Regional Centre for Biotechnology (Doctor of Philosophy Degree Programme) Regulations, 2017

EXTRAORDINARY PART III—Section 4 PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (Department of Biotechnology) NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 15th September, 2017 No. RCB/REG/2017/01.—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 43 of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology Act, 2016 (36 of 2016) along with article 10 of the of the Second Schedule annexed to the Statutes of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, 2017, the Central Government on behalf of the Board of Studies, Regional Centre for Biotechnology hereby notifies the Regional Centre for Biotechnology (Doctor of Philosophy Degree Programme) Regulations 2017. “BOARD OF STUDIES (REGIONAL CENTRE FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY) Regional Centre for Biotechnology (Doctor of Philosophy Degree Progamme) Regulations, 2017 New Delhi, the 15th September, 2017 No. RCB/REG/2017/01.—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 43 of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology Act, 2016 (36 of 2016) read with article 10 of the Second Schedule annexed to the Statutes of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, 2017, the Board of Studies hereby makes the following regulations, namely: – 1. Short title and commencement. – (1) These regulations may be called the Regional Centre for Biotechnology (Doctor of Philosophy Degree Programme) Regulations, 2017. (2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette. 2. Definitions. – (1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, – (a) “Act” means the Regional Centre for Biotechnology Act, 2016 (36 of 2016); (b) “Academic Committee” means the Academic Committee referred to in clause (iii) of ordinance 2.1 of the Ordinances of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, 2017; (c) “Board of Studies” means the Board of Studies referred to in clause (c) of section 2 of the Act; (d) “Regional Centre” means the Regional Centre referred to in Clause (n) of section 2 of the Act. (2) Words or expressions used herein and not defined but defined in the Act or the Statutes of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, 2017 or the Ordinances of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, 2017, shall have the same meaning respectively assigned to them in the Act or the said Statutes or the said Ordinances. 3. Regulations to be in addition to and supplement ordinance 8. – The Doctor of Philosophy degree programme at the Regional Centre shall be primarily regulated by the provisions of ordinance 8 of the Ordinances of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, 2017 and these regulations shall be in addition to and consistent with the provisions of the said ordinance 8 so as to clarify and supplement it. 4. Admission process. – The admission process for Doctor of Philosophy degree programme at the Regional Centre shall be regulated in the following manner, namely:- (a) the academic committee shall decide the number of seats proposed to be filled in each year for the Doctor of Philosophy degree programme at the Regional Centre, but such final numbers shall be based on the availability of the suitable students with requisite aptitude and zeal for research and shall not exceed the advertised numbers for such purpose; (b) reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Persons with Disabilities category shall be provided in accordance with the rules, guidelines, ordinances and instructions of the Central Government in this regard; (c) in each academic year, a Doctor of Philosophy degree programme admission committee comprising of at least three faculty of the Regional Centre as members and the Registrar of the Regional Centre as the member-secretary shall be constituted by the Executive Director for overseeing such admission process and the Doctor of Philosophy degree programme admission committee shall be chaired by the Dean (Academics) of the Regional Centre; (d) the notification for such admission to the Doctor of Philosophy degree programme shall be widely advertised in the national dailies and website of the Regional Centre by the Registrar of the Regional Centre and such advertisement on the Regional Centre website shall contain the following key information besides the other information namely:- (i) a brief about the Regional Centre; (ii) essential qualifications and eligibility criteria for such admission; (iii) procedure for online or offline applications for such admission; (iv) deadline for application submission for such admission; (v) date for admission test or interview or both for such programme; (vi) application fee payable for such admission to the programme; and (vii) the contact person for further information for such programme; (e) the applicant for such admission shall be required to provide the following necessary information besides the other information, namely:- (i) name of the applicant for such admission and name of his father and mother; (ii) address for communication and contact phone number and e-mail address of such applicant; (iii) educational qualifications and percentage of marks obtained by such applicant; and (iv) whether the applicant is qualified for University Grants Commission or Council for Scientific and Industrial Research or Indian Council for Medical Research or Department of Science and Technology or Department of Biotechnology fellowship or such other fellowship; (f) after the closing date, all applications shall be screened by the Doctor of Philosophy programme admission committee referred to in clause (c), and the applicants shall be asked to appear for written test or interview, or both, conducted by the Doctor of Philosophy programme admission committee, and the Doctor of Philosophy programme admission committee may adopt any other criteria, to be recorded, for short-listing the applicant to a reasonable number for the interview for such admission; (g) list of applicants selected for such admission and a suitable waitlist for such admission shall be prepared and the selected applicant shall be informed by e-mail or otherwise by the Registrar of the Regional Centre; (h) the Academic Committee shall decide the method for allocation of the thesis supervisor and inform the same to the concerned applicant as part of the admission offer; (i) for securing admission, such applicant shall be required to pay the admission fee and join the academic programme by a deadline, unless granted an extension of the deadline by the Executive Director, and waitlisted candidate shall be offered admission in place of those applicants who fail to pay the fee or join by the deadline or so extended deadline; (j) such applicants studying in the final year of their qualifying degree shall be considered for provisional admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme subject to the condition that they satisfy all the other requirements; (k) such an applicant who has been admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy programme is found to be medically unfit, the admission of such applicant shall be cancelled; (l) such an applicant admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy programme shall be issued an identity card by the authority of the Regional Centre as a bona fide student for such programme; (m) it is mandatory that such a student admitted in such programme shall apply for the activation of his fellowship within thirty days of admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme. (n) if at any time it is discovered that such an applicant has made a false or incorrect statement or other fraudulent means have been used by him for securing admission to such programme, his name shall be removed from the rolls of the Regional Centre. 5. Eligibility conditions. - The following shall be the eligibility conditions for Doctor of Philosophy programme of the Regional Centre, namely:- (a) the minimum qualification for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy programme at the Regional Centre shall be the Master’s degree in the area related to life sciences and biotechnology, or a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree, or an equivalent degree from a University or institution recognised by the Academic Committee for such purpose; (b) the Academic Committee shall fix the minimum marks in the qualifying examination for making the application for such admission and the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Persons with Disabilities shall be given relaxation of five per cent marks for such admission; and (c) such applicant must have qualified national level test for pursuing Doctor of Philosophy degree including a doctoral fellowship test conducted by University Grants Commission or Council for Scientific and Industrial Research or Indian Council for Medical Research or Department of Science and Technology or Department of Biotechnology or any other government recognised agency and the applicants with Department of Science and Technology – Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (DST-INSPIRE) fellowship shall also be eligible for such admission. 6. Course work. - The course work for the Doctor of Philosophy degree programme at the Regional Centre shall be as under, namely:- (a) a student admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy programme at the Regional Centre shall have to complete a minimum of eight credit course work as a prerequisite for continuing the research work towards his Doctor of Philosophy degree and a minimum of four credits shall be assigned to a compulsory course on research methodology covering areas such as formulating a research proposal and grant writing, computational and statistical methods for life science research, good laboratory practices and ethics in research, and application of contemporary techniques in biotechnology research; (b) the content of such course to be offered for the Doctor of Philosophy programme shall be reviewed by the Academic Committee and approved by the Board of Studies; (c) a student admitted to the Doctor of Philosophy programme at the Regional Centre shall be required to complete the course work in the initial first to second semesters unless an extension of time is granted by the Dean (Academics) of the Regional Centre for genuine reasons to be recorded in writing; and (d) in case such student does not obtain the minimum required cumulative grade point average (CGPA) fixed by the Board of Studies, the Academic Committee, on the recommendations of the Student Advisory Committee and the guide, may give one last opportunity to repeat a course to achieve the required cumulative grade point average. 7. Thesis research work and supervision. - The thesis research work and its supervision at the Regional Centre shall be performed in the following manner, namely:- (a) a student registered for the Doctor of Philosophy programme at the Regional Centre shall carry out original research work under supervision of a guide and mentorship of the Student Advisory Committee (SAC) for such purpose in the Regional Centre and such work shall be submitted by the student in the form of a research thesis to be evaluated by external examiners appointed by the Executive Director; (b) at any point of time, an Assistant Professor is allowed to guide a maximum of four Doctor of Philosophy students, an Associate Professor to guide six students, and a Professor to guide eight students of the Regional Centre, but under exceptional circumstances, the Executive Director may waive off this condition duly recording the reasons for such waiver; (c) such student must have published at least a part of his thesis in the form of a research paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal before the thesis submission; (d) prior to the submission of the thesis, the student shall make a presentation of his work before the Student Advisory Committee at the Regional Centre for such purpose which shall be open to all faculty members and research students of the Regional Centre and the feedback and comments from the audience shall be suitably incorporated in the thesis in consultation with the Student Advisory Committee; (e) the Academic Committee shall recommend a software or method to detect plagiarism and any other academic dishonesty in the thesis and the thesis shall have an undertaking from the candidate and certificate from the guide attesting to the originality of the work vouching that it is free from plagiarism and that the work has not been submitted for any other degree or diploma elsewhere; (f) all attempts shall be made by the Dean (Academics) to complete the process from thesis submission to the public viva voce examination of such student to defend the thesis within a period of six months. Dr. SUDHANSHU VRATI, Chairperson of Board of Studies” CHANDRA PRAKASH GOYAL, Jt. Secy. and Published by the Controller of Publications, Delhi-110054. RAKESH SUKUL SUKUL