Delayed pay rise prompts hunger strike by Indian PhD students

Nature : In October 2014, following widespread student protests over low pay and delayed payouts, the Indian government announced an increase in the wages that fellowships pay to the country’s PhD students. Some of the government agencies, such as the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Biotechnology, have already implemented the new wage system. Others have not. At least two, the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the University Grants Commission, have announced that they would implement the changes but have not yet done so, nor have they provided timetables for the changes. The delays and lack of information from the funding agencies have driven thousands of graduate students to launch a hunger strike. On 20 February, about 150 student protesters who went to an office of the human resource development ministry in New Delhi were taken to a police station, which further increased tensions between the students and the government.