Are you a journalist or an NGO activist? You could be the government's next RTI Fellow

THE government has announced four fellowships for research in the filed of Right To Information (RTI), with each selected Fellow be given a total stipend of Rs 2 lakh for a three-month research. Just check out whether you can apply for the fellowship announced by the government’s personnel department — DoPT recently:

1. The total number of short-term fellowships for the year 2016-17 will be four. 

2. The fellowships will be given to researchers from the field of media/journalism/civil society organizations associated with RTI/ RTI trainers.

3. RTI fellowships would be granted for researching any of following three themes relating to RTI

with the objective of contributing towards better understanding of the successes of RTI and/

or constraints in its implementation and how implementation of the Act could be

strengthened?

a) Study of compliance of Section-4 by Public Authority (1 Fellowship to be awarded)

b) Study of effectiveness of First Appeal Process (1 Fellowship to be awarded); and

c) Providing policy addressing based on the contents of RTI applications (2 Fellowship to be awarded)

4. The output that will be delivered at the end of the fellowship could be in the nature of a monograph of say 10,000 words which is a feature/news story/investigative story that could be published as a journalistic piece in national/international media or in the case of professionals from the field of audio-video media, it could even be short video films or stories. 

5. The copyright of the research output will remain with the government of India. GOI may, however, upon request, permit the fellow to use the output for publication etc., if government itself does not publish/make use of the output within one year. 

6. Any individual in the age group 25 to 40 years from the field of journalism (newspaper/magazine/radio/TV), civil society organizations associated with RTI and researchers and trainers in the field of RTI, will be eligible to apply.

7. The fellowships would be for duration of 3 months — December 15, 2016 to March 15,

2017.

8. Each selected Fellow will receive a total stipend of Rs 2 lakh (subject to tax deduction at source) including a grant of up to Rs 50,000 for books, research material, travel, printing, production of creatives etc. on production of actual bills. No other remuneration including stay/accommodation will be admissible.

9. The last date for receiving applications is November 7, 2016. Applications received up to 5:30

pm, November 7, 2016 only will be considered.

10. Interested persons may apply for the fellowship programme in the prescribed format only. For more details about application form and where to apply etc., one should visit the website -- www dot rti dot gov dot in