Image for representation only
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStock
For several weeks, research scholars spanning a range of Central and State universities and scientific disciplines across India, have been pleading with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for their research stipends.
The forum for their complaints are primarily X and LinkedIn, and their prime gripe is the delay – ranging anywhere from eight months to 13 months – for their scholarship funds. Citing the mental agony of being penniless plus a lack of responsiveness from the DST, which is under the Ministry of Science and Technology, some are openly expressing “regret” at choosing to pursue scientific research in India.
“Timely disbursal is a dream. For some, delays have lasted for over a year without any stipend. Worse, when we reach out for help, our emails go unanswered. The helpline responses are often rude, as though we are begging — not requesting what we’re rightfully owed. Is this how we treat our country’s researchers? Is this the encouragement we give to our brightest minds?” posted Sanket Jagale, an INSPIRE-Fellowship scholar working at the Plasma and Nano-materials laboratory lab at the Savitrabai Phule University, Pune, on LinkedIn.
‘No money for rent’
Another scholar, affiliated to the same university but who declined to be identified, told The Hindu that she hadn’t received her scholarship money since March 2024. “I have money for rent only for another month or so. It is humiliating to pursue research this way, especially when I have cleared the very challenging requirements to be a DST-INSPIRE scholar in the first place, do research and then see my contemporaries who have pursued engineering jobs earn dependable salaries,” she told The Hindu.
Scholarship for researchers from minority background face four-month delay
Several scholarships are conferred on doctoral students by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the University Grants Commission (UGC). Scientists and research scholars say that a three- or four-month delay in the disbursal of money is common and factored into the average research scholar’s yearly planning. Until 2022, the INSPIRE fellowships offered by the DST too largely followed this regime. However, two significant changes have reportedly made the disbursal crisis worse in the DST – incidentally the largest source of research funds for civilian research in India.
The first was in September 2022 when as part of a directive by the Finance Ministry to streamline funds spent by the Central government, recipients of DST funds (grants to scientists for research and scholarships) at the institutional level (universities, research institutes etc.) had to open ‘zero-balance accounts’ with the Bank of Maharashtra. Thus, all the unspent funds with universities had to first be redirected to these new bank accounts. The Hindu has learnt that the technological architecture guiding the fund flow didn’t work well.
Following this, in December 2024, all the institutions were required to open new ‘zero-balance accounts’ with the Union Bank of India under a new initiative called ‘Hybrid-TSA,’ whereby schemes valued over ₹1,000 crore required a new set of accounting procedures. The net result was that all the work done in creating new accounts and verifying account balances had to be duplicated, thus delaying disbursement and causing the backlog.
The new process also brought the stipends payable to research scholars under the same category as funds for buying equipment and conducting research. The latter usually involves a detailed and time-consuming appraisal process. “Keeping the scholarships/ fellowships in the same category seems illogical. Imagine the same scientists or officials in the treasury are asked to do work for nine-plus months, then all their salaries come at once. They will be up in arms,” a PhD scholar with a top-ranked Indian Institute of Technology told The Hindu, requesting anonymity.
‘Problems addressed’
The Hindu reached out to the DST with a detailed questionnaire but didn’t get a response till press time. When contacted, DST Secretary Abhay Karandikar didn’t explain the rationale behind the changes in processes and the reasons for the delay. He said he was “aware” of the disbursement crisis but said that from June 2025, all scholars would get their money on time. “All problems have been addressed. I don’t foresee any issue in future.”
The INSPIRE fellowships, which commenced in 2008, were envisioned to ensure that students with an aptitude and talent for basic sciences were financially motivated to be researchers in basic sciences, rather than more immediately lucrative careers in information technology, engineering, and finance. Every year, around 1,000 aspirant doctoral candidates are awarded the scholarships.
The basic eligibility criteria for an INSPIRE fellowship are that the aspirant should either be a first rank holder in engineering, sciences or applied sciences streams at the post-graduate level or be an ‘INSPIRE scholar’ with a 70% aggregate score through graduation and post-graduation. An ‘INSPIRE scholar’ is someone who was in the top 1% of students in Class XII Boards and top 10,000 performers in the IIT-JEE and other national exams. A screening committee will then select doctoral candidates based on their research proposals.
Published – May 24, 2025 03:40 am IST