Final year IIT/NIT PhD students call for research tenure extension amidst pandemic

Joint Research Council of India (JRCI) has requested an extension of at least six months in the five-year research period for final year IIT and NIT researchers due to a Covid-19 pandemic.

The Council headed by IIT-Guwahati research scholar Vikrant Singh has moved Union MHRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' to initiate extension measures to present doctoral dissertations, which were scheduled for July-August 2020.

JRCI expressed the hope that MHRD will take prompt action to extend the duration to six months or a year, depending on the situation of the pandemic, as well as to help with the fellowship during that time.

"The Joint Research Council of India has recognized the issues facing the country's research scholars in these lock-up periods.

We are working to draw the attention of the respective authorities, ministers, MHRD, UGC to the problems that have arisen as a result of this covid pandemic and to how they have an impact on mental health and put a strain on our talents.

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We wrote a letter to the Minister of Human Resources Development to address the issue of students who were to complete their PhD in July-August, but were unable to complete their theses or complete the relevant procedures due to a lockdown, "said JRCI President Vikrant Singh.

JRCI — an association of Indian researchers said in the memorandum on Tuesday that they were with the government in all respects and "we appreciate the efforts that have been made to fight against Covid-19."

However, as most research scholars have left their research equipment in the hostels and laboratories, they have said that it is almost impossible for scholars to work from home at this last stage.

"Unfortunately, we have lost these past months without any progress at all in this peak time of research. Previously the scholars were getting 6 months fellowship extension in almost every IITs/NITs. This time many institutes have already denied providing the extensions. So, if we are being exempted from the fellowship extension, then basically we are losing 1 year in total and counting, which is a very miserable issue for a scholar," JRCI said in the memorandum, cautioning that depriving the scholars from the fellowship extensions will only lead to chaos in the coming generation of research which in fact will hamper the true growth of the country.

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