Question : RESEARCH AT UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

(a) whether the universities have failed to utilise the funds sanctioned for supplying computers to the colleges and develop the infrastructure of the science laboratories for conducting research at the undergraduate level;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(c) whether the University Grants Commission has sanctioned funds to various universities for the development of these laboratories for conducting research at the said level;

(d) if so, the details thereof, State-wise; and

(e) the steps taken by the Government to provide basic infrastructure of the science laboratories to achieve goal of academic excellence?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (Dr. SHASHI THAROOR)

(a) & (b): No, Madam. The University Grants Commission (UGC) provides assistance to Universities eligible to receive UGC grants (as declared under section 12B of the UGC Act, 1956) only, for establishing/upgrading Computer Centres for (a) research & training (b) in application of computers in every field/subject (c) supporting the development of MCA /MSc (computer science) programmes and computer application papers at Postgraduate level in certain disciplines to keep pace with the developments in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The details of funds released by the UGC under its above mentioned scheme are as follows:

Financial	Budget Allocation	Grants released by the	No. of Beneficiary
year	(Rs. in lakhs)	UGC (Rs. in lakhs)	Universities
2007-08	100.00	76.67	19
2008-09	552.00	551.52	20
2009-10	1000.00	179.14	6
2010-11	500.00	399.20	16
2011-12	500.00	4.60	1
2012-13	500.00	519.40	15