When mandarins of the ministries of External Affairs, Human Resource Development (HRD) and Home meet tomorrow to work out plans for ‘green and red channels’ for foreign scholars, among the pending applications on their table will be one of an Indian passport-holder.

Karuna Morarji, a 32-year-old Fulbright scholar, does not have a visa problem. She is already in India but has been waiting for clearance for her research— and funds— for over eight months now.

Morarji, a US resident and a scholar in development sociology from Cornell University, wants to research on “A Political Economy of Aspirations: Education, Development and Social Reproduction in Rural India” at the Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas in Mussourie.

She submitted her application for research clearance on June 5, 2006. She has been waiting ever since.

“I submitted my research clearance application to USEFI in early June, 2006, soon after I was informed that I had received a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) fellowship to conduct my PhD research in India,” Morarji writes in an email response to a questionnaire from this newspaper.

“I am an Indian passport-holder and a US resident, so my situation is a little bit different than for most Fulbright scholars (Fulbright scholarships are only open to US citizens, while Fulbright-Hays is open to residents as well). I do not need a research visa to conduct my research in India, but the granting agency (US Dept of Education) requires a research clearance from the Government of India in order to release the funds. As I am still waiting for my research clearance, I have not received my grant,” she says.

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