Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme

In News 

Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology launched Phase II of the Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme.

About Phase II of the scheme 

• It is being launched with enhanced features to serve the purpose of productive research in India.
• It aims to support 1000 Full-Time PhD Candidates, 150 Part-Time PhD Candidates, 50 Young Faculty Research Fellowships and 225 Post-Doctoral Fellowships.
• It aims to promote research in 42 emerging technologies in Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) and Information Technology (IT)/ Information Technology Enabled Services(ITES).

About Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme

• It was initiated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 2014 with the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) with an objective to enhance the number of PhDs in ESDM and IT/IT Enabled Services sectors in the country.
• PhD seats were allocated to 97 institutions (IITs, NITs, Central & State Universities etc.) in 25 states and 4 Union Territories.  
• The scheme is a manifestation of the Prime Minister’s vision of providing world-class education and opportunities for research and development to the students at the bottom of the pyramid in society. 

• Salient features of the PhD Scheme are as follows:

• It provides 25% more fellowship amount than most of the other PhD Schemes.
• Part-time PhD candidates get a one-time incentive on completion of the PhD.
• The scheme also supports 200 Young Faculty Research Fellowships in the areas of ESDM and IT/ITES with the objective to retain and attract bright young faculty members in these sectors.

• Objectives:
  • Give thrust to R&D, create an innovative ecosystem and enhance India’s competitiveness in these knowledge-intensive sectors.
  • To fulfil the commitments made in National Policy on Electronics (NPE 2012) and National Policy on Information Technology (NPIT 2012)
    • They recommend giving special thrust on significantly increasing the number of PhDs in the country to enable India to compete globally in the coming decades, to develop an ecosystem of research, development and IP creation in these knowledge-intensive sectors.

• The results of 1st phase: 

• The results of the 1st phase of the scheme are really encouraging with 63 global patents and the publication of thousands of research papers in reputed international journals.

Source: PIB