Purchase rules

As mentioned in the section on research, projects are handled by the Center for Sponsored Schemes and Projects (CSSP), Center for Scientific and Industrial Consultancy (CSIC) or the Society for Innovation and Development (SID) depending on the type of project. Further, there are also projects handled directly through funds given by IISc and in this case the finance section handles the project.

The main issue for an experimentalist in India is to generate funding. Its not that funding does not exist; when you start, you do not have the track record for the funding agencies to trust you with a large chunk of money. Each of the governmental agencies will give you around Rs. 35 lakhs per project for a period of three years. This is something that one can count on receiving fairly quickly and with lesser bureaucratic strings attached. Once you receive this money, CSSP will give you a debit head. If you have consultancy projects, CSIC or SID will give you a debit head. Once you have a debit head, you are ready to purchase.

The purchase norms are similar. Placing the order can take more than a month, and involves physical files moving through various people. The Purchase Order needs to be typed, approved, budgeted, pre-audited, approved again, and "released". Any step can be a bottleneck if the particular officer is on leave. For items below Rs. 5000, you can pay by cash and get a receipt from the agency. You can also get cash advances of Rs. 5000 each per project, purchase items and settle the bill directly. For items costing between 5001 to 99,999, you can also directly order it from the company. Once you have decided to place an order, your departmental office person has to type the order; it has to be approved by your chairman and then sent to the purchase section. They will examine whether you have the money mentioned in that order in your debit head. Then it will be budgeted and the order will be released. If you are sure that you have the money in the account, the item may be purchased and the vendor will give you an invoice. This is called post facto (after the fact) indent and is directly settled. These are only for orders below Rs. 1 lakh.

For items costing between Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh, the order has to be countersigned by the divisional chairman. Further, three quotations need to be enclosed. The material has to be brought from the company that has quoted you the least. If you are unable to find three companies that will sell that item, you have to provide a detailed justification for single order tendering. For items above Rs. 10 lakh, you have to form a technical committee of faculty members and invite one financial officer. You have to discuss with the committee about possible vendors, decide to purchase from a particular vendor who has offered you the lowest cost provided he meets your technical specifications.

For any purchase, you have to plan very early as there could be unexpected delays and costing policies differences (especially in case of foreign equipment). It is wise to assume that the time frame you are looking at for procuring a foreign equipment is atleast 3 months. More importantly, ask your department colleagues/other faculty, whether there had been a procurement of similar equipment (especially for generic equipment like Oscilloscope, Computers, etc..), where you can repeat the order. In this case, the total time could be less than a month for you to get the equipment. Also look out for financial year end (close to March 31), where both purchase and bills section tends to be busy.