ANDIT DEEN DAYAL UPADHAYAY FELLOWSHIP
FOR JOURNALISM IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT
The Ministry of Rural
Development, Government of India, has established the "Pandit
Deen Dayal Upadhayay Fellowship for Journalism in Rural Development"
from the current financial year (2003-2004). These Fellowships
are of two kinds : (I) One Year Long Term Fellowship to one person
each in Hindi and English; (ii) Ten six months Short Term Fellowships
to one person each in the languages of Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati,
Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
Besides, a short term fellowship in Photo Journalism has also
been established. The main objectives of the Fellowship are to
sensitize media persons about issues relating to rural development;
to facilitate research and study by the media persons on implementation
of rural development programmes. The other objectives are to enable
media persons to understand the perception of the people about
rural development programmes and to encourage media persons to
educate people about the rural development programmes and encourage
their involvement, etc. Persons with graduation, with experience
of minimum five years in editorial/reporting wing of a newspaper/journal
and having a special aptitude and interest in rural development
and below the age of 45 are eligible to apply for the fellowships.
A Committee appointed by the Ministry for the purpose does the
selection of candidates.
Candidates selected
for Long Term Fellowship of one year duration will be eligible
for a compensation package/stipend up to a maximum of Rs.30,000/
per month and to a travel grant up to a maximum of Rs.50,000/
for the entire period of fellowship on the basis of tour programme
approved by the Ministry. A lump sum grant up to Rs.12,000/ for
meeting secretarial and other incidental expenses and reimbursement
of up to Rs. 5,000/ for purchase of books for the entire period
of fellowship may also be paid to the selected candidates. Similarly,
the candidates selected for Short Term Fellowship of six months
duration would be eligible for a compensation package up to a
maximum of Rs. 30,000/ per month and a travel grant not exceeding
Rs.15,000/ for the duration of the fellowship, besides a maximum
of Rs. 3,000/ for meeting secretarial and other incidental expenses
and reimbursement of up to Rs.2,000/ for expenditure on purchase
of books.
Shri Prashant
Kanaskar, Sub-Editor, Jugur Jagar, Durg (Chatisgarh) and Shri
Dhirendra Jha, Senior Correspondent, The Pioneer, New Delhi
have been selected for the Long Term Fellowship in Hindi and English
respectively for the year 2003-2004. The selection of candidates
for the short-term fellowship is under process.
