Visiting Advanced Joint Research (VAJRA) Faculty Scheme to stem Migration of Trained Manpower

Visiting Advanced Joint Research (VAJRA) Faculty Scheme has recently been launched by the Prime Minister of India during the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention at Bengaluru on 8th January 2017 on pilot basis, for initial 3-4 years with a target of enrolling 50-75 VAJRA Faculty per year by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to connect the Indian academic and research and development (R&D) systems to the best of global science and scientists for a sustained international collaborative research. Scientists from countries like USA, Russia, UK, France, and Italy have expressed interest to undertake VAJRA Faculty assignments in India. The Scheme is open to active and accomplished scientists / faculties from all countries.

• VAJRA scheme offers adjunct / visiting faculty assignments to overseas scientists, faculty members and R&D professionals including Non-Resident Indians (NRI) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) to undertake high quality collaborative research in cutting edge areas of science and technology including interdisciplinary areas of priority such as energy, water, environment, health, security, nutrition, waste processing, advanced materials, high performance computing, cyber physical systems, smart machines and manufacturing, etc. with one or more Indian collaborators of public funded academic and research institutions of India, and stimulate the latent potential of our academic and research sector.
• VAJRA Faculty should be an active researcher working in an overseas leading academic / research / industrial organization with significant accomplishments in R&D.
• VAJRA Faculty will engage in collaborative research in cutting edge areas of science and technology with one or more Indian Collaborators.

• Indian Collaborators (s) should be a regular faculty/researcher in public-funded academic/research institutions.
• Indian Collaborators should identify appropriate overseas faculty/ researcher and jointly frame a research plan.

• VAJRA Faculty may also be involved in technology development, start-ups, etc.
• Initial Faculty assignment is given for a period of one year extendable to subsequent years based on the collaborative outcome and interest.
• Residency period of VAJRA Faculty in the host institution would be for a minimum of 1 month and a maximum of 3 months every year.
• VAJRA Faculty is provided US Dollars 15000 in the first month of residence and US Dollars 10000 in each of the subsequent month.
• Presently, call for applications are made open for prospective researchers. Application for VAJRA Faculty Scheme can be submitted throughout the year.
• A dedicated website vajra-india.in has been made available for wider dissemination of the scheme and a portal www.serbonline.in has been put in place for online submission of VAJRA applications

A large number of trained personnel emigrate from India for higher education and jobs every year and the country faces a shortage of trained manpower especially in critical areas like healthcare and engineering. Better education and job opportunities and a higher standard of living are cited among the reasons for this outflow of trained personnel. Initially described as brain drain, there has been later appreciation of the possibility of subsequent brain gain. Schemes like VAJRA could address this concern of outflow of trained manpower that adversely affects the quality and quantity of local human capital formation.

According to Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences over 1,000 Indian scientists working abroad have returned to India in the last two-three years. They feel that India is changing and they can fulfill their ambitions here. They are finding that opportunities in India are better. From brain drain, we now have a scenario of brain gain. Scientists were being attracted back to India through several scholarships and fellowships, such as VAJRA and the Ramanujan fellowship. These scientists are non-resident Indians (NRIs) who were looking to come back and decided to take up the available opportunity until they found long-term ones. Introduction of such creative schemes is the way to stem the migration of trained manpower.