Modi government is rolling out the mother of all scholarships for India's best brains. As part of its move to stop them from taking up research scholarships abroad, the Cabinet has cleared the PM Research Fellowships (PMRF) for students of higher education institutions like the IITs, IISERs and NITs, which will also be the country's most lavish paid scholarships to date.
Lavish it is. The PMRF includes monthly scholarships of Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000 and annual research grants of Rs 2 lakh for select scholars. The Centre has approved an allocation of Rs 1,650 crore for these fellows to be spent over three years.