PMRF 2020: MHRD Announces New Guidelines for PhD Scholarships, NIT Now Included in the Initiative

PMRF 2020 for the month of May has been announced by the HRD Minister - Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and new relaxations have been added by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) to encourage more participation from students. “We have made several changes in the selection process in PMRF,” tweeted the HRD Minister.

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) score requirement to apply for the Prime Ministers Research Fellowship May 2020 (PMRF May 2020) has been reduced from 750 to 650 for students. Furthermore, the minimum CGPA in the qualification exam is 8. MHRD says that these relaxations have been made to ensure more students are attracted to this “prestigious fellowship”.

The highlight of the announcement made by the HRD Minister is that the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchirapalli can now offer scholarships under the initiative as well. “Fulfilling a long demand, now NITs with 25 top institutes in the overall NIRF rankings can also participate in the advancement of research by becoming a grant institution of this important fellowship,” tweeted Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

PMRF 2020: Revised Guidelines and All You Need to Know

The following is the eligibility criteria to apply for the PMRF scholarship that provides students up to Rs 75,000 in a month

1. Interested candidates must have either completed or be pursuing the final year of Bachelors or Masters degree in Science and Technology streams from recognized organizations in India with CGPA of 8. or above and GATE score of 650, or, should have qualified GATE and completed or be pursuing MTech or MS by research at one of the PMRF Granting Institutes having a minimum CGPA of 8.0 or above at the end of the first semester with a minimum of four courses.
2. A new lateral channel entry has been introduced for the benefit of students who have done PhD research for 12 or 24 months.
3. The PMRF granting institutes are IITs, JNU, BHU, NIT Tiruchirappalli, Jamia Milia Islamia, IISc, and so on.

For more information on the eligibility criteria of PMRF May 2020, interested students are advised to visit the official website.