Research aid for IIT and IISc students: govt

In a huge incentive for students to take up research, the Centre would soon announce scholarship for the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Under the proposed Prime Minister’s special research scholarship scheme, the final year under-grad students will also get direct admission to the PhD programme. Students would get Rs 70,000 per month for five years.

The proposal, sent for the cabinet approval by the Union HRD Ministry, envisages annual research scholarship for 2000 IIT and IISc students. “It has been cleared by the expenditure finance committee,” official sources told Deccan Herald.

Graduates from the institutions will have to go through “rigorous” selection process to qualify for the scholarship. They are expected to secure a minimum of eight cumulative grade point average (CGPA) or figure in the top 20 ranks in terms of percentage to qualify for direct admission to PhD in the premier technical institutes.

“The idea is to check the brain drain,” sources said. “Students are given adequate financial support and facilities to do research here in India.”