Pinned post for prospective faculty to IITs/IISc
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Hi deal all,
Could anybody share his experience that while applying for IIT Guwahati, Do I need to attach a research plan with application. However,this is not mentioned in the website as well as in the application form.
Thanks in advance.
Dear Dr. Giri,
Has the centenary post doc fellowship been discontinued? I can no longer see the advertisement on the IISc website
@anon above. I heard that it has been discontinued. But Giridhar will likely have much more authentic information.
While IISc has most likely discontinued its flagship postdoc program, its nice to note that IITM has come up with a much better and attractive postdoc fellowships:
http://www.iitm.ac.in/downloads/academic/InstitutePostDoctoralFellowshipatIITMadras18820101.pdf
I am not sure to what extent this will work, in general any place in India, given that we dont have a good postdoc culture. But any effort is better than no effort.
Thanks Vishu for the information and it is sad if it is really discontinued. However, it would be great if Dr.Giridhar can respond to this.
@Anonymus August 16, 2012 8:23 PM
I will give you my personal experience. I have appeared for interviews at 2 IITs.
Seminar/Presentation:
I have visited both the IITs in person during my trip to India and gave a departmental seminar. In my opinion (aslo as prof. Sriram says) the personal visit to the department plays a role in the process as the HOD and the faculty will get a better picture of your research skills than in a 20 min seminar given during the selection process. But, I also know people who are selected without visiting the department before. In the later case, your 20 min seminar does half the job.
So, if you are up to this short (20 min) presentation, focus on your specific contributions and do not bother about a detailed introduction as you would otherwise give in a departmental seminar. Also, you have to mention about your future research plans. This is tough to squeeze in 20 minutes, but if you could do justice to your research contributions, then the research plans part can be taken up during the interview.
Interview
At the first IIT, I am very much satisfied with the depth of questions asked by the expert committee. They have really worked on the seminar (20 min) that I have given and all the questions were related to my research. Some of the questions were
(1) What kind of experiments do you plan to conduct to test your hypothesis or theory mentioned during the seminar?
(2) How do you think that your research benefits Indian interests and this IIT in general?
(3) What courses you can teach?
(4) Give an example of three research problems that you would give to a bachelor, masters and PhD students?
My overall experience with the interview was very satisfying although I could not give reasonable answers to some of the questions.
At the other IIT, they have actually asked many technical (text book) questions, but related to my research area and hence it was not very difficult. Here also they have asked me about my research plans, teaching interests.
In the end, I got offers from both the IITs :)
In my opinion, if you can show the ability to put your research in perspective and can bring relevance of your research to Indian context, that will improve the chances together with luck :)
All the best for your applications and sorry to the members for a very long answer
I have nothing to respond. It is possible that the centenary PDF is closed. The website still exists
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/opportunities/
In any case, the committee members who selected these fellows were elitist meaning that they hardly selected anyone. I do not know how many were given in the past five years but it would be in single digits.
With the advent of UGC kothari fellowship running efficiently and several other fellowships available, this centenary fellowship was discouraged and may have eventually be closed.
Giridhar
Again about DST Ramanujan fellowships:
They did not publish results online and did not even email individually. Kohli never responds to emails. I thought that is a fake ID. But recently he responded to one of my queries with a sigle word "NO". They posted the fellowship letter to me with out even mentioning proper address. Since the German post was very efficient it could redirect this to my home address.
this is how it works in DST. They do not ask which address to be posted etc...
In India, everything starts with a major fanfare and then slowly dies..no announcement etc. This is the state of the IISc post doc fellowship.
Regarding Ramanujam fellowship etc, DST gears you to the inefficiencies in the system. In India, you will NOT be rewarded if you are efficient. You might be criticized for being efficient because it puts the others (who are inefficient) in bad light. All universities, IITs, DST, DBT etc run on these same principles.
Now, let me go back and watch cricket.
Dear members
I was selected for INSPIRE faculty fellowship in the engineering section(direct mode, march 2012). I sent the signed undertaking form to DST by email and post. My request with DST was i wish to join from October 11, 2012 in my host institute(IIT B). I havnt got any communication regarding this. Is anyone on the same boat? Please share ur updates.
Thanks and regards
PratapK
@Anon 7:31
You can send a research statement, teaching statement and a resume to each institute you are applying to. Some may not explicitly mention you to send all of these, but it never hurts to send these.
@Anon 5:25
Completely agree with your point but don't agree with your solution to watch cricket. Come out of your anonymous mode and show the face of the inefficient administration of your institute to the world! Doing at least this much would be better than watching cricket.
Dear rkumar,
Thank you so much for this detailed response.
Your informative response is really helpful for candidates like me who is about to face them. I hope your feedback and wishes can sail me through happily !!
Thanks !
Hi rkumar
Appreciate and congratulations
Anybody received interview call letters from IIT Kharagpur recently, who submitted their application in response to their recent advertisement.
Hi Prospective Faculty Candidates,
I thought I should share my experience of applying in india so far: Here is the timeline and list of Institutes that I have applied and the waiting times for a rough estimation.
1. Indian Institue of Science (Applied in March 2010 after some Faculty and an HOD showed interest): Gave talk in August 2010. Application was finally rejected due to age criteria in January 2012! (I didnt cross 35 years when I applied, but during this lengthy process I did).
2. National Centre for Biological Sciences (Applied in July 2010): I heard nothing for long time, neither there were any replies to my query whether they are going to shortlist me for giving a talk. Finally pestered one faculty in my field to arrange a talk for me. Visited in February 2012. NCBS Faculty invited me again for chalk talk. Still waiting for for a decision.
3. Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (Applied in October 2010): No response for any number of emails. No acknowledgement for the receipt of application either.
4. Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (applied in December 2010), shortlisted and called for interview, gave a talk during April 2012. A potential offer for job orally, but no written commitment yet, no replies for subsequent emails/phone calls.
5. IISER Pune (applied in August 2011); Gave a talk during February 2012, application rejected becasue they have someone in my field already (but ofcourse they enjoyed my visit and talk for free).
6. IISER Trivandrum (applied August 2011 and again in Jan 2012): Gave a talk during February 2012: Still awaitng a decision.
7. Regional Centre for Biotechnology (applied in December 2011), Gave a talk in February 2012. Still waiting for decision.
8. NIPGR-Delhi, Bose Institute-Kolkata, IITs (Hyderabad/Mumbai/Gandhinagar), CDFD-Hyderabad: Applied during Decmeber 2011: No acknowledgement for the receipt of application from any of these, no reply except from CDFD. CDFD Director Prof. Gowrishankar wrote me promptly and politely saying my expertise does not match their requirement at the moment, but he is impressed with my cv.
In the meantime, I got a Faculty position offer at the No. 2 University in the World....so, please do not tell me my application is crap! I have cumulative impact factor of more than 120 and certainly well known in my field.
With this extremely long proces, I hope you agree that I have sufficient experience with Faculty recruitment in India to make some statements.
If you do not have a good Godfather, India sucks and you need not apply. Recruitment routine is in shambles. There is no accountability and the whole process is such a pain. Responsible people are neck deep with other matters.
At the same time, most of the Faculty I met in India are hardworking and impressive, but when it comes to recruitment, they get into a shell and offer no commitment. I think they go at length to appease the visitor that they are doing wonderful science (few do) and in adverse conditions. They tick their chart of who knows whom with your name and those whom you know, but dont expect more-each one has their own sorrow tale. I felt there is a strong fear to suggest someone to their Institutes..probably because they are too worried someone might be more sucessful than them?.
What next-I might end up somewhere else, with a feeling that I have left no stone unturned to set up a lab in India and to follow the footsteps of my great PhD supervisor.
sunitsha14@yahoo.com (you may write to me if you need more details, but no crap please)
Sunitsha above,
Nothing new here, I can send you a list of 45-odd Institutes within India that I applied to, with no luck. The response (or lack of it) was more or less identical.
Did anyone hear from IITD recently? I gave my interview last week and was wondering if anyone received any offer (officially or unofficially).
SK
Dear Sunitsha above,
I completely agree with you that Indian recruitment system sucks. This is not out of frustration or like Prof Madras points out as sour grapes. In India we need to please the people for jobs, they do not really appreciate the CV. There might be few recruitments which might have been done with real fairness. Yes the fear amongst the faculty that you might out throw them always exist. Since they do not pay for our visits and we are job hunters they get free seminars of internationally acknowledged work. I can’t understand why we need to spend for Indian science. Prime minister announces huge funding for science, but IISC says they are interested in your work but cannot support due to lack of space.
Could you imagine that space could restrict your research in IISc. The professors at top positions really look for Nature, science and such high impact journals for faculty recruitment. But being so experienced they do not understand that one Nature paper in IISc every year by one faculty hardly impacts the overall research in India. It#s really hard to comment about IITs (except few exceptions)
that they are really interested in something. They just do research and by chance some one succeeds.
They reject you as much as possible but when you achieve something abroad they want to claim his roots are from India. I really got frustrated with academics
and now joining a DAE lab. I found it much better than old academics narrowly thinking on some equations during question answer sessions.
Attracting best faculty is good but when it is not possible they should realize that moderate researchers could also contribute to the overall improvement of research capability of INDIA than a single best faculty
On Jun 21, iitmsriram said,
"Conspiracy theories are usually seeded by sour grapes."
Ankur Kulkarni agreed with the above and said, "Thanks iitmsriram. I was about to say something to this effect, but you put far better than I could."
I can not see anywhere where PRof. Madras had said this.
Dear prof Madras,
Apologies for the confusion it was not intentional.
I wanted to quote Prof Sriram there and he had obviously said this.
August 21, 2012 3:18 PM
Prof Sriram commented the frustrated faculty as "Sour grapes" but not Prof Madras! Sorry for this confusion
Hi all,
Just to share my experience of applying at some institutes in India last year. One old IIT had problem with the online application system. so i never received even an automatic reply. Another old IIT had also an online system and i received an automatic reply, but no interview. Later, when i visited this old IIT, i was told that they already have someone in my specialization area and had a vacancy for another specialization area. I think the process was fair enough. In a new IIT, I had applied through post and also sent the pdf by email. I had recieved an acknowledgement reply by email. They also replied to my subsequent enquiries through email. and many months later, i received an offer as well. I too had difficulties with several other institutes where i did not even get an acknowledgement. I think it is important to see both sides of the coin. One can see a glass half filled with water as half empty or half full. I request the highly qualified prospective candidates to use their wisdom to judge the constraints rather than blaming the poor administration or recruitment procedures. In the end, when you are seriously considering to move to your home country, there should definitely be some way to get a decent appointment if you are determined enough. For example, use your contacts and find out which department and institute has a good match and requirement of your profile. Many comments in this thread and other suggest that personal interaction through a visit is very useful because it gives the faculty more proper idea of your profile. So when visiting for holidays, try to arrange an informal talk at these institutes. What is wrong when we give a seminar and are not selected? We give job interviews for many positions, but finally take up only one job. Similarly, the institutes can interview many candidates but offer to those that match their requirements. I know some great researchers, who are not great teachers and vice versa. Moreover at new IITs, they may really have space constraints and are probably in need of recruiting more people for teaching in the disciplines of their undergraduate curriculum. My only request for administrators is to introduce online application systems with a tracking number and status for each application. This will help both the applicant as well as administrators.
@sunitsha,
Thank you for sharing your experience !! Congratulations for your Job offer in US !! Being a deserving candidate you found the Job you deserved.
I have a question each regarding (1) and (4):
Q for (1): Before applying/sending CV, how did you know that few faculties and HOD @ IISc showed interest ?
Q for (4): They did they convey to you about the potential job offer ? In other words how did you figure out that they are offering you a job (since there was no written commitment) ?
We would appreciate if you kindly share your work website with us. Looking forward to your reply. Thanks.
Dear Anon above,
Thank you for writing...also for Anons above. As you can see I have kept few details to myself but my email is given for further discussion.
For your first question, The IISc HOD is known to me since atleast a decade and showed interest when I was doing PhD (I have a paper in Nature subsidiary from an Indian University) and asked me to apply at the IISc department. Another Faculty from this department is from my field and also a friend of my PhD Supervisor. This year the Director of IISc showed interest on my application because my extraordinary post doc supervisor met him and recommended me. Finally, IISc said that I have crossed the age limit knowing fully that my application was with them before I turned 35.
For your second question, when I visited RGCB, the Director came for my talk and immediately offered a position.
It does not matter what you have been told..but age is not a criteria for selection. MHRD only says "preferably" and IISc has recently recruited three faculty, one in chemistry and one in biology and one in engineering, who are 36/37 years old as Assistant professors.
with regards to sunitsha`s mail i went and checked IISER-TV`s webpage for talks in February 2012 given by a person in bio field of the stature who can get into world`s #2 university..sorry i coudnt find anyone!
of course while looking around their faculty webpages i found an interesting appointment
http://iisertvm.ac.in/scientists/r-s-swathi/personal-information.html
I am not making any allegation here..but just clueless..any clarification will be welcome!special scheme?
Hi Anon at 9.05 AM,
Good that you are cross checking, but I have made sure that you wont be able to trace me back. Remember-in most places, my application is still active-and I might still be getting job of my liking in India? I am not going to reveal myself in a forum.
As I mentioned, you could always get clarifications through my mail (if you have a real name that is, Mr/Ms Anon).
sunitsha
Inspire results are out!!!!!
Can you please point to the website of the inspire results. I am unable to locate them on the DST of the INSA website.
Thanks in advance
Dear INSPIRE aspirants,
The results have been just declared today. Please see the link.
http://insaindia.org/inspire/session2012.htm
The INSPIRE link still has only shortlisted interview candidates
but not the selection results
Hello everyone,
I would appreciate if anyone can suggest whether INSA INSPIRE is better or UGC-FRP in the sense of permanent position.
Because I am a little confused of INSA-INSIPIRE. I mean it does not sound like, the position is going to be confirmed after assessment after 5 years. I mean a lot will depend on the institute even if you perform well.
Please enlighten me.
Result of the Inspire Faculty Fellowship Award-2012 (Session-I)
1 Neena Gupta Math
2 Mousumi Mandal Math
3 Soumya Das Math
4 Santosha Kumar Pattanayak Math
5 Debasis Sen Math
6 Arti Gupta Physics
7 Amit Kumar Agarwal Physics
8 Ajeet Kumar Physics
9 Aadesh Pratap Singh Physics
10 Dawood Kothawala Physics
11 M. Sterlin Leo Hudson Physics
12 Mojammel Haque Mondal Physics
13 Rahul Suresh Marathe Physics
14 Sunil Kumar Singh Physics
15 Sunil Kumar Mishra Physics
16 Somnath Ghosh Physics
17 Thushara Pillai Physics
18 Niyti Physics
19 Satyajit Sahu Physics
20 Soumendu Datta Physics
21 Arnab Kundu Physics
22 Shradha Mishra Physics
23 Arjun Bagchi Physics
24 Anant R. Kapdi Chemistry
25 M. Hormi Chemistry
26 Atul Bhardwaj Chemistry
27 Nagendra Nath Yadav Chemistry
28 Pankaj Kumarparhi Chemistry
29 Atif Faiz Khan Chemistry
30 Farman Ali Chemistry
31 Eeshwaraiah Begari Chemistry
32 Togapur Pavan Kumar Chemistry
33 Priti Singh Chemistry
34 Dolly Vijay Chemistry
35 Bhavana Gupta Chemistry
36 Ratna Chauhan Chemistry
37 K. Sundaravel Chemistry
38 Venkata Ramana Doddi Chemistry
39 Jashmini Deka Chemistry
40 Swapna Ganapathy Chemistry41 Sanjay Pratihar Chemistry
42 Vijay Kumar Akkilagunta Chemistry
43 Gurpreet Kaur Chemistry
44 C. Nithya Chemistry
45 Kalisadhan Mukherjee Chemistry
46 Vrushali H. Jadhav Chemistry
47 Sumit Saha Chemistry
48 Santosh Agrawal Chemistry
49 Tapas Kuila Chemistry
50 V. Sivakumar Chemistry
51 Arlin Jose Amali A. Chemistry
52 Rakesh Kumar Mishra Chemistry
53 Sudhakara Naidu Neppalli Chemistry
54 Nishima Chemistry
55 P. Padmaja Chemistry
56 Sudhir Kashyap Chemistry
57 Sangeeta Kumari Chemistry
58 Shovan Mondal Chemistry
59 Vydyula Pavan Kumar Chemistry
60 Chilukoti Srilakshmi Chemistry
61 Vikas Kumar Chemistry
62 Vijay Luxami Chemistry
63 Gobinda Gopal Khan Engg & Tech
64 Amit Kumar Verma Engg & Tech
65 Parama Pal Engg & Tech
66 Putluru Siva Sankar Reddy Engg & Tech
67 Saakshi Dhanekar Engg & Tech
68 Srikanth Srinivasan Engg & Tech
69 Sasidhar Kondaraju Engg & Tech
70 Srinivasa Ramanujam Engg & Tech
71 Sovan Kumar Panda Engg & Tech
72 Prasanta Kumar Ghosh Engg & Tech
73 Ankur A. Kulkarni Engg & Tech
74 Kiran Bala Earth & Atmos
75 Kirpa Ram Earth & Atmos
76 Parijat Roy Earth & Atmos
77 Argha Banerjee Earth & Atmos
78 Ravindresh Chhabra Bio-med
79 Md. Wasim Khan Bio-med
80 Sahar Waris Bio-med
81 Neelesh Naresh Dahanukar Bio-med
82 Arunima Biswas Bio-med
Inspire resultzs continued..
83 Archana Singh Bio-med
84 G. Senthil Kumar Bio-med
85 Jyoti Ranjan Misra Bio-med
86 Jyoti Singh Bio-med
87 Janardhanan C.N. Bio-med
88 Supriya Bhavnani Bio-med
89 Sankar Bhattacharyya Bio-med
90 Sumeet Agarwal Bio-med
91 Swapna P. Antony Bio-med
92 Sunil Kumar Singh Bio-med
93 Surabhi Bajpai Bio-med
94 Praveen Balabaskaran Nina Bio-med
95 Sachin Kumar Bio-med
96 Jeremy Dkhar Plant
97 Santisree Parankusam Plant
98 Santosh Kumar Upadhyay Plant
99 Abhinav Grover Plant
100 Raghu Gogada Plant
101 Naren P. Rao Through Institutional Mode
To Anon,,,August 22, 2012 1:50 PM
It does have. BTW, one gentleman has already posted the name of selected candidates..
I am one of the INSPIRE awardees. But I haven't received any email explaining what I need to do next. Can a former awardee like Chris explain what the next steps would be?
Congratulations to all INSPIRE awardees!
@ Ankur,
The next step is that DST will send you an official letter of selection by snail mail to your address. Then they will send an 'Undertaking' documents containing the rules and regulations etc. This needs to be signed by the awardee and the host institution, and sent back to DST (via host institute).
These were the steps during the previous time. There may be some changes this time.
Regards,
Chris
Thanks Chris. Some more questions:
1. Can you tell me where I can find details of the guidelines on using the research grant?
2. How much time do I have to accept the INSPIRE offer?
3. I have also applied for Ramanujan and missed the previous meeting deadline. I would ideally like to wait for the Ramanujan results to be out before I decide on INSPIRE. But in case that is not possible, can I take up INSPIRE for the moment and surrender it if I get selected for Ramanujan later?
4. By what considerations did you decide to take only the INSPIRE research grant and not the fellowship?
Thanks for your inputs, Chris!
I wish to know what is the motivation behind imposing an age limit for the post of assistant professor in India. I am not asking for an effort to remove such a limit, I only wish to understand what is the reason behind it.
MKG
1. Can you tell me where I can find details of the guidelines on using the research grant?
You will receive all details with the letter and final san tion letter. Ideally, its same like ramanujan.
2. How much time do I have to accept the INSPIRE offer?
Approx. 3 months
3. I have also applied for Ramanujan and missed the previous meeting deadline. I would ideally like to wait for the Ramanujan results to be out before I decide on INSPIRE. But in case that is not possible, can I take up INSPIRE for the moment and surrender it if I get selected for Ramanujan later?
You can do that. Please note that you can not carry two fellowships/contingency together. At the moment, INSPIRE is a better offer, financially.
Also, Ramanujan incharge is extremely slow and rude (in long term association). There is one confusion in ramanujan that you have to opt for position/fellowship, and its a major problem if you wish to keep both position and fellowship.
4. By what considerations did you decide to take only the INSPIRE research grant and not the fellowship?
INSPIRE fellows can not accept fellowship salary, if they are on permanant position. However, they can accept contingency.
@ Chris and Prof. Giri
D here..
I have been selected for both UGC FRP and INSPIRE, but I am not sure which one to select.
Could you or anyone please suggest me, which one is better as far as permanent position is concerned.
I would appreciate any kind of suggestion regarding this.
@ D...
How do you know UGC-FRP results?
I believe it is a new program. Don't know much details though.
@Ratnesh
>At the moment, INSPIRE is a better offer, financially.
It's not true. INSPIRE is 80K including HRA, Ramanujan is 75K excluing HRA.
>Also, Ramanujan incharge is extremely slow and rude (in long term association).
It's very much true. The only reason this Ramanujan fellowship scheme is somewhat ruined. The INSPIRE personnel are quite professional.
>There is one confusion in ramanujan that you have to opt for position/fellowship, and its a major problem if you wish to keep both position and fellowship.
You get get the salary from fellowhip, while getting all other benefits of a faculty position. It's upto your institute to decide, and DST doesn't interfere in this. (Please don't consult with the Ramanujan fellowship in-charge regarding this, because he will then interfere and make your life miserable.)
^
When I said Ramanujan is 75K excluding HRA, I meant that your institute is free to provide you with free housing or HRA on top of Ramanujan fellowship. DST doesn't give a HRA amount with Ramanujan fellowship.
@Anonymous..
I got an email from UGC-FRP that I have been selected for the program. The interview for the same held in June.
Saswata
Can Ramanujan Fellowships be used for relocation expenses?
regards
Bhuvanesh
^No. (as per my understanding)
To Anon@ Aug 22, 2012, 9:05AM
that is a gem of a find!! ha ha ha i am clueless too!
@ANKUR
I was told that Ramanujan and Inspire committees meet
so that they do not award both scholarships for the same candidate. Therefore accept Inspire
Hi all,
I had appeared for the seminar cum interaction today at IIT Jodhpur for faculty position.
Can someone please let me know about the selection committee interviews tomorrow and the seminar/interaction experience today ?
looking forward to your urgent reply
Thanks for the replies Ratnesh, Saswata and anons. Is there any instance of someone who was offered both Ramanujan and Inspire (in reference to the comment by August 23, 2012 7:03 PM)?
Also Chris, why did you decide to take only the contingency from Inspire and not the pay? Is this something you discussed with the host or with the Inspire people?
@ Ankur August 23, 2012 12:11 AM
I completely agree with all the answers of Ratnesh. So, I will not make redundant here again.
@ Ankur August 23, 2012 10:37 PM
Q: Also Chris, why did you decide to take only the contingency from Inspire and not the pay? Is this something you discussed with the host or with the Inspire people?
A: I had indirectly answered this question in one of my earlier posts long ago. In short, I do not want to miss-out a permanent position at the expense of a higher salary. Currently I am on probation and my job will become permanent after a year. If I would have opted for Inspire fellowship, my position will be temporary for the 5 years duration and God knows what might happen then!!!!
I had discussed both with my host institute and Inspire in-charge (Dr. Mukhopadhyay) before deciding on my option. According to my host institute, they cannot create a zero-salary position with all regular benefits. The reason could be, Inspire is a new scheme and my IIT is one of the newer ones. Hence, there was not much clarity regarding many things and no comparisons could be made with an existing system. On the other hand, Dr. Mukhopadhyay emphasized the rule (which you will get later) that the inspire fellowship will terminate the moment an awardee chooses a regular position. Hence, I had to make a decision between higher salary vs. regular salary. Anyways, I am glad that I could get the contingency.
Dr. Sabyashachi Mishra of IIT-Kgp was offered both INSPIRE and Ramanujan fellowships. You can Google to find his website. Although I do not know him personally, I have high regards for him.
Best regards,
Chris
@Saswata,
> At the moment, INSPIRE is a better offer, financially.
> It's not true. INSPIRE is 80K including HRA, Ramanujan is 75K excluing HRA.
I guess, Ratnesh meant about the 7 lakhs per year research grant in Inspire compared to the 5 lakhs per year grant of Ramanujan.
@ Ankur again,
Refer to some of the comments of this blog from end-Feb. 2012. You may get a better idea of the scenario and decide accordingly. Main point: the zero-salary appointments of many IIXs are not exactly at par with their regular employees, but are considered more like visiting appointments.
@ D,
I am sorry. I have no suggestions in choosing between UGC FRP and Inspire.
Regards,
Chris
Ankur, I was invited for INSPIRE interview well after I got selected for Ramanujan. Therefore, I dont think that these two committees meet to decide on a mutual exclusiveness between these two fellowship recipients. I would suggest you to wait till the Ramanujan result is out. Of course, you have to deal with Kolhi if you get Ramanujan!
@Chris, Saswata and Ankur
Fortunately, I am awardee of all three fellowship and UGC-FRP waiting.
I think chris made it clear that contingency is high. Additionally, INSPIRE is 80K only in first year, it will increase with 3.3% annualy. HRA is a complicated matter, it depends upon the institute.
INSPIRE fellow should accept the permanant position with INSPIRE contingency. In India, if you are not permanant, you are nothing.
@ D
Accept UGC-FRP without second thought, its permanant. Accept it with INSPIRE contingency.
Ratnesh
So far as I know, the issue that the "fellowship will terminate the moment an awardee chooses a regular position" occurs even in Ramanujan. How is the permanent position and Ramanujan salary simultaneously provided in that case? Saswata, Ratnesh - do you know about this? Were you put on a zero-salary position? I am asking so that I can be prepared to discuss this with my host.
@ Ratnesh,
Congrats on being awarded all 3 fellowships! Great going!
Best wishes,
Chris
@Ankur, There are a number of people in IISc who hold Ramanujan and other such fellowships, and are assistant professors (i.e., regular employees with all benefits). In these cases, salary comes either from the institute or the fellowship (but not both), whichever is higher at that time. Of course, contingency is there. So it depends on how your institute admin reads between lines of terms and conditions of the fellowships, and whether they can figure out ways.
Vishu is correct. IISc allows all kinds of fellowships while retaining the principal position.
However, please please do not turn down a permanent position for one of these fellowships, in case your institute does not agree for this kind of flexibility.
Ratnesh says, " In India, if you are not permanant, you are nothing."
Absolutely. Otherwise, you will not get students, space etc...even if it is promised first.
Thanks for your advice, Vishu and Prof Giri. Are there Inspire faculty at IISc who are permanent and draw salary from Inspire?
I am kind of confused as to what the difference is between Inspire and Ramanujan that for Ramanujan institutes are willing to forward salary from Ramanujan while retaining permanent positions, whereas they are not willing to do this for Inspire.
@Chris
Thanks. Hope to meet you sometimes, its been a while we are interacting through this blog.
@Ankur
I am kind of confused as to what the difference is between Inspire and Ramanujan that for Ramanujan institutes are willing to forward salary from Ramanujan while retaining permanent positions, whereas they are not willing to do this for Inspire.
Please note that Ramanujan (current policy) and Ramalingaswami fellowships are re-entry program. Ideally, they should be more lucrative and should provide more opportunities for a scientist coming back to India. The eligibility criteria is more stringent (you should be affiliated to a foreign institution while applying) and success in largely depend upon your postdoc performance. In Ramalingaswami fellowship, they evaluate each and every part of your research career/professional achievements. Even they publish marks for every candidate..its like school mark sheet..!! But its very fair and rules/regulation are very clear from DBT side (not available on internet, provided to the fellows), it leaves no opportunity to the host institutions for important decisions. On the other side, Ramanujan fellowship do not provide any clarity and you are largely depend upon the host institute to decide your future...!!
Ramanujan Fellowship is surviving just because of active participation and involvement of IISc, NCBS and IISER Pune...some institutes are accepting their guidelines and some not...(and making life miserable for the candidates who came back with hope and dreams.. !!). Few institutions forced fellows to leave their fellowships, some are not allowing them as "faculty", no PhD student, no or charged housing etc etc....
Ramanujan Fellowship is saying "you need to opt between your current position/fellowship or ramanujan fellowship" (pl. read online). Actually DST means (As they indicate orally, hopefully OM will be issued shortly) that you should take only one salary. However, if institute is highly bureaucratic, they will dig out these sentences and may say that you have to surrender your position if you wish to be a Ramanujan fellow. Luckily, because of IISc initiative and their announcement during Ramanujan fellow conclave, the situation is little better, but not solved. Few institutions are allowing fellows to retain their position.
Few IITs have created zero-salary account which is little tricky in terms of benefit. The alternative is that the fellow can only draw GPF component from the permanent salary and take your fellowship as a salary. This is a ideal situation and will not affect your salary, fellowship or accounting problems.
To summarize, Ramanujan and Ramalingswami Fellows can accept the permanant position with fellowship with either of the salary.
INSPIRE Faculty Scheme
This scheme was initiated to retain the PhD talent in India and offer them early position. Principally, A fresh PhD can be a assistant Professor using this scheme. also, the researcher who are not in India (with Age limit) and arrived in India (without R fellowship) can also apply. However, to provide international exposure (mainly to change the attitude) INSPIRE also allows max. 2 yr visit to any foreign institutions. That was the reason that Age limit is restricted to 32 Yrs. Also, a clause says that host institute should prefer the candidate for permeant position. However, its not a binding agreement. It means you are free to apply for any permanant position, and your institute is free to decide about your future.
According to my knowledge: DST INSPIRE will not allow fellow to accept the salary of INSPIRE fellowship while accepting the permeant position. The clause is also included with clarity (not like Ramanujan) about termination of the fellowship. However, fellow can enjoy the benefit of 7 Lakh contingency (Major support for a young scientist ..!!).
Summary : The ideal situation for a INSPIRE fellow is to accept the permanent position and contingency of INSPIRE (Chris did the same).
I hope my statement will provide some clarity.
(amy opinion is based on interaction with policy makers, various fellows (R-Fellow and I-Fellow) and Ramanujan Fellow conclave)
Ratnesh
To Ankurs question on ( Ramanujan and inspire committee meeting ) here is an extract I got from DST official
"You cannot be awarded both. Moreover we coordinate amongst ourselves for applications in two or more programmes".
Combing back to Inspire I have no offense to Inspire awardees but IIT's and IISc consider that Inspire cannot be compared with Ramanujan and Ramanujan fellows are considered the best. This was a feedback given on my personal interaction with few IIT Prf. But Inspire is better for contingency.but may be competing for a Ramanujan fellow might be good for your CV Since you face the same Prof in future interactions for grants.
@ Ratnesh,
Very clear and candid statements! I cannot agree more with you. Hope the current batch Inspire, R-fellowships awardees and future aspirants get your message.
Thanks for your invite! It is so nice of you. Lets plan to meet sometime. I will let you know if I plan a visit to Mumbai.
@ Ankur,
If you had been offered OCAP at IITB, then compare the benefits of the OCAP vs. fellowship and decide.
As of the current situation, I would rank them as below, based on financial and other considerations:
Regular position >>> Inspire > R-fellowships >> OCAP.
Regards,
Chris
@ Ratnesh: Thanks for the detailed and very well written post.
@ Chris: In your ranking [Regular position (with institute's salary)+ either Inspire grant or Ramanujan grant - if possible] is the ultimate "rank 1" solution.
Several Institutes are also offering "fellowships" (read top up salary) to new faculty - keep this in mind when comparing salaries from Ramanujan, inspire etc. Also there are issues related to pension contributions etc.
More importantly, as pointed out by several people on this blog, several institutes have lots of bureaucratic issues to sort out with regards to these fellowships: - fellows are allowed to teach or not, can have independent students or not, limitations of lab space for fellowship candidates etc.
Luckily enough, I have got a regular position + inspire fellowship grant money. Even luckier is the fact that my institute pays "a top up fellowship" which makes the institutes salary most lucrative.
Thanks Ratnesh. That was quite helpful. So the differences between Inspire and Ramanujan are in the wording of the clauses and their possible interpretations.
I am amazed they write all these clauses in a manner that leaves so much open for interpretation. It would be so much better if there was a long table listing out actions for each situation so there is no ambiguity and no need to rack your brains over it.
hi,
i just saw that i have received the inspire fellowship ... but i am about to leave for india next week, and presumably they will send a formal letter by post to my current address ... so i was wondering if someone here could tell me who to contact for informing this ...
@ dd,
Congrats! Inform Dr. Pramod Kumar Prasad (Scientist B - DST INSPIRE) at pramod.prasad@nic.in and request him to redirect your letter to a different address. Hope it works!
Chris
thanks a lot Chris. your replies and info on this blog have been most useful ... i just sent dr prasad an email.
Hi everyone,
I have a question for all the selected candidates at IIT (particularly IIT Jodhpur).
1) Is it possible for any applicant who have been called for an interview to get rejected after the seminar without moving to the personal interview round? (I am a candidate who has given seminar at IIT Jodhpur this week but not called for interview next day. Is it possible for someone to get rejected after the seminar in any of the IITs?)
I think the anon above has raised a very good question. Can all of you shed some light on this.
Thanks
RP
Hello everyone!
I've been following this blog for quite sometime now and I believe that the comments made available here would be of great help for me in the near future. I was recently awarded the INSPIRE Fellowship. Although I had opted my parent institute (place where I received my PhD) as the work place for my INSPIRE project, it seems the rules have changed and DST is not permitting this anymore. So, I have to search for a new work place. I would be grateful if someone could share their experiences on approaching a new institute/university for carrying out the INSPIRE project. Also, I would love if others could give some suggestions on choosing a place to work.
Regards
@ Anonymous August 24, 2012 10:28 PM
Yes, it is possible and happens quite often. Many candidates do not go past faculty presentation. It is sort of a screening (and not just presentation).
I second the comment immediately above.
Dear All,
Does anyone know when the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship for 2012-2013 is likely to be announced?
Thanks
I found this blog today on issues affecting the IIT system. There are some gems in there and useful reading for those wanting to be part of this family.
http://lake2lake.wordpress.com/
My reading is that this blog is written by a long-term insider who is no longer part of the system.
Is the fellowship amount for INSPIRE reduced, because I found in the website of DST written as " Each selected INSPIRE Faculty shall be eligible to receive a consolidated amount equivalent to
the scale of the Assistant Professor of an IIT as Fellowship amount. In addition, a Research
Grant of Rs 7 lakh per year for 5 years shall also be provided to each successful candidate."
Please let me know if anyone have any info regarding this. Because last time I think I have seen the fellowship amount was 80000 including HRA.
Asst prof salary including HRA comes to about 80k (actually may be more if the DA increases).
@Ankur
Thank you very much for the information.
So is it the total amount that will be given to you or they will deduct from it like the Asst. Prof.
@DST_INSPIRE FACULTY
I am selected for DST-INSPIRE FACULTY fellowship. I had selected my parent institute (where i did my phd) for the INSPIRE project and had included that in my application. They questioned the same during interview; however i cud convince them, why i have selected the same institute for INSPIRE.
I would like to know, will they ask me to change the institute now? If so, how will it be communicated to me? Will it be asked in the offer letter from DST? Or would they have agreed it? I am a bit confused... Anyone plz help...
@Chris / other INSPIRE Faculty
What all details will be there in the offer letter from DST?
@August 24, 2012 11:49 PM
How do you came to know that the rules have changed and DST is not permitting this (opting the parent institute) anymore?
Did you get any communication from DST, asking you to change the selected place of work?
Or were you asked to change your place of work during interview itself?
To Anon Aug 26 11.44,
I am also waiting for the Ramalingswamy fellowship advertisement. Why these Fellowships start with a bang and then are not carried forward? Seems like Ramanujan is a mess and one would have thought DBT is more serious with its initiatives!
Not just in politics and policies, all scientific initiatives too start well, but then they will find gutter in the end. Perhaphs our Country is one of those where there are record number of initiatives, but nothing for long term and nobody cares to sustain...there lies answer for our label, still as 'developing country'
Dear previous Inspire awardees,
I am a recent Inspire awardee. I am in the US and would be relocating to India to avail the fellowship. I applied through the direct mode. My question is could I avail the fellowship in autonomous / private institutes in the country? It would really help to know as I am being offered a permanent position in an autonomous institute. I don't mind taking salary from DST or from the institute, as long as I could avail the research funding in the autonomous institute.
Also, it would be really helpful to know when exactly will be the latest date by which one has to avail the fellowship.
Thanks
Can anyone tell me what this guy(HoD) has done to get a job in IIT-H.
http://biotech.iith.ac.in/people/faculty.html
I can tell that the hiring committee must be from mars. I am definitely not a sour grape.
^Either they were born in a certain state, or their supervisors were born in a certain state which is same as that of the Director's or of the majority of the selection committee members.
When I contacted Dr. Munshi of DBT regarding the Ramalingaswami Fellowship advertisement, she informed me that it will be out in Sep-Oct.
RP
To Anon@Aug28,2012,9:07 PM
my god!...is senior people in that field so scarce!!!..this and the iiser faculty appt in chemistry highlighter in thisblog earlier are clear signs of the rot in the system in some institutions
I dont want to specifically comment on any particular individual, but when a new department is being formed, why isnt the department head appointed in the same way as the director of a new institute is? There are open advertisements, competition and evaluation by search and selection committees for the post of director. Why isn't the same done for the post of dept heads when a new department is being formed or when an older department needs to take a new direction?
All these new IITs were a golden opportunity to get leading Indian academics from all around the world to return to important leadership positions in India. No institute seems to have exploited this opportunity. Its a pity.
^ Ankur, each IIT had a mentor institute. In most of the cases, they interfered a lot and ruined the new IIT. The Directors and the HoDs were hired based on their relationships with the Directors and Deans of the mentor IIT.
Corruption and nepotism and incompetent Directors will certainly ruin the IIT system.
You will find many more such candidates in all the new IITs. Just browse their web pages. I sincerely pray that both American and european publishers ban Indian science to be published in their journals.
I received my terms for the INSPIRE fellowship today. The breakup for the utilisation of the grant says travel and contingencies would be limited to 10% each, i.e., about 70k per year, which I think is not large enough to be very useful.
There are details missing. It is not clear if "travel" includes international or national, whether it includes per diem or not. Does any know whether these are included or not?
Also, what all can be included under contingencies - can one put conference registration under contingencies?
@ankur asks "why isnt the department head appointed in the same way as the director of a new institute is?". May sound like nit-picking, but heads at IITs are not appointed, they are nominated by the Director (the statutes actually say selected by Director). At IITM, all faculty members of the department are requested for suggestions by the Director who then decides based on the responses received. It is not treated as voting, so faculty members writing comments along with the names has some effect. In the case of new institutions where departments have only entry level faculty and no seniors, what can the Director do? The role of the HoD is fairly limited, in any case. They mostly serve as post-offices conveying information between admin and the department. A forward looking HoD can make a difference by enabling things but a backward looking HoD can also make a difference by disabling things. Majority of HoDs choose to sit firmly in-between, biding their 2-3 years till they hand over to the next one. Goes back to a previous posting of mine here about the lack of academic admin career stream (which heated up this blog for a while).
Prof Sriram, but why aren't faculty applications invited with the explicit rider that a candidate to head the department is sought? Once the candidate is selected and joins the dept, he can be nominated to be the HoD.
My basic point is that it is not necessary that the HoD (or deans too, for that matter) be from the existing faculty, just the same way it is not so for directors. If one limits oneself to the talent pool of the existing faculty, you get a merry-go-round of existing ideas, viewpoints and practices. Also this practice means that academics who have a flair for admin have limited mobility, because they are vying for positions only within their own institute.
@iitsriram asks " In the case of new institutions where departments have only entry level faculty and no seniors, what can the Director do?"
What the director can do if he is not familar with the field is to get opinions from senior faculty or HoD`s of other IIT`s. In this age such opinions can be sought via e-mail and is not even time consuming. That is the way to deal with and not by making appointments which make the institute and the department a laughing stock in forums such as these.
I am sure, Prof. Sriram knows that the previous HoD of the IIT-H Biotech dept. was on lien from IIT-M.
What hurts more that when they just don't process your application because your CV is way better than their HoD.
@INSPIRE FACULTY
Anyone else received offer letter from DST?
@ Ankur
What all details are their in the offer letter. I am also an INPIRE awardee, eagerly waiting for the offer letter. Just want to know the details of the offer.
Did anyone recieve offer letter for DST-INPIRE faculty (esp. Bio-med)?
The details are: salary = 80k pm with 3.3% increment. Grant = 7L pa. Term = 5 years. Need to convey acceptance within 3 months.
If you need anything specific, specify and I will post it.
@Ankur:
I think the fellowship deal sounds good now, but with inflation in India nearing 10%, 3% increase per annum over 5 years will start hurting.
Especially in Mumbai.
Its better to take a regular position, which has DA adjusted to inflation. My two cents (sorry paise) worth..
regards
RN
@ Ankur:
“Need to convey acceptance within 3 months”. Or Need to JOIN within 3 months?
^ The exact wording is as follows:
"Each Awardee will be required to inform DST on acceptance of the Award within 3 months from the date of
receipt of this offer as well as finalization of the host institute where the awardees shall implement the project."
I understand this to mean that the awardee has 3 months find a host and accept the award, and is then required to inform DST of it.
Anyone has any idea when the next Ramanujan meeting may be?
@Ankur
U recieved this offer letter via e-mail or post?
^ So far, by email.
I have not yet received any offer letter from DST regarding the INSPIRE faculty. I am selected under Bio-Med. What should I do?
Any Idea on IIT Bombay schedule for Physics interviews?
@Anon, September 1, 2012 2:55 PM:
There was an interview round in July 2012 (or thereabouts). Offers have already been made. If your application is pending for a while, please call/email the HOD to know the status.
Anybody received interview calls from IIT-Kharagpur (Materials Science Centre) recently
Hello all. Is it possible to hold both Ramanujan fellowship and permanent faculty position (simultaneously) at IISER?
On IIT Khargpur interviews..
Their new director will take over the charge soon. After that they will conduct interviews. Most likely in Oct/Nov.
If anyone has more recent and credible info please share here.
@Sudip Sen,
At least two permanent faculty members in IISER Kolkata are also Ramanujan fellows.
If someone has appeared for UGC-FRP interview, please provide information about interview structure, such as type of committee, interview/presentation time.
Thank you
Yogesh
@Yogesh
For Chemistry it was a 5 member committee, Chairman (coordinator of the program) and 4 experts from 4 branches. They took ~20 minutes per candidate, asked many fundamental questions (mostly related to the candidates research). It was a torture for most of the candidates as revealed by their responses after the interview. i heard, for chemistry, they called ~80 people and may offer ~ 10-12 people. I wonder why they waste the time and money of the candidates. If they want to make a 1/8 selection, they could have done it based on their resume during screening process.
@ Yogesh
Forgot to mention that there is no presentation. You will be asked to introduce yourself and then they will start asking questions !
If anyone has information regarding IIT Roorkee faculty interview results which was conducted during 15-17th August 2012 for Electronics and Computer Science Department. Whether the result has been communicated to the selected candidates? Please let me know.
If anyone has information regarding IIT Roorkee faculty interview results which was conducted during 15-17th August 2012 for Electronics and Computer Science Department. Whether the result has been communicated to the selected candidates? Please let me know.
To all DST-INPIRE faculty awardee
I found a link on the INSPIRE FACULTY AWARD --UNDERTAKING FOR IMPLEMENTATION BY THE AWARDEE on DST website. It can be found at
http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/faculty_scheme.html
by clicking undertaking. I am not sure whether the link was provided earlier or added recently.
@ANON September 4, 2012 9:42 AM
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LINK.
I HAVE SELECTED MY PARENT INSTITUTE FOR IMPLEMENTING INSPIRE-FACULTY AWARD. I HAD GIVEN JUSTIFICATION DURING THE INTERVIEW.
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF ALL THE AWARDEES WILL BE GIVEN THE SAME OFFER LETTER? I.E. FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SELECTED THE HOST INSTITUTE AND THOSE WHO HAVE NOT.
WILL I HAVE TO JUSTIFY WHY I HAVE SELECTED THIS INSTITUTE AGAIN? OR WILL THE OFFER LETTER BE GIVEN ACCEPTING MY REQUEST?
@anon September 3, 2012 6:45 PM,
offer letters will be sent today
Thanks Anon@Sep03,10:01AM
I have heard that IISERs actively discourage people from holding both permanent position and Ramanujan fellowship. Any truth to this? Any idea about the policy at other IISERs (like Pune for example)?
@Sudip Sen,
I am not based in an IISER, so I am not aware of this. In any case you can't have both the institute salary and the Ramanujan fellowship salary. There has been a lot of discussions about this issue in this forum (see past posts). Some people might opt for institute salary and Ramanujan contingency. If you want specifics, you can try directly getting in touch with the fellows in IISER Kolkata.
I'm not sure if this fits into the prospective faculty thread. It probably doesn't, but I can't think of any other place to ask it.
Does anyone have any concrete information on the NIH-DBT program beyond what the website for the program says, perhaps an account of a personal experience? (This program is to train postdocs jointly in the US and in India, and then set them up with a research or faculty position in India.)
Thanks,
Varun
Delays are only one side of the culture in IITs. It is unfortunate that these prime institutions still depend on fiscal support from Government and could not manage creation of their own endowments. So long they are dependent on Government, bureaucratic practices creep in and remain.You can do any thing with your own money-but try taking a loan and see the rigmarole you face. IIT themselves are losing the sheen in public eyes as some one put it- they make ordinary out of extra ordinary. There are no autonomous bodies except those which enjoy autonomy guaranteed by constitution. If you look at innovation and patents, IIT s stand very low in comparison with any other universities in the world. Their contribution is nil or minuscule. ISRO, DMRL, DRL etc make outstanding contribution- and in comparison IITs stand no where.
Unless Institutions continue to rely on Government for their salaries and survival, no academician would enjoy any freedom to do any thing, funding will be provided at the mercy of Kapil Sibal's men, examination structure would be decided by some bureaucrats who remain in DST for three years and move on to Ports or Roads and so on. Beggars cannot be choosers.
@anon September 5, 2012 11:14 AM
Thank You for the response. Though the prospective candidate( both ME,PhD from IISc with excellent academic record and 13 years of outstanding experience in industry) is not recommended by the respected selection committee. Always worked out the worst circumstances but achieved the best opportunity. Looking forward for the best in very near future.
If the research mind starts computing about money per month, then it is a very sorry state of our education. It is always told that money is not everything but everyone needs minimum to their respective need. One could earn lot of money if he/she started doing work/business even agriculture other than putting time using their talented brain in study. Research/Higher Education is no more something great to a financially backward talented person. Our education system is trying to make sure that another Ramanujan takes birth and dies in India. So that at least many aspiring prospective researcher can have their living based on his fellowship.
@DST-INSPIRE FACULTY
Today I received the offer letter from DST for the INSPIRE Faculty,2012. I would like to select my host institution for implementing the same. DST have asked to give justification for this and some letters from registrar/director of the institute.
Will anyone give some advice about what all details/letters I need to send to DST, so as to justify my selection of the host institute?
Thank you
I have a question related to faculty recruitment/career planning, and I am hoping someone in this forum will find time to answer it.
I am doing my PhD in ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) from a good US university. I am close to finishing and I have an option to go for a post-doc from a mathematics department from some other university. Although the math department is not as highly ranked in mathematics as the engineering department is in engineering, the motivation to go there is that the professor whom I might join is considered an expert in the area in which I am working; basically my PhD work is theoretical, so working with him will give me invaluable exposure.
Since I really love my area and would go for the post-doc no matter what, but I was hoping if someone in this forum can answer these questions. It is good to know possible effects of whatever you are doing.
Here are the questions.
1) Someone recently warned me that doing a math post-doc after taking an engineering PhD might put me at a disadvantage against someone who has an engineering post-doc. Is that true?
2) Does it matter if I do my post-doc from a university which is not as highly ranked as my PhD school: for example some rankings rank my PhD school in top 5 in the world (in engineering), but the math department I am taking about is ranked 76-100 in mathematics.
I tried to search this blog for related posts but could not find one. If someone knows, then please point me towards those posts.
MKG
MKG: Are you looking for a job in an IIX or more generally? The answers would depend on that.
@MKG:
According to me (and I recently joined IITB),
It does not matter if you do a math postdoc after engg, or the Ranking of the Univ. As long as you have done promising work, it should be good enough to get a position.
Best
@Ankur,
If you feel the answer depends on the actual career option, then let me ask you your opinion in these four categories:
1) Joining an IIX
2) Joining any US univ as a faculty
3) Joining any UK/Europe univ as a permanent researcher or faculty
4) Joining a research lab in US
Thanks.
MKG
PS: Thanks also to Anon at September 9, 2012 9:15 PM for replying
1) Joining an IIX
I agree with the Anon at September 9, 2012 9:15 PM. It shouldn't matter. There are examples of people with post-docs from smaller places, but have worked with a renowned scholar and are at IIT now. What matters is the research promise that your work shows. I am pretty sure that IIT selection committees (for older IITs) would be perceptive enough to see quality and promise.
2) Joining any US univ as a faculty
This I think is tricky. A lot of selection happen based on considerations of prestige. Univs typically want to get a guy from a university ranking higher than their own. Consequently for candidates from lower ranked places, postdocs often become a way to acquire MIT or Harvard genes and leapfrog the ranking race. I would suggest you ask your advisor or someone market-savvy to guide you on making the right moves in the US faculty market. You may also want to choose a research topic that is likely to boom towards the end of your postdoc.
3) Joining any UK/Europe univ as a permanent researcher or faculty
I am not very knowledgeable on this count, so I may be wrong. My understanding is that UK or European universities don't do much cross continental hiring. I think you should get a foot in the door first by doing a postdoc there.
4) Joining a research lab in US
I dont have any knowledge about this.
Apparently the GoI has been working out guidelines for PRIS for all employees. See the news below.
Already DRDO, DAE and ISRO have implemented the PRIS and I recall that something was in the works for IITs too. Has there been any progress on the ground?
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/government-and-policy/article3840276.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy
@DST-INSPIRE FACULTY
I received the offer letter from DST for the INSPIRE Faculty,2012. I would like to select my host institution for implementing the same. DST have asked to give justification for this and some letters from registrar/director of the institute.
Will anyone give some advice about what all details/letters I need to send to DST, so as to justify my selection of the host institute?
Thank you
To MKG,
I have been a faculty both at US and IISc. So answers to your questions are as follows
1. In IIX: Mostly it is fair hiring. Quality matters a lot apart from how you project yourself during presentation and interview. If you have decent publication record it should be no issue. IIXs would hire anybody who is good.
2. In US: its a different ball game. Universities get close to 200-800 applicants per position. Almost all applicants are good and have decent research record. this is my experience as a member of the search committee. also being super brilliant does not give you the job. Your fitment and department needs have to match. For e.g. if they have one fac. in fluids then mostl likely you may not be hired if you belong to a similar research area.Also US looks into your future research plans meaning how soon can you cut the umbilical cord with your advisor. Also your research plan has to be such that it brings funds since you will hire grad. students [who will keep you afloat], pay your summer, buy equipments etc. So US basically is comptetive with NSF funding having a probability of about 10 %. It is 90 % in India [if you are in IIX].
Europe: Post doc maybe needed. They require habilitation and often junior profs are basically under senior guys hurting freedom.
Us national labs: I had a green card so i could get into some positions in sandia. They also hire non-US citizens but restricted in some sense.
This is in response to query from MKG.
I wanted to share my experience of how you get hired based on 9 interviews in India and applying to a handful of jobs in US a well. I am from Science stream, PhD in India and a fairly long but successful postdoc in US. Age just above 35 when I applied.
I developed something very interesting and unique during my postdoc that is very interesting and I guess I was able to convey in my research statements. I applied to 11 places in India (IISc, all IISERs, IITs, TIFR and couple of DST institutions) and got interview call from 9 of them which I attended. TIFR did not resond inspite of sending 2 follow up emails. I had to remind IISc two months down the line and they said they were very interested. All the IISERs except IISER-Bhopal and TVM were prompt with responding and scheduling the interview. DST places were a few weeks behind. I attended interviews 4 months after sending the applications and they went great. One of the IISERs was very interested but are underging a hiring freeze. I eventually received offers from 5 places and I have accepted one of them. Intending to join end of this year.
I also wanted to convey that I knew some people only at 1 out of nine places, so it is not the connections (I am not saying it does not matter in some cases) that gets you interviews or jobs.
I think they really liked what I had achieved even when I did not have Nature/Science papers. I was able to convey that my research plan was very interesting and was adding something new to the department. IISC and IISER Pune at least were looking for how I enrich their dept and what was new and exciting. MY experience was very similar to a US interview. The faculty asked right questions and very forthcoming with pros and cons of research in India. Some junior faculty also let me know later that I was being seriously considered (Chairs/HOD are not great at communication). Some places had another skype interview later with external committee. You want to do very well there, too. Those are the guys that sign before he offer goes out.
MKG, if your Engg + Math background results in a) something unique, relevant and exciting, and either b)provide a good fit to the dept or c) enrich it somehow, you are better than Engg along or math alone. Learn to sell your research plan and do it very well. Age does not matter and most will go out of their way to hire you if they really want you. That is how you secure job in India or US. if you have a Nobel laureate boss that helps too :)
Good luck and go for it.
SM
> 2) Does it matter if I do my post-doc from a university
> which is not as highly ranked as my PhD school: for
> example some rankings rank my PhD school in top 5
> in the world (in engineering), but the math
> department I am taking about is ranked 76-100 in
> mathematics.
This move is fraught with several risks if you will be later applying for faculty positions in "North America". Pedigree matters unless your work is truly exceptional and ground working in the eyes of key members of the search committee. Weigh your options carefully. Are you a risk-taker by nature? How really well-known is the person whom you are going to be work with?
I agree with the above poster that pedigree is very imp in US. If you have done PhD in India then, your US postdoc mentor become extremely important. the mentor may be in a smaller school but if he is very well known in his field of expertise, it does not matter what the ranking of the school is (there are very good scientists in Kansas for example even if the schools are not ranked highly). Good pedigree only get you noticed i.e. your application is looked at more carefully than tossed out at the first screen. If your application (cv, research plan) is very good you may be one of 4-6 they call for interview. If you do not ace the interview, the pedigree does not help.
It is always good to chose a good mentor at PhD and postdoc level, but that can only get your foot in the door in US or India (have no idea abt Europe), then it is upto you to get liked and wanted by the search committee. Many places in India, every faculty has to say yes unanimously for you before your application goes forward than in majority of places in US where members of search committee and chair are most important.
SM
@MKG
If you are planning to pursue career in India, then postdoc is not the right way to go about it. Join an IIX as OCAP and after three years you will be AP with regular offer. Now you may also do a postdoc of 3 years and then join as AP directly (well it depends, IIX may still offer you OCAP) but then you will not have required teaching experience. In India for anything, both teaching and research are required.
Obviously, the views are all from my experience. I did have lot of interaction with selection committees of IIX - I also got an offer as AP. And this postdoc vs. direct was something communicated to me via different senior faculties.
I did postdoc, and have got extremely good experience and expertise but somehow, I now feel that it was not the right choice.
@ September 10, 2012 10:47 PM,
Your suggestions are certainly very accurate.
Since you mentioned that you had a US green card,so what did you do to be
a permanent faculty at IIX? Because in order to maintain the US green card
while working at IIX (holding Indian Passport) I assume you also are
required to be spending good amount of time in US. Did you acquire US
citizenship and working now at IIX as an OCI ? (I am also a green card
holder so would be very thankful for your insight).
I guess everyone knows rankings should be taken with a pinch ( or more) of salt, but the general trend is worrying for india
article link: http://www.samachar.com/India-only-BRICS-country-with-no-institute-in-worlds-top-200-mjmgNbejjch.html
To anon@9:22 am
I gave up my Us green card. I had 2 years left before I could go up for citizenship. So i gave up. If you are eligible for citizenship, go ahead and get it and then get an OCI to work in India.
Stop speaking on Rankings ! None of German universities in top 100 ! does this mean Germany is not doing good Research? Ranking is relative and depends on Individual group for resarch
Prof Madras and other senior faculty,
I have a request which I think will resonate with many other junior faculty or new applicants. When you find the time, could you please write a note on "How to be a successful researcher in India"? There are many blogs, articles, books like this for the US, but I couldn't find something similar for India (which is in itself surprising, since there obviously are challenges and many people who have overcome them). Prof Madras' guide for prospective faculty is very helpful for the settling and adjustment stage. It would be of immense help if you could draw on your experience and wisdom to write something about the next stage - the process of developing oneself into a successful academic who can play with the big boys of the academic world.
Thanks,
Ankur
Ankur,
Such a post should be written by a successful faculty and not by me. If some successful faculty writes such a post, I will glad to host it in the website for prospective faculty.
Thanks
Giridhar
@giri@iisc,3:32pm
why do you think you are not a successful faculty ?
in your opinion who is a successful
faculty ?
To write a post on how to be successful in India, you do not need to be successful. You can point out your inefficiencies that led you not be to successful..
For example,
(a) inability to drink alcohol and hobnob with the powerful people in your department
(b) organize conferences (60, 65, 70th birthday) for the big people in your department.
(c) consult the big people for everything including conducting your research.
This is done by most of the "successful" faculty in IIX.
Anon @ September 16, 2012 4:48 PM:
I like your sense of humor and wit.
-Wilkerson
@"How to be a successful researcher in India"?
I understand it is necessary to specify/define the successful parameters to be achieved before the statement of successful researcher. "Successful" term associated with great researcher may not be true since that will be always not satisfied to their complete satisfaction. It may be true with only those who achieved much with less effort.
regards,
@Chris / Ankur / other INSPIRE faculty
I have been awarded INSPIRE faculty, 2012. They have told to sent the proposal along with year-wise utilization of research grant. I would like to know, if this proposal is same we that we had submitted while applying for this. Or should we submit another one detailing the methodology n all?
Thanks in advance
Prof Giridhar, you are being very modest. If you could even write about what you think are the keys to your success, that would also be of help.
@Giridhar: unfailing sarcasm!
@Anonymous 4:48PM : precisely my thoughts! But would like to point out that 60+5n b'days are celebrated world over more for political reasons than for fine research (atleast in my tiny area)..so nothing India specific there!
@other young innocents! :
Successful researchers are those who succeed in researching well and are known for that in their respective community of researchers beyond the walls of 'country, state or region'. And there are plenty such around. Since they more often don't get the 'limelight' nor crave for it, they seem to be invisible. But I have so far met not even one such successful researcher who regrets not being more well known 'in the public eye'. The satisfaction of good contribution to one's subject is immensely gratifying and is its own raison d'être.
However, if such a guide appears as Ankur wishes, my eager eyes would be on it!
Also: this blog is fun!
Success is defined in many ways. It depends on what you call as successful.
1. Sit on committees that decide the awards and funding of fellow faculty and projects..
2. Get awards and recognition like the Bhatnagar and fellowships.
3. Publish and get cited a lot. High h-index and large number of citations etc.
4. Known in the international community as a top researcher in the field.
@Anonymous 4:48PM: To get 1 or maybe even 2, you need to do what you are saying but not for 3 or 4.
I do not know what Ankur meant by successful either and what Giridhar meant by saying he is not successful but it all depends on how you define it.
iisc_prof
How about defining "successful researcher" as one who is internally satisfied with his published research output, and doesnt give a damn what the rest of the community think ?
I agree with you. However, I am also reminded of this,
=========
Homer: It's OK, son. Who cares what a bunch of fourth-graders think?
You're doing what _you_ want to do with your life. Nothing else
matters.
Bart: [grateful] Thanks, Dad. That's great advice.
Homer: Yep, well, that's what got me where I am today.
Bart: [groans]
Homer: There, there.
-- Admission of uselessness, "Bart Gets Famous"
Since we are talking of definitions of success, please consider the following.
Research can be defined as advancement of knowledge. You can make it a little stronger by saying advancement of understanding, but that's more biased towards sciences.
I looking to define success as a researcher, not as a human being. So we should not abstract the question to a spiritual level, however tempting that may be. In fact, maintaining a clear, restrained distinction between the two is vital for any such discussion to be fruitful. If necessary for clarity one can also concentrate on answering the question "how to have a successful *career* as a researcher". This question is narrower, but serves the purpose of avoiding slipping into dharmic regimes.
Further, the definition of success has to be a) objective -- it cannot be based on internal self-assessments (like what anon @September 17, 2012 10:17 PM is suggesting) which are as subjective as any assessments can get.
And b) the definition should be universal - in particular, the definition should not be tied to a narrow regional reality, e.g., something like what Katju was saying "raise the standard of living of the India common man" is out of question. Of course, research problems may be tied to this reality, but the definition of what it means to be successful as a researcher should have little to do with it.
Considering all this, it seems necessary that some international peer review tools have to be brought in. So perhaps combination of 3,4 or may be 2 also mentioned by iisc_prof seems ok to me.
hai
I wish to know, whether INSPIRE faculty fellowship is taxable? One of my friend is also selected for the fellowship, he is getting full salary, i.e., 80K per month. Do we need to pay tax at the end of year? or was it exempted?
thanks and regards
pratap
What will be the designation of the INSPIRE faculty?
Are they considered as gazetted?
I have got a call from UGC FRP regarding my selection in Engineering Sciences.
They have asked me to give 4 preferences of host universities out of some 26 universities.
Does any body got a call from Biology also?
Are the universities for Biology same or different as in Engg?
Can somebody please mention the universities for Biology stipulated by UGCFRP in their email.
PK
Anon PK @September 18, 2012 12:00 PM
when did you apply for the UGC-FRP? does anybody know the status of which deadlines they are considering now for UGC-FRP Physics section? are they still with last years (2011) backlog?
RM
Hi IIT Profs,
I have been offered an Asst.Professor position @ IIT and will be joining
by next few months. I am below 29 yrs currently. As a new faculty, am I
eligible for the following DST grants:
1) Swarnajayanti Fellowships
2) JC Bose National Fellowship
3) SERC Fast track Young Scientist award.
Thank for your response and help.
- IIT Prof_new
@other young innocents! :
Thank you. I got a good and clear definition.
regards,
@Chris
Please let me know, what all details you submitted to DST while implementing the DST-INSPIRE fellowship at your institute. They have asked for detailed budget plan. Apart from that, did you submit a deatiled project proposal and your biodata etc while accepting the award?
Awaiting your response
Regards
1) Swarnajayanti Fellowships: Very competitive, work hard, publish good and you can apply for it when you are close to 40 (start applying at 38 and keep on trying)
2) JC Bose National Fellowship: i think you need to wait further... Get your swarnajayanti first...
3) SERC Fast track Young Scientist award: This one you can apply immediately (I heard they are going to rename it to Slow Track Young Scientist Scheme :) )
4) Ramanujan Fellowship: If you are abroad, apply for it before you come back.
@ anon September 18, 2012 9:48 AM
INSPIRE faculty fellow was contract position for 5 years, which can be considered for regular position in due course. its no way gazetted.
with best regards
Pratap
@anon September 18, 2012 3:28 PM
I am also an INSPIRE faculty fellow-2011, they have not asked me "detailed budget plan". I expect its a new requirement. I sent the application form, detailed research proposal, recommendation letter from PhD supervisor, scanned copies of all certificates.
what I expect is should make a list of chemicals/consumables/components etc and their expected prices for your 1 year research period.
good luck.
with best regards
pratap
Anybody knows whether UGC-FRP Associate Professor in Engineering Science selection result has been declared or not?
@Pratap
Thank you so much for the information.
They have asked the detailed budget for 5 years. May be they have aded this this time.
Do we need to send the application and recommendation letters and certificates again , while accepting the award. They have n't asked for it. But we had sent all those twice, one along with the application and 2nd before the interview. Do we have to send it the 3rd time?
A question for recent and past INSPIRE and Ramanujan awardees. I hope Ankur, Chris, Saswata, Prof. Madras, or someone familiar with the situation may be able to answer this. I've just started my first postdoc in Europe after finishing my PhD here.
Normally, a person on fellowship in Europe would be considered a faculty member and yet be eligible to skip teaching (since one's salary is not being paid by the university). I guess it's similar in US and (informally) it is called buying out one's teaching load.
How is the situation like in India for these fellowships? Are there some fixed rules or (like many other things) is this dependent on negotiations and interpretations?
I'm planning to apply for one of these fellowships and am hopeful of being successful and join one of the IIXs. Ideally, I would like to have minimal teaching load at the start of my career. I know in many places one can negotiate this during joining and be asked to be given little teaching load for one or two semesters. But I was wondering if I can legally claim this as a right if I get one of these fellowships?
Thanks
PS
I would think the teaching load is dependent on negotiations - it depends on what the department's needs are. In some IIXs a fellow would be treated on par with a regular position (in fact they host only those fellows who have been offered positions). In these cases, the teaching load and the terms you negotiate do not depend on whether you are a fellow or not.
@Anon 1:06
The following is what I guess:
If you get a regular position in addition to the fellowship, you have to teach.
If you don't want to teach, you might just want to have the fellowship only. In that case, you will miss many benefits that an assistant prof gets. Even then, as Ankur points out, the department may still ask you to teach.
Finally, why do you want to join an IIT and just do research? Why do you think that teaching and research are orthogonal things to do? I am sharing a link which portrays Feynman's view that teaching is not a evil job to do for sincere researchers!
http://www.pitt.edu/~druzdzel/feynman.html
If you are too serious about doing research in IITs, there is a third thing you can try to avoid. That is called "administrative" duties. It's a complete wastage of time at the early stage of your career. Unless, of course, you have a secret dream to become the Dean or the Dirctor.
Saswata,
Why do you say so? Professor Giridhar seems to be doing a lot of administrative work and also lot of research. These are not orthogonal.
Dear Ankur and Saswata,
Thanks for your replies.
@Saswata: Sorry if I miscommunicated earlier, I do not say that I'm not interested in teaching. I would love to interact with students and learn from them. It's just that at the start of my career I do not want to be teaching 3-4 courses a year, largely because I do not yet have a `research momentum'. I can probably do that after a few years of joining. I really hope I can avoid administrative duties. I'm happy with creating and disseminating knowledge, no hopes of being a Director :)
While we are at it, I would like to ask you one more question.
My research area lies at the interface of Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics. In fact, I did my B.Tech from a department of Mechanical Engineering and did my PhD from a department of Mathematics. I have seen many faculty in IITs who have a joint appointment in two departments. How does one go about in doing that? Is it a special status granted to only people with a star CV? Also, what kind of additional responsibilities should one expect if planning to do that?
Thank you
PS
@Saswata:
Thanks for the link by the way. I also encourage people to read this article by Professor Noll on the role of a professor.
http://www.math.cmu.edu/~wn0g/RP.pdf
PS
@Anon 12:32
I said that doing administrative jobs is complete wastage of time at the early stage of one's career. Prof. Giridhar can say whether he started doing admin works while he was starting his research career.
Once a researcher establishes himself in his field, the country benefits by having him as an administrator. But unfortunately in IITs, you become an administrator mostly if you start wasting time on admin things early in your career. The quality of research work doesn't matter to become an administrator in IITs, as has been discussed in details before.
@PS
I don't have an answer to your second question.
@ September 18, 2012 4:43 PM and Other Ramanujan Fellows @ IIX,
Thank you for your reply.
I have 3 more queries as follows:
1.) Regarding Ramanujan Fellowship, does any budget
plan (and justification) needs to be included in the proposal ? The reason
why I am asking this is because in case if the candidate is successful,
she/he will be awarded contingency grant of 35 lakhs anyways. So does any
budget plan necessary ? Looking forward for valuable comments.
2.) Does the Ramanujan fellowship contingency grant of 35 lakhs (7 lakhs/yr)
needs to be utilized during the block period of 5 yrs only ? Or it can be
utilized based on need even after 5 yrs (i.e no compulsion for utilizing
the grant inside the block period of 5yrs) ?
3.) I would like to check my eligibility about applying for Ramanujan
Fellowship and SERC fast track Young Scientist awards.
I have an offer from an IIT for Asst. Professor (On contract) and will be
joining by DEC 2012 after returning from abroad. But I am yet to defend my
Ph.D (Although Ph.D Thesis is submitted). Can I apply for these grants
from abroad before my Ph.D defense (through institute nominated mode)?
Thanks for your input.
To Anonymous above
1. Ramanujan fellowship does not require budget plan for the proposal.
I did not include any budget plan and I'm recipient of this recently.
2. I think every grant needs to be utilized in the specified period and it is
divided and awarded annually.
3. You can right away apply for fast track since this does not need approval from host institute.
Best wishes
@ Recent Ramanujan fellows...
Did any of you get the financial sanction? I have sent my acceptance letter one month back and yet to hear anything from DST. Any clue how much time they take for initial processing?
On joint appointments here is my experience. I was a good fit in two departments and was made offers by both. But the advice I received was that joint appointments are administratively more complicated to work out. Furthermore, I was not sure if my administrative load would remain equivalent to that under one department; most likely it would increase.
My understanding is that research-wise it doesn't matter which building one sits in. You choose the department based on teaching load, the dynamism etc.
Thanks Ankur and Saswata for the replies.
Many thanks to Professor Madras for hosting such a fantastic blog for new people.
PS
@ September 20, 2012 5:54 PM,
Thank you for your reply. I have 2 more queries:
1) Would you please also let me know if I am eligible to apply for
Ramanujan fellowship before Ph.D defense (though Thesis submitted). My
current status is that I have an offer for Asst. Professor from an IIT
and will be joining by Dec 2012 from Abroad.
2) If the Ramanujan fellowship grant needs to be utilized in the 5 yr
block period, then its a lot of money every year required to be spent
(since the initial research lab cost will be borne by start-up from the
host institute, so no real expenditure after except conference
registration and travel; and may be hiring few JRF) What happens if the
money allocated (7 lakhs/yr)is not utilized completely? Cant it be
forwarded for the next yr or even after 5 yrs for research ?
Thanks again for your input.
To anon Above
1. Apply to Ramanujan! there are no rules about submission. But Inspire will be more Suitable for you.
2. Your the first researcher writing that 25 Lakhs is too much money for five years :)
I guess you do theory! In any case grants need to be used and could be carried over to next year but should be spent in 5 yrs. May be you could ask extension.
best wishes
1) I suggets you to apply. If you ask DST whether you can apply, they will say no. So don't ask. The committee decides on the applications and hence you haven't defended your thesis may not be a problem if you have good credentials.
2) 25 Lakhs (5 lakhs per year) is nothing for experimental people. And how much money IIXs give as start up? Its a little extra money which you can utilize for flexible spending
Thanks for you previous inputs. I have 3 question for all IIX Professors:
a) In the fast Track young scientist proposal, shall I categorize desktop
computers (for all lab members), server and printers under 'CONSUMABLES'
or 'EQUIPMENT' during budget justification and phasing.
b) I have an offer for Asst. Prof from IIX, so in the fast Track young
scientist proposal, am I entitled to have only 1 JRF/Assistant during the
entire 3 yr period (during budget justification).
c) What kind of expenses shall I cover under Overhead/Indirect cost. Has
it to do something with accessories such as rooms heating/cooling systems
?"
To all those people who have r2i'ed to join iisc, iixs and have been more than a year, whats your feedback? worth it? repentant? satisfied?
@September 24, 2012 10:29 AM
Do not appear for the interview just to meet selection committee unless otherwise you are confirmed before by the respective department search committee. It is valid for any IIX and even IISc.
@September 24, 2012 10:29 AM
Don't come back If you can avoid. I am sure Indian academics is going to be rated "junk" soon.
@September 24, 2012 12:20 PM
Very Correct. Selection committee provides nothing but a rubber stamp on a got up candidate. Coming up Walmart in india may be better place to work if someone completes his BBA/MBA than doing research publications and looking for a placement in IIXs.
Thanks for you previous inputs. I have 3 question for all IIX Professors:
a) In the fast Track young scientist proposal, shall I categorize desktop
computers (for all lab members), server and printers under 'CONSUMABLES'
or 'EQUIPMENT' during budget justification and phasing.
b) I have an offer for Asst. Prof from IIX, so in the fast Track young
scientist proposal, am I entitled to have only 1 JRF/Assistant during the
entire 3 yr period (during budget justification).
c) What kind of expenses shall I cover under Overhead/Indirect cost. Has
it to do something with accessories such as rooms heating/cooling systems
?"
@ September 21, 2012 6:36 PM
and September 21, 2012 6:04 PM
Thankyou for your previous inputs. kindly advice me on the three questions on:
September 22, 2012 7:49 PM
and
September 24, 2012 4:54 PM
It is very urgent and important.
Thankyou
Hi All,
Does "certificates and Mark-sheets" for your entire education needs to be sent along with the grant proposal (and bio-data) for:
1) Ramanujan Fellowship
2) SERC Fast Track Young Scientist scheme
I have not found written that they are looking for "certificates and Mark-sheets".
Thank you.
@September 24, 2012 4:54 PM
I am sorry man. Nothing personal. Looks like job was given to you. You will get much better inputs from your department colleagues.
a) In the fast Track young scientist proposal, shall I categorize desktop
computers (for all lab members), server and printers under 'CONSUMABLES'
or 'EQUIPMENT' during budget justification and phasing.
I think it depends on what your project is ! If you are doing theoretical work and computers and other related accessories can be projected as equipment. Otherwise for an experimental person asking more than one computer will probably get rejected. In any case my suggestion is to include them in the equipment head. Another head it may go is "contingency". Definitely not in "consumables".
b) I have an offer for Asst. Prof from IIX, so in the fast Track young
scientist proposal, am I entitled to have only 1 JRF/Assistant during the
entire 3 yr period (during budget justification).
Asking one JRF is fair. Two is too much to ask from a Fast-Track project. Thats my opinion. But if you don't have enough expenditure to fill up the 23 lakhs budget, ask two or three :)
c) What kind of expenses shall I cover under Overhead/Indirect cost. Has
it to do something with accessories such as rooms heating/cooling systems
?"
AFAIK, overhead is the money go to the institute funds. You cannot claim this money back directly. So don't worry about that...
Hope it helps. Congratulations on your position at IIX.
1) Ramanujan Fellowship: Certificates or copies are not needed
2) SERC Fast Track Young Scientist scheme: Certificate copies are requested once they approve the project.
@ DST INSPIRE Faculty Fellow August 2012
Friends,
I am writing to inquire if any of you has requested from DST to work at the same place where you received you Ph.D. degree. How have they responded? Your comments in this regard would be highly appreciated.
Regards
JD
@To all those people who have r2i'ed to join iisc, iixs and have been more than a year, whats your feedback? worth it? repentant? satisfied?September 24,2012 10:29 AM
Why do you need the feedback? Does negative feedback bring Indian academic system/institute in stable operating state? Then you got many negative feedback what was the corrective measure?
Certainly, for any prospective aspiring faculty would feel worth to attend interview. No point of being repentant because without meeting the minimum criteria someone would not got the interview call. Again, as an aspiring faculty always someone will be satisfied because IIX or IISc are not the last destination to reach and settle.
Thanks for your reply. It helps.
I have a small question regarding Ramanujan Fellowship:
I will be sending my application for Ramanujan Fellowship to my host
institute (where I have an offer) before I join. But my institute says
that they will only forward it to DST, right on the first day of my
joining. Not before.
I guess I will become ineligible for this award then. isn't it that they
want the candidate to nominate them while in abroad ?
Although I send it to my IIX institute from abroad but if they send it
after I join, will it be ok?? Please give me some clear picture. Thank
you.
@Ramanujan fellowship question
Thats tricky. Its best if your institute forward it while you are abroad. You can forward it to DST directly (send 5 copies of application and proposal, but mark them as advance copy) while you are in abroad and then request your director to forward one copy through institute. That should work
http://www.complaintboard.in/complaints-reviews/ugcfrp-l235043.html
Since you do not want to write how to be successful because you do not deem to be successful, can you at least tell what you would have done differently? For example, what would you have told yourself if you are joining IISc today?
Which is easier to get?
Fast track, Ramanujam, Swarnajayanthi, JC Bose (all from DST)??
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