A Significant Boost to R&D and Innovation in India!(written on LinkedIn on 09 Feb 2018)

CHAPTER 11

A Significant Boost to R&D and Innovation in India! (Published at LinkedIn on February 9, 2018)

India is addressing the most important requirement of the nation to convert it in to a Quality Research Oriented Country; the Modi government has rolled out the mother of all scholarships for India’s best brains. As part of its move to stop them from taking up research scholarships abroad, the Cabinet has cleared the PM Research Fellowships (PMRF) for students of higher education institutions like the IITs, IISERs and NITs, which will also be the country’s most considerate paid scholarships to date keeping with the pace of development in India.?It is destined to pay rich dividends in times ahead to bring India among the top nations who have the best Quality Infrastructure for R&D and in support of Innovation. 214 India: A $20 Trillion Economy by 2035-2040? The PMRF includes monthly scholarships of Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 and annual research grants of Rs 2 lakh for select scholars. The GoI has approved an allocation of Rs 1,650 crore for these fellows to be spent over next three years.?“The scheme will go a long way in tapping the talent pool of the country for carrying out research indigenously in cutting edge science and technology domains.?Research under the scheme will address India’s national priorities at the one hand and shortage of quality faculty in premier educational institutions of the country on the other. It will help convert brain drain into brain gain.?The minimum eligibility for aspirants will be a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 8.5. The minister said that the scheme will be rolled out from the 2018-19 academic session.?Under the scheme, students who have completed or are in final year of B.Tech or integrated M.Tech or M.Sc in science and technology streams at IISc, IITs, NITs, and IISERs will be offered direct admissions in PhD programmes in IITs and IISc.?The students, who would fulfil the eligibility criteria and get shortlisted, would be offered a fellowship of Rs 70,000 a month during the first two years, Rs 75,000 per month during the third year and Rs 80,000 per month during the fourth and the fifth year. A research grant of Rs two lakh each will also be provided to the fellows for a period of five years to cover their foreign travel expenses for presenting research papers at international conferences and seminars. A Significant Boost to R&D and Innovation in India! 215 The center of excellence for carrying out research in order to have a robust defence?against cyber attacks & crimes is also approved so that India keeps a pace by developing the needed indigenous capabilities ahead to anyone in the field. This allocation is part of money made available for Digital India Initiative as the FM told at the time of budget presentation. A great going towards New India development by 2022.I request Honourable Prime Minister to increase the number of such fellowships to at least 3000 from the academic year 2019-20 in order to make a substantial difference in R&D pursuit in the country as it shall go a long way towards restoring basic or fundamental research capabilities that were lost in last 02 decades. About, Rs.1000 crore must be allocated for improving the standard of Scientific & Engineering Journals and setting up a regulatory body comprised of best scientist to monitor the quality of research papers being published. I am sure that such an effort shall serve the long awaited purpose of having the top most scientific journals being published in India matching the best standard anywhere in the world.??