India launches scheme for young scientists

India’s department of health research, ministry of health and family welfare has announced that it is administering a scheme for ‘human resource development for health research’ (HRD Scheme).The scheme has a separate component specifically for emerging young scientists among non-resident Indians, persons of Indian origin and overseas citizens of India serving abroad in health research activities, so that they return to India for undertaking research in identified areas, the Indian embassy in Qatar has said in a statement.The scheme envisages a stipend/salary, a Rs1crore grant for five years and an opportunity for these persons/faculty to return to India and pursue research in any institute across India, the statement notes.The guidelines regarding eligibility criteria, financial components, including the formats of application, are available on www.dhr.gov.in Dr Kavitha Rajsekar, Scientist-D (kavitha.rajsekar@nic.in, +91-11-23736085) may also be contacted for further clarifications.The initiative is intended to create a pool of talented health research personnel in the country by upgrading skills of faculty of medical colleges by specialised training in priority areas of health research.For further details, one can visit the embassy’s Facebook and Twitter accounts