The All India Other Backward Classes Students Association (AIOBSCA) has written to the Union Minister of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh, urging him to provide age relaxation for the OBC students in the INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship. The letter was submitted to the Minister on July 28, and a copy of it has been sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoS&T).
AIOBSCA also tweeted about the issue, which read, “We requested Shri Jitendra Singh, Minister of Science and Technology, Govt. of India to give age relaxation for OBCs in INSPIRE Faculty Fellowships on par with SC, ST and Women”. The tweet was accompanied by a photo of the letter.
“We were approached by concerned PhD graduates from various colleges across India on the issue. We have demanded that the OBC students should get the same benefits as are given to SC, ST and women candidates under the fellowship. The upper age limit for the fellowship is currently 32 years for General candidates, and it is the same for OBC candidates,” said Kiran Kumar, National President of AIOBSCA.
On the other hand, it is mentioned in the letter that for SC, ST and women candidates, the upper age limit is 37 years. The letter also mentions that other fellowships awarded by the Department of Science and Technology, like the National Post Doctoral Fellowship (N-PDF), Start-up Research Grant (SRG) and Teachers Associateship for Research Excellence (SERB-TARE), provide age relaxation for OBC candidates. It is 40 years for N-PDF, whereas it is 45 years for the other two.
“In view of the above, denying age relaxation for OBCs in faculty fellowships is a gross injustice to socially and educationally backward communities. Hence, I request you to please include the age relaxation for OBC aspirants and do the needful at the moment,” the letter by the AIOBSCA president states at the end.
“We are also planning to meet the Minister of Education and the Minister of Science and Technology personally in the next month regarding this issue. It has been two days since we submitted the letter, but have received no updates yet,” Kiran said.
For those unaware, "Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) is an innovative programme sponsored and managed by the Department of Science & Technology for attraction of talent to Science. The basic objective of INSPIRE is to communicate to the youth of the country the excitements of creative pursuit of science, attract talent to the study of science at an early age and thus build the required critical human resource pool for strengthening and expanding the Science & Technology system and R&D base,” explains the official INSPIRE website.
It may be noted that the call for applications under this has already started from July 1 and August 15 is the last date to apply. There is no qualifying exam for the fellowship and candidates are selected based on their applications. Interested candidates can visit the official website https://online-inspire.gov.in/ for more information.
