The Department of Science and Technology has formulated a committee for deciding fellowship for research scholars on the basis of their performance.
Recently, a Memorandum was signed by the department which stated that from now onwards DST will pay one-time incentives to scholars. This decision was taken after the order was issued announcing a 4 percent hike in the stipend of research scholars, which is termed as the lowest as compared to the past twenty years.
According to this newly announced Memorandum, a scholar who published a paper in an international journal will be receiving an incentive of Rs 50,000, whereas a national journal will be paying a candidate Rs 20,000. Additionally, patents will now qualify for Rs 1,00,000.
According to the recent increment ordered by the HRD Ministry after continued agitation, Junior Research Fellows would receive Rs 31,000 instead of Rs 25,000 and Senior Research Fellows will receive Rs 35,000 instead of the old Rs 28,000. Even after this, students did not stop their protest demanding 80% hike.
However, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar termed hike as a ‘major gift’ to the researchers from the NDA government.