Ministry of Minority Affairs

Objective:The objective of the Maulana Azad Fellowship Scheme (MANF) is to provide five year fellowships in the form of financial assistance to students from six notified minority communities viz. Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Parsi and Sikh, notified by the Central Government, to pursue M. Phil and Ph.D.
The scheme covers all Universities/Institutions recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) as under :

  1. Central/State Universities (including constituent and affiliated institutions) included under Section 2(f) of UGC Act, 1956 and having valid accreditation from NAAC.
  2. Deemed Universities under Section 3 of UGC Act i.e. Institution for higher education notified by Central Government to be deemed University, in consultation with UGC and having valid accreditation from NAAC.
  3. Institution fully funded by State / Central Government and empowered to award degrees.
  4. Institutions of National Importance as notified by Ministry of Human Resource Development (mhrd.gov.in/institutions-national-importance).

The Fellowship will be implemented by the Ministry of Minority Affairs through UGC. The fellowship holders under this Fellowship will be known as Ministry of Minority Affairs scholars.

Scope: The Fellowship will cater to the minority community students pursuing regular and full time research studies leading to award of M.Phil/Ph.D degree within India only. This will enable them to be eligible for employment to the posts with M.Phil and Ph.D as pre- requisites, including the posts of Assistant Professors in various academic institutions.

Implementing Agency: UGC will be the nodal agency for implementing the MANF Scheme and ensures that the Scheme is also included in the Notification/Press Release to be issued by National testing Agency (NTA) for UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC NET examinations.

Achievements