Lack of claim bills led to delay in fellowship disbursals: Govt

Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday said the disbursement of fellowships to research scholars was delayed as the host institutions had not submitted claim bills and relevant certificates on time.

In a written reply, Singh told the Rajya Sabha the government had received a few requests from a group of research scholars to revise the fellowship amount, but there was no demand for automatic revision every four years.

''There has been a delay in the recent past in the release of fellowship payment as the claim bills from host institutes and extension/upgradation certificates have not been received in time and also the host institutions were closed due to the lockdown imposed to save the lives from Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 and 2021,'' the minister said.

Singh said the government has taken several steps for building research infrastructure in academic and research institutions and a significant enabling policy framework has been put in place to promote research in the country.

Some of the targeted programmes include Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST) in University departments and Higher Educational Institutions and Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE) for proactively support strengthening the R&D base of the performing varsities.

He said Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIF) provide sophisticated analytical instruments to researchers in general and especially from the institutions which do not have access to such instruments to pursue R&D activities.

''The funding policy ensures support for basic equipment, optimal infrastructure facilities, ready access to information systems, maintenance of equipment, networking, databases and scientific journals and also computational facilities,'' Singh said.