Scholarship Division, Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Government of India, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi-110001, has invited applications for the National Fellowship for ST candidates for the selection year 2019-20, under the scheme of ‘National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST Students’.
The Fellowship is awarded to students selected for pursuing M.Phil/Ph.D after completing Post Graduation, on regular and full time basis. Those who have already taken admission/joined for M.Phil/Ph.D programme would be considered for the Fellowships. Relaxation may be considered in respect of meritorious students who are in the process of taking admission for PhD/MPhil in AIIMs, IITs, NITs, ICAR, IIMs.
Applicant should be an Indian Citizen belonging to Scheduled Tribe community. Applicant should have taken full time admission/joined for M.Phil/Ph.D programme in the university/Institutes/colleges which covers under the following category (i) Universities/institutions/Colleges included under section 2(f) or 12(B) or 2(f) and 12(B) of UGC Act (ii) Deemed to be Universities included under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 and eligible to receive grants-in-aid from UGC (iii) Universities/ Institutions/ Colleges funded by Central/ State Government (iv) Institutes of National Importance.
ST students once considered eligible for the Fellowship shall not be entitled for any other scholarship of the Centre or State Government the same study. In order to qualify for Senior Research Fellowship a candidate will have to fulfil the UGC/ICAR norms prescribed in this regard.
The total number of fresh fellowships each year will be 750. In case of non-availability of adequate number of Scheduled Tribe candidates, the number of fellowships not availed during a year will be carried forward to the next academic session. There is no State/University wise ceiling on number of slots.
In case the number of candidates exceeds the number of available awards, the MoTA will select the candidates based on a criterion of marks obtained in the last passed examination. Slots will be provided to sub-categories in the following priority- (i) Person with Disability (PWD) WD- 3% of total slots (ii) Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group PVTG (List at Annexure-VIII at the revised guidelines document at https://tribal.nic.in/Schemes.aspx)- 50 slots (iii) BPL- 50 slots (iv) Female- 30% of total slots. In case of adequate number of application is not received for the above sub-category, then slots will be allotted to eligible ST candidates on the basis of inter-se merit based on last passed examination.
The maximum duration for which the fellowships are available will be 2 years for enrolment of M.Phil and 5 years, exclusively for Ph.D. For enrollment of Ph.D after completion of M.Phil, it will be 2 years for M.Phil and 3 years for Ph.D.
Financial Assistance for Fellowship: For MPhil, the fellowship amount will be Rs.25000/- p.m. Contingency will be Rs.10000/- per year for Humanities & Social Sciences; Rs.12000/-per year for Science, Engineering Technology. For Ph.D, monthly fellowship will be Rs.28000/- p.m. Contingency will be Rs.20500/- per year for Humanities & Social Sciences and Rs.25000/- per year for Science, Engineering Technology. HRA will be as per rules of the University/Institutions/Colleges. Escorts/Reader Assistance of Rs.2000/-p.m will be given in case of physically handicapped and blind candidates for all the subjects.
Payment of the Fellowship amount of the scheme for STs would be made through the system of Direct Benefit Transfer through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge into the Aadhaar seeded bank a/c of the beneficiaries from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Applications can be submitted at https://tribal.nic.in/nfs.aspx, latest by 30 September 2019.
For more details visit https://tribal.nic.in/Schemes.aspx
