16 IIT Gandhinagar PhD scholars awarded Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship

NEW DELHI: 16 doctor of philosophy (PhD) scholars from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) have been awarded with the prime minister’s research fellowship (PMRF) in the May 2022 cycle. The institute has a total of 47 scholars who have been beneficiaries of the PMRF scheme.

The PhD scholars who are currently working in multiple areas of interdisciplinary research and development at IITGN and have bagged the fellowship are:

• mechanical engineering, Abishek Sarkar
• biological engineering, Ankur Vinay Singh
• electrical Engineering, Anshul Awasthi
• physics, Aparna Rathi
• mechanical engineering, Barat S
• civil engineering, Dipesh Singh Chuphal
• chemistry, Gaurav Rai
• biological engineering, Hema Naveena A
• computer science and engineering, Himanshu Beniwal
• mathematics, Indrani Zamindar
• physics, Niyati Shah
• mathematics, Poonam Rani
• mechanical engineering, Rajnandan Borthakur
• earth sciences, Saikat Kumar Misra
• civil engineering, Shivani Sharma
• computer science and engineering, Shrutimoy Das

The PMRF scheme was launched in the year 2018-19 and selects candidates through a rigorous selection process at a national level. The prime minister research fellowship is for students pursuing PhD programme in bachelor's in technology (BTech) or an equivalent. The fellows under the scheme receive an amount of Rs 70,000 in their first year and a maximum of Rs. 80,000 in their fifth year. Apart from this, each fellow will be eligible for a research grant of Rs 2 lakh per year (total of Rs 10 lakh for five years).

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PMRF eligibility and selection process

Candidates are eligible for the PMRF scheme if they have a mandatory Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) and degree requirements with a minimum CGPA of 8 or an equivalent.

The selection process includes judging the metrics on the candidate's research exposure, publications, their performance in international competitions such as math olympiads and association for computing machinery (ACM) international collegiate programming contest (ICPC) along with grades, and recommendation letters. The selection also requires a strong research proposal while due weightage is given to publications in reputed journals and conferences.

Lauding this noteworthy achievement of IITGN PhD scholars, IITGN director, Rajat Moona, said: “We feel great and proud that our PhD scholars’ work is progressively being recognised and supported at the national level. The Institute places great emphasis on top-quality research and offers the best possible learning environment and research experience with state-of-the-art research facilities, flexibility and independence, and numerous opportunities for global exposure so that our PhD scholars can reach their full potential. The focus on cutting-edge interdisciplinary research at IITGN provides an excellent opportunity to work with some of the best faculty from other disciplines to widen the research perspective and application. I am sure they will bring more laurels for the Institute through their research and innovations.”