Government setting up single national fellowship portal: DBT secretary

NEW DELHI: The government is working towards setting up a single national fellowship portal, Rajesh Gokhale, secretary for Department of Biotechnology said.

Gokhale was responding to a letter from Rajya Sabha MP Amar Patnaik enquiring about measures taken by the government to improve the Indian research ecosystem. The DBT secretary said, the ministry of science and technology along with the ministry of earth sciences is working together to create a single national fellowship portal.

He further informed that the department of biotechnology is not directly involved in the revision of fellowships of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), Senior Research Fellowship (SRF), young scientists etc.The fellowships for these positions are revised by the ministry of science and technology, the reply stated.

In September this year, the All India Research Scholars Associations ( AIRSA ) wrote to Srivari Chandrasekhar, director of science and technology (DST) seeking an increase in fellowship, medical facilities and better research infrastructure. It also requested DST to extend the age limit for Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) faculty positions. They are yet to hear from the DST.

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In July, the DST announced to scrap the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) and subsume it with Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) fellowship. The decision was not well received by the researchers, scientists, and scholars. Several professors termed it as a “terrible” decision.

In a similar development, the central government recently discontinued the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme, which provided a five-year financial assistance to students from communities including Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs to pursue their master of philosophy (MPhil) and doctor of philosophy (PhD). Students, MPs have slammed the government over the decision and staged nationwide protests demanding immediate withdrawal of the decision.