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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
- Women’s
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 Secretary’s 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 consultant’s 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.
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