Dr. Pinku Ranjan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at ABV-IIITM Gwalior, has been selected for the prestigious Visvesvaraya Young Faculty Research Fellowship, awarded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme.
The Visvesvaraya Young Faculty Research Fellowship (YFRF) 2026 (Phase-II) is a highly competitive national-level recognition aimed at supporting outstanding early-career faculty members working in Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) and Information Technology domains. The fellowship provides an additional honorarium of ₹20,000 per month along with a research grant of ₹5 lakh per year for five years, promoting high-quality research and innovation in strategic technology sectors.
Dr. Ranjan’s selection recognizes his significant contributions to advanced communication technologies, particularly in dielectric resonator antennas, reconfigurable antennas, MIMO and 5G antenna systems, metamaterials, wearable antennas, bio-electromagnetics, and emerging areas such as machine learning–based antenna optimization, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), and image processing.
Dr. Ranjan has been serving at ABV-IIITM Gwalior since 2019 and brings over 15 years of combined teaching and research experience. He completed his Ph.D. (with integrated M.Tech) in Electronics Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad in 2017, and his B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad in 2010. Prior to joining ABV-IIITM, he worked as a Junior and Senior Research Fellow at IIT Dhanbad and later as a Research Assistant Professor at SRM Institute of Science and Technology.
He has an outstanding academic and research record, with over 150 publications in reputed national and international journals and conferences. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Antennas and Propagation and actively contributes as a reviewer for leading publishers including IEEE, IETE, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and IOP.
A Senior Member of IEEE, Dr. Ranjan has demonstrated strong mentorship by guiding more than 35 M.Tech and 50 B.Tech students, and currently supervising 7 Ph.D. scholars, with one Ph.D. already successfully completed under his guidance.
His consistent academic excellence has been recognized through institutional honors, including the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Research Excellence Award (2024) and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Young Faculty Award (2025) at ABV-IIITM Gwalior.
Dr. Ranjan has also been actively involved in sponsored research, having secured 9 funded projects as Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI, along with organizing Karyashala workshops and a Vritika program, supported by funding agencies such as SERB, DoT, DST, and ABV-IIITM. He has further contributed to academic development by organizing several Faculty Development Programs (FDPs).
Expressing his gratitude, Dr. Ranjan acknowledged the support of Prof. S. N. Singh, Hon’ble Director of ABV-IIITM Gwalior, for his visionary leadership, and for his guidance and encouragement.
Dr. Ranjan stated that he looks forward to leveraging this fellowship to further strengthen the institute’s research ecosystem, contribute to cutting-edge technological advancements, and mentor students in emerging and strategic domains of electronics and communication engineering.
