CHENNAI : In a bid to nurture young philatelists, Department of Posts will be offering scholarships to 40 projects by students selected from various schools across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.The philately scholarship scheme Deen Dayal SPARSH Yojana (Scholarship for Promotion of Aptitude and Research in Stamps as a Hobby) was launched last year for generating interest regarding philately amongst students.
Totally, 32,818 students of Standards VI to IX with good academic record and having a Philately Deposit Account or is a member of Philately Club at their school participated in the written quiz for Deen Dayal SPARSH Yojana. A total of 171 students were shortlisted to submit a philately project. Of these, 40 projects were selected for `6,000 scholarship per annum.
Last year, being the first year, 629 students participated while this year, the response was overwhelming with participation of 32,818 students, the department said.Students presented projects on varied subjects ranging from agriculture, musical instruments, dances of India, railways, Mahatma Gandhi, Olympics, birds and festivals of India.
The selected project works were displayed at the awards venue.M Sampath, Chief Postmaster General, Tamil Nadu Circle, distributed the scholarships and certificates to the award winners at a function here on Friday.