Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology, launched Phase II of Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme to promote research in 42 emerging technologies in Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) and Information Technology (IT)/ Information Technology Enabled Services(ITES) virtually here today.

Dedicating the scheme to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on his birthday, Shri Vaishnaw, said that the scheme is manifestation of Prime Minister’s vision of providing world class education and opportunities for research and development to the students at the bottom of the pyramid in society. This scheme supports the talent that we have in our country. He further said that the results of 1st phase of the scheme are really encouraging with 63 global patents and publication of thousands of research papers in reputed international journals.

The Minister said that it’s high time to scale up the scheme massively as we are going rapidly into high-tech industries especially semiconductor manufacturing and telecom manufacturing and soon we will realise the vision of Prime Minister to have our own 4G core network and 5G core network in India.

Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY mentioned that Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme serves the purpose of increasing the number of doctorates in the areas of ESDM & IT/ITES along with a focus on improving the research infrastructure at the research institutions and encouraging young faculty to undertake research in emerging areas. Phase II of the scheme is being launched with enhanced features to serve the purpose of productive research in India.

Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme was initiated by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 2014 with the approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) with an objective to enhance number of PhDs in ESDM & IT/ITES sectors. PhD seats were allocated to 97 institutions (IITs, NITs, Central & State Universities etc.) in 25 states and 4 Union Territories.  At present 492 Full-time & 268 Part-time PhD Fellows are pursuing while 422 Full Time & 43 Part Time PhD have submitted thesis or completed PhD. During the event achievements of Phase I of the Visvesvaraya PhD scheme were also celebrated.

Phase II of the scheme aims to support 1000 Full Time PhD Candidates, 150 Part Time PhD Candidates, 50 Young Faculty Research Fellowships and 225 Post-Doctoral Fellowships.

Many dignitaries from academia and Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) graced the event. Few of the eminent speakers present at the event were Shri. Ajay Sawhney, Secretary MeitY; Dr. B.K. Murthy, GC, R&D, MeitY; Shri Abhishek Singh, MD & CEO, DIC; Dr. Vinay Thakur, Sr. Director (Research & Admin), DIC and Shri Manoj Jain, Scientist F, MeitY. The research work carried during Phase I of the scheme was highly appreciated by the one and all.

RKJ/M

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