Government has taken various initiatives to develop world class research facilities in India: HRD Minister

Government has taken following initiatives to promote research in the field of science & engineering and to develop world class research facilities.

  1. Prime Minister Research Fellowship: Under this scheme, meritorious students of IITs, IIITs, NITs and IISERs, after completing their B.Tech programme can straightaway get admission in PhD programme at IITs and IISc.  They are given fellowship @ Rs 70,000/- p.m. for first two years, Rs. 75,000/- p.m. for 3rd year and Rs. 80,000/- p.m. in 4th & 5th year. In addition a research grant of Rs 2.00 lakh per year for a period of 5 years is given to each fellow to meet the cost of presenting research papers.

  Junior Research Fellow (JRF)/Senior Research Fellow (SRF): Under the scheme of Junior Research Fellow, for research personnel engaged in Research and Development programmes are given emoluments of Rs.31,000/- per month. For Senior Research Fellow (SRF) these emoluments are Rs. 35,000/- per month.

Research Associate: Research associates are fixed at a consolidated amount at one of the 3 pay levels given below depending upon the qualification and experience.

Sl. No. Category Emoluments (Per Month)
I Research Associate-I Rs. 47,000/-
II Research Associate-II Rs. 49,000/-
III Research Associate-III Rs. 54,000/-

 National Initiative for Technology Transfer (Establishment of Research Parks): Complementing the renewed focus of the Government on developing indigenous Research & Development  capabilities, boosting manufacturing and creating a successful startup culture in the country, five new Research Parks at IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, and IISc Bangalore at a total cost of Rs.75.00 crore each have been approved by the Government under Startup India Initiative in Higher Education (SIIHE) Scheme.

Approval has also been accorded for continued funding of two already approved Research Parks at IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur at a cost of Rs.100 crore each.  The Research Park at IIT Gandhinagar at a total cost of Rs.90 crore is being funded by the Department of Science & Technology.

Impacting Research, Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT): IMPRINT is a flagship national initiative of the Government, which aims at providing solutions to the most relevant engineering challenges and translating knowledge into viable technology in 10 selected technology domains, viz. health care, energy, sustainable habitat, nano technology hardware, water resources and river systems, advanced materials, Information and communication technology, manufacturing, security and defence, and environmental science and climate change. It is a pan IITs and IISc Joint Initiative seeking to develop a roadmap for research.

Institutions of Eminence (IoE): In order to empower the Higher Educational Institutions and to help them in becoming world class teaching and research institutions, government has recently declared 20 institutions (10 public and 10 Private institutions) as Institutions of Eminence.  These institute will emphasis on multi-disciplinary initiatives, high quality research, global best practices and international collaboration.

Financial assistance up to an amount of Rs 1000 crore is to be provided to government institutions in the next 5 years.This information was given by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.