximum of two individuals / an individual and a team / two teams may be selected if they are adjudged to be of equivalent merit. However, such shared awards shall not exceed two. In such a case, each individual will get a cash prize of Rs. 100,000/-* and in case of teams sharing the award, each team member shall receive a minimum of Rs. 40,000/-*.
(c) The sixteen awards may include a maximum of four team awards. In case of team award the prize money will be shared equally by the team members subject to a minimum of Rs. 40,000/-* each. 
(d) The Award for Excellence shall carry a cash prize of Rs. 300,000/-*, a certificate, citation and trophy.

Eligibility:
(a) Any citizen of India who is a professionally qualified geoscientist/ technologist / engineer having meritorious background with significant contribution in any of the field specified
(b) The award will be given on the basis of contributions made through work done primarily in India during the last ten years preceding the year of the award (For this purpose ?primarily? will mean ?for the most part?).