New Delhi: The Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) division of the Ministry of Education is seeking greater participation from five states and one union territory, including four in the Northeast, after a review revealed little to no representation from these regions in its internship programme.
Officials said the lack of representation was evident across the first five rounds of the IKS division’s internship initiative—also known as the BG Samvahan Karyakram scheme—with Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Ladakh, and Goa recording little to no applications.
Under the programme, the IKS Division funds institutions to host paid interns for IKS research in line with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Open to students and young scholars aged 16–30, the six-month initiative supports selected projects, with interns receiving a monthly fellowship of Rs 10,000.
The division Sunday launched the sixth edition of the programme after reviewing state-wise participation in the previous rounds.
In a call for applications, it has urged greater representation from these states. “Below is a list of states where increased participation in the scheme is encouraged. To support this, a set of unique and unexplored region-specific topic ideas has been provided to motivate more internship proposals from these regions,” the division said in its notification.
“There have been zero applications from these states, and we want scholars from across the country—especially these regions—to come forward and work in the field. For the first time, the division has specifically encouraged representation from these six states in its call for applications,” IKS Division National Coordinator Ganti S. Murthy told ThePrint.
The division, which has been functional since 2020 in line with the NEP, has also suggested a set of unique and underexplored, region-specific topics from these states to encourage more internship proposals from these regions.
For instance, for Manipur, the division has suggested topics such as Meitei cosmology and traditional manuscripts (Puyas), Lai Haraoba ritual narratives and dance traditions, Thang-Ta martial art as an IKS tradition, and the ecological and land practices of Naga, Kuki and Zeliangrong communities.
For Goa, the division has suggested topics such as palm-leaf manuscripts, temple archives and festivals like Shigmo, while for Ladakh, proposed topics include Buddhist monastic manuscripts and ritual knowledge, ecological adaptation systems such as water channels and zings (traditional water harvesting system), the Kesar Saga oral epic, traditional architecture with passive cooling and heating techniques, and folk healing practices including Amchi medicine (Sowa-Rigpa).
Meanwhile, for the first time, the division suggested “underexplored” internship topics to inspire fresh research, including sacred groves and local governance, agricultural rituals, unique crops and traditional farming methods, rare folk arts like Andhra Pradesh’s Tappeta Gullu dance, as well as reviewing Indian-language textbooks to identify and replace foreign words encroaching on Bharatiya language and knowledge.
“The idea is to avoid repetitive research proposals and to guide scholars toward areas where more work is needed, ” Murthy added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: The IIM (under)grad is born: India’s B-schools are reinventing themselves & it’s a ‘win-win’