Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, India

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

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).

(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

(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.