The Centre today said that for veteran artists and scholars aged over 60 years, the culture ministry has started a financial assistance scheme. In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat informed that the objective of this scheme is to provide financial assistance of a maximum of six thousand rupees per month to the old artists and scholars aged 60 years and above having an annual income not exceeding 72,000 rupees.

He added that assistance is being given to persons who have contributed significantly in their specialised fields of arts and letters. Mr Shekhawat said that in the event of the death of the beneficiary, the financial assistance is transferred to his or her spouse. He added that to invigorate and revitalise the various institutions under the Ministry of Culture (MoC) and other identified cultural institutions in the country, by encouraging scholars and academicians to affiliate themselves with these institutions to work on projects of mutual interest, a scheme of Tagore National Fellowship for cultural research has been started.