Cabinet nod to technological research fellowship

The Union Cabinet Wednesday approved a new fellowship for doctoral students pursuing research in areas related to technology.

Under the Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF), 1,000 candidates, who have completed or are in the final year of B.Tech or Integrated M.Tech or M.Sc in Science and Technology streams from IISc, IITs, NITs, IISERs and IIITs, will be selected and offered direct admission to the PhD programme at IITs and IISc.

The selected candidates will get a fellowship of Rs 70,000 per month during the first two years, Rs 75,000 during the third year and Rs 80,000 during the last two years. The Cabinet sanctioned Rs 1,650 crore for this fellowship for seven years. PMRF was announced by Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar last year in April after the IIT Council meeting.