As mentioned earlier The Central Government keep announcing schemes for minority communities time to time for their welfare, here today All India Council for Minorities will inform you about one such scheme out of the list of schemes, i.e.Maulana Azad Fellowship Scheme.
The objective of the Maulana Azad Fellowship Scheme (MANF) is to provide five year fellowships in the form of financial assistance to students from six notified minority communities viz. Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Parsi and Sikh to pursue M. Phil and Ph.D.
1. Central/State Universities (including constituent and affiliated institutions) included under Section 2(f) of UGC Act, 1956 and having valid accreditation from NAAC.
2. Deemed Universities under Section 3 of UGC Act i.e. Institution for higher education notified by Central Government to be deemed University, in consultation with UGC and having valid accreditation from NAAC.
3. Institution fully funded by State / Central Government and empowered to award degrees.
4. Institutions of National Importance as notified by Ministry of Human Resource Development
The Fellowship will be implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs through UGC. The fellowship holders under this Fellowship will be known as Ministry of Minority Affairs scholars.
The Fellowship will cater to the minority community students pursuing regular and full time research studies leading to award of M.Phil/Ph.D degree within India only.
This will enable them to be eligible for employment to the posts with M.Phil and Ph.D as pre- requisites, including the posts of Assistant Professors in various academic institutions.
UGC will be the nodal agency for implementing the MANF Scheme and ensures that the Scheme is also included in the Notification/Press Release to be issued by National Testing Agency (NTA) for UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC NET examinations.
A candidate has to fulfill the following conditions to be eligible for award of this fellowship:-
1. He/she should belong to one of the minority communities notified under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, viz., Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Sikh, Zoroastrian (Parsi).
2. Prior clearance of UGC-NET or Joint CSIR-UGC NET examination will be a prerequisite for award of Maulana Azad National Fellowship for minority students for M.Phil/Ph.D.
The eligibility conditions will be as per notification for UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC-NET examinations.
3. The Minority Community candidates, who have already secured admission and qualify NET examination, will be given preference. Such candidates will be required to join fellowship within 3 months of the issue of the JRF award letter. The date of commencement of the fellowship shall be the date of declaration of result of UGC-NET-JRF & Joint CSIR-UGC-NET-JRF or date of joining, whichever is later.
4. In case sufficient candidates, who have already secured admission are not available, candidates who have not yet secured admission will also be selected in the order of merit in the NET examination. Such candidates will be eligible to receive fellowship under MANF, subject to admission for M.Phil. /Ph.D. in research institutions. The validity period of the offer is three years w.e.f. the date of issue of the JRF Award letter under the scheme.
5. A scholar is eligible to receive only one fellowship at a time. The scholar is required to declare that he/she will not accept/receive any other monetary benefit/scholarship/fellowship from any other source. In other words, a scholar who is awarded fellowship under this scheme shall not accept any other fellowship/scholarship or hold any appointment, paid or otherwise, or receive any emoluments, salary, stipend etc. from any other source during the tenure of the award (except in case of ‘academic leave’ of one year). In case, a scholar is already in receipt of any scholarship/fellowship, he/she will have to relinquish either the previous scholarship / fellowship/ any other monetary benefit or to forgo the selection under this scheme.
6. A scholar who does not complete his/her research work during the period of fellowship shall not be eligible to apply again under this scheme. Similarly, a scholar who has completely or partially availed any fellowship earlier shall also not be eligible for fellowship under this scheme.
7. Employees of any University/ College/ Educational Institutional/ Central/ State/ UT Government shall be excluded from availing fellowship, even if they are on Study Leave or EOL to pursue the M.Phil. /Ph.D. course.