Good News from Hindustan Times entitled "Researchers to get money equal to IAS entrants"...
Arun P. Sikarwar
Monday, 24 August 2009 08:59 UTC
Dear Friends,
I have read one good news on Hindustan Times dated 18th Aug, 2009, with the title “Researchers to get money equal to IAS entrants”.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/newdelhi/Researchers-to-get-money-equal-to-IAS-entrants/Article1-444409.aspx
After reading it, it seems inevitable that soon we will witness hike in fellowships of JRF, SRF and postdoctoral fellowship (Research Associateship) in India.
This news says that there will be more fellowship amount for girls in comparison to boys, as per new initiatives of government of India. Do you feel is it a good sign and justifiable that having same designation two persons will get different fellowships on the basis of being boy or girl? Certainly this step of Government will stop “Brain Drain” to some extent by reducing the number of PhD aspirants and PhD fellows going to abroad for higher salaried PhDS and postdocs.
I wonder if some one paste his/her frank remarks and additional information regarding these new revised fellowships that since what time it will be implemented from CSIR, DBT, ICMR, ICAR or DST? Any how much will be the new fellowship amounts?
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Anonymous
Sounds very lucrative and interesting. But how does it insure a better and brighter future of Indian Science is incomprehensible as of now! Judicious job opportunity is the bottleneck, not the present salary structure of research scholars, to retain them post-PhD. More transparent funding is needed to do science, not the salary benefits! But nonetheless, it is a welcome change.
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IIT-B professors demand pay hike, go on mass leave. Everyone wants salary hike. It’s understandable when we compare Indian salary structure with many other developed countries. But more important question is: will that be translated to higher productivity or help increasing quality of average Indian research? Experiences from the past tell the answer is a big “No”. It’s also not true that increased salary will increase the rate of return of qualified research professionals (by “qualified” I am not referring to degrees or research experience in terms of years or publications but ability to invent or innovate and ability to think out-of-box). Majority of those who are going back to India will go back anyway, with present salary structure. Majority does not have any option to continue in US or other countries and are worried to get a “permanent” position. If you offer them the same money/salary, even without much research infrastructure, they will join. That rate mainly depends on number of people going abroad every year. With ever increasing number of MSc, PhD, post-docs going abroad every year, number of willing returnees will also increase proportionately.
Now coming to true scientists who can deliver. Salary is not the major consideration for them to going back to India. They give more importance to “something else”. That “something else” is beyond just monetary benefit. It’s more to do with actual work coulter, research culture, transparency in recruitments, promotions and grant availability, freedom to work. Unless we change our work ethics, introduce accountability and transparency in our research activities we can not expect a proportional increase in return of real talents to India, whatever salary we may offer.
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The same is true for Indian PostDocs and PhDs. If higher authority is not held accountable for their productivity, junior positions like junior faculties, JRF, SRF, RAs will not get any benefit, financial or otherwise (e.g recognition for their talents). If there is no transparent way to implement and judge “accountability”, no amount of salary hike will do any good to Indian science.
For a quick reminder, did the fellowship hike of JRF from 3000/- to 5000/- to 8000/- pm did change anything in JRF productivity or research quality of any institute in India? I do not think so. I think that the salary hike for any person should be linked to general economy of the country and rate of general inflation there, not more than that. -
Anonymous
Careful reading of the news article indicated by B B Goel justifies the demand of IIT staff.
They are NOT demanding the pay rise but equivalent salary to other scientists working in govt. establishments.
I am sure productivity of IIT Profs is better than majority of other govt. scientists and this demand is justified. Why better salary to scientists who could not make an efficient LCA engine then those who made nano satellite (IITKanpur I believe).
Other option to meet their demand is to reduce the salary of govt. scientists!! and link the increment to productivity.
JRFs and other lower research staff getting 20000 is not a big leap. Today a high school pass, working in a call center is also making 20K per month. Productivity of students cannot increase unless we have a better staff and training. Rs 3000 to 8000 was required to meet the cost of living rise. Similarly today price of small things like salt and sugar have almost doubled. How can a junior staff member sustain the life at same amount?
Here too we have an option. Govt. of India should put the same money to subsidies the atta sugar and salt and REDUCE the salary of everyone. Expenses to the govt. are same for either options!!
We should appreciate Govt. for atleast looking into increasing funding and salaries. If we fail to increase productivity or our Old tainted big “Lions” fail to remove corruption from recruitment and promotions, it is our fault not of our govt.
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Anonymous
I agree with “salary hike for any person should be linked to general economy of the country and rate of general inflation there, not more than that”. If someone wants more than that then s/he need to earn it. Call centre staff, IT people earn their salaries by themselves, not doled out from public money as charity.
I do not agree with “If we fail to increase productivity or our Old tainted big “Lions” fail to remove corruption from recruitment and promotions, it is our fault not of our govt”. If govt is allowing those old tainted lions to use public fund then it becomes the responsibility of the Govt to make sure that the fund is utilized properly. -
Anonymous
IITs are mainly controlled by industrialists. They offer salaries as industrialists do- pay the minimum to get the job done. Here job is to teach at BTech level. Research is secondary. All IITs and newly opened IISc type institutes evaluate its faculties on the basis of teaching, not for research.
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but can anyone brief me on the current pay scales for assistant professors in central universities? thanks
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Dear Rajshekhar
I suppose that after 6th Pay Commission implementation, the present salary might be ~40-50K for assistant Professor, ~60-70K for Associate Professor and upto 1 Lack for Professor in a central University.
You should read the 6th Pay Commission report on some governmental website. -
Emoluments constituent one of the important components of the issues related to scientists/teachers and researcher scholars or postdocs.
The other important component is the professional soundness of the PIs/mentors and the overall milieu of the institution or department. Government intervention can take care of only the first part. The second issue is directly related to fostering creativity which requires a sense of commitment from guys who are already in doing or managing science.
Entry into science and academics is the most crucial step. Any compromise at this point proves disastrous. A rapid switch over to strong for quantitative appraisals/peer-reviews and elimination of subjectivity can remedy the situation.
Om Sharma
omsharma53@yahoo.com -
Anonymous
Dear all,
Though there has been a string of new fellowships for research (for eg. DBT-Wellcome Trust fellowships), the place where you do the research also matters. If you are in a central government institute, you can get paid every month. But if you are in a university, you will get it once in 6 months or even once in a year!! People should realize that even we have a family to support and mouths to feed. They have some inconsiderate government officials who take their own sweet time to process papers and you end up spending a lot of money following up with your salary status. Unless there is a transparency in the system (which I swear will never be) in India, this is again an effort to utopia.
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