The country’s premier research institute, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, and its affiliated institutions, have been hit by a fund crunch. The institute has put out a notice that all faculty and students will be paid only 50% of the pay for February due to shortage of funds.
“Due to insufficient funds, all staff members and students/ post-doctoral fellows of TIFR, its centres and field stations will be paid 50% of the net salary for the month of February immediately. Remaining part of the salary will be paid when sufficient funds are available,” Registrar Wing Commander George Antony (retd.) said in a notice dated March 6.
All deductions will be calculated on full salary and will be deposited to the respective authorities as per rules, the notice added. The institute comes under the purview of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) through which all funds are channelled.
Officials from the DAE and the TIFR could not be reached for comment. However, officials at affiliated institutes said they had made arrangements to ensure that the least-paid staff aren’t affected.
“We have worked it out that students and staff paid less than ₹50,000 a month get their full pay. The rest take proportional cuts until this is sorted,” Dr. Mukund Thattai, head, Academics, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, told The Hindu on Thursday. NCBS is a centre affiliated to TIFR.
Dr. Thattai said while such a situation was unprecedented for the institution, he was unaware of the reasons. “It isn’t as if there has been a slowing down, decline in funds for research or a cut in budgets. So far, the cut is specific to February,” he said.
The NCBS authorities were in talks with the TIFR to ensure such cuts weren’t repeated, Dr. Thattai said.
