Govt. to provide Rs 70,000 stipend for IIT & IISc researchers

The Union Government has decided to provide Rs 70,000 as a monthly fellowship to those doing their PhDs in IITs or IISc. Union higher education secretary Kewal Kumar Sharma said, "We wish the meritorious students who are being forced to leave the country for purely financial reasons stay within the country."

Currently, a researcher-student get Rs 25,000 as monthly scholarship at IITs and the proposal is to hike this to Rs 70,000. "We will provide 2,000 such monthly fellowships across the IIT system and IISc Bengaluru," Sharma saying at the 67th Foundation Day of IIT Kharagpur. IIT-KGP director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti welcomed the decision and said, "We are hopeful to start it from the next session." According to reports, the scholarship recipients cannot do any other job.