The Ministry of Human Resource and Development has now issued an Official Memorandum, clearing the confusion about the hiked research stipend rates in institutes across the country. According to the new OM, all PhD scholars in the country pursuing research in centrally funded technical institutions under MHRD are eligible to receive the new stipends, from January 1, 2019.
"It is informed that an OM regarding revision of rates of PhD Scholarship in AICTE and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions under the Ministry of Human Resource Development has already been issued by U-I Section of Ministry of HRD, which is in respect of all MHRD funded research and development programmes (including academic programmes)," it reads. Previously several institutes had raised a confusion on this.
A month ago, only 10 IITs and seven NITs had actually hiked the fellowship stipends from Rs 25,000 to Rs 31,000 for JRFs and Rs 28,000 to Rs 35,000 for SRFs. "Now that there is clarity on the matter, the institutes will be forced to release the hiked stipends," says Vickey Nandal, National representative of fellowship hike movement and PhD Representative of Co-curricular and Academic Interaction Council (CAIC), IIT Delhi. The previous OM had mentioned that hike is only for research personnel engaged in R&D programmes which created a lot of confusion among the institutions.
After almost a month of struggle by researchers all across the country, the government had hiked the research fellowship on January 31, 2019.
