Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, the education minister of India, provided details of students admitted in various PhD programmes in the parliament on February 4, 2021. These PhD programmes are present in IITs, IISc and NITs. The education minister addressed relevant questions in the parliament and provided data of admitted students in the last five years i.e., 2016 to 2020. The data included students admitted in each reputed institute along with category-wise data. Moreover, the number of students withdrawing admission from PhD programmes was also mentioned.
The education minister provided details about the total number of students admitted to the IIT PhD programs and the ones who withdrew their admission. He clarified that IITs present at Sonepat, Raichur, Agartala, Bhagalpur, Surat, Bhopal, Kota and Tiruchirappalli have not yet introduced these programs.
Pokhriyal further informed that as of date, a total of 25 IITs are functioning in India. Out of these, 20 are functioning through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode and the rest 05 IITs are funded centrally. Moreover, both these sections are governed by separate acts.
The 20 IITs initially, were given Rs.10 crore funding of repetitive expenditures after which, they have the responsibility of raising funds for their expenses including fellowships. On the contrary, centrally funded IITs shall receive financial assistance from the government for paying fellowships to Ph.D students.
A detailed report of the number of students admitted to PhD programs in various NITs was also presented in the parliament. The report also mentioned the caste-wise distribution of students as well as those who withdrew their admissions. The education minister also informed about the various initiatives taken by NITs to encourage SC, ST, OBC category students and train them in securing admission to such programs.
NITs grant admission to PhD programs based on an open competitive examination. SC, ST and OBC students are given special training facilities to prepare for the GATE examination. These facilities also include special classes conducted for relevant subjects. Moreover, in the examination, cut-off scores are relaxed for such students to increase their enrolment in PhD programs. Lastly, 27%, 15% and 7.5% seats are reserved for the students of OBC, SC and ST categories.
Mr Pokhriyal also provided information about the PhD programs offered in the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) along with a category-wise distribution of the admitted students in the last five years. Along with this, the minister also shed light on the various initiatives taken by the institute to help SC, ST and OBC students.
One of the initiatives taken by the reputed institute is to provide interactions with department faculties and students already involved in these programs as well as visits to institute laboratories. Secondly, the eligibility criteria and cut-off have been relaxed for these students while providing 27%, 15% and 7.5% reservation seats to SC, ST and OBC candidates.
