REGULATIONS FOR ELECTION OF FELLOWS
1. Invitation for Nomination: A circular letter drawing attention of the Fellows of the Academy, to the last date on which nominations for Fellowship should reach the Office of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, shall be issued in June every year.
2. Certification of Nominations: Every nominee shall be proposed and recommended by a certificate in writing signed by two Fellows. Of these, at least one shall certify from personal knowledge of the scientific attainments of the candidates. Vice-President (Fellowship Affairs), on receiving a written request from a Fellow not residing in India but competent to certify recommendation for a particular discipline, shall have the power to sign a certificate on behalf of the Fellow.
The nominating paper shall specify the name, date of birth, field of specialization, designation, address (both official and residential), academic and professional attainments of the nominee in a form prescribed by the Academy and shall include a brief statement as well as a detailed critical analysis highlighting the most important research contributions of the nominee. The proposer must also send a separate list of up to ten most important publications of the nominee, and pdf of up to five best papers, a 50 word citation highlighting the work of the scientist which justifies the claim to the Fellowship, a list of experts and a complete list of publications along with the Nomination Form. Nominations not complete in all respects and not accompanied by the above two lists of publications, shall not be valid for consideration.
The proposer should ensure that the critical information required in the form is complete. The nominee should not send any information directly to the Academy.
The proposer shall send the nomination paper to such other Fellow for his support who, in his opinion, will second the nominee. The nomination paper should be transmitted by one Fellow to another directly. After both the Fellows have affixed their signatures and also given their own remarks on the nominee’s suitability, the nomination paper shall be forwarded to the Executive Director so as to reach not later than July 15. In case July 15 happens to be a Sunday, or a holiday the next working day will be the last valid date for receipt of nominations in the Academy. The particulars of  the nomination paper shall be recorded with the date of receipt in a book to be kept for the purpose which will be read at the next meeting of the Council.
3. Communication of Nominations: All communications in respect of the nomination shall be carried on with the proposer or the seconder. However for the purpose of updating information regarding the scientific achievements and publications, the Academy may correspond with nominee directly.
4. List of Nominees: At the meeting of the Council at the time of the Anniversary General Meeting, a list of all persons whose nomination papers are valid in accordance with the provision of Regulation 6, shall be prepared according to the disciplines of the Sectional Committees without any reference to the dates of their nomination. The Council shall consider and send the list of eligible nominees to the concerned Sectional Committees for expression of opinion on the list of nominees referred to them. However, the nomination papers of any person for election on the basis of his work in any discipline not coming within the purview of any of existing Sectional Committees shall be considered by the Council at the time of selecting the persons for Fellowship without necessarily being referred to any Sectional Committee for its recommendations.
5. Book of Nominations: Not later than January 31, a list of nominees arranged in alphabetical order, together with brief statements of their most significant research achievements along with a list of ten best papers, names of Fellows who have proposed and seconded them and the year in which the nominations were considered for the first time and the year of the birth of each nominee shall be uploaded on the web and the fellowship be informed accordingly.
Fellows may make such observations/comments as they may wish to, on the suitability or otherwise of the candidates included in the Book of Nominations and communicate to the Convener of the concerned Sectional Committee. The Conveners shall write by January 31 to all Fellows whose specializations belong to their Committee requesting them to send in additional information about the scientific attainments of the candidates under consideration for election to Fellowship. The observations/comments received from the Fellows shall be placed before the Sectional Committee.
6. Validity of Nomination: A nomination shall remain valid for a period of five years unless the proposer or seconder of  the nomination withdraws it before July 15 immediately preceding an election.
7. Selection by Sectional Committees: The Executive Director shall circulate by January 31 to the members of the Sectional Committees the list of the persons proposed for election from the respective Sections, with a statement showing the research work (as given in the nomination papers) of the individual nominee and shall request the members to send their recommendations along with reasons for the same to the Conveners of the respective Sectional Committees at least a fortnight before the meeting of the Sectional Committees.
Guidelines for Sectional Committees:
I. The primary criterian for election to the Fellowship will be scientific and technological achievements of the nominee (e.g. contributions to new knowledge, new discoveries, development of new technologies, substantial improvement in existing technologies etc.) as evidenced by publications, patents, authenticated scientific reports which could not be published and the economic impact of his/her work.
II. The work done in India should be given primary importance. Sectional Committees should not consider the nomination of those scientists who are abroad on a long term basis. They should be considered only when they are back in India and have made notable contributions to science in India.
III. The election should be recommended for the work done in the entire career of the scientist. Work done well before the nomination is proposed should also be given due consideration.
IV. The Conveners of the Sectional Committees should make all efforts to obtain reports from Fellowship/ experts of the Academy.
V. The Sectional Committee is charged with the responsibility of studying the work of the nominees by consulting fellows/experts in the area of specialization of the nominee, where necessary. The use of bibliometric data in the selection process should be discouraged.
VI. All the new nominations received in an year will be considered by the Committee of Conveners. If the Conveners change the assignment of a Sectional Committee for a nominee, that has not been suggested as an alternate committee in the nomination form, the consent of the proposer should be taken. The change in committee should be effected only after the consent from the proposer is received. Besides, first year, the nomination may be shifted to another Sectional Committee just once in the remaining four years provided such a shift is proposed by the Sectional Committee/s or his/her Proposer.
The Executive Director shall call two meetings of the Sectional Committees, in February/March and in April/May, on the dates as may be decided by the Council in the calendar of meetings, to consider these recommendations.
Two meetings of the Sectional Committees
a) There will be two meetings of the Sectional Committees each year; the first one will be held in February/March and the second meeting will be in the month of April/May prior to the Council meets.
b) The conveners will look into the composition of their respective Sectional Committee and go through the nominations, if there is requirement to co-opt any additional member in the sectional committee for one year, conveners will write to President INSA for co-opting the additional member/s among the Indian fellows (including those residing abroad).
c) At the first meeting, the Sectional Committees will shortlist the nominations to a maximum of ten. The Conveners will make all efforts to procure the opinion of the fellowship about the nominees. The opinions received by the Conveners should be thoroughly discussed at the meeting.
d) At the first meeting, the Sectional Committees may identify a minimum of five and maximum of ten experts for each of the above shortlisted ten names who may be contacted for obtaining specific information about the nominee. Out of these few may be international experts. The national experts, may be restricted to INSA Fellows only. These short-listed names are to be informed to the members of the Council also.
e)   Letters to reviewers may be sent out by an SC member and/or convener. All letters to and from reviewers should also be copied to the convener. These reports will be forwarded to VP (Fellowship Affairs) and President in a reviewer name blinded format.
f)   One member of the Council will attend the second meeting of the sectional committees of his/her subject as an observer. The observer will not take part in any discussions and decision thereafter. He/She will give his/her views to the Council in case if it is so required.
(g)  At the second meeting of the Sectional Committees, the opinion of experts (on each nominee) will be placed on the table and will be critically discussed. The Committee will then make a final list of up to seven names, in alphabetical order, for the consideration of the Council. The Committee shall also bring out clearly for each recommended nominee the reason for its recommendation, by highlighting the importance of the scientific contributions of the concerned nominee.
The reports of the Sectional Committees will be forwarded to the Vice-President (Fellowship Affairs) by the Conveners.
Election of Fellows in New Category
The nominations for the election of Fellows in the following three disciplines, not covered under the regular subject areas of present sectional committees, will be considered by a search committee duly constituted for this purpose by the Council:
i) Scientists working in Technology Missions of National importance (such as Space)
ii) Scholars in History and Philosophy of Science
iii) Social Sciences – Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Political Sciences etc.
8. Selection by the Council: At the meeting of the Council to be held normally after the second meeting of the Sectional Committees the Council will consider recommendations made by each Sectional Committee and search committee (for the election of Fellows in the new category not covered under the regular subject areas of present sectional committees) and shall then select a number not exceeding fifty (including scientists in new categories) to be recommended to the Fellows of the Academy for election.
The opinion of experts and any other material placed on the table in the second meeting will be made available to the Council at its Meeting.
9.Selection from Sections: It shall not be obligatory for the Council to recommend a certain fixed number of persons for elections to Fellowship from each of the 10 Sections. The Council shall be free to recommend a larger number for any Section if there are more deserving persons in that Section and also not to recommend for any Section if, in the opinion of the Council, none is fit for election.
10.Communication of  the Selected Names to Fellows: Soon after selection by the Council, an electronic circular-letter shall be sent to every Fellow as an e-voting paper enclosing a list of the selected persons.
11.Date of  Election: The election of  Fellows not included in the class referred to in Regulation 7 shall take place at the Statutory Meeting of the Council prior to the Annual General Meeting.
12.Election Procedure: Each Fellow then may tick for the names of those (s)he wishes to be elected.
13. Appointment of Scrutineers: Two scrutineers shall be nominated by the President for counting the votes.
14. Declaration of Election Results: The scrutineers, after examining the voting papers, shall report to the President the number of votes received by each candidate. The President shall at the meeting of the Council to be held prior to the Annual General Meeting, duly declare the names of the candidates who have been elected. The result of election shall be notified on the web. This election, however, shall be effective from January 1 of the following year.
15. Re-nomination: On the expiry of the validity of the nomination, a re-nomination can be made afresh only after a gap of two years. The fresh nomination shall be submitted as prescribed in Regulation 2.
16. Nomination for Special Election: In accordance with Rule 6 (e), the Council may recommend names for election as Fellow/s otherwise than that provided under paras 1 to 15 of these Regulations. The persons so recommended shall be selected by the Council by ballot provided always that no person shall be so recommended unless he obtains two-thirds of the votes of the Members of the Council present and that the total number of votes registered in his favour are not less than seven.
17. Special Election: At the Ordinary General Meeting of the Academy, immediately following the Meeting of the Council at which the selection of persons to be elected under Regulation 16 is made, the person(s) nominated shall be proposed for election by means of a certificate prepared by the Vice-President (Fellowship Affairs). This certificate shall explicitly specify the basis of nomination for special election. Such certificate shall remain with the Academy until the day on which a ballot is taken on it. The name of the person so proposed shall be sent in the form of e-ballot to each fellow for voting by a date given on the e-ballot. The result of the ballot shall be ascertained at the next meeting of the Council after the close of the ballot, following the procedure of Regulations 12 to 14.
18. Subscription: An admission fee of Rs 500/- and one time Fellowship subscription of Rs 2000/- shall be due on election.
*19. Participation in General Body Meetings: For participation in the General Body Meetings, no international travel expenses will be covered by the Academy. This will apply to Fellows, Foreign Fellows and Pravasi Fellows.
 
___________*Approved in Council Meeting October 12, 2018.