"The trend of number of students pursuing research (MPhil and PhD combined) during the last three years in the country is increasing," Minister of state in Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry D Purandeswari said today.
She said that the UGC had reported that 95,872 students were pursuing research in 2009-09 following which the number increased to 1,17,999 in 2009-10.
The number had further increased to 1,37,668 in 2010-11, Purandeswari said.
In response to another question, the minister said that it was estimated that the number of children who remained out of school had also come down.
A study commissioned by MHRD through Social and Rural Research Institute has estimated that the number of children out of school in the age group 6-13 has come down from 1.35 crore in 2005 to 81.5 lakhs, she said.