Panjab University has been conferred with the Promotion of University Research and ScientificExcellence (PURSE) award, for its performance in the field of research. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh handed over the letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor R C Sobti, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on December 13. The award includes a grant of Rs 10 crore per annum for the next three years. The funds provided are to be utilised for strengthening the scientific research base at the university. In a meeting held in the university campus on Monday, the vice-chancellor has decided to give Rs 1 lakh each to every department in the university for further research work.Panjab University is the third university to get this grant, after Delhi University and Hyderabad University. While the other two universities are central universities with all the attendant benefits, Panjab University is an inter-state body corporated in the midst of a resource crunch. The selection has been done on the basis of H-index value determined on the basis of a citation index of the papers published and the impact factor of the journals in which they have been published.
