AICTE-Technical Book Writing & Translation Scheme(ATBWT)

Overview

About ATBWT

The AICTE-Technical Book Writing & Translation Scheme pays the people who write the textbooks, not the students who read them. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) funds faculty to write, translate and review diploma and undergraduate engineering textbooks in Indian languages, and the finished books are open to students free of cost on AICTE's e-KUMBH portal (AICTE flagship schemes and initiatives). Students hunting for money of their own want AICTE's Pragati, Saksham or Swanath scholarships instead.

AICTE uses the scheme to put engineering course material into 12 scheduled Indian languages: Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Kannada, Punjabi, Odia, Assamese, Urdu and Malayalam (PIB, Ministry of Education reply in the Rajya Sabha, 3 August 2022). The end users named in the scheme document are students of polytechnics and undergraduate technical courses that follow the AICTE Model Curriculum (AICTE scheme document, December 2021).

The written rules and the way the scheme has actually run are not the same. The December 2021 document sets out faculty proposing original books in a regional language, with AICTE picking one "champion" book per subject for translation into the other languages. What followed was English first: for the first year of the curriculum AICTE identified 20 courses (11 at Diploma level, 9 at Degree level), commissioned original books in English, and had technical universities find translators and reviewers for each language. The second year covered 88 courses, 42 at Degree and 46 at Diploma level, across Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Electronics and Communication, and Civil Engineering (AICTE e-KUMBH portal).

The authors AICTE later listed for second-year books range from faculty at IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati and NIT Silchar on the degree side to lecturers at Government Polytechnic Mankeda, Agra on the diploma side (e-KUMBH UG contributors; e-KUMBH Diploma contributors).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

Book-writing rounds have opened one curriculum year at a time, each with an AICTE bulletin or an Executive Committee budget rather than on a fixed yearly date:

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The application form turns "faculty of an AICTE approved institution" into specific fields. It asks for the Institute Permanent ID, a reference to the institute's extension-of-approval letter for the current year, the writer's Faculty ID, and the appointment type, whether regular, temporary or ad hoc (AICTE application form). A retired teacher is covered by the scheme document's eligibility clause (AICTE scheme document), and the form marks the principal's counter-signature not applicable for retired faculty.

"Command over the language" is tested, not assumed. The technical university that screens proposals for a language checks each applicant's hold on that language, alongside earlier similar work, qualifications, teaching experience and awards from Central or State governments or universities (AICTE scheme document).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The myScheme record lists no exclusions, but the official papers close several doors. AICTE entertains no application sent by e-mail; only registered post or speed post counts (AICTE steps to apply). An incomplete application is liable to rejection, and AICTE's decision is final (AICTE application form). A book outside the AICTE Model Curriculum for undergraduate technical institutions and polytechnics, or in a language outside the scheme's list of 12, falls outside what the technical universities are asked to accept (AICTE scheme document).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

This is a payment per book, not a recurring award, so there is nothing to renew. Each new year of the curriculum has come as a fresh round: the Executive Committee approved second-year books as a separate budget in May 2022 (minutes of AICTE's 150th Executive Committee), and third-year books opened through a new expression of interest in 2023 (AICTE notice, 4 May 2023).

What you get

Award & benefits

The author's fee has a catch that the headline amounts hide. When several proposals cover the same subject, AICTE picks one champion author, and only that author receives Rs 2 lakh for an undergraduate book or Rs 1.5 lakh for a polytechnic book. The champion's script then goes to every technical university for translation, and each translator receives Rs 1 lakh per book at either level (AICTE scheme document).

Money moves in stages. The technical university recommends a release when the work is accepted and again at completion, after its committee's completion report, and the remuneration is paid only after final acceptance by AICTE (AICTE scheme document). Transfers go by RTGS to the bank account entered on the institute's mandate form, and the institute's name must match the account holder's name (AICTE application form).

The Executive Committee's minutes show where the money goes. When AICTE first routed the scheme through its existing agreements with the technical universities, the Committee approved Rs 49.50 lakh a financial year under those agreements, of which Rs 21 lakh was for book writing: six undergraduate books at Rs 2 lakh and six polytechnic books at Rs 1.5 lakh (minutes of AICTE's 139th Executive Committee). The English-first second-year round got its own budget of Rs 17.368 crore for writing and translation, and inside it translators, not authors, take the larger share: for the 46 second-year diploma books, translation into 12 languages was costed at Rs 552 lakh against Rs 69 lakh for the original authors (minutes of AICTE's 150th Executive Committee).

• Maximum funding for translation work and for original Technical Book Writing (Funding will be shared in case of multiple authors) shall be limited to :
• Original book writer for UG : ₹ 2,00,000/-1. Original book writer for Diploma : ₹ 1,50,000/-1. Reviewer for UG: ₹ 40,000/-1. Reviewer for Diploma: ₹ 30,000/-1. Translator for UG & Diploma: ₹ 1,00,000/-1. Reviewer of translated books in regional languages for UG & Diploma: ₹ 20,000/- (In case of an author & co-author for one book, the amount will be split between the both).

What to prepare

Documents required

Two parts of the file take real preparation. The purpose section asks you to list the useful books already available on the subject in that language, with writer, publisher, price, year, copies sold and editions, and then argue in capped word counts why yours is better. For an original book, you attach an abstract of no more than 500 words, the proposed index, the approximate number of pages and the publisher's details, in that order (AICTE application form).

The mandate form needs the institute's PAN copy, bank name, branch, IFSC code, account type and full account number, signed by the account holder and carrying the banker's signature and seal (AICTE application form).

Step by step

How to apply

The application runs on paper, in this order (AICTE steps to apply):

1. Download the form from the Technical Book Writing entry on AICTE's Faculty Development Schemes page (AICTE Faculty Development Schemes).
2. Fill it in and get every page signed and stamped by the head of the institute.
3. Attach the supporting documents.
4. Send the set by registered post or speed post to the Adviser (RIFD), All India Council for Technical Education, Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070 (AICTE steps to apply).

The scheme document describes a different entry point: the technical university assigned to your language publicises the scheme, lists interested authors and accepts applications for scrutiny (AICTE scheme document). Later rounds were opened by AICTE notices inviting faculty to write or review books in English (AICTE notice, 4 May 2023). Follow the route printed in whichever call is live.

There is no online tracker. The steps sheet mentions no application number and names no portal, so keep the registered or speed post receipt as your proof of dispatch. A status question can go through AICTE's online suggestion form, choosing "Faculty Program" as the type (AICTE contact page). Because the language's technical university monitors progress and recommends each fund release, its coordinator is the person who knows whether a payment has been recommended (AICTE scheme document).

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection happens twice. A committee at the technical university shortlists and evaluates applicants for its language. Where books on the same subject compete, an AICTE expert committee then compares them and approves one per subject before writing begins (AICTE scheme document).

The English-first rounds added a third party. For the second-year diploma books, the Executive Committee asked the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) to propose a panel of five authors and five reviewers for every course, left the final pick of one author and one reviewer per course to an AICTE committee, and gave the chosen author three months from the date of communication to finish the original book (minutes of AICTE's 150th Executive Committee).

The form's own marking scheme shows where the weight sits:

Credentials top out at 35 marks, while the written case for the book carries 65, so a sharp comparison with existing books can outweigh a doctorate (AICTE application form). No minimum qualifying score is published.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The declaration you sign has teeth. If information turns out to be false, AICTE may act against the signatories and the institute, the signatories are liable to refund the entire grant with interest, and AICTE may decline to consider further proposals from the writer and the institute for 10 years (AICTE application form). The scheme document adds penal action for false statements or suppressed facts, and it says AICTE is not responsible for plagiarism by selected writers or translators, which leaves that risk with the author (AICTE scheme document).

Publication is governed by a tripartite agreement between the technical university, the author and the publisher, which the Executive Committee approved as a draft (minutes of AICTE's 139th Executive Committee). Books hosted on e-KUMBH are AICTE's intellectual property, and their unauthorised reproduction or commercial use is prohibited (AICTE e-KUMBH portal).

Get help

Contact

Letters and calls go to AICTE's head office in Vasant Kunj, on Nelson Mandela Marg, New Delhi 110070, where the published switchboard lines are 011-26131576-78,80 (AICTE contact page). For a book already published, the e-KUMBH portal that hosts it lists its own line, 011-29581311, and the address tbwdip1@aicte-india.org (AICTE e-KUMBH portal).

For language-level questions, the scheme document makes the "Coordinator I" at each assigned technical university responsible for that language. The table gives each university's name as the university itself uses it; the document misspells several, and its "Uttrakhand Technical University" now calls itself Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University, formerly Uttarakhand Technical University:

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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