Chennai: The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has increased the scholarships for Junior Research Fellows (JRFs) and Senior Research Fellows (SRFs) in centrally funded technical institutions. The move has been taken as an attempt to attract more engineering graduates to the field of scientific and technical research. The revision in scholarships was communicated by Pratima Dikshit, Director (technical), HRD Ministry in a letter on September 30, 2010.
As per sources, BE/B Tech graduates with a GATE score (IIT graduates with a CGPA of 8 or above need not appear for GATE) or equivalent qualification will now entitle for a stipend of Rs 16000 per month in their first two years of research in technical institution under the control of the Ministry. Previously, the scholarship was of Rs 14000.
Similarly, the research fellows who have a postgraduate (PG) degree in basic sciences with a pass in National Eligibility Test (NET) will get a fellowship of Rs 18000 per month up to the fifth year of research. So far, they were given Rs 14000 monthly in third and fourth year of research and Rs 15000 monthly in the final year.
However, the monthly emolument for ME/M Tech qualified researchers has been raised from Rs 14000 to Rs 18000 in first two years. The same has been increased from Rs 15000 to Rs 20000 in the next two years. The revision of scholarships will come into retrorespective effect from April 2010 to the heads of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institute of Science, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research and other central institutions.
