VARANASI : Four BHU research scholars have been awarded the prestigious Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship for the May 2022 cycle. Sulagna Basu (Bioinformatics) (Direct entry category), Pranshu Kumar Gupta (Chemistry), Punit Dubey (Physics) – Institute of Science, and Arpan Mukherjee – Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development (Lateral Entry), have been selected for the coveted scheme which is open to very few Central Universities. Aimed at fostering high quality research, the PMRF scheme seeks to attract the best talent into research. It was launched in the budget 2018-2019.

As part of the scheme selected research scholars receive an attractive fellowship and a research contingency grant. The fellowship amount for the first two years is Rs. 70,000 per month, followed by Rs. 75,000 per month for the third year and Rs. 80,000 per month in fourth and fifth years. During the course of the fellowship, researchers are also eligible to get a research contingency grant of Rs. 2 lakh per annum. The candidates are selected through a very rigorous selection process carried out at the national level.

Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sudhir K Jain has congratulated the research scholars for the award of PMRF. He exuded confidence that the number of selections from BHU will see a significant increase next year in view of some structural changes made by the university in recent times in the PhD course work and the outstanding quality of research and research scholars that the university is endowed with.

Dr. Mousumi Mutsuddi, coordinator for the scheme in BHU also expressed happiness over the selection of BHU students for the fellowship.