New Delhi, January 30: The Union government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, finally gave a sighed relief to the research scholars of the country on Wednesday by increasing the scholarship amount of Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) to Rs 31,000 per month. This was a long pending demand by the research scholar to hike the scholarship, as there was no revision in the amount since 2014 and also this is the lowest hike since 2010.

According to the official communiqué from the Union Department of Science and Technology, the JRF and the SRF amount has been increased from Rs 25,000/pm and Rs 28,000/pm to Rs 31,000/pm and Rs 35,000/pm respectively. Also, the communiqué – released by the Union ministry – stated that the stipends for Research Assistants – pursuing post-doctoral studies and have at least three years of research experience – would range from Rs 47,000 to Rs 54,000 per month. Institutes of Eminence: UGC Postpones Decision to Grant Tag as Expert Committee Recommended More Names. 

Informing more, Secretary of Department of Science and Technology, Ashutosh Sharma said, as reported by The Hindu, “The hikes were recommended based on inflation. We’d made a recommendation, but the final numbers are the result of discussion among the Human Resources Development Ministry, the Science Ministry as well as the Finance Ministry.”

The above comment was based on the observations that the revised hike in the amount of scholarship was the lowest increase since 2010. It is to be known that the last time the scholarship was revised, was in 2014 and currently 1.25 lakh research scholars are beneficiaries of these fellowships.

As per to the norms, the scholarships are revised after every four years, but Sharma – headed the committee to recommend the hikes – said that the government is planning to put a system in place to ensure that research stipends are revised annually. Intelligence Red-Flags 9 Private Universities Seeking 'Institute of Eminence' Tag as Anti-Modi: Report. 

He also mentioned that the department is also looking into the aspect of incentivising researchers with outstanding research publications or whose work resulted in patents. Adding on, he said that the new revision would add an extra financial outlay of Rs 1,500 crores and be out of the budgetary allocations of ministries for the existing financial year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2019 05:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).