In order to attract the scientists working abroad and also India-based researchers to come and work in India and also to collaborate the works here, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) launched a scheme named “Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty (VAJRA)”….reports Asian Lite News
Minister of Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan launched the web portal of VAJRA and said that the initiative would boost research work and lead to newer, cutting edge technologies, which was India needed.
“Under this scheme, scientists or senior researchers abroad — of Indian origin or otherwise — can collaborate with faculties here,” the minister said.
He added that under the scheme, foreign researchers would receive endowments at par with those in their own countries.
The endowments for faculties would be USD 15,000 in the first month of residency and USD 10,000, for the remaining months, said Harsh Vardhan, adding that the central government had been stressing upon converting brain-drain into brain-gain.
He said that the broad areas of research like energy, health, advance material and others would be promoted under the scheme.
“Science has no boundaries or different perspectives based on region… it’s rather universal. The idea of the scheme is to bring the best of the world to India and conduct research here,” said Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.