The Centre will pay Rs 70,000 monthly fellowship to 2,000 PhD students from Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru for a period of five years, Union Higher Education Secretary Kewal Kumar Sharma said on Saturday. Currently, research students at IITs get Rs 25,000 as monthly scholarship.

“As part of the research fellowship scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we wish the meritorious students who are being forced to leave the country for purely financial reasons stay within the country,” said Sharma at an event in Kharagpur on Saturday, according to PTI. “We will provide 2,000 such monthly fellowships across the IIT system and IISc Bengaluru.”

Sharma, however, said that those who receive scholarship cannot do any other job during this duration. “The Cabinet nod for the proposal should come soon,” he said. “We are hopeful to start it from the next session.”