NEW DELHI: The Centre has raised the monthly stipends of Junior Research Fellows, Senior Research Fellows and Research Associates for basic science research from January 1. The monthly stipend of Junior Research Fellows has been increased to Rs 31,000 from the current Rs 25,000, marking a rise of 24 per cent.  The Senior Research Fellowship has been hiked to Rs 35,000. The emoluments for Research Associates, who are hired in three categories, will now be Rs 47,000- Rs 54, 000 per month.

The order to this effect was issued by the Department of Science and Technology, the coordinating body for deciding on emoluments and service guidelines for research fellowships in basic science, in consultation with the Union HRD Ministry on Wednesday. A group of scholars had met Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar earlier this month, following which he had said that the “government is positive about the demand”.  

The researchers in various parts of the country have been protesting for a hike in their stipends since April last year.  In 2014, the government had announced a 56 per cent hike in the fellowships and had assured the researchers that they would be revised every four years. Many researchers, however, expressed resentment against Wednesday’s order saying that while JRFs had been demanding a rise of 80 per cent in the monthly emoluments, the government has not raised it even by half of that.