Published: 16th July 2020
CSIR evasive about extending fellowship funding, researchers distressed
The research body had announced its new set of notifications on June 14. The deadlines for project submissions were previously extended


A CSIR Institute (Pic: Wikimedia Commons)
Clearing the air around fellowships and extension of research fellowships, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research issued a few notifications on Tuesday. However, the research organisation is yet to take a final decision on funding extended final year projects.
"CSIR Fellowship Extension with the stipend is a policy decision with financial involvement. It is being considered but no decision yet. Extension of time has already been granted," the organisation said in a tweet. Earlier in June, its Director-General Shekhar C Mande told Edexlive that fellowship extension was under 'active consideration'. It had extended the project deadline owing to the pandemic.
A lot of research scholars have expressed distress over the institute's indecisiveness. "This is causing us a lot of stress. For most of the researchers, their fellowship is the only source of income. Hope they come up with a favourable decision soon," says a CSIR researcher.
The CSIR also said that since many institutes are closed currently, they are not able to send up-gradation/extension documents. Researchers tell us that this has affected the quality of research, especially in cases of projects that were nearing completion. At the same time, a group of research scholars have started a change.org petition asking the MHRD and other bodies to extend the fellowships for the PhD fifth-year students.
