Is the PMRF creating unequal fellows in India’s elite research institutions?

NEW DELHI: The union government’s most generous scheme to support researchers is the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship, or PMRF. It fetches a fellow Rs 70,000 per month plus Rs 2 lakh annually for attending conferences and other research-related expenses – terms unmatched by any other research support scheme in the country. And therein lies the problem.

Multiple academics and even several fellows themselves have argued that the PMRF causes “inequality” in the research space, between different disciplines, between institutions and even between scholars doing much of the same work in the same laboratory.

“The system creates inequality,” said a professor from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, arguably the top research institution and university in the country. “Subjectivity in the selection criteria is one of the major worries,” he said, asking not to be named.

“It is not certain whether a PMRF fellow's performance is better than a standard researcher’s (PhD) working in the same lab and doing the same work. There are no demonstrable criteria. There is no way those who don’t get through would know a clear reason for not cracking it. There is no clear agenda or clear criteria for the process. This creates inequality.”

Several researchers, including PMRF fellows Careers360 spoke to, remarked on the alleged lack of transparency in the admission process with one describing it as a “lottery”. Others alleged that students from only certain departments are encouraged to try for the PMRF.

Announced with the 2018-19 union budget, the first phase of the PMRF saw 3,688 fellowships granted. PMRF 2.0 was announced for the 2025-26 financial year and the fellowship scheme expanded to include 10,000 grants over the next five years.

Opinion on this expansion is divided. Some welcome it as it increases opportunities for many more applicants – albeit only in just a handful of institutions – while others feel the government should have focussed on increasing funds for existing schemes and ensuring timely disbursement.

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The PMRF scheme

As per its website, the PMRF aims to “support the best talents in doctoral research in India with attractive fellowships”. Thirty-eight institutions, including Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Institutes of Technology (NIT) and a few central universities have participated in the scheme. Researchers in universities can apply through direct and lateral entry twice a year with certain guidelines.

Fellows are selected in two cycles in a year – May and December. As per the January 2025 guidelines, there are three pathways for “direct entry” into the PMRF programme.

These are:

• Candidates who have completed or are pursuing the final year of four or five-year undergraduate, five-year integrated MTech, a two-year MSc, or a five-year dual-degree programmes in science and technology from IISc, IITs, NITs, IISERSs, IIEST or centrally funded IIITs with a CGPA/CPI of 8.0.

• Candidates who possess or are pursuing one of the qualifications listed above but not from the listed institutions should have a minimum CGPA of 8 or equivalent, plus a minimum 650 in the relevant subject in the Graduate Admission Test for Engineering (GATE) or a UGC-CSIR NET JRF rank.

• Candidates who have qualified GATE and are pursuing or have completed MTech or MS by research at one of the PMRF institutions with a minimum CGPA or CPI of 8.0.

All candidates must be selected to the PhD programme at the PMRF granting institute. The scheme also has provision for “lateral entry”, for scholars already pursuing PhDs in PMRF-granting institutions.

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PMRF Scholarship: Transparency question

Even fellows find the selection process somewhat opaque.

“There is still a lack of clarity on how you get in,” said a fellow from a science department at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), despite having won the fellowship themselves.

“Who can apply it is fairly clear through the guidelines. The point is that if you apply what it is that you need to do to know your chances to crack it is not very clear,” said the IISc professor.

A fellow from IISER Pune agreed.

“It also depends on the department and labs on how many fellows they would want to nominate, making the whole selection questionable. There are many PhD students who have gotten straight 10 CGPA and are extremely brilliant but didn't get it. So, it's a lottery,” he said.

The screening of profiles starts at the department level, moving to the institute and finally national-level. “It depends from institute to institute and department to department on how they want to play this game,” they added.

PMRF fellows not being able to figure out exactly why and how they were picked over others is a common theme. “We don't know on what criteria we have been selected,” said a fellow at IIT Bombay. “People give multiple reasons: because I have an MTech from IIT Bombay itself or my CGPA was good or my topic of research is very relevant. But we don't know.”

She echoes others who say they know “brilliant scholars” who’ve been applying without success.

Institutions and departments

That said, the selection rate has increased sharply since the inception of the scheme. According to the recent guidelines report for 2025, for the first cycle of the scheme in May, 2018, the selection rate was 6.98%. This rose to 49.26% by May, 2023.

When first launched, it was conceived as a scheme mainly for the IITs and IISc. “Initially they were very picky but at a later time, they relaxed due to less number of candidates getting the fellowship. Later they added IISERs,” said the researcher from Pune.

From July 2018 onwards, the government started opening up the scheme to more institutions. First it was extended to the top 25 NITs, IISERs, IIITs and central universities and later to the top 100 . While the scheme’s eligibility criteria require applicants to have four-year undergraduate degrees, MTech or MSc, if they are not pursuing PhD already, from 2022, the list of eligible fields also includes ones from outside of science and tech, such as Indian Knowledge Systems, humanities law and policy, and management studies. Earlier, there were 10 “broad areas”, all in science and technology.

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“I find it a bit unequal in the sense that it gives priority to certain institutes and research and only a few handful of students get selected,” said a fellow at an interdisciplinary department of IIT Bombay.

She added that the reviewers are typically from technical disciplines – that being PMRF’s main thrust area – and that students from interdisciplinary backgrounds often face challenges in coping with the review mechanisms.

Even within the domain of science and tech, fellows complain of partiality. One alleged that “notices about the opening of the grants in the year are circulated to certain departments”.

Same work, different pay

The main cause for conflict, however, is the pay.

PMRF fellows get a higher stipend – Rs 70,000-Rs 1 lakh depending on the year – than a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) or Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) holder who gets Rs 37,000- 42,000. The duration is the same for both but the PMRFs are required to teach for one hour per week.

“The problem is that we are getting double the stipend as compared to a JRF or SRF scholar in these institutes. Almost all other scholars here are getting the same time and resources as us,” said a fellow, adding that the “PMRF is like a tag” where everyone does much of the same work.

PMRF fellows get a research grant of Rs 2 lakh per year during their tenure which can be used for conferences, equipment and other expenses which other scholars don’t get.

“In IITs, all scholars are given funding for a maximum of two conferences throughout their tenure. But PMRF scholars get a dedicated grant where we can go to as many conferences as possible within this amount or buy equipment for research. PMRF scholars get more opportunities to go to conferences and even article publication charges. This grant facilitates more opportunities for the students. But only a handful of students get this opportunity, creating inequality in the system,” a scholar from a first-generation IIT said.

PMRF 2.0 and the future

Most academics welcome the plan to increase the number of PMRF fellowships to 10,000.

The IISc professor said, “I'm happy that they have increased the number which means, essentially, PMRF can be given to almost every student who is eligible for it because that's a large number. This will reduce the inequality component that is a concern for many people in academia. But still, the scheme needs clarity on eligibility criteria for scholars.”

Clear eligibility criteria will help. “Currently it is an arbitrary system. But with proper criteria penned down for different institutions will help more fellows to join,” he said.

The fellow from BHU also pointed out that limiting PMRF to just a few institutions is a “subjective criterion” that must be dropped in favour of selecting students who have “demonstrated merit in a quantifiable manner”.