The Central Government has increased the number of slots under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) to 1000 from 756 the previous year. The scholarships are available to students from minority students only.
The scholarship provides incentives to students from minority communities to pursue their MPhil or PhD from government recognised universities. The students have to clear NET or JRF to be eligible and they may be provided with a complete fee waiver and stipend.
Junior Research scholars under the scholarship will receive a monthly stipend of ₹25,000, ₹1,000 as contingency grant and an allowance for house rent between ₹2,000 to ₹6,000. Senior research scholars will receive a monthly stipend of ₹28,000, a contingency grant of ₹2,000 and a house rent allowance between ₹2,200 and ₹6,700.
“The effort is to facilitate the education of deserving candidates from all sections,” a UGC official told Hindustan Times. Interested candidates can apply for the scholarships till the 31st of December, 2018.
There was some confusion regarding the initial notification by the UGC. It had mentioned only UGC NET and CSIR NET December 2017 and June 2018 as the qualifying criteria, the new notification, however, does not mention it. The new notification states, “All candidates who belong to one of the minority communities i.e. Muslim, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist, Christian and Jain and who are enrolled for full-time MPhil / Ph.D degree in Indian Universities/ Institutions/ Colleges recognized under Section 2(f) and Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956 and CBSE/NTA-UGC-NET/JRF or CSIR-NET/JRF may apply.”
