As per the revised guidelines the list of candidates for award of fellowships under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme in 2019-20 and thereafter is to be drawn by the University Grants Commission (UGC) from the merit lists of UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC-NET examinations, the Minister of Minority Affairs told the Parliament today. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the Minority Affairs minister, also said the revision of the guidelines have been finalized and sent to the UGC for making the selection of candidates under the MANF Scheme for 2019-20.
The National Eligibility Test (NET) examinations are conducted by the National Testing Agency.
The minister informed the Rajya Sabha that 1,000 candidates have been selected in the year 2018-19 for the award of MANF.
Mr Naqvi was responding to questions asked by Rajya Sabha member Abdul Wahab on the delay in notifying MANF fellowships causing financial stress and undue pressure on research scholars from minority communities.
"MANF Scheme is implemented through UGC which is implementing various fellowship schemes with varying eligibility criteria. The candidates, who are eligible for more than one scheme, apply accordingly," the minister said.
"Some of these candidates are selected for more than one scheme provided they make it to the cut-off. However, it is ensured at UGC level that when a candidate joins, s/he is provided fellowship under one scheme only," he replied to Mr Wahab's question "whether the candidates selected in MANF are also being selected in the list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) fellowship thereby reducing the possibility of giving the fellowship to more eligible candidates".
"As the selections under MANF scheme for the year 2019-20 onwards are to be made through UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC-NET examinations conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA), no separate notification is required," the minister said.
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