Ph.D.

HANDBOOK FOR

Welcome note

I am pleased to introduce the Research Scholar Forum (RSF),

which is one of the oldest students' bodies since 1970. RSF is the

collective of all the research scholars of the Indian Institute of

Technology Bombay (IITB). Every Ph.D. research scholar

enrolled in IITB is a member of this forum. RSF provides a

platform to all the research scholars with their issues and concerns

holistically in the institute. I would like to say on behalf of the

RSF team, that we would like to contribute generously to the

welfare of all colleagues and incoming students. We aspire to

ensure a researcher-friendly environment that makes way for

promoting a healthy research culture in all the departments. We

assure all the research scholars that it would be my primary

concern to raise the voice of research scholars and try to resolve

those issues and give better motivation to their research and

welfare. We organize lecture series, talks, workshops, various

events which are an integral part of the students' activity of RSF.

These not only enrich the research scholars from the learning

perspective but also provide a platform to interact with the

research scholars.

On behalf of the RSF team, I welcome all of you in IIT

Bombay. I wish you success in your new place. May it be all

exciting and fun, wish you the best of luck.

Jadupati Nag

Convener, RSF

Information regarding fellowship

Apart from the self-financed (SW) candidates, all other Ph.D.

scholars are beneficiaries of different scholarships given by the

institute and other funding agencies.

TA (Teaching Assistantship) students receive their stipend

directly from MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources and

development) through the institute. House Rent Allowance

(HRA) is transferred directly to the institute by MHRD. PhD

students staying inside the campus will not be eligible for HRA.

TA category students receive Rs. 31,000 for the first two years of

their Ph.D. which is incremented to Rs. 35,000 for the next three

years. TA students have to monthly submit the TA form

(downloadable from the institute website). The forms have to be

signed by the TA supervisor before submission in the department

office (For some department this work will be done by the

department office).

TAP (Teaching Assistantship through Project) students

receive their financial assistance from a sponsored research

project, which is being written by a faculty member of the

Department. The Ph.D. thesis is required to be completed under

the supervision of the faculty members whose sponsored project

provides the financial assistance. The admission procedure and

other requirements are same as TA. Any issue of the TAP

students will be taken care by IRCC IITB office.

FA (Financially Assisted) students receive their fellowship

from funding agencies like UGC, CSIR etc. At the time of

joining, the UGC and CSIR (JRF) fellows need to submit the

following forms for continuation/ starting of their fellowship. The

forms could be found in (https://ugc.ac.in/subpage/NET-JRF-

Annexures.aspx) (for UGC JRF holders) and in

(https://csirhrdg.res.in/Home/Index/1/Default/1246/60) (for CSIR

JRF holders).

1. Annexure-II Joining Report

2. Annexure III- Continuation certificate

3. Annexure VI- HRA certificate (to be submitted after six

months)

4. Annexure-IV- Half-yearly progress report (after each

semester).

The forms are to be given to Asha in the main building (academic

section). The HRA forms are to be submitted to Sandeep in the

finance section.

For Conversion from JRF to SRF after two years, the following

forms need to be submitted:

1. Annexure-VII- Upgradation from JRF to SRF

Forms for upgradation to SRF for CSIR scholars could be

found at https://csirhrdg.res.in/Home/Idex/1/Default/969/57

DST Inspire fellowship is a program to support students

pursuing a Ph.D. in basic and applied sciences, medicine,

agriculture, pharmacy etc.

Who are eligible for a DST fellowship?

1. Those who are already Inspire scholars during their

Bachelor’s and Master’s, and has scored a minimum

70% marks or equivalent CGPA in their Masters.

2. First rank holders in Masters (1st Rank should be

obtained in a minimum batch size of 10 students in that

university level examination with a minimum

aggregate of 70% marks (or CGPA equivalent) for the

entire course/ program). First rank holders have to

submit the rank certificate from University.

Selection process: The selection process is via a two-level

screening process by the DST inspire expert committee. After

selection, DST will send you the selection letter. If you are

already enrolled in Ph.D., you just have to accept the letter and

follow the next steps. If you are not yet enrolled in Ph.D., then

you will be placed in the Provisional category. You have to get

enrolled in Ph.D. within one year of your provisional offer letter.

After that, you need to write a detailed Ph.D. research proposal in

consultation with your supervisor and upload it in the portal along

with your admission letter within one month after getting

admission in Ph.D. The final decision on your write up will come

after roughly 4-6 months. After the final selection letter, you have

to accept the fellowship and upload the bank details of your

institute within one month of the final offer letter.

Installments: The first installment of the fellowship will be

sent after 4-6 months of your acceptance of the final offer letter.

The installment will include a fellowship for one year, HRA,

contingency. At the end of each year, you have to send a brief

report of your research work and SE/UC certificate, which

basically shows how much amount you have spent and how much

is remaining in your account.

For JRF to SRF upgradation: you have to invite one DST

chairperson, the criteria of which is there in Inspire website. You

should remember that you cannot change your host institute

or supervisor (unless he/she retires or passes away) after one

year of admission into Ph.D.

Monash Academy students receive their fellowship from

the academy itself. They can get a waiver in the tuition fees if

they take up TA duties or AAR duties (Additional Academic

Responsibilities) in any department on agreement with their

supervisors.

Different works of RSF team

Feb 2011: Talk on

Research to Business - Aim of

this program is to bring out

technology-driven business

opportunities for the students.

Speakers: Mr Vishal Gupta,

Founder, Seclore Technology

and Prof. Shevare, Aerospace

Engineering, IIT Bombay

March 2011: Talk on "What is research" - Speaker: Prof

Uday from CSE department

April 2012: LaTeX Workshop

December 2013: Debate Training Workshop, Speaker:

Mr Daryl Isla.

January 2015: Talk on "Why should IIT give you PhD."

February 2015: Talk on “Theoretical Computer Science

Concepts Come Alive”, Speaker: Prof. Susan Rodger, Duke

University.

February 2017: RSF in collaboration with Ambedkar

Periyar Phule Study Circle (APPSC) has organized a panel

discussion on the theme: ‘Myths and Realities of ancient Indian

science’.

December 2019: The 1st workshop titled ‘DATA

VISUALIZATION USING MATLAB/OCTAVE’ held on the

7th of December, 2019 at

F.C. Kohli auditorium,

IITB. The workshop was

free and open to all and

was planned in such a way

that many problems from

different department’s

perspective were

discussed. The objective of the

workshop was to provide a

better computational knowledge

to beginner researchers,

educators, to understand and

learn GNU-Octave promptly

and effortlessly. The practical

application of this software in various fields was also discussed.

The workshop attracted more than 100 registered research

scholars as well as research staff from IITB. Gopi Krishnan. R.,

3rd-year research scholar in mathematics at IITB, gave an invited

workshop presentation on the topic of promoting computational

knowledge in research fields in India. After the end of this

workshop, we issued training certificates to the attendees as well

as the volunteers for their help and assistance and tokens of

appreciation honoring to honor the efforts of the individuals

responsible for the smooth conduct of the program.

RSF safeguarding research scholar’s rights

As a collective body of the Research Scholars of IIT Bombay,

RSF has always been vocal about students' rights. RSF

participated in the movement against fee hike in 2015 and 2017. It

came forward criticising the increase in M.Tech. fees proposed by

the IIT Council in 2019.

In 2018-19, RSF took part in the student movement

demanding a hike in scholarship in IIT Bombay. RSF demanded

an overall revision of fellowship for Masters and Ph.D. scholars

(both TA and FA students). RSF also put forward the demands for

timely disbursement of fellowship through a web portal based

Fellowship Assessment Portal and a simpler process to avail the

release of scholarship. An increase in HRA and contingency

funds were also demanded. In December 2018, RSF took part in

organising more than one protest marches inside and outside the

IIT Bombay campus.

As a result of the countrywide student’s movements, the

Ministry of Human Resources and development had decided to

increase the CSIR and UGC fellowship from 25,000 to 31, 000 in

JRF and from 28,000 to 35,000 in SRF. RSF along with other

student bodies on campus worked tirelessly to ensure

implementation of the same scale of fellowship for TA category

students enrolled in IIT Bombay.

One of the major projects taken up by RSF in this semester is

to ensure timely disbursal of scholarships to the students and to

resolve any issue that may arise due to administrative

inefficiencies or ineffectiveness of the funding agencies. RSF has

also resolved to fight against any proposal of fee hike for M.Tech.

and Ph.D. students.

RSF organises workshops and debates on campus regarding

different social issues that affect the lives of the scholars in

general. Any decision about the course of action to be taken by

RSF in case of any event is decided democratically in a general

body meeting. If a student wants RSF to address any social issue

in the general body meeting, the core council is to be intimated

earlier through our email: rsf@iitb.ac.in.

RSF is currently working on providing accommodation for

married research scholars. RSF has demanded for new quarters

for the married research scholars and is collaborating with the

Hostel Affairs section to devise short term and immediate

solutions to the accommodation crisis that many of the scholars

are currently facing.

People in RSF

The RSF constitution mandates that the RSF council should

have convener, a core committee (5 executive councilors, 2 ex-

officio members, 1 Institute Doctoral Representative (IDR) and 1

OC from Institute Research Scholars Companion Programme

(IRSCP)) and one Department Representative (DR) from each

PhD program running in the institute.

The convener is the only elected member of the body. As per

the RSF constitution, the convener’s election in 2019 took place

in September. The voting was done online following a soapbox,

where the candidate was questioned on his manifesto by the 7

member’s selection committee and the common students.

Jadupati Nag (PhD 2rd year, Physics) is

the current elected convener of RSF. The

convener is the representative of the RSF

team. He oversees all the work done by

RSF and coordinates with the Dean(s)

and the Director when needed. He can be

approached through the RSF email id

(rsf@iitb.ac.in, rsfiitb19@gmail.com or

jadupatinag11@gmail.com ). Whenever a

decision needs to be taken by the RSF, the convener and the core

council will give a call for a General Body Meeting (GBM) to

resolve the issues through democratic discussions.

The Executive Council (EC), currently consists of 5

nominated members from different departments of the institute.

The 5 members are Suman (Electrical engineering), Abdul

(Energy Sciences), Krishan (Mathematics), Tanu Priya (Earth

Sciences) and Suchisree (Humanities and Social Sciences). The

ex-officio member is Piyush and IDR is Vaibhav. The convener

and the EC currently form the Core Council of RSF. They can be

directly approached by the students for any issue which they feel

that RSF can take up. The Core Council calls for the General

Body Meeting (GBM) of the RSF community depending on the

gravity of the issues raised by the students. General Body is the

highest decision-making body of the Forum.

At present, the RSF team has 10 nominated Department

Representatives (DR). Any department related issues can be

addressed to them. The team is still waiting for more department

representatives to join. If your department does not have a DR

yet, you are free to approach the EC members directly with any

department related problems.

List of Department Representatives of RSF (2020)

Name Department Contact No. & Mail Id

Ansaf V

Karim *

Environmental

Science and

Engineering

9496802350

ansafvkarim@iitb.ac.in

ansafvkarim@gmail.com

Birendra Kr.

Rajan

Environmental

Science and

Engineering

8796703195

rajan.birendra@gmail.com

Sandeep Kr.

Mishra

Department of

Electrical

Engineering

7304317034

sandeep.mishra85@gmail.co

m

Vinayaraj

V.S.

Department of

Civil Engineering

9400591317

vinayaraj4u@gmail.com

Rasmita

Maharana

Department of

Humanities and

Social Sciences

9777329142

184083001@iitb.ac.in

Pragya

Singh

Department of

Earth Sciences

8887693091

pragyasingh.vns@gmail.com

Rakhi

Pratihar

Department of

Mathematics

9820402264

rakhip@math.iitb.ac.in

Sucharita

Giri

Department of

Physics

9167944385

sucharitagiri@iitb.ac.in

Anuj Kumar Department of

Chemistry

9807604831

anujqt@gmail.com

* Ansaf is the Married Scholar’s Representative in RSF. He is

working with his team on the accommodation crisis of the

married research scholars. Any related questions can be addressed

to him.

Join RSF Team !

RSF is a collective of research scholars of IIT Bombay. It is

not a body under PGAC and therefore enjoys relative autonomy

as a platform that represents the collective interests of the

research scholars. Anybody can be a part of the RSF team as

volunteers or as EC or DR members. The current team’s tenure is

for six more months. After that fresh, elections and nominations

will be conducted for the convener’s post and the core council

respectively.

Any student can apply for the post of DR in the meantime.

The only requirement for being a member of the RSF team is the

willingness to talk to your fellow researchers and listen to their

issues. As a comparatively newly formed collective, RSF looks

forward to more researchers joining our team in the near future.