New Delhi: Delhi govt has approved two new research fellowship schemes in archives and archaeology aimed at promoting research, documentation and conservation of the capital’s documentary and archaeological heritage.The “Research Fellowship in Archives” and “Research Fellowship in Archaeology” will be implemented by the Department of Delhi Archives and the Department of Archaeology, respectively. Guidelines on eligibility, application process and selection will be notified separately, with the programmes expected to be launched soon.Under the archives fellowship, the govt will engage 15 fellows every year for a one-year term. This includes 10 Senior Research Fellows (SRFs), who will receive a monthly fellowship of Rs 50,000, and five Junior Research Fellows (JRFs), who will receive Rs 25,000 per month.A senior Delhi govt official said the fellowship is intended to support advanced research, strengthen archival management, promote digitisation and improve public access to historically valuable records preserved in the Delhi Archives. It will cover seven thematic and technical areas, including records management, conservation and preservation of archival material, digitisation, dissemination of information, microfilming and reprography, research and publication, and oriental languages, particularly Urdu and Persian. Research themes include Delhi’s administrative history, migration, urban expansion, environmental history, historic sites, festivals, cinema and social and cultural history, he said.Research areas include the archaeology of the Delhi Ridge and Yamuna Basin, Painted Grey Ware Culture, Early Historic Delhi, the identification of Indraprastha, trade routes, conservation of monuments, digital conservation, public archaeology, climate change and heritage preservation, he added. It will also focus on the Indus Valley Civilisation and identifying new archaeological sites in Delhi, building on evidence from the Late Harappan sites of Mandoli and Bhorgarh excavated in the early 1990s, said the official.
