NEW DELHI, January 17: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) have found yet another issue to fight about. While JNU claims that UGC has reduced its grant for research projects, the latter admits that the Government has little interest in the type of research fostered by the former Leftist bastion.And even the UGC grant is stagnating, funds from the private sector are nowhere in sight. Instead, the UGC grant for research projects during 1997-98 decreased to Rs 3.9 crore from Rs 4.4 crore received in the previous year. In fact, the annual research grant for JNU has been stagnating between Rs 3 and 4 crore for the past decade.The JNU project cell attributes the stagnation to the decline in grants received from their primary funding agencies. For instance, the Union Department of Biotechnology gave grants worth Rs 1 crore in 1998 while it had given approximately Rs 2 crore in the previous year. The UGC reduced its grants by half in 1998 as well. It had given Rs 11.6 lakh during 1996-97. In 1998, it gave only Rs 6.5 lakh.Dr R. K. Chauhan, in charge of Central universities at UGC, told Express Newsline: ``We give grants for research projects at JNU on an individual basis. The UGC has to approve every project that a JNU teacher puts forth, before providing grants. We have provided less money because the UGC did not approve of certain research projects.'' A senior UGC official argues, on condition of anonymity: ``We understand that it is important to explore philosophical subjects for the development of academics. However, when funds are scarce, it will definitely receive secondary importance.''Other UGC officials attribute the reduction to diversion of funds by the Government. Additional Secretary, UGC, Dr G. G. Dandapat, says: ``Whenever there's an urgent need for funds, money is diverted from funds earmarked for higher education. Today, it is politically correct to lay emphasis on elementary education, which is why the ministry instructs the UGC to cut down on funds for universities.''The School of Life Sciences receives the maximum grants for research projects at JNU. According to the school's Prof. Rajendra Prasad: ``We want private firms to provide us grants. But there are various limitations and no one comes forward. We do not have a professional body which can arrange grants for research projects as is the case at IIT. The grants we receive are individual-based.''JNU undertook 174 projects in 1998 as against 188 undertaken in 1997. The number of fellowships also declined from 312 to 292 in 1998. According to sources at the JNU project cell, the grants are stagnating because ``neither the Government nor the private firms want to invest in test-tube research. They want to put in money for applied research so that they get the benefits immediately and the product can be seen in the market. This is the reason why grants for research projects at professional institutes like IIT are at an all-time high while we are stagnating''.Amongst the prominent non-government and autonomous agencies that fund JNU are the World Health Organisation, University of Carolina, Potts Memorial Foundation and United States Department of Agriculture. The grants, though, are far from substantial.
