ICAR AICE – JRF/SRF (Ph.D)

General Information:

ICAR All India Competitive Examination (AICE) -JRF/SRF (Ph.D) is a nationwide competitive examination conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) in 72 Subjects at 89 Cities all over the country enabling participation of a large number of candidates seeking admission to Doctoral degree programmes in AUs in different disciplines of Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry, Veterinary, Animal Sciences, Agril. Engineering, Community Science (erstwhile Home Science), Fisheries, Dairy Science and other allied sciences.

Admissions to 30% seats [100% seats of Dr. RPCAU Pusa & RLBCAU, Jhansi and ICAR Deemed to be University (DU), viz. ICAR-IVRI, IARI, CIFE and NDRI] will be granted under the ICAR-AU system.

Further, not more than 40% candidates from any one state shall be admitted in any agricultural university/subject under a particular category.

ICAR JRF/SRF (Ph.D.) shall be awarded to limited number of candidates based on merit in this examination as per their overall merit-rank and seat availability in different disciplines. The other candidates who are declared / notified as qualified for counselling will be eligible as per their merit rank and availability of seat for admission to Ph.D. degree programme, without fellowship, in the specific subject in the AUs. The above eligibility conditions will also apply to in-service candidates.

Mode of Exam: Online and LAN Based CBT (Computer Based Test)

Duration: 120 minutes (2 hours)

Number of questions: 120 (20 + 50 + 50)

20 – Part A (General knowledge/reasoning ability)

50 – Part B Core Group containing the specialized subject opted by the candidate for Ph.D.

50 –Part C Specialized Subject opted by the candidate for Ph.D.

Type of questions: Multiple Choice Questions with 4 options

Scoring: 480 marks (80+200+200)

• 4 marks for each correct response

• -1 mark for each incorrect response (negative scoring)

• 0 for non-attempt

Medium of paper: English only

Number of students appearing for exam each year:

During 2023, a total of 9,761 candidates have registered for ICAR-AICE – JRF/SRF (PhD) for admission into various disciplines of doctoral degree of which 8,880 candidates have appeared.

Number of PhD seats: Will be Mentioned in the Counselling brochure released by ICAR every year

Number of fellowship seats: Will be Mentioned in the Counselling brochure released by ICAR every year

Eligibility criteria and qualifications:

Indian nationals who have passed Master’s degree programme with a minimum of Overall Grade Point Average (OGPA) as shown below will be eligible. In other cases, where grade- points are not awarded and only marks are awarded, the candidate must have secured a minimum percent score as shown below.

· The candidates having Bachelor’s degree with 3 years’ duration will not be considered for admission through ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (Ph.D.) in AUs under ICAR-AU system except in few courses at IARI and NDRI for which the eligibility criteria of the concerned ICAR-DU, including admission of graduates having passed with 3 years’ degree, would prevail for admission.

· The candidates who have passed with 5 years’ integrated M.Sc. degree programme are not eligible to seek admission to Ph.D. degree programmes through this examination.

· Alternate Eligibility Qualification at bachelor's level for IARI/NDRI - B.Sc. (10+2+3 system)

· Further, in case any degree from a particular college/university is not considered for admission by an Agricultural University on account of a particular college/university being derecognized by VCI/UGC, or due to any Court directives (present or future), ICAR will not be responsible for admitting students of that college/university in the Universities not willing to admit such candidates.

· The candidates who do not have the Degree/PDC, have to mandatorily produce a certificate from the Registrar of the concerned university, on the day of online verification during counselling, specifically indicating that the candidate has fulfilled all the requirements for the award of Masters’ degree including thesis submission and completion of viva-voce and his/her Final OGPA/Percentage of marks at the end of final semester/year; on or before the online verification of the documents during counselling.

· Age Limit: Indian Nationals of at least 20 years of age are eligible to apply for the examination. No relaxation is permissible regarding the minimum age limit.

Fellowship:

The amount of fellowship will be at the rate of Rs.31,000/- per month for the 1^st and 2^nd years (JRF) and Rs.35,000/- per month for the 3rd year (SRF). Contingent grant of Rs.10,000/- per year for procurement of essential chemicals, books, and travel connected with research work will be uniformly paid to all the awardees including in-service candidates.

Syllabus: The question paper for the test shall be based on the Syllabus of Subjects as prescribed by the ICAR, available at website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12uEyVAQD7Bn3kR9kwKwQjQBAlAAbgGCt/view?usp=sharing

Previous year Question Papers: https://www.agriaddict.in/s/pages/previousyearsjrfsrfpapers

Part B- Core Group