As part of the FutureSkills initiative, IndiaAI Mission announces fellowships for PhD scholars. The IndiaAI FutureSkills aims to mitigate barriers to entry into AI programs by focusing on all levels of higher education in AI and will coordinate with existing efforts in skilling. Under this initiative, IndiaAI will offer fellowships to full-time PhD scholars researching in the field of artificial intelligence.  

For the Fellowship, each institute can identify the PhD scholars in Artificial Intelligence per the eligibility criteria mentioned below: 

• The candidate shall pursue a Full-time PhD course in Artificial Intelligence.
• The candidate should not receive any other scholarship/salary from any other organization at enrolment into IndiaAI PhD Fellowship. 
• The candidate with a graduation degree should have secured a CGPA/CPI of a minimum of 8.0 or equivalent in the programme. 
• The candidate with a master's degree should have secured a CGPA/CPI of a minimum of 7.5 or equivalent in the program. For candidates with the five-year integrated dual degree programs, if separate CGPAs/CPIs are awarded for UG and PG parts of the program, the CGPA/CPI of the PG part (final year) will be considered.

Financial Support

Fellowship support is provided from the date of commencement of the PhD programme for a duration of 4 years or completion of PhD, whichever is earlier. 

• Monthly Fellowship: Rs. 38,750 per month till 4th year of PhD. (Support till PhD completion or 4 years whichever is earlier). 
• Accommodation Support: This component is linked with the fellowship of PhD Candidate. The accommodation support will be 30% of the fellowship amount. 
• Institutional Overheads: An amount of Rs. 25,000/Year/Full-time PhD candidate for support duration of PhD candidate to be given to the institution. 
• Research Contingency Grant Support: An amount of Rs. 1,20,000/Year/Full time PhD candidate for support duration of PhD candidate. This will be applicable from the second year onwards of the commencement of the PhD program. 
• International Conference Support: One time support for each selected Full-Time PhD candidate up to Rs. 1.5 Lakhs for presenting a paper in an international conference. This would cover the travel and other expenses of a PhD candidate for attending international conferences, where his/her research paper has been accepted for the presentation by him/her. This will be applicable from the second year onwards of the commencement of the PhD program.  
• Visit to Labs abroad: One time support for 50 candidates/year from final year for visit to labs abroad. The selection of the candidates will be done by IndiaAI from that year’s pool for final year scholars.  

Responsibilities of the academic institutions

Terms and conditions to be followed by the academic institutions:

• The participating Institution should ensure that a candidate receiving fellowship under this  scheme is not receiving any financial support for PhD from any other scheme of Government of India/States etc. at the same time, The candidates who have availed support for their PhD from any other scheme of Government of India/States etc. will automatically be disqualified for support under this scheme. 
• The institutions, in the event of any drop-out, need to report it to IndiaAI immediately.
• The institutions cannot enroll a substitute candidate on their own. Only the cases which are found extraordinary would be considered for a substitute candidate’s enrollment.
• Once the institution has recommended the candidate for award of fellowship and the same has been approved under the scheme by the competent authority the fellowship amount and eligible “HRA” amount will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of the PhD candidate through DBT. 
• The institution will submit an annual performance report for each candidate enrolled under the scheme. In case of nonperformance of any candidate, the institution shall intimate IndiaAI regarding the same.
• The items of expenditure eligible to be released to the institution like Institutional Overheads shall be released directly to the institution. 
• The amount to be released under "Support for attending International Conference" and "Visit to labs abroad" will be released as per the requirement on a case-to-case basis.  
• The institution will be responsible for furnishing utilization certificates of the funds released to them based on the scheme parameters, and as per conditions of the sanctioned grant-in-aid, if requested by IndiaAI. 

Click here to learn more about guidelines for enrollment of academic institutes in IndiaAI PhD Fellowship.

Click here to fill in Institutes' Nodal Officer details.

Annexure I- Institutes Nodal Officer Details

Annexure II-Proforma for submission of nominations for IndiaAI Fellowship