Dr Sisir Kumar Sen has been conferred with prestigious National Mineral Award for Excellence for the year 2008. The award was presented to him at a function in New Delhi on Saturday. Besides it, 17 geoscientists have also been awarded with National Mineral Award-2008 for their outstanding contributions in the field of earth sciences. <br/><br/>Giving away the awards, Union Minister of Mines B.K Handique said that the contribution of geoscientists is significant to the growth and development of the nation.<br/><br/>He said that the government has also enhanced the scope of national mineral Award scheme by making it into a National Geoscience Award scheme for this year onwards. Mr Handique said that the award money for this scheme has been enhanced to 2 lakh rupees, it will be 5 lakh rupees for Geoscience Award for Excellence.