Women biotech scientists await funds for research

Almost 5 months after being chosen for the DBT Biocare programme, an initiative by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to encourage girls scientists, not one of the 75 chosen candidates has obtained the funds promised nor salaries.

The DBT, which is below the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), has been working the Biocare programme since 2011. It is especially meant for the profession growth of unemployed feminine scientists for whom it is going to be the primary extramural research funding sanctioned by the federal government.

A doctoral lady researcher chosen below the programme is eligible for a ₹60 lakh grant for three years. This features a wage part of ₹75,000 a month.

From 2020 to 2024, on common yearly, almost 50 girls scientists have been beneficiaries of the programme, in keeping with the response to a query within the Rajya Sabha in March. This yr, 75 girls scientists have been chosen on March 30, following which they’re anticipated to start their research tasks. However, one of many chosen scientists stated that within the absence of the required sanction letters or funds, they have been unable to start their research.

‘No response’

“For the past five months, we have been writing to the DBT regarding the release of funds. Initially, we were told that this would be released within a month but now nobody is responding to our calls. One of the conditions for this grant is that we cannot avail ourselves of research funds from any other project, so some of us have quit even international post-doctoral fellowships and are now left in the lurch,” a researcher advised The Hindu on situation of anonymity.

Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, the DBT, advised The Hindu in a textual content message that the funds can be launched “in the next 10 days”. Sources within the Science Ministry stated the delay was resulting from a change within the fund disbursal coverage, effected since November 2024. Under this scheme, known as the Treasury Single Account system, funds not go from the departments involved (for e.g. the DBT) to beneficiaries however is routed by a centralised system, below which financial institution accounts of beneficiaries are linked to the Reserve Bank of India. Though a step in the direction of guaranteeing transparency in Central authorities accounting and disbursal, the execution of this technique has been tardy.

As The Hindu reported in May, a marquee scholarship scheme of the Science Ministry – the INSPIRE fellowships – has additionally seen delay in fund disbursal to a number of research students.