Govt to Increase Science Researchers’ Stipends

The government has decided to increase the stipends of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) and Research Associates (RA) for the basic science researchers.

The announcement was made by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) recently. The DST orders stated that the stipend has increased by 20% (Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 31,000) for JRF. The government had increased the stipend in 2014 by 36%.

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A decision has been taken by the government to incentivize the research output-publications and patents. Periodic examination of the disbursement of fellowships will be done by the Inter-Ministerial Empowered Committee of the government.

For Research Associates, the revised fellowship amount is now Rs.54,000, and earlier it was Rs.47,000 per month. The amount for the Senior Research Fellowship has been increased to Rs.35,000. The decision has come two weeks after the All India Research Scholars Association (AIRSA) and research fellows from across India staged protests in Delhi demanding an 80% percent hike in the fellowship. They have been demanding an 80 percent increase in the fellowships' amount applicable from April last year.

According to the government order, the revised scholarships will be applicable from 1st January 2019. The respective departments should meet the additional amount from their existing budget by matching savings in other schemes. During the time of the main budget for 2019-2020, this may be reviewed, he said.

A group of scholars had met the Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar this month post which the minister had mentioned that the government is positive regarding the demand, but an official statement is still awaited from the MHRD.

A committee which has been set up to look into the fellowship of Ph.D. students will be working out the incentives for the research scholars in a month or so, a senior official said on Thursday.

Ashutosh Sharma, Department of Science and Technology Secretary said that Ph.D. students are the “backbone” in a country’s progress as their contribution is towards various fields. Talking about the committee, Sharma said it will include officials from various ministries, who will look into all fellowship related work which has an impact on the quality and experience of doctoral research.

Sharma was talking at a press conference at the CSIR Science Centre. The aim is to look at Ph.D.’s value in a holistic manner. An empowered committee has been constituted to bring all ministries together to check the quantum of fellowship and the committee will also look into incentivizing research.

On Wednesday, the government had announced a hike in fellowships which will directly benefit 60,000 research fellows. Sharma also stated that there was a need to bridge the gap between the quality of research and its quantity. Sometimes quantity of research may get affected by the quality of research which may not be up to the mark. So, this gap needs to be reduced and the quality of research can be improved by improving the incentives. The amount of incentive will be decided after the full budget is released.

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As per a statement released by the ministry, there will be a 30-35 percent increase in the financial rewards for the scientists involved in the research and development projects as research associates get Rs.54, 000. The research fellows will also get house rent allowance as per the central government norms.

Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in the first two years of the Ph.D. programme have been increased from Rs.25,000-Rs.31,000 per month. Similarly, for the remaining tenure of Ph.D., a senior research fellow will get Rs.35,000 per month instead of Rs.28,000.