Patna, Dec. 21: In a bid to promote Bihar-specific socio economic research, the state government has decided to fund scholars working on issues related to the state. They would get Rs 10 lakh each under the recently launched Chief Minister Research, Study and Evaluation Promotion Scheme.

“Research is just one aspect of this scheme, which also entails evaluation work, publications and organising national and international-level seminars,” planning and development department principal secretary Vijoy Prakash today told The Telegraph. His department would implement the ambitious scheme.

Prakash said Rs 10 lakh ceiling for research work would be applicable only to the proposals submitted by individuals or institutions. In case the government intended to get a particular research done, there would be no such limit in place.

As things stand now, there is no specific system for promoting state-specific socio-economic research in Bihar. Lack of such papers proves to be a major obstacle for planners.

As far as the evaluation aspect of the new scheme is concerned, the planning and development department would empanel experts from different fields as well as institutions for evaluating different government schemes.

“There would be a provision of paying fee to those engaged in the evaluation work,” Prakash said, adding that evaluation was a must to assess the impact of various welfare schemes. It would also help in identifying the best practices, which in turn, would allow the government to replicate such practices in other schemes.

He said efforts would be made to empanel the institutions of national repute as the government stood for very high quality of evaluation work.

“The same principle would apply in case of empanelment of individuals,” added the principal secretary.

As things stand now, there is an evaluation council in Bihar but it has not been able to carry out the evaluation work in the desired manner. Plans are afoot to strengthen it.

The scheme also has a provision of funding state, national and international level seminars dealing with topics related to Bihar. The planning and development department would judge applications on the basis of their topics as well as the likely participants to ensure only serious players could get the government support for organising such events.

One of the most important aspects of the newly launched scheme pertains to publication. It would allow grant of up to Rs 40,000 for publication of research papers or journals.

While the funds for journals would be given to institutions, those for books or publication of research papers would be given to individuals.