Educational news about Personality development, career guidance, Leadership Skills and more in Edubilla.com ...

The Government has introduced a scheme to fund science scholars who have completed their PhDs with the motive to prevent the emigration of highly qualified pure science scholars from India. This move will enable them to continue their post doctoral research in India. According to Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary of Department of Science and Technology, the scholars would be paid Rs 50,000 per month for the period of three years and would also be given a basic grant of Rs 7 lakhs per year for conducting research. 

The National Post Doctoral Fellowship was launched a month ago and would fund around 1,000 scholars this year. He said that applications have also been invited for the same and we have found that the scholars are more vulnerable to go abroad after their PhD degree because this is the time they don't get full-time employment since many institutes ask for a post-doctoral degree. There are many universities and institutes abroad that offer the PhDs graduates with post-doctoral opportunities. This is why we have embarked upon this scheme.

He added once they get a post-doctoral fellowship in India for three-years, they can continue with their research and get prepared for a job in Indian institutes and universities. Once they bag a job, the chances of their going abroad is less. Incidentally, the Ministry of Science and Technology does not have a data of how many research scholars have left India and are currently working abroad. Sharma said for bagging this fellowship the scholar has to send a research proposal. It is also mandatory that the university/ institute in which he wants to do research have to accept the proposal.

A senior ministry official said, "There are two reasons behind it. It is difficult to track the students who leave India for studies at different levels. More importantly, there is also no tracking of students coming back. Secondly, neither the Ministry of Home Affairs nor the Ministry of External Affairs have maintained data related to this."