NOTIFICATION

The Competent Authority based on the recommendations of the Dean’s Committee meeting held on 23.02.2024 has approved the following modification in Professional Development Fund (PDF) norms:

Professional Activities:

• Travel (within India or abroad) for professional work, including per diem expenses.
• Conference registration fees, travel expenses, and related costs (within India or abroad).
• Books, journals, memberships, professional society fees, journal subscriptions.
• Consumables (materials needed for professional work).
• Office administration (stationery, printer, printer cartridges, etc.).
• Equipment purchase, repair, maintenance, and annual maintenance contracts (AMC) as per Institute Purchase Rules.
• Purchase of electronic items* for the office/lab (Desktop, workstation, air conditioners, laptop, tablet for project/consultancy work). *Smart watches are not included. 
• Purchase of mobile phone is limited to one mobile phone not exceeding Rs 50,000, in three financial years.

Research Activities:

• Equipment for research activities.
• Office and lab furniture. The office and lab furniture budget are limited to Rs 1 lakh per Financial Year.
• Teaching materials and aids for enhancing skills and student learning.
• Hiring qualified personnel to assist with research as project staff as per Institute norms; and their travel for research assistance. 
• Student support (registration fees for conferences).
• Journal processing charges for open-access journals (only Q1/Q2) with pre-approval from Dean (SRIC).
• Payment of Honorarium to research staff/experts/staff/interns/students, etc. The budget cap for honorarium is Rs 35,000 per month and not exceeding Rs. 1 Lakh per financial year. One person cannot be paid an honorarium for more than three months in one financial year. The amount of honorarium will be as per institute norms.
• Faculty/expert visits to facilitate research collaboration or other activities (with pre-approval from Dean (SRIC) for hosting external visitor(s)). 
• Other expenses like taxi services and catering for professional work, including conferences and events, with the Director's approval.

General Principles:

• All purchases must comply with Institute Purchase Rules.
• Following the faculty member’s resignation, the remaining PDF will be transferred to the Institute's Revenue Generation account. The funds cannot be used during the notice period.
• Unspent funds cannot be transferred to anyone else’s account or other accounts or projects.
• The travel entitlements would be relaxed and would be as per Relaxed travel norms for travel from Industry Sponsored Research Projects and Consultancy Projects (Private Industries) Notification No. Ref. No.: IITM/DSRIC/02/2018/09-10 dtd 13.09.2018
• Special expenses/any other expense not listed above can be permitted by the Director as needed.