IIT Madras Research Scholars: COVID-19 Financial Aid

Description

Background:

IIT Madras has a vibrant Research community engaged in cutting edge research in theoretical, experimental and application-oriented field. The NIRF 2020 #1 Rank in Overall Category is a testimony to the research culture on the campus. This culture has within it, scholars from myriad backgrounds and several who require financial support throughout their research journey. They are primarily enrolled in the PhD and the MS programme and the Institute provides a monthly stipend for 5 years and 2.5 years respectively. This fund is received by the Institute from the Government and the same is distributed to all the eligible scholars on a monthly basis.

Issue:

Every semester, around 250+ Ph.D. Scholars and 100+ M.S Scholars graduate successfully. However, due to the COVID-19 lockdown imposed for the past 4 months with no signs of being lifted soon, the research activity on the campus has come to a standstill. Scholars who planned to graduate now have had their work stopped abruptly and cannot progress further till the lockdown is lifted or alternate arrangements made. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has also till date not announced any extension of stipend for a further period. Due to the above reasons, the scholars are now left without any financial aid and no way to fast track their research either.

Ask:

This proposal seeks to raise funds to help scholars’ tide over the financial distress they face over the next few months and also to give them time to arrange alternate modes of income. The proposed plan is to raise funds for the next 6 months for the batch of scholars who would have graduated in June, 2020. The details are presented below: