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Funding Rules>> Short Title, Mode of Citing,
Scope, Commencement, Definitions & General
Research Funding Rules
Governing Award, Funding and Fulfillment
of Requirements of Fellowships, Research Projects and
Other Grants-in-aid of the Indian Council of Historical
Research (ICHR), New Delhi
Short Title, Mode
of Citing, Scope, Commencement, Definitions & General
1.(a)These Rules may
be called, by way of short title, the ICHR Research
Funding Rules.
In any reference to the provisions of these Rules, a
clause thereof may be cited by its Arabic numeral immediately
following upon the Latin numeral of the chapters to
which it belongs.
Illustration: sub-clause
(b) of Clause 2 of Chapter III of these
Rules may be cited as ICHR Research Funding Rules, III
2 (b). Subject to the Rules of the Indian Council of
Historical Research, New Delhi, 1972, and to the Regulations
that have been, or may be, framed thereunder, and with
such exceptions as may hereinafter be contained, these
Rules shall govern the award by the ICHR of all fellowships,
research project grants, contingency (study-cum-travel)
grants, grants for travel and maintenance of Indian
scholars proceeding abroad and of foreign scholar invited
to India, subsidies for publications and for the holding
of conferences, workshops and other meetings, grants
to associations of historians and all other grants-in-aid
and the funding and fulfillment of the requirements
of all the said Fellowships, grants and subsidies. Provided
that these Rules shall not apply to research projects
directly undertaken, conferences, workshops and other
meetings held, and publications issued in its own name,
by the ICHR.
2. These Rules shall come into effect from January
2005 and shall apply to all Fellowships, projects and
other grants current at that date as well as to those
awarded after that date and to the modes of procedure
leading to their award, provided that a Fellowship or
grant awarded or recommended before these Rules came
into effect shall not be called into question or withheld
only on a procedure which, though consistent with the
decisions then in force, is not in conformity with these
Rules.
3. In these Rules, unless the context otherwise
requires, the following definitions shall be assumed:
(a)Chairman means the Chairman of the ICHR, or,
when the office of the Chairman is vacant, the person
or officer authorised to exercise the powers, and perform
the functions, of that office under the Rules of the
ICHR and the Regulations framed thereunder.
(b Consultant means a scholar or expert chosen
by the Chairman or Member Secretary, preferably from
a panel of scholars and experts that may be framed by
the Research Projects Committee, and to whom an application
or proposal for, or a report on, a Fellowship or a project
or a request for contingency grant, publication subsidy,
or grant for foreign travel or any other grant of payment
is referred to for assessment and recommendations.
c) Contingency grant means a grant awarded for
traveling and daily allowances for journeys including
for attending seminars, symposia, workshops, connected
with research work; local conveyance for visiting libraries,
collection of document, oral evidence; purchase of books
and stationary; expenditure on typing, diagrams, maps,
photographs, Xerox copies, transcripts, etc., directly
concerned with the work approved by the ICHR or with
the work of the Fellowships or project; undertaking
field work such as a archaeological exploration and
survey, collection of documents or oral evidence; and
charges for consultancy services. But it shall not include
cost of books not relevant to the subject of the Fellowship
or the project, binding of private books, cost of private
mail, and travel unconnected with work of the Fellowship
or project.
Note:
(i) The total cost of books purchased out of
the Contingency grant under a Fellowship shall not exceed
the sum of Rupees five thousand (Rs. 5,000) a year.
(ii)The total cost of books purchased out of
Contingency (study-cum-travel) grant made under the
provisions of Chapter IV shall not exceed Rupees two
thousand (Rs. 2,000).
(iii)Any books purchased out of the contingency
grant in excess of the ceilings specified above shall
be deposited either with the ICHR or with the institution
of affiliation, upon the end of the period of the project
or Contingency (study-cum-travel) grant.
(iii Local conveyance would be admissible @ Rs.
1,000/- for each instalments for JRF & PDF; 2,000/-
for each instalments for Senior Fellowships; Rs 2,500/-
for each instalments for project director/staff; and
Rs. 3,000/- for each instalments for National Fellowship.(d)
Council means the Council of the ICHR constituted in
accordance with Rule 3 of the Rules of the ICHR.
(e)Fellow means Fellow of the ICHR, the word
Fellowship to be construed accordingly.
(f)Foreign Travel Committee means the Committee
constituted by the Council to recommend or decide on
proposals to fund Indian scholars trips abroad or foreign
scholars trips to India under these Rules.
(g) Grant includes subsidy.
(h) He means he or she, as the case may be, the
words his and him to be construed accordingly.
(i)History means all areas of knowledge commonly
comprehended under this term, and includes Indian and
non-Indian history; political, social, economic, cultural
and intellectual history; history of science and technology,
of ideas, philosophy and beliefs, and of art and literature;
history of international relations; biography; demographic
history and historical statistics; historical ethnography,
anthropology; history of environment, climate and wild
life; local and regional history; onomastics; archaeology,
epigraphy, numismatics; diplomatic studies; historiography;
editing, calendaring, translation, annotation, interpretation
and survey of historical sources and documents; and
any other subject with a strong historical bias and
content.
Note:
(i)Research on the following aspects of Indian
history shall be particularly encouraged:
- Social and Economic Formations
- History of Ideas
- History of Peasants and Agrarian Relations
- Urban History
- Womens History
- Demographic History
- Collective Consciousness, Social Movements and
Popular Protest
- Industrialization, including Proto-Industrialization
- Resistance of British Rule
- National Movement
- History of Science and Technology
- Historical Geography
- Quantitative history
- Regional and Local History
- Place-names
- Editing, Calendaring and Translation of Sources
(ii) Work on the history of countries other
than India may also be supported by the ICHR.
(j)ICHR means the organization registered
and known as the Indian Council of Historical
Research, New Delhi, functioning in accordance
with its memorandum of association and the Rules
of the ICHR and the Regulations framed thereunder;
or any officer of the said organization duly authorised
to act on its behalf.
(k)Institution of affiliation
refers to:
(i) An Indian university or college of institute
or research, where the Fellow or recipient of contingency
grant is registered for the M.Phil. or Ph.D. degree;
or
(ii) In the case of a Fellow or recipient of
contingency grant not so registered or of a Project
Director or of a recipient of research project grant,
means a university, colleges or department of a university,
institute of research, archives, or other statutory
or registered institution, where he is employed or undertakes
research; or
(iii) An institution under whose aegis a seminar,
workshop or academic conference subsidized by the ICHR
is organized.
(l)Member Secretary means the Member Secretary
of the ICHR, or when the office is vacant, any other
officer of the Council, authorised to perform the day
to day duties of Member Secretary.
(m) Overhead charges means an amount equal to
five per cent of the total amount of Fellowship, research
project grant, or contingency (study-cum-travel) grant
disbursed through an institution of affiliation, paid
to the said institution after the period of the said
Fellowship or grant, over and above the total sanctioned
amount thereof.
Note:
A higher rate for overhead charges (not, however, to
exceed ten per cent of the total amount disbursed) may
be paid to the institution of affiliation in special
cases, subject to the approval by the Research Projects
Committee or the Chairman.
(n) Project Director means the Director of a
research project funded by the ICHR.
(o) Research Projects Committee means the Research
Projects Committee appointed under Rule 39 of the Rules
of the ICHR.
(p) Rules of the ICHR means the Rules of the
Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, 1972
as amended from time to time.
(q)Statement of expenditure means a statement
of expenditure certified by the duly authorised officer
or authority of the institution of affiliation, or by
a government auditing agency, or by a chartered accountant.
(r)Study Grants Committee means the committee
constituted by the Council to recommend or decide on
proposals or applications for contingency (study-cum-travel)
grants.
4. (a)(i) Unless
otherwise provided, all applications and proposals for
Fellowship or grants or subsidies under these rules
should be addressed to the Member Secretary; but an
application or proposal may be entertained even if it
is simply addressed to the ICHR or does not properly
give the Member Secretarys designation or is addressed
to another officer of the ICHR, in which case the officer
may forward it to the Member Secretary.
(ii) An application or proposal for Fellowship
or grant shall be liable to be rejected on the grounds
only that it contains mis-statements or any deliberate
omission or suppression of facts.
(b)When called upon to consider any application
or proposal for a Fellowship or for a grant, whether
for project, study-cum-travel, foreign travel or publication
or any other purpose, the Council, the Research Projects
Committee or any other committee, empowered to award
or recommend the award of a grant under these Rules,
shall
(i) Be informed whether any Fellowship, project,
contingency grant, and/or foreign travel or publication
subsidy has been awarded to the applicant or the proposed
awardee previously, and, if so, whether has fulfilled
the requirements thereof; and
(ii) Be free to refuse or delay consideration
of the said application or proposal on the ground only
that the said requirements have not been properly fulfilled.
(c)(i) The identity of a consultant shall
be kept confidential. Any attempt to obtain knowledge
of the identity of a consultant and/or to influence
him shall be deemed a sufficient case for the rejection
of the application or proposal for Fellowship or grant
of the person or institution in whose behalf the attempt
was made.
(ii) The assessment given by a consultant should
be detailed and well-reasoned. It should cover the various
features of the proposal, project, report or manuscript
sent to him, and he should clearly state his overall
assessment in relative terms (illustration; excellent,
good, fair, passable, indifferent, unacceptable).
(iii) The honorarium payable to a consultant
for assessment and recommendations on any application
or proposal or report or any other matter referred to
him shall be Rupees three hundred and fifty (Rs. 350).
Provided that
(1)When the consultants assessment
and recommendations shall be sought on an application
for publication subsidy, the honorarium paid to him
shall be Rupees five hundred (Rs. 500), but payable
only after the manuscript submitted for publication
subsidy has been returned by the consultant; and when
the revised manuscript for which publication subsidy
has been sought, is re-examined by the same consultant,
he shall be paid an additional honorarium of Rupees
three hundred (Rs. 300);
(2)Where the assessment involves vetting, verification
of text, decipherment, or any other exceptional kind
of labour, the Chairman may approve a higher rate of
honorarium than provided for above;
(3)The consultant shall be reimbursed the postal charges
in all cases; and
(4) When the Research Projects Committee has taken a
decision on any application or proposal, a consultant
who has not sent his assessment and recommendations
on the said application or proposal, shall be informed
that his assessment and recommendations are no longer
needed, unless the Research Projects Committee specifically
decides otherwise. (d)
While awarding fellowships and grants, the Research
Projects Committee shall consider, subject to the academic
merits of individual applications and proposals, the
need for
(i) The assignment of funds in a balanced manner
to the main periods and various branches of Indian history,
a periodic analytical record of the Fellowships and
grants awarded being maintained for the purpose, based
on the coverage of themes listed in Annexure I; and
(ii) The proper representation, among the awardees,
of the different regions of the country, the Scheduled
Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, women (including housewives),
and the minorities.
(e) Before any moneys are released to awardees
of Fellowship or grant, he must agree in writing to
abide by these rules and to bind himself to fulfil the
requirements of the Fellowship or grant awarded, and
to refund to the ICHR any or all expenditure thereon
incurred by the ICHR if the work of the Fellowship or
the work under the grant, as the case may be, is not
properly carried out or is not completed in any manner
whatsoever.
(f) Wherever in these Rules a Fellow, Project
Director or recipient of any grant is required to submit
a report to the ICHR, the said report shall specially
mention (a) source material used, (b)
field work undertaken, if any, (c) papers and
monographs published, and (d) conclusions drawn.
Copy of any published work specified in the report should
be provided to the ICHR.
(g) Payment of all Fellowships and grants shall
be subject to such taxation laws as are for the time
being in force.
(h) Any moneys paid by the ICHR in excess of
what is due, on account of Fellowship, project or other
grant, or any part of the grant not spent, shall be
duly and expeditiously returned to the ICHR by the institution
of affiliation.
(i) A change in the institution of affiliation
for any Fellowship or grant shall require the approval
of the Member Secretary, but, in case he is of opinion
that such a change may effect the proper pursuit of
research, he may refer the matter to the Chairman who
may decide on his own, or may refer it to the Research
Projects Committee, whose decision shall be final.
(j)The Member Secretary shall be entitled, at
his discretion, to require any Fellow or recipient of
grant or institution of affiliation to produce the original
vouchers in support of a statement of expenditure.
(k) A Fellow or Project Director may be permitted
to relinquish, respectively, his Fellowship or project,
if, upon receipt, and an assessment of the report by
a consultant, the Research Projects Committee is satisfied
that the Fellow or Project Director has carried out
a distinct part of the research programme, for which
the expenditure incurred, by way of Fellowship or project
grant, till the date of his relinquishing the Fellowship
or project, was justifiable; otherwise, the Fellow or
Project Director shall refund to the ICHR the entire
amount of the said expenditure or a part thereof as
determined by the Research Projects Committee.
(l)The Research Projects Committee may, without
assignment of any reason or notice, terminate any fellowship,
research project, or contingency grant, or a subsidy
awarded for publication or for foreign travel.
Provided that, in the case of National
Fellowships, the power for taking such action shall
vest in the Council.
(m)Without prejudice to the provisions of the
preceding sub-clause, if the Research Projects Committee
has good reason to believe that a Fellowship or grant
has not been used properly for the purpose for which
it was awarded, it may, while terminating the Fellowship
or grant, also require the fellow or recipient of the
grant to refund the amount not properly used; but before
taking a decision to this effect, it shall give the
Fellow or recipient of the grant a notice of one month,
within which to submit his reasons, if any, why such
a decision should not be taken.
Provided that, in the case of National
Fellowships, the power for taking such action shall
vest in the Council.
(n)Any article, paper, report or monograph published
by a Fellow, Project Director, or recipient of grant,
based on researches wholly or partly funded by the ICHR,
during or after the period of funding, shall duly acknowledge
the assistance given by the ICHR. The ICHR shall, however,
have no claim to copyright over the said published material,
nor shall it be responsible for any opinion expressed
therein.
(o)Subject to anything contained to the contrary
in the Rules of the ICHR and the Regulations framed
thereunder, an employee of the ICHR shall be eligible
to apply for a fellowship or grant; but he shall have
to apply through proper channel in the same manner as
prescribed for an applicant of a similar nature that
may be addressed by an ICHR employee to an institution
other than the ICHR; and, in case his application is
approved and a Fellowship or grant awarded, the ICHR
shall be the institution of affiliation, unless the
award is for the pursuit of the M.Phil/Ph.D. degree,
in which case the institution where he is registered
for the degree shall be the institution of affiliation.
Provided that
(i) No application for Fellowship
or grant by an employee of the ICHR, or by a close
relation of the employee, shall be processed by him
at any stage whatsoever; and
(ii) An award of Fellowship or grant to an
employee of the ICHR shall not necessarily mean that
the requisite leave shall be granted by the ICHR,
the grant of such leave being governed by the Regulation
framed in this regard under the Rules of the ICHR.
(p)The Research Projects Committee
or any other Committee, empowered to take any decision
or make any recommendation under these Rules, may by
a decision, duly recorded in its minutes, delegate any
of its powers in a specific case or set of cases to
the Chairman or Member Secretary.
Provided that any decision or recommendation
made by the Chairman or Member Secretary under such
delegation shall be recorded and notified in the same
manner as the minutes of the meetings of the Committee
that has made the delegation, and such record and notification
shall be deemed to be of the same force as if it had
formed part of the minutes of the meeting of that Committee.
(q)Under special circumstances
the Chairman may award a grant other than a Fellowship
and of an amount not exceeding Rupees fifty thousand
(Rs. 50,000) on behalf, and in anticipation of the approval
of the Research Projects Committee.Provided that action
taken under this sub-clause shall be reported to the
next meeting of the Research Projects Committee along
with a statement of the reasons which prompted the action.
(r) Unless specifically provided otherwise, the
provisions of Chapter II to VII shall be deemed to be
subject to the provisions of the foregoing sub-clause
of this clause. |