kolkata researchers funded by the department of science and technology dst were elated on wednesday a day after it was announced that their stipend would be raised significantly according to their designation researchers funded by ugc and csir now have their eyes trained on their respective agencies hoping they would follow suit despite the apprehensions the announcement has brought cheer to many and hope to the rest experience tells us when one agency hikes the stipend the others usually do the same to maintain uniformity said sugata hazra director of the school of oceanographic studies jadavpur university for abhra chanda a dst inspire senior research fellow srf this is his first hike this will boost our quality of life as well as the quality of research as more students will get incentive to join research programmes he said sohini roy a research associate1 funded by csir and tuhin bhadra an srf funded by ugc hoped that their agencies will make a move soon bose institute srf avik banerjee said he was happy for the beneficiaries but concerned about the disparity of stipend between researchers of same designation ideally it should be oneworkonepay module researchers of the same designation should get the same stipend professor partha pratim das of computer science and engineering department iitkharagpur explained on our campus there are several corporate sponsors as well and their funding varies widely according to the mous signed with iitkgp the government agencies tend to maintain uniformity sayanika banerjee a senior project fellow at csiriicb added i hope funds will be allotted for laboratory requirements as well professors and researchers also felt that an annual increment would be preferable to a major jump every four years suchandra datta associate professor at the department of high energy nuclear and particle physics sinp said im very happy but i feel keeping scholars waiting for four years and then taking such a major step is extreme i think a gradual increase is a more practical approach atanu modak an srf in the same department agreed that long gaps between increments defeat the purpose due to inflation the demand for a stipend hike created a stir for several months with kolkata scholars petitioning and campaigning on social media suchismita haldar an srf at the department of biophysics and structural genomics sinp said we are extremely happy that our campaigning paid off all of us from the institute had a postcard campaign which were sent to smriti irani in september it was demeaning having had to resort to protests and demonstrations especially as academics for more stipend payel bhattacharjee a research associate at csiriicb added everyone is happy with the increment there had been rallies and petitions demanding a hike so the battle is won the work we do should reflect in the stipend when we spend a good part of our youth in research work sustaining ones self becomes difficult especially if there are dependents debasish bhattacharya deputy director of structural biology and bioinformatics at csiriicb pointed