CIFE - Institutional Fellowship(CIFE - IF)

Overview

About CIFE - IF

ICAR-CIFE told its accreditation assessors that students who clear the ICAR national competitive examination and take admission at the institute are all eligible for the institutional fellowship, while the few who secure top ranks in that entrance receive the ICAR-PG scholarship or ICAR-JRF from the Council instead, a division the CIFE Academic Rule Book carries through into its rates by listing the Council's awards and the institute's own one after the other (Self-Study Report of 24 November 2022, archived in August 2024). That disposes of most of what gets said about this scheme: the name suggests a separate contest, and there is none. It does not dispose of the amount, and on the doctoral side the institute's own papers give three different answers.

This is a deemed university paying its own students out of its own budget, not a Council scheme routed through a portal. The University Grants Commission accorded CIFE Deemed University status on 29 March 1989, and the fellowship sits inside that academic system, described in the same chapter of the CIFE Academic Rule Book that sets out registration, attendance and leave. It pays a monthly amount plus an annual contingent grant to registered M.F.Sc. and Ph.D. students for the normal length of the programme.

The practical shape of it is a floor under everyone. Admission puts a student inside the fellowship system; the merit ordering of the entrance decides only which purse pays. Reading the amount off a listing is where people come unstuck, because the institute's own fellowship page, the one at cife.edu.in/students/fellowship-awards.html that carried the rates, has not survived the site's redesign. The address no longer resolves, the current menus carry no fellowship page under Education or Students Welfare, and a search of the rebuilt site for "Institutional Fellowship" returns nothing. What remains reachable is the rule book, and what remains readable elsewhere is an archived copy of the old fellowship page taken on 17 June 2025.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

There is no annual notification for this fellowship and no closing date, because it is tied to a seat rather than to an application window. The calendar that matters is the admission calendar. ICAR advertises the M.F.Sc. admission in the leading newspapers of India during January or February; CIFE advertises its Ph.D. admission in the newspapers and on its own website during March or April; and the All India competitive written examination for the Ph.D. is held in June at Mumbai, all per the admission page.

For a student already inside the system, the dates that carry money are the registration dates. The rule book puts the due date of registration in the first week of August and ties enrolment to payment of the prescribed fees and registration of courses within the prescribed time limit; the fellowship follows that enrolment, and the Ph.D. calendar prices a late one at Rs 500 a day before closing registration altogether.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Admission is the eligibility test. No marks bar, income ceiling or category rule attaches to the institutional fellowship beyond the entry rule that won the student a seat, and those degree-level bars belong to the M.F.Sc. and Ph.D. admission criteria rather than to the fellowship.

Two things narrow it in practice. It runs only for the M.F.Sc. and Ph.D. programmes taught at CIFE, which between them carry 77 Master's seats and 41 doctoral seats across the institute's eleven disciplines, as the seat tables on the CIFE admission page set out. And it runs only while the student is registered: the institute's Ph.D. academic calendar for the 2025-28 batch states in its standing instructions that the fellowship will be disbursed only to registered students, which makes each semester's registration the thing that keeps the money moving.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The bar that matters is not published as a list of excluded categories. It is an undertaking the student signs. Annexure XV of the rule book has the fellow certify that he or she is not drawing any other fellowship or scholarship from any source, and will not accept another one without the permission of the Dean (Academics), which is what makes this an either-or with a national award rather than a top-up on one.

At doctoral level the two streams do not even meet at the entrance. A doctoral applicant who already carries a national-level fellowship, from CSIR, UGC, DBT, ICMR, ICAR or elsewhere, is admitted on the interview alone and counted over and above the allotted seats, per the rule book. Those students arrive already funded, so the institutional fellowship never attaches to them.

One Council rule pushes students the other way, into the institutional fellowship. The same document records that the ICAR fellowship goes only to candidates who join the M.F.Sc. programme at a university or institute other than the one that gave them their Bachelor's degree. A CIFE graduate returning to CIFE is therefore paid by CIFE.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Continuation is annual and automatic against one academic condition, so nothing has to be applied for again. Continuance of the fellowship after the first year depends on maintaining the required OGPA, and a student who holds that OGPA but has not cleared the examination in a particular course still keeps the fellowship, remaining on scholastic probation until the course is cleared, a position approved by the institute's 41st Academic Council and recorded in the rule book.

Going past the sanctioned tenure is the part that needs paperwork. Annexure XVI of the same document is an application for extension in the tenure of the CIFE fellowship, and it asks for the date the fellowship started, the period already sanctioned, the grade point average to date, the work done against the schedule submitted earlier, the work still remaining, and a specific justification for the delay, endorsed by the Chair of the Advisory Committee and the Chair of the Board of Studies. The form CIFE currently issues for this, the application for extension or continuation of the M.F.Sc. or Ph.D. study period on its download page, is shorter but no softer: it wants the reason, the percentage of work remaining, the signatures of the whole advisory committee, the head of division's remarks, the Dean's approval and a progress report attached. An extension is a judgment on research progress, not a renewal form.

What you get

Award & benefits

The only statement of the rate still published on cife.edu.in is in the rule book.

The Master's figure is the steady one. Rs 7,560 a month is what the rule book gives and also what the fellowship page gave when it was last captured, so two CIFE documents agree on it. The doctoral figure is the one in genuine dispute, and the gap is wide enough to change what a three-year plan looks like.

A third pair is in wider circulation than either: Rs 5,040 at Master's level and Rs 7,000 at doctoral level, which is what the scheme's myScheme entry carries and what appears in a paragraph that CIFE left inside the source of its fellowship page without displaying it, both visible in the archived copy. Nothing on the institute's site says which of the three governs a student admitted this year, and no office order, prospectus or annual report reachable on cife.edu.in or icar.org.in restates the rate. On its face the archived page is the later drafting: it calls the Council's Master's award the PG Scholarship, where the rule book still calls it the Junior Research Fellowship. That is a clue about drafting order, not a statement by CIFE about what it pays, so treat the doctoral amount as a question for the Dean's office before you count on any of the three.

Everything either side of the monthly figure agrees. The contingent grant is Rs 6,000 a year at Master's level and Rs 10,000 at doctoral level in both documents, and it is not spending money: a maximum of Rs 2,500 in the first year may go on books and Rs 2,500 on preparing the dissertation or thesis, with the remainder reserved for contingency connected with the conduct of research, which in a fisheries laboratory means chemicals, glassware and the travel that data collection takes, per the rule book.

• ICAR offers Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) for post-graduate education leading to a Master's Degree Program at the rate of Rs. 5760/- per month for two years with a contingent grant of Rs. 6000/- per annum (for procurement of essential chemicals, equipment, books and travel allowances connected with the collection of research data). Continuance of Fellowship after the 1st year is dependent on maintaining the required OGPA as per guidelines.
• As per 41st Academic council approval, the students who secure and maintain the required O.G.P.A. even if he/she has not cleared the examination in a particular course will be entitled to fellowship. However, the student will remain on ‘Scholastic probation’ until he/she clears the examination for the course(s).
• The JRF will be given only to those candidates who join the M.F.Sc. Program in the University/Institute other than that from where he/she has obtained the Bachelor's Degree. Under no circumstances, a change of subject for JRF will be entertained.
• ICAR Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) for Ph.D. Degree is offered at the rate of Rs. 7000/- per month for the first two years and Rs. 5600/- in the third year with a contingent grant of Rs. 10,000/- per annum (for procurement of essential chemicals, equipment, books and travel allowances connected with the collection of research data).
• A maximum of Rs. 2500/- in the first year could be utilised for the purchase of books and Rs. 2500/- for the preparation of a thesis. The remaining contingent grant would exclusively be utilised for contingency connected with the conduct of research work.
• Institutional Fellowship for M.F.Sc. Programs is at present at the rate of Rs. 5040/- per month for two years and for Ph.D. programs at the rate of Rs. 7000/- for three years. The contingent grant given is Rs. 6000/- per year at Masters's level and Rs.10,000/- per year at Ph.D. level.
• A maximum of Rs. 2500/- in the first year could be utilised for the purchase of books and Rs. 2500/- for the preparation of a thesis. The remaining contingent grant would exclusively be utilised for contingency connected with the conduct of research work.

What to prepare

Documents required

Nothing is filed to claim the fellowship. The one paper specific to it is the undertaking at Annexure XV of the rule book, signed before two witnesses when the offer is accepted.

What actually gates the first credit is the admission paperwork. CIFE's admission page lists what goes with the application to the institute: proof of date of birth, the matriculation certificate and marksheet, the 10+2 or equivalent certificate and mark sheet, the Bachelor's degree certificate and mark sheet, a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe certificate in the Annexure-II proforma from the District Magistrate issued not more than six months before the date of application, and, for in-service candidates, the sponsorship certificate at Annexure-III.

Three more are handed over on campus rather than posted. The institute's declaration forms for new admissions are marked for submission at document verification: the student's own undertaking to abide by institute rules, the parent or guardian's endorsement of it with contact details, and a medical insurance form carrying blood group, emergency contact and any adverse medical history. A registration that stalls at verification is a fellowship that has not started.

Step by step

How to apply

You do not apply. You take the entrance, accept the seat, register, and the fellowship attaches to the registration. The only signature specific to it is the undertaking at Annexure XV of the rule book, in which the student accepts the terms governing the fellowship, undertakes to complete the study and research work assigned, and agrees not to leave the course before completion without the prior approval of the Dean (Academics).

Tracking the money works nothing like a portal scheme, and it is worth knowing that before a month passes without a credit. CIFE publishes no status page, no application number and no login for this fellowship, so there is nothing to refresh; what exists instead is a chain of academic conditions, and a stopped payment almost always sits on one of them. The Ph.D. academic calendar makes the first one explicit: disbursement goes only to registered students, late registration needs the approval of the Dean (Academics) and the Director, a penalty of Rs 500 per day runs through the short late window, and after it no registration is entertained at all. So the order to check is semester registration first, then the OGPA position, then whether a spell of leave was sanctioned.

The desk that answers is academic, not ministerial. The academic cell of the Dean (Academics) is reachable at dean@cife.edu.in or academiccell@cife.edu.in and on +91-22-26365198, per the CIFE contact page, and the Dean and COE office page lists an Associate Dean (Fellowship and Career Development) inside that office, which is the right person when the question is about the fellowship rather than about examinations.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection into the fellowship is selection into the programme, and one merit list does both jobs. For the Master's, a single combined examination conducted by ICAR awards the Council's fellowship and fills 100 per cent of the seats of the Master's degree programme at CIFE, per the rule book, so one ranking decides who gets in and who is paid by the Council rather than by the institute. Nobody is picked separately for the institutional fellowship; it is what the students below the Council's cut receive.

The doctoral route splits three ways. Open-competition candidates sit a written test and then an interview, and the rule book requires a minimum of 50 per cent in each before a candidate can be considered for admission. National fellowship holders take the interview-only path and come in over and above the allotted seats. Foreign students are exempted from the written test and interview altogether and are admitted on scrutiny of their bio-data and the recommendation of the head of the concerned discipline.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The conditions are the postgraduate school's own rules, and several of them can interrupt the payment.

• Leave. A student may take eight days of casual leave and ten days of medical leave in a semester with the fellowship intact, sanctioned by the Chair of the Board of Studies on the guide's recommendation. In exceptional cases medical leave of up to 3 months across the whole degree programme may be granted without scholarship, and leave without fellowship up to a maximum of 30 days may be granted in very special circumstances at the discretion of the Joint Director or Director, per the rule book.
• Absence. Unexplained absence for more than 15 days is reported to the academics cell and the name is struck off the rolls, per the same rules.
• Taking a job mid-course. Where a student is allowed to drop studies temporarily to join government service, the award of the fellowship terminates from that date and is not renewed in any circumstance when the student rejoins; only contingency and facilities such as laboratory and hostel remain admissible.
• Leaving without finishing. A student who discontinues, or fails to complete the degree in the stipulated time, pays a surety bond of Rs 30,000 at Master's level and Rs 50,000 at doctoral level.

All four sit in the CIFE Academic Rule Book, which also carries a separate undertaking at Annexure XIV that the student will not leave the work assigned under the institute's fellowship programme unfinished.

Get help

Contact

The fellowship is administered on campus, so the useful addresses are academic rather than ministerial. The Dean (Academics) at ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Panch Marg, Off Yari Road, Versova, Andheri (West), Mumbai 400 061, can be reached on +91-22-26365198 and at dean@cife.edu.in or academiccell@cife.edu.in, per the headquarter contacts page. Questions about the fellowship itself are handled within that office, which lists an Associate Dean (Fellowship and Career Development) alongside the Associate Dean (Academics).

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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