TRICHY: Two PhD scholars at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy have secured fellowship under the Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) scheme.
The PMRF scheme - announced in the Budget 2018-19 – was designed to improve quality of research at higher educational institutions by attracting the best talent to research.
M A Sundaramahalingam from chemical engineering and Merlin Mary N J from electrical and electronics engineering are eligible to get a fellowship of Rs 70,000-Rs 80,000 per month for the next five years. Besides this, a research grant of Rs 2 lakh per year will be provided to each of the fellows for a period of five years to cover their academic contingency expenses and for foreign and national travel expenses.
Merlin Mary’s research is focussed on the development of high efficient on-board battery chargers for electric vehicles.
NIT Trichy director Mini Shaji Thomas complimented the research supervisors P Sivashanmugam and Dr Shelas Sathyan for guiding the scholars.