GUIDELINES FOR CONDUCTING THE COURSES UNDER GIAN

The following guidelines should be adopted for conducting the courses approved under GIAN scheme at IIT Hyderabad.

1. Course Brochure and Report Submission:

As soon as the course is approved and the same has been intimated to the respective course coordinator, course coordinator needs to submit the course brochure (as per the attached format) with final dates (in consultation with foreign faculty) within 15 days of intimation. If the course proposal has been accepted with remarks for revision or a reviewer suggests any further revision in approved courses, such revisions need not be sent to apex body again for approval. Local Coordinator will ensure that such revision will be incorporated in the course brochure. Final revised course brochure should be submitted during the report submission after completion of the course to the local coordinator along with the utilization certificate issued by the Assistant Registrar (Finance & Accounts).

2. VISA and Invitation Letter for the Foreign Faculty:

The type of visa applicable for the foreign expert will typically be Business Visa. Invitation letter to the foreign expert for the purpose of VISA will be issued by the Head of the concerned Institute. Foreign expert faculty who has oversees citizen of India (OCI) card, are however exempted from this requirement.

3. Course Requirement and Credit Transfer:

(i) The courses offered by a host institution should be made available for participation from other Institutions. In general it is not expected that more than 50% participants will be from the Host Institution.

(ii) For courses offering credits, it should follow all standard norms of the Host Institution including continuous evaluation through assignments, quizzes, etc. and examinations like class tests. For 10-14 lectures (one week course), one credit and for 20-28 lectures, two credits may be assigned. These credits may be added to the transcript of the students as an extra course or free elective as a part of regular curriculum, subjected to the approval of Department followed by Senate approval for the same. Course coordinator are requested to take the approval in this regard before the course starts.

(iii) For participants from other institutes, IITH will allow for transfer of credits if required by Institutions of participating institutions. Guidelines for credit sharing to other institutes are being developed by GIAN Implementation Committee and will be shared in due course of time.

(iv) Results should be declared within one month of the completion of the course. Priority should be given to students taking the course for credit than those who only participate without credits. (v) Minimum number of participants to conduct a course is recommended to be 20.

(vi) Foreign expert faculty should take minimum of 75% of the total lectures for a given course. Focus should be to get as much as number of lectures by foreign faculty. Further, total number of lectures by expert faculty from other institutions (within India) should not be more than the host faculty (IITH).

4. Consent for Video Recording and Broadcasting Consent for video recording and broadcasting (live streaming) of the courses should be obtained from the foreign experts by the respective course coordinator as soon as the course approval notification is received. They may be informed that video recording of the courses shall be broadcasted nationally/within the Institute. The video recording of the courses can also be linked to the National Digital Library which will be accessible to anyone. If it is possible consent for live streaming of the courses should also be obtained. If any foreign expert is not willing to consent for video recording of the courses the same may be brought into the notice of the Local coordinator. Course coordinator should ensure in advance for necessary arrangements in this regard. Help from ISAC Team of the institute may be requested. A suitable honorarium within the budget (Point 6(i)(c)) may also be given to supporting staff from ISAC in this regard. The same can also be outsourced within the budget provisions as mentioned in Point 6 (i).

5. Development of Repository Course coordinator will submit a copy of the lecture notes (hard bound copy) and DVD of all recorded lectures to the Local coordinator within 30 days of the completion of the course. A digital repository of the activities under GIAN will be maintained. All the courses will be archived and will be made available for dissemination. One copy will also be provided to the National Digital Library through the Local coordinator.

6. Funding:

(i) The budget is limited to 8,000 USD and 12,000 USD for one-week (for 12-14 lecture hours in 5-day duration) and two-week (24-28 hours in 10-day duration) courses, respectively. This amount can be used to support (i) travel and honorarium for the foreign faculty (ii) honorarium for the host faculty & local coordinator (iii) video recording (iv) incidental/contingency expenses. The head-wise limits are:

Honorarium For Foreign Faculty: The honorarium for foreign faculty should be up to a maximum of $250 / hr (maximum). The total honorarium should be limited to $3000 for a one-week course (≥12 hrs) and $5000 for a 2-week course (≥20 hrs)

Honorarium For National/Host Faculty: The National faculty/host faculty may get an honorarium at the rate of INR 3,000/- per lecture hour and INR 2,500/- per tutorial hour for a course, subject to a maximum of 25% of the total lectures /tutorials. This should be within the approved maximum allotment of 8000/12000 dollars for a course.

Consumables/contingency: Contingencies and other expenses (excluding travel and honorarium of foreign faculty) should not exceed 35% of the total fund provided for a course. May include honorarium for volunteers etc.

GIAN Office expenses: A maximum of Rs. 5000/- per course may be earmarked to the local coordinator for office expense and honorarium from the contingency expense of the course.

(ii) Food, transport and accommodation of course participants will be borne by the individual course participants themselves. Alternatively, it can be arranged by the course coordinator on payment basis separately (not as a part of registration fee) based on the prior request from the participants.

(iii) After completion of the course, a statement of expenditure and utilization certificate in respect of the fund sanctioned duly signed by the Finance Officer of the Institute through Local coordinator will be sent to the National Coordinator within 30 days.

7. Payment to Foreign Experts:

(i) Maximum honorarium for foreign expert faculty per lecture (1-hour duration) can be 250 USD. In any case, the maximum honoraria will be 3,000 USD and 5,000 USD for 1-week and 2-week courses, respctively.
(ii) Tax to be deducted at source (minimum 10 %) on the honorarium part only. A statement of tax deduction/tax deduction certificate will be given to the foreign experts by IITH to enable him to file a tax return/declaration in his/her parent country.
(iii) Transaction should be made through bank transfer preferably towards the end of the course. Transaction charges are payable to the bank to be borne by this amount only.
(iv) Foreign faculty needs to certify that he/she has not received financial support for the travel from any other source. This is not applicable if not claiming the travel expenses.
(v) If a foreign faculty is planning to deliver lectures in two courses or courses at different institutions during a single visit to India, in such cases it may be ensured that travel expenses are not paid twice or by both the institutions for the single journey performed by the foreign expert. However, domestic travel may be supported for moving from one Institute to another Institute.
(vi) Use the specific voucher (may be downloaded from the local GIAN portal) for claiming the honorarium and TA for the foreign expert/faculty.

8. Payment to Expert Faculty (Within country):

(i) Maximum honorarium for expert faculty and also the local host faculty should be up to 3,000 INR per lecture (1 h duration).
(ii) Tax to be deducted at source (minimum 10 %) on the honorarium part only after getting the PAN card details. The transaction should be made through bank transfer preferably.
(iii) Use the specific voucher (may be downloaded from the local GIAN portal) for claiming the honorarium and TA for expert faculty from other institutions (within India).

9. Course Registration and Fee:

It is the responsibility of the course coordinator to make the necessary arrangements for the conduct of the courses. This includes call for participation, registration, selection of participants, collection of registration fee, contact and arrangements for national and international experts, arrangements for classes, accommodation, provision of certificates, conduct of examinations if any. Local coordinator and GIAN project staff may assist the course coordinator in this regard. The course coordinator should consult with the local coordinator for the creation of content and archival / maintenance of repository, linking with local GIAN portal which will be connected to the main GIAN portal, submission to National Digital Library, etc.

It is also recommended to maintain a webpage for each GIAN course to invite the participation and link this to the local GIAN portal and also to the Institute main website for wider visibility. Registration Fee:
(i) For one week course, student’s registration fee is fixed to be Rs.1000 INR. Similarly, it should be 2000 INR for a two weeks’ course. The course fee will be made half for SC/ST students.
(ii) For non-students (i.e. other academic, industry participants etc.): an appropriate course fee not less than what is charged from the students may be decided by the course coordinator. Course fee may vary from one course to another, depending on coordinator.
(iii) For IITH students, there is no registration fee.
(iv) GST(18%) is applicable on registration fee for other than students.
(v) The registration fee should be collected through either cheque or DD in the name of “Registrar, IIT Hyderabad” (SBI, IIT Hyderabad, Kandi Branch, Branch Code: 14182, IFSC: SBIIN0014182).
(vi) Under the GIAN budget, there is no separate provision for foods, transport and accommodation of participants. Student’s accommodation may be arranged in the hostels as per the availability on payment basis. Bus transportation from the hostel to the participants may be arranged by the Institute with prior information to the transport section. Food may also be arranged in the Institute dining hall for the participants on payment basis.
(vii) When the number of applicants is very high, course coordinator can do shortlisting to select the participants for a course. However reason for not selecting a candidate should be recorded for replying to future queries in this regard. Course coordinator while releasing the select list should maintain a wait list also so that if any drop out of the selected participants can be made up from the wait list.

10. Disbursement of Registration Fee:

Please note that under the GIAN budget there is no provision for honorarium for the course coordinator. The same will be paid from the fund raised from course registration fee. Please contact the local coordinator for the details in this regard.

11. Course Feedback:

Feed Back from the foreign experts as well as course participants will be obtained after completion of the course. Feedback form may be downloaded from the local GIAN portal.
For any further clarification, please contact the local coordinator at gian@iith.ac.in