‘Research fellowships to be hiked’

‘Research fellowships to be hiked’

Pune: Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Shekhar Mande on his first visit to CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), assured the officials that fellowship stipend of researchers and scholars will be hiked soon. However, research and PhD students from CSIR-NCL expressed their disappointment.

Mande said that the Department of Science and Technology was in the process of finalising the amount of the stipend. “There will be an increase in the amount of the fellowship stipend undoubtedly, but it will take sometime to announce the exact amount and implement it,” said Mande on Monday.

“The discussion is going on at the higher level. We can’t give a knee-jerk reaction to the demand. There is a process to be followed. Things will turn positive by the due course of time,” he added. Mande reiterated the same in his conversation with research and PhD students at CSIR-NCL. But the research fellows have expressed dissatisfaction over his assurance. “We were looking forward to a specific answer,” said a research fellow on the condition of anonymity. The group of research scholars across the country have been demanding a hike of 80-100 per cent in the stipend.

“The DG said that there may be a hike of about 56 per cent similar to what was done in 2014. He assured that it will be done soon. But we were expecting specific details like dates and amount. The issue of increasing the stipend has already been delayed by one and half year,” said a research fellow.

Among several other issues raised by the scholars during their meet with DG was timely disbursement of the stipend. They stated that at present, many receive the sum after three-four months or in a bulk amount periodically in eight months. Mande replied that the beneficiaries should discuss this problem with their funding agencies. Also, a new software for CSIR fellowship funding will be launched soon, he added.

At present, stipend for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) is Rs 25,000 per month, senior research fellowship (SRF) is Rs 28,000 and 30 per cent is deducted from residential scholars’ stipend.

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