Lok Sabha Question No. 1665 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-30
Subject: Research Fellowships for Rural and Underprivileged
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Kunduru Raghuveer

## DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1665 (ANSWERED ON 30.07.2025)

Research Fellowships for Rural and Underprivileged

## 1665.  SHRI KUNDURU RAGHUVEER:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  number  of  rural  students  and  researchers  benefitted from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) fellowship schemes during the last five years;
- (b) whether there is any reservation or quota for students from backward districts such as those in Telangana, if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the steps taken/being taken to popularize research fellowships among rural and underprivileged students?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES

(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

The  number  of  research  students  supported  by  the  Council  of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) under its Capacity Building and Human Resource Development Scheme during the last five years and their distribution on Rural/ Urban classification is as under:

| Year    |   Number of Research scholars |   Research students having rural background |   Research students having Urban/Semi- Urban background |
|---------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
| 2020-21 |                          9765 |                                        4590 |                                                    5175 |
| 2021-22 |                         10885 |                                        5116 |                                                    5769 |
| 2022-23 |                          9185 |                                        4317 |                                                    4868 |
| 2023-24 |                          7289 |                                        3426 |                                                    3863 |
| 2024-25 |                          7796 |                                        3664 |                                                    4132 |

Anusandhan National Research Foundation (erstwhile SERB)

Total number of researchers (including those from rural background) across the country supported by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation  (erstwhile  SERB)  under  different  programs,  namely  JC Bose National Fellowship, National Post-Doctoral Fellowship (N-PDF), Ramanujan Fellowship, SERB-POWER Fellowship during the last five years is as under:

| Year    |   Total number of researchers |
|---------|-------------------------------|
| 2020-21 |                           277 |
| 2021-22 |                           335 |
| 2022-23 |                           305 |
| 2023-24 |                           202 |
| 2024-25 |                           225 |

Department of Science and Technology (DST)

Total number of beneficiaries (including those from rural background) across  the  country  supported  by  the  Department  of  Science  and Technology  (DST)  under  different  programs,  namely  Innovation  in Science  Pursuit  for  Inspired  Research  (INSPIRE)  and  Women  in Science  and  Engineering-KIRAN  (WISE-KIRAN)  during  the  last  five years is as under:

| Year    |   Total number of beneficiaries |
|---------|---------------------------------|
| 2020-21 |                           34067 |
| 2021-22 |                           41911 |
| 2022-23 |                           53152 |
| 2023-24 |                           63289 |
| 2024-25 |                           68464 |

- (b) CSIR provides reservation in its CSIR-UGC JRF-NET Examination to candidates  belonging  to  Scheduled  Castes  (SC),  Scheduled  Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Divyangjan (PWD) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS). Further, ANRF (erstwhile SERB) has a special program as IRG (erstwhile EMEQ) to support research and development activity for SC/ST communities of rural and different sections  of  society,  which  includes  the  appointment  of  JRF/SRFs where fellowship is being paid.
- (c) To popularise CSIR research fellowships among rural and underprivileged students, CSIR provides age relaxation to candidates belonging to OBC-NCL /SC/ST/PwD/Third gender/Women categories. Also, students belonging to OBC-NCL /SC/ST/PwD/Third gender/EWS are also given advantage in application fee, which is less compared to  the  candidates  belonging  to  the  General/Unreserved  category. Further, the candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) /Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST)/ Persons with Disability (PwD)/  Third  gender  category  are  given  relaxation  in  marks  to  be eligible for appearing in NET Exam i.e. 50% marks (without rounding off) in Master's degree or equivalent examination are eligible for this Test  compared  to  55%  for  General/Unreserved  category  students. Further,  ANRF  (erstwhile  SERB)  has  NPDF  scheme  to  identify motivated  young  researchers  and  provide  them  support  for  doing research in frontier areas of science and engineering all across the country including rural and different sections of the society.

*****