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296 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 296 of 296@WOOOOOW,
I used the example of deemed private university for a very specific reason - they are not bound by government fixed fees and so will charge what the market will bear, something that is perhaps around the actual cost of running the program. Even after your elaborate arguments, you have come up with a figure of 1.5 lakhs per student per year which adds up to exactly the 6 lakhs per program quoted by SRM. If private colleges of random quality are charging 6 lakhs why should IITs (surely 'better' program, no?) be at 2 lakhs? This is exactly what the IIM's were doing a few years ago, as I pointed out - charging well below 'market rates' and below costs.
And, it is clear that you are out of touch with reality on the class sizes too - most branches have lot more than 30 students in class. For 2011, IITM has admitted approx 830 students in 11 branches (2 programs in most branches, B.Tech. and 5 year dual degree) for an average class size of 75+. Of course, some branches are large, eg. Mech with about 150 students. The smallest program is Engineering Physics with 30 students. (JEE websites have all the number for all the IITs). The argument actually is only about whether IITs should recover the full costs incurred from the graduates or the government should continue to subsidize majorly as it has been traditionally. Your argument is probably that the subsidized model should continue. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other.
I have a query from senior people who are dealing with administration in IITs (like Director, DD, Deans, Heads etc.). For internal promotion from Assistant to Associate due to need 6 years of POST PhD experience or just a total 6 years professional/research/industry experience among which 3 years will be at Assistant Prof. level? Also for Associate to Professor promotion, due to consider 10 years of POST PhD experience or 10 years of professional/research/industry experience among which 4 years will be at Associate Prof. level? This criteria on total experience as per 6PC is NOT so clear. I am asking because mostly in Engineering departments, several faculty comes for PhD after few years of Industry or other professional experiences, so do the admin count those during promotion, if all other criteria are met by a candidate? Detail reply with example or link etc. from experienced people are welcome.
anon@9:24pmSep24,
The official notification from the ministry does not mention post-phd. The wording is reproduced in the IITB standing advertisement on their web site. The same wording is used at IITM (right now IITM has only standing advertisement for assistant professor, so you can check out only for that). I have been hearing that some IIX are interpreting experience to all mean post-PhD and that is not quite in line with MHRD circulars.
Thanks a lot Prof. Sriram for your reply. Yes, IITB adv. and MHRD directives do not mention that it should be Post PhD. So, in true sense all IITs should take it as total experience irrespective of post or pre PhD? Any deviations or following this criteria as examples from IITs will be extremely helpful for candidates.
The "pre-PhD vs post-PhD experience" question has been asked here ad nauseam. I read the MHRD circular, which DOES NOT specify the experience as "post-PhD". It simply requires that the experience acquired DURING the years of the PhD be excluded. So, if an IIT/IISc is considering only post-PhD experience, without an official clarification from the ministry, they could be violating a direct government order.
If enough credit is not given for pre-PhD experience, this could be construed as a SERIOUS violation of labor and compensation laws and result in financial penalties and/or jail terms for the hiring authority, which is usually the director/registrar.
So, if you think that you have been deprived of credit for your pre-PhD experience, you can start by filing an appropriate RTI with the MHRD. If you find your hiring institution was at fault, file a PIL with a good lawyer. The first step will barely cost you 10 rupees.
If found at fault, some people will pay a hefty fine, and some will go to Jail. India takes the violation of labor laws VERY seriously.
Anon 4:03pmSep25,
There are valid grounds for ignoring pre-PhD (or any) experience. Selection committees are empowered to reckon what is relevant experience. A good fraction of those who return to academia to do PhD after working in industry have this difficulty.
Thanks Anon (Sept. 25, 2011 @4:03pm) for clarification about Indian laws etc. Hope in the present case situation will not turn so bitter, let us watch.
Prof. Sriram, it is heard from people that, not even the candidate is allowed to reach Selection committee level to appear for interview, before that either at department or institute level committee, at few IITs, the cases of pre-PhD experiences are getting ignored during internal promotion. If so, probably it can only be handled by Indian law as suggested by Anon above. What do you say in such case? Was there any such situation at IITM or some other IITs about which you may be aware of?
I am not aware of any good University where pre-PhD experience is taken into account while making "academic" appointments in engineering and science departments.
With the number of open tenure-stream positions drying up in North America and the messed up situation in the UK academic sector, IIXs should expect the volume of applications to grow dramatically. Given this situation, there is no clear rationale for such a policy. In my opinion what the IIXs need to do is decide starting salary based on "academic" achievements prior to taking up the post.
In the case of reasonably ranked North American Universities, even post-PhD industrial experience is rarely taken into account unless the candidate has made exceptional contributions. I know of several colleagues with 5-10 years work experience in US national labs after PhD who started off with a tenure-track assistant professor position or in the best case scenario as an associate professor on a 3-year tenure track.
GA
The problem appears to be 35 year rule for assistant professors in IIX. There is no such rule in US for hiring Assistant Professors. In fact it is kind of a discrimination. APs in US get hired routinely at 35-40 years of age. But I am aware of few instances in IIXs where exceptional candidates were not even considered because of being 37. Eventually some of them stayed back in US and are tenured in Research I Universities. IIXs may want to revisit 35 year limit.
Prof. TA
@Prof TA
My dept in IISc is considering a faculty candidate who is above 35 yrs, and the age has hardly been a matter of discussion. But I dont know if that becomes an issue at the institute level selection committee.
an_iisc_prof:
No, it is not an issue. Sometimes, candidates above 35 years are denied because of technical reasons but the reason given to the candidate is that he was denied because he was above 35. There have been several appointments to candidates above 35 in the last five years itself.
Thanks
Giridhar
@ an_iisc_prof
could you let me know if yours is an Engineering dept or in science. I applied to an Engg. dept. for a faculty position at assistant prof level and am above 35.
Thank you,
bsk
@bsk
I am in a science dept.
@iitmsriram
yes like i said the IIM model cannot be followed by engineering schools like IITs. management is for post graduate people to study business. whereas in the case of engineering the nation has a duty to fund engineering(like i said many of the facilities we enjoy today are through science, hence science needs to be funded, this argument cannot be used for an MBA school)
an IIX cannot put the bill of a TEM or a new wind tunnel into the pockets of undergraduate students.
also yes it is true that the cost of an undergraduate education per student must be around 1.5 lakhs / year. but let us take the case of IIX. profs here are primarily employed to do research and teaching is a part time job. so again the Government of India is going to employ the profs or researchers anyway. it is just that the prof has a duty to teach/train and thus give something back to the society for the salary he/she is receiving. and in addition to this profs get reserarch students to work for them!
now under these circumstances charging a BTech IIT gradute 6 lakhs is ridiculous.(like i said prof salaries or facilities cannot be used as proper arguments to charge this amount since profs/researchers are going to be employed anyway and equipments are going to be procured anyway by GOI)(also the IIM argument doesn't work. it is a post graduate management institute. the nation shoudn't have any obligations to fund an IIM and rightly so. so it is a completely different scenario).
2 lakhs is high enough and reasonable enough, and even under this scheme there must be some relaxation/loans given to the poorer students(especially of the general category, since i don't think they get any relaxation).
also regarding the strengths, from what i know the strengths were around 35-45 per class of a BTech discipline(although this was 6 years back). i'm not sure about the strengths now.
-WOOOOW
Hi all,
It is quite likely that I will have an interview with IITB in the coming few weeks. I would appreciate if any of you have any recent interview experiences to share.
@Ankur
IITB used to rarely conduct formal interviews for their own graduates based overseas. Looks like things have changed now.
In my experience, when you apply for a faculty position in the same department you graduated from, then the interview should be a mere formality (almost everyone should know you very well) and in all likelihood the outcome is decided well in advance. In all cases when there is a senior faculty member championing the candidate's case and the current HOD is sympathetic then all should be well.
If I have guessed correctly the department you applied to, then I suppose teaching will be an important item on the interview agenda (especially given recent developments). Be prepared to discuss your plans for teaching/developing (upto) 2 core undergraduate courses and an elective course for 4th year BTech/MTech students.
Good luck.
Anon Uncle
Dear Professor Giri,
Can husband's parents be counted as dependent? I am a female faculty at IIX.
@Anon Uncle,
Thanks for your input. I have applied to IEOR and SysCon at IITB. Does this alter your suggestions?
Anonymous @ October 2, 2011 4:31 AM
In-laws are eligible but only if they live with you && earn they less than Rs, 3,500 pm (you should check specific number at your IIX).
In my case my father's pension is around 3.5 times the limit, so I could not get health insurance for my parents. This may seem like a ridiculously low limit but if you consider the fact that planning commission thinks a person needs only Rs. 32 per day be considered above poverty line, you will forgive your IIX!!
According to this blog,
The definition of family, is the employee's spouse, two unmarried children or divorced/separated daughter, parents (or stepmother but not stepfather), unmarried minor brothers, unmarried/ divorced/separated sister wholly dependent on the employee and normally staying with the employee.
For medical purposes, their total income including pension should not be greater than Rs. 3500 per month.
In the case of women employees, there is a choice to include either the parents or the parents-in-law as dependents. This is the general government rule, but each IIX has some slight variations, so check with your own admin section.
Per general government rules, women employees have a choice of including either parents or parents-in-law as dependents. Each IIX has its own local variations of rules, so the local IIX admin section will have to be contacted to confirm if they follow this.
Anyone knows if IIT-KGP allows video conferencing way of interview for faculty recruitment?
Last year a friend of mine was interviewed at IIT-KGP through Skype. He joined a few months later. Not sure if he has been hired "on contract".
Dear Prof. Giri,
Do you know when the list of Ramanujan fellows is expected to be announced in 2011? It was announced twice last year, in June and in December. But there is no announcement till now in 2011.
Thanks.
@Prof Giridhar
I have the same question as the anon above regarding Ramanujan fellowships. If you are aware of any updates, or suggest how we can get updates, that would be helpful. Thanks.
Please contact the DST person in charge of the Ramanujam fellowship.
@ Prof. Giri
He (Shri Kohli) doesn't reply to emails. Can you tell us any other source of information? Thanks.
If you are in IISc/major IIT, you will know who is on the committee that decides these fellowships. Ask them nicely and they will tell you.
All the big shots in IISc will know about the results and they will tell a colleague.
@Anon 11:50 PM
I am currently neither in an IIT nor in IISc. I am a postdoc in the USA and a reputed Indian institute has nominated me for this fellowship. Now, how do I know of the possible date of result announcement? The director of the institute which has nominated me apparently doesn't have much information on this. And, Shri Kohli never responds to emails.
For those of us not privy to friendships with the decision makers, please let us know if you hear something.
Also Prof Madras some time ago mentioned that there was some talk about the fellowship amount being increased particularly since the latest DA increase makes the fellowship amount less or at least equal to IIX AP salaries. Any updates on that ?
Thanks
T.D
To be fair to Shri Kohli, he did reply to one of my questions about Ramanujan fellowship and he did that rather fast. Since my question had a ready-made answer (albeit in negative!), he was quick to reply. But maybe when you ask about the results or status of Ramanujan fellowship, he, either has no answer or is expecting the answer soon...cant blame really!
If you are not privy to friendships with the decision makers, you are unlikely to get the fellowship.
There may be exceptions like Giri who are not great friends of these decision makers but get some fellowships. But that is the exception, not the rule.
Don't get frustrated that the DST officer is not answering. You have to routinely deal with such people if you work in India.
IIT prof.
"If you are not privy to friendships with the decision makers, you are unlikely to get the fellowship."
That is true anywhere in the world, not just in India. Exception occur when your work is so good that it just stands out on its own.
LAST COMMENT!
Dear Prof. Giri,
Can you please tell me about the "Ph.D. with first class or equivalent at the preceding degree" criterion for hiring the faculties in IIT. How strict are they about the so called First class ? First class definition is completely different for different institutions. For example, most of the universities have 60 % as first class and some universities like JNU New Delhi have 6.5/9 (72.2 %) as lower first class. It is strange that IIT have this kind of rule for hiring faculties. I think they should look for national level examination score like JRF or GATE score as criterion rather non-uniform value first class definition. Thank you in advance.
It is not Ph.D with first class but first class in the preceding degree. It is a requirement imposed by MHRD and prof. giri or anybody else can do nothing about it.
In addition, they can not impose criteria like GATE or JRF. Faculty in IISc like prof.giri's department hire only b.tech's from IITs and these b.tech will not write GATE even if their life is dependent on it.
"And, Shri Kohli never responds to emails."
Why don't you call him?
Regarding the increase in the amount of fellowship, you can get Rs. 75,000 from DST and free housing and medical benefits from the host institution. This will be higher than the current AP salary. I do not know of any move to increase the fellowship.
Giridhar
What is the difference between "visiting assistant professor" and "assistant professor on contract" positions in an IIT?
How long does IIT Guwahati take to announce the outcomes of the faculty recruitment interviews?
@Prof. Giri
Please try to call Shri Kohli at this number 011-26590499 and see what happens.
In short, there is no way to know about Ramanujan fellowship if one is not a relative of one of the decision makers. Unfortunately, my father, mother or uncle is not a scientist, forget being an influential one. I should have thought about that when I started my PhD.
Hi everyone,
One professor from a very top university posed several questions in front of me about the IISC/IITs
1. why inspite of having the so called best UGs in the world, IIXs have basically no major foorprint in research. Why are we not able to attract the UGs to our research programmes.
2. why is there so much heterogenity in the faculty quality in IIXs. You have good calibre people while you have very very ordinary ones. this heterogenity is much higher in IIXs.
3. Nowadays in IIXs there is lots of money for experimental work but do we have qualified students and workforce to deal with those equipments or keep them up and running
1. No undergrad IIT student will join for Ph.D. The quality of Ph.D is not so high and abysmal compared to top US universities. Further, the scholarship amounts are very low.
2. Atleast 50% of the recruitment is based on favoritism in IITs. In Univs, it is more than 85%, so IITs are better than Univs. That's why you have mediocre people.
3. No. Because no one cares. Faculty have cushy government jobs from day one and mediocre people are given promotions. No one gets motivated.
It is amusing (and sad considering the readership of this blog) that tenure is deemed to be the poster child of everything wrong with academia in India. The magic fix seems to be to make all appointments untenured. Since we are in the business of copying the US (of course most of its ills) this is quite reasonable ! I am reminded of the arguments Republicans usually make towards making America better and the excuses thereafter !!
TD
The rot will continue till the system is based factors other than merit.
But who is going to bell the cat?
TA
@TA
As a somewhat recent entrant to Indian science, I find that at least for IIX's, the biggest push towards selecting candidates comes from the grand poobah's of the field. It is not the Sadhu Yadav's or the Chatur Singh Cheetah's (though words of Chief Ministers have been known to influence Director level appoints for good or bad). The question is how to stop scientists from hurting Indian science.
The Director level's have dictator like powers. These are the people who can make or break an institute (to a large extent). There are many examples in Indian science where excellent leadership meant excellent hires, excellent administration and in turn envious reputation.
No doubt nepotism in hiring is an issue -academia cannot be immune to corruption in a otherwise corrupt country. But in my humble opinion that is a much smaller problem compared to everything else that goes on.
TD
List of Ramanujan fellows announced! I am among the selected :-)
how did you know or where did you find the list for the Ramanujan Fellowship ?
Never mind. Here is the list:
http://www.dst.gov.in/scientific-programme/Ramanujan_Fellowship_Aug_2011.pdf
@anon Oct 10, 4:56 am, congrats. Now, share with us how many uncles and other contacts you had in the fellowship selection committee. I think we need some data on the random posts by anons here who don't believe merit counts for much.
@IITSriram
Thanks. No one in my family has ever been remotely connected to research.
But I must say that my USA stamp helped!
@prof. Giri
I am another recipient of Ramanujan fellowship. Do you know whether Ramanujan fellowship is transferable? For example, if I got nominated by institute X, can I decide to join institute Y with the fellowship?
I agree that USA stamp helps for this fellowship.
Congratulations to all those who got the fellowship.
I didn't get it and I am of course disappointed. But unlike those anons who find refuge in lack of uncles and aunties in the search committee, I have no such complaints. May be my proposal wasn't good enough, or publications insufficient. I will try my luck with other proposals, with better preparation. I do hope it would have been great if DST send us reviews (just like Welcome trust does) and if they decide these fellowships within better deadlines.
@October 10, 2011 2:14 PM
US stamp may help but it seems insufficient, as in my case!
I am panning to apply for the fellowship this year. Could the winners highlight what are the typical expectations in terms of publications and age? I know it varies a lot depending on the research area. At least if the winners can share their profile for the prospective applicants, it would give some idea.
Best
KK
I am one of the winers. Congratulations to the other winners. My profile can be found below,age 28. http://www.ittc.ku.edu/~saswata/
Would anyone know what the basis of the order of the list of candidates are for the Ramanujan Fellowship ? Each applicant has serial numbers which are all over the place and of course not in alphabetical order.
Also does not make sense that only 88 would have applied.
Congratulations to all winners! Could you guide us as to when you applied for the fellowship? In particular, did you have a formal offer from your host institute when you applied?
I am very impressed by the quality of applicants for this fellowship.
Scrolling through the first few pages of the list I found an applicant with "ivy league" pedigree and a dozen or so papers (including first-author papers in PNAS & PRL) who has been rejected!!! Even a top-20 US University would consider this chap a major catch. I wonder if there are more cases like this....
This year too, like in the previous year, there seems to be a bio bias. Can anyone please explain this?
Also, since there is some suspicion that merit may not be the only consideration, it would be great if the winners can share what they think made them successful.
@Ankur
The selection criteria seems to be merit as defined by consistent academic track record from school level rather than an inflated publication list due to N coauthors. I appreciate the selection committee in this respect.
P.S. I am a winner as well from the US. I agree with anons above that US tags help but may not be sufficient.
Most of the fellowships appear to have been awarded to experimentalists. I could only find a few young guys and girls in computational science & engineering.
How does the nomination mechanism works at IIX for this fellowship? Do we need to contact the HOD and director directly? It is kind of vague. Can recipients of this fellowship explain their experience in application process? Will be extremely helpful for future applicants. Also, what happens if someone has already the AP offer. Does it help in getting nominated..?
Best
KK
I think the Ramanujan fellowship should be comparable in terms of prestige to fellowships in the western world such as the UK EPSRC Leadership fellowship and the Canada Research Chairs program. However, unlike the latter two schemes, there is no element of peer review while deciding the recipients of Ramanujan fellowships.
In my experience, it is impossible to put together a selection committee that covers the broad range of areas that lie within the remit of the Ramanujan fellowship program. This explains why a bias towards certain areas appear so strongly. I would urge the DST to consider submitting the nomination package of each candidate to national and international external referees and accounting for this feedback in the decision making process.
Another idea worth looking into is to have a specified number of awards for each research area or alternatively signpost certain areas were nominations are preferred. Such a system needs to be flexible so that if there are insufficient number of nominations meeting the quality threshold in a certain area, these places can go to other areas where there are more high quality nominations. This is essential to ensure that we can build national research capacity across a range of important areas.
Prof. G
Seems that DST/DBT is pretty flexible. At least on paper there is no fixed number, the limit being appropriate candidates. Same goes for area of research. How it actually happens is anyones guess.
As for external experts, I am not sure if external experts worth their salt would have time to peer review these applications. These candidates are selected by the sponsoring institutes, and then DST/DBT has a selection committee. If each are doing their job, then why more ? As it is this is a time consuming process.
I asked my colleagues how Ramanujan Fellowship helped them other than grant/ salary. Most were not sure.
Does it make getting a regular grants easier ?
I have a question similar to one of the anons above.
I got nominated for this fellowship by institute X, and a better institute Y is now showing interest to host me. Can I decide to join institute Y with the fellowship?
If you are the student of Prof X at an IIX who has 2 inches of award after their name, and if that person supports you, you are golden. That happens in the US, it happens more in India.
If you are someone who has a good record, and have no connections to India, you can still get this fellowship. There are no questions about that.
I look at it this way. If you have connections, everything in life becomes easier. And if you do not have then life becomes harder. Some in this latter category will work towards forging connections, some will let their work talk and maybe in the process miss out on some of the inches that gets added after your name. It is really about what makes you happy. I see no point in complaining.
@October 11, 2011 6:50 AM
"The selection criteria seems to be merit as defined by consistent academic track record from school level rather than an inflated publication list due to N coauthors. I appreciate the selection committee in this respect."
At the time of application I had 10 papers, of which 9 were first authored with only one other coauthor, and with three of them in high impact journals (including press coverage for one of them).
I am not selected but as you say, its possible that they looked at things like my undergrad GPA (which wasn't bad). I do see that some of the selected do have better record while some dont (in terms of publication only) but I really dont have time to check them all! Also, I am curious what role the proposal played. Note that I am not complaining, but only curious, because my view is that some of these selections always have an element of randomness.
I wonder if the last name mattered a lot. This is because one can see that quite a few (about half?) are from one particular state? BTW, this is also the same fate in many other matters of scientific selections. And, no one can deny that the prevalence of parochialism in Indian science!
@rap
Sorry that you did not get it. The questions you raise can possibly be answered only by the selection committee members. As for randomness, any selection is subjective, from the smallest to the highest awards. It is never easy to make a list across disciplines.
@ anon October 11, 2011 9:31 PM
Either a sore loser or a parochial scientist !
@Anon 9:31 PM
People born in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have traditionally done well in science and mathematics. Check out the history of science in India. Therefore, it is not a surprise that the list contains many surnames from these states.
Anon @October 11, 2011 9:31 PM
Since you are analyzing names to find hidden trends, perhaps you can also do a numerological analysis of the names and suggest changes for our names that can make us successful. May be my chances will improve if I change my name to Ankkurr?
Dear Prof G.,
Your analysis seems reasonable. I was wondering if you could answer some of these questions:
Is the Bio bias because of the bias in the number of applicants with bio background or because of a conscious effort encourage more research in bio?
Considering the committee may be broad in its background, is it more likely to fund "hot" or "glamorous" areas or proposals that attempt deep problems? Likewise is there likely to be a thrust for big problems - like climate change etc?
Is there likely to be a thrust for research areas that are underrepresented in Indian academia? Or is the merit of the proposal the only consideration?
Or am I wrong in thinking that there is a thrust at all and all candidates are judged on a case by case basis?
Dear Looser!
Please stop this discussion!
And Prof. Giri,
Can you please make a fresh pinned post? Comments are now on second page!
Does the committee interview short listed candidates for Ramanujan fellowship or is it purely based on recommendations and CV?
@Anon above
No, the application does not contain recommendation letters. Its only cv and the proposal. As Prof G says, it seems they are not reviewed by external referees, but that the search-cum selection committee makes the final recommendation based on those two.
@Ankur
Good questions and I hope DST will make its criteria more transparent. But I dont think anyone can answer your questions unless they themselves are on the selection committee or know someone there. If you have a good profile try your luck.
In my case, I sent my application through my iix after i had the formal offer and I had also accepted it. I have *heard* that DST wants only those people who are not yet returned to, or not committed to return to, India. I dont know if my nomination letter from my iix said that I had already accepted the offer. I know there have been a number of instances where those who applied just after coming to India, even if they had brilliant profiles, were rejected even last year. So I think it may be a good idea to apply sufficiently early, before accepting your offer. Some people apply before getting the offer itself, if the iix is so willing.
But remember that as of now, the current salary at a phd+3 yrs postdoc experienced asst professor is more than 75,000 at metros. Unless they increase the fellowship money, the major advantage of this fellowship is the contingency grant of 5 lacks per annum -- which can be very helpful. Good luck!
What not to write on your web-site if you are looking at attracting faculty to your "new" IIT:
Like the oasis in the vast desert, the city has a variety of thorny shrubs all over the area. It also home to some of the animal species that can survive in an arid and dry environment.
No prizes for guessing which IIT it is!!!
@Ankur
I am afraid I am not the right person to comment on the points you raised. I left the IIX system decades ago but I occasionally read Prof. Madras's blog to see what is going on.
I made my post after I was somewhat shocked to find a young applicant with an excellent publication track-record who was denied. In my view, this guy has outstanding potential - papers in PRL and PNAS as first author (2 author papers). I may be a bit biased since I work in computational science and I tend to have a soft corner for young researchers in this area.
I haven't check the list completely so I am not sure if there are many applicants from engineering for this fellowship. I am also very curious about the composition of the selection committee and which disciplines they belong to. Given the lack of formal peer-review and explicitly advertised strategic research thrusts, these two factors would probably explain some of the trends people have observed.
Prof. G
is buying LTC-80 ticket from air india office mandatory to avail LTC. If for e.g. I buy a cheaper air india economy ticket online, will IISc allow that to go thru.
Thanks
Would anyone (particularly past fellowship holders of Ramanujan/ Ramalingaswami/ other fellowships) know if thesefellowships are taxable ? I heard a yes and a no from two people.
Also if anyone gave up one fellowship for another, would you share how you chose the one you have ?
Reply for 'is buying LTC-80 ticket from air india office mandatory to avail LTC. If for e.g. I buy a cheaper air india economy ticket online, will IISc allow that to go thru.'
NO, it is not mandatory, atleast in IITB it is not mandatory to buy LTC-80. Any Air India economy class ticket (apex or full fare) is eligible for LTC. Hope the same must be true in IISc also.
IISc will not refund full economy fare effective 2010. Only LTC-80 is eligible. If you buy non LTC-80 fare online, you should show that it is cheaper than LTC-80 (published LTC-80 fares are online). Because LTC-80 can be cancelled without much charges, I would advise you to buy that.
Ramanujam and other fellowships are taxable.
http://giridharmadras.blogspot.com/2011/04/overseas-talent.html
@ anon October 13, 2011 11:53 PM
DBT (for its fellowships) allows you to keep the contingency even if you decide during the term of the fellowship that you want to avail the institute salary (particularly after 3 years when you go to PB-4 if you are employed by a IIX). Ramanujan fellowship is a package - you have to take the salary to be able to use the contingency.
Dear Prof. Giridhar and Prof. Sriram,
I have returned to India in April 2010 after doing postdoc in US. Since then I am working as a scientist in industry. I have 5 years of postdoc experience and have so far so far published 25 refereed journal articles with an ‘h’ index 8. My query is
do I have a realistic chance of getting Ramanujan Fellowship if I apply?
@above.
Ramanujan fellowship is meant to attract people from abroad. So if you are already in India, you are not eligible to apply.
@Ankur Kulkarni
In an earlier round, my Ramanujan fellowship proposal which was relevant to climate change had got selected. And some people with better profile were not selected. As I have no uncles to support me in Indian academia, I am sure that the proposal played a role.
Dear Prof. Sriram and Prof. Madras,
I would soon be joining as a new faculty in one of the old IITs, and am curious about taking leave during summer and winter vacations. Can I go as a visiting professor in institutes abroad during the whole period of summer and winter vacations? Also, after how many years of service, I would be eligible to take a sabbatical?
Anon Oct 17 7:50 AM,
Rules vary, so you have to check with your IIX. IITM has perhaps the most liberal sabbatical scheme as the reckoning is done in months instead of years - you get one month sabbatical credit for every six months worked. The minimum duration of sabbatical leave is four months, so you can take this after two years of service. However, the other issue you ask is more complex. As per rules, you have to take permission for going abroad anytime, even if you make a personal trip paid out of your pocket. Also, during vacation periods, you still draw a salary, so you are not allowed to take up any other paid position. You could visit other institutions and take part in research programs and such, but you cannot get paid. If you want to accept a paid position, you have to take sabbatical leave or extra ordinary leave (leave without pay).
@iitmsriram: It's surprising that you say that one cannot get paid. On this site, last line, Prof Madras says
"Further, each faculty is given vacation for three months every year where he/she can travel/work anywhere and earn whatever money."
http://sites.google.com/site/newfacultyiisc/pay-structure
Could you please clarify?
@ankur
On this page (https://sites.google.com/site/newfacultyiisc/rules-and-regulations/leave-and-other-rules), Prof Madras says:
"Technically, your host institution cannot give you a salary - but can grant you a living allowance."
This is what I know for attending short term collaborative/conference visits:
You can be paid allowances (like TA, DA, accommodation charges) either through your grants or from your host but not a formal salary.
To be precise, if you go to USA - you can get your tickets travel insurance, visa fees reimbursed. According to the prevailing rates at IISc, you can get a DA of $100 per day, plus hotel accommodation (I know this is correct if you are using your CPDA grants -- but not sure if rates are dependent on the granting agency). But if your host is paying you, they will pay according to their per diem rates. As I said I know this works for attending conferences, but I am not 100% sure if the same can be extended to longer trips like a month or so.
@ankur,
There is nothing for me to clarify - whoever wrote that in that website or Prof. Giri will have to clarify.
@Ankur
I made a post answering your question, but it somehow got deleted (or spammed?). May be Prof Giridhar can restore it. In short, Prof Giridhar does mention under 'leave rules' link that you can only get living allowances, but not salary, while you are abroad either for short visits or sabaticals.
For example, BOYSCOTT fellowship of DST provides $3000 pm for your allowances plus travel, visa, other fees.
Thanks iiscfac. Prof Giri, can you pl restore the post of iiscfac?
How is the interview experience with selection committee with video conferencing over skype at IIT KGP.
I guess few of us may have some experience to share with prospective candidates outside India.
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