ch students during the months they work on their master-thesis, at TERI School of Advanced Studies (TERI-SAS), New Delhi.

Varshita grew up in New Delhi and was associated with the tertiary education sector during her career in India, Australia and Norway. Her legacy of service to others and determination during her lifetime to ‘leave the world a better place than when you came into it first’ are reflected in the VVRSMF.

The VVRSMF, set up under the aegis of TERI-SAS, New Delhi, will contribute to a host of sustainable development goals. There is bound to be a lot of research work undertaken at TERI-SAS in the years to come, in areas related to the multiple dimensions of sustainable development. There will thus be much scope for many post-graduate students (including exchange students) to be aided in small ways by the VVRSMF.

Once set up and seeded, while I myself will keep ‘charging it’ regularly, God willing, other potential benefactors may also emerge over time.

Eligibility
• Fourth semester MSc students of any academic programme at TERI SAS are eligible to apply for the VVRSMF grant.
• Research proposal must be approved by the internal supervisor.

Criteria for Selection
• Clarity in aim and objectives, proposal quality and feasibility of implementation.
• Proposal that contributes towards sustainable development of the society and/or research projects presently being undertaken at TERI SAS.
• A proposal that addresses an emergent issue in the aforementioned areas of work and opens up future scope of research at the Deemed University.
• Clear articulation of tangible and verifiable output/outcomes.
• The proposal does not exceed the budgetary limit of INR 30,000 and provides justification of the expenditure against the budget heads.
• Scholarship will be given to candidates with no other internal or external source of funding.

Submission of proposals
Students can submit the project proposal by Feb 10, 2026. We encourage submission of research proposals as well as proposals for a project to identify economic, social, development and/or environmental problems, assess them and/or develop innovative and practical solutions.

The proposal should not be more than five A4 size pages. The proposal must be submitted electronically (please write "Application for VVRSMF Fellowship" in the subject line, by the deadline to:

Dr Malvika Tyagi
Assistant Professor of Economics
Email: malvika.tyagi@terisas.ac.in

Selection procedure
On the basis of the above-mentioned selection criteria, the Scholarship Committee will invite only the shortlisted candidates to make a presentation before a panel of experts. The panel would make the final recommendation for the award of the scholarship.

Important Deadlines and Tentative Timeline
• Feb 10, 2026: Submission of the proposal
• Feb 16, 2026: Presentation
• Feb 21, 2026: Declaration of Scholarship Awardees
• April 4, 2026: Submission of Interim Report, duly signed by Supervisor
• May 25, 2026: Final presentation before the Fellowship Committee
• June 1, 2026: Submission of the final report (Max. 8000 words) with an abstract (Maximum 1000 words) to Fellowship Committee
• June 29, 2026: Completion of the evaluation

Disbursement of the Fellowship:
The grant approved by the Scholarship committee will be released to the awardees in two installments:

• First installment: INR 15,000.00 grant will be released on signing of the letter of acceptance and the terms and conditions by the student.
• Second installment: INR 15,000.00 grant will be released after submission of Interim Report, duly signed by Supervisor, as well as statement of resource utilization.

Contributors of VVRSMF
Donors interested in contributing to the fund may contact dhanraj.singh@terisas.ac.in and CC to accounts@terisas.ac.in for further details.