Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship(AKTINF)

Overview

About AKTINF

The Indian National Academy of Engineering has put a notice at the head of its own page for this fellowship: the Science and Engineering Research Board has been subsumed into the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, and the Executive Council of ANRF has decided to discontinue the Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship, per INAE's scheme page. The last nomination deadline INAE published on that page was June 30, 2024, for the call of 2024-25. INAE's separate fellowship page still sets the scheme out in the present tense with no notice on it, and the aggregator listings copy that wording, which is why a reader can arrive expecting an open call. There is none, and this was never a student scholarship in any case.

This was an award for a working engineer, not for a candidate at the start of a career. The person it was built for already held a regular position in a publicly funded institution in India, had a technology or a prototype that had come out of their own laboratory, and needed money and time to push it toward a product, a field trial or a patent. The Department of Science and Technology launched it with INAE in 2017 and named it after Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, and INAE has described the intent as recognising and supporting translational research by individuals working in various capacities of the engineering profession in public funded institutions, on its scheme page.

Translational research was the whole test, and INAE set the word in capitals on the nomination format. A strong publication record on its own did not qualify a nomination. The INAE fellowship page states that the fellowship applied to translational research only, leading to commercialised or deployable technology, pilot scale or field trial worthy technology, a patent filed, sold or commercialised, or a working model or prototype for demonstration and trial.

The ceiling was a maximum of 10 fellowships a year, and INAE rarely filled it in the early years. Its published recipient lists show cohorts of six for 2017-18, eight for 2018-19, seven for 2019-20, six for 2020-21, and 10 in each of 2021-22 and 2022-23.

One further cohort was announced after that. INAE lists 10 names conferred with the fellowship in financial year 2023-24, among them Dr Chetan Singh Thakur and Dr Hardik J. Pandya of the Indian Institute of Science, Mr Sarath S Nair of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, and Dr Tapan Kumar Gandhi of IIT Delhi, on the scheme page. Their proposals give a fair picture of what won: a real-time brain-computer interface chip for motor neurorehabilitation, a neonatal hearing screening system, a transcutaneous energy transfer system for implantable medical devices.

What closed the fellowship was a change of owner rather than a verdict on engineering. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act repealed SERB and folded its work into a foundation with an expanded mandate covering activities over and above the ones SERB had run, in the Department of Science and Technology's account of the day Parliament passed the Bill. Every programme inherited from the old board then had to survive a decision of ANRF's Executive Council, and this one did not.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

Nominations were open all year, with a single annual cut. INAE's fellowship page states that nominations received up to June 30 were considered for selection during that existing financial year, and those received after June 30 were carried forward to the next financial year. That made June 30 the effective deadline every year, even though no call was ever formally closed.

INAE has not published a date for the discontinuation decision itself, only the notice that ANRF's Executive Council took it.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Nationality and employer were checked before anything else. The scheme applied to Indian nationals working in India in various capacities of the engineering profession in public funded institutions, and to Overseas Citizens of India holding permanent positions in public funded institutions in India, as the SERB award page sets out. A bachelor's degree was the floor qualification, coupled with a proven outstanding track record in innovation or technology development.

The rule that decided most cases was the one about service. A nominee needed a minimum of five years of service left in the parent organisation as on the date of the award, and the official position was that a fellow could not continue after superannuation. Neither the guidelines nor either INAE page set an age band. In practice the residual service test worked as one, closing the door on the senior professor two or three years from retirement while leaving a mid-career engineer in their forties comfortably inside it.

The employer clause is where industry lost out. An engineer doing exactly this kind of work inside a private company was outside the scheme, because the eligibility was tied to public funded institutions rather than to the quality of the technology. The institutions that actually appear in INAE's recipient lists bear that out: the IITs, the Indian Institute of Science, a CSIR laboratory, JNCASR Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, the University of Hyderabad, the Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai, and NIT Hamirpur.

Holding another fellowship was the last disqualifier. An applicant already on one had to give it up and opt for a single fellowship in the event of selection.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

No exclusion list was ever published against this fellowship. The disqualifiers have to be assembled instead from the nomination rules INAE set and the eligibility conditions the funder printed. Four of them reliably ended a nomination: a self-nomination, which INAE states will not be accepted; an existing fellowship the nominee would not surrender; less than five years of service left in the parent organisation; and a proposal that was strong science but not translational, since the fellowship covered translational research only, per INAE.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There was no annual renewal application. The duration was three years to begin with, extendable by up to two more years depending on performance, and the fellowship could be held for a maximum of five years, as the DST guidelines state. The extension turned on what the fellow had produced, which for a translational award meant the prototype, the trial or the patent rather than a paper count.

The host institution carried a continuing obligation of its own. INAE's endorsement certificate format commits the institute to sending the financial papers, the statement of expenditure and the utilisation certificate, to INAE after the completion of each financial year, in the nomination format INAE publishes. The discontinuation notice INAE carries says only that ANRF's Executive Council decided to end the scheme; it sets no terms for a fellowship already part-way through its tenure, so a fellow in that position has to settle it with INAE directly.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money came in three parts, and only one of them reached the fellow as income. The fellowship amount was Rs 25,000 per month in addition to regular income, the research grant was Rs 15.00 lakh per annum, and an overhead of Rs 1.00 lakh per annum went to the host institute, per the DST guidelines.

What the research grant could be spent on is set out in the guidelines and is wider than a bare grant line suggests: engineering research and innovation activity including hiring of manpower, consumables, national and international travel for research purposes, chemicals and equipment. The same guidelines also confirm that a fellow stayed eligible for regular research grants through the extramural and other research schemes of government S&T agencies, so the fellowship sat on top of a normal funding pipeline instead of replacing it.

The personal component was taxable as per the income tax rules of the Government of India. That matters for a fellow already drawing an institutional salary, because the Rs 25,000 was added to existing income rather than paid as an exempt stipend.

• The fellowship amount is ₹25,000/- per month in addition to regular income.
• A Research grant of ₹15.00 lakh per annum.
• An Overhead of ₹1.00 lakh per annum to the host institute.
• Note: The fellowship is taxable as per the IT rule of the Government of India.

What to prepare

Documents required

Beyond the identity, age, employment, qualification and bank documents the record lists, the real weight of the file sat in INAE's nomination format. It asked for a short written statement on the nature of the translational research proposed, then a full plan of work aimed at technology or process development, prototype development, field trial, incubation of a start-up or commercialisation, broken into topic, objective, motivation, methodology, anticipated deliverables, timeline and milestones, and novelty of outcome, in the form INAE publishes.

The evidence sections were as demanding. A nominee had to list educational qualifications from the bachelor's degree onward, professional training and research experience, every position held in the last 10 years, professional awards and fellowships, peer reviewed publications of the last five years with the journal impact factor as per JCR, and a table of patents with file numbers and status showing whether each was filed, accepted or commercialised.

Two signatures closed the file. The nominator signed a block giving name, designation, address and contact number, and the head of the institute signed an endorsement certificate in INAE's own wording, certifying that the institution welcomes the nominee's participation, that R&D, administrative and financial support will be extended for the full duration, that the nominee will hold their position until a stated date, and that the nominee is not availing any other fellowship.

Step by step

How to apply

Nobody applied for this fellowship. It ran entirely on nomination, and INAE was explicit that self-nominations shall not be accepted. The people who could nominate were heads of institutions and organisations, presidents and fellows of the national science and engineering academies, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awardees, and J. C. Bose awardees, per INAE.

Submission was by email rather than through any portal. The nomination form with all supporting documents and appendices went to INAE at inaehq@inae.in as a PDF file, and where the document was not signed by the nominator, the nominator had to send a separate email authenticating the nomination, as INAE's scheme page records. A nominee who had been put up in an earlier financial year and not selected could be nominated again, provided five years of service remained in the parent organisation.

What Happened to a Nomination Once It Reached INAE

There is no dashboard and never was. Because the file arrived as an email attachment at INAE rather than as a submission on a scheme portal, the only status a nominator or nominee could get was from INAE itself, and the only public confirmation of an outcome was INAE publishing the conferred list on its recipients page and on the scheme page. Fellows who were selected later submitted executive summaries and media coverage that INAE posted separately. Anyone chasing an old nomination or a running grant should write to inaehq@inae.in or call the Academy on the number in the Contact section below.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection was made by a Search-Cum-Selection Expert Committee constituted for the purpose, working to the broad guidelines of the fellowship. The DST guidelines add a detail the scheme pages leave out: selection was made periodically, normally twice a year, rather than once against a single closing date.

The committee was reading for evidence that a technology had already moved. INAE's nomination format asks the nominee to state whether the work is ready for, or needs further work toward, incubation of a technology company, creation of a start-up, technology demonstration, leadership in a technology development activity, a patent filed or commercialised, technology adopted or transferred, or industry participation and sponsorship. A nomination that could not answer that block had little to offer a committee choosing at most 10 names in a year.

The named cohorts show how narrow the field was in practice. Across the six years listed on INAE's recipients page the largest cohorts were 10 and the smallest six, drawn almost entirely from centrally funded technical institutions and national laboratories.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The binding conditions were few and hard. Only one fellowship at a time, so a selected nominee had to opt for this one and drop the other. A minimum of five years of service left in the parent organisation as on the date of the award, with no continuation after superannuation. Translational research only. The personal fellowship taxable under the income tax rules. And an institutional commitment, signed by the head of the institute, to provide R&D, administrative and financial support for the duration and to file the statement of expenditure and utilisation certificate with INAE at the end of each financial year.

Get help

Contact

INAE is the office to write to, and it is the office that still holds the records. The named contact for the fellowship is Lt Col Shobhit Rai (Retd), Convener cum Member Secretary and Deputy Executive Director, at the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Ground Floor, Block-II, Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi 110016, reachable on 011-26582475 and at inaehq@inae.in, as listed on the SERB award page. The scheme's programme advisor and programme officer on the funding side are named there as well.

The published guidelines carry an older address. The PDF on the DST site still gives a Gurgaon office and a former convener, so correspondence should go to the New Delhi address above.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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