The new pay commission has just come into play. A PI with 5 yrs post-PhD experience will earn (ballpark) Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 50,000 per month (before taxes). Housing is usually offered to faculty members at no cost (or sometimes a notional amount of a few hundred rupees) or you are given a House Rent Allowance (HRA) of approx. 30% of your salary. In addition, faculty members and their families can also become members in whatever Health service scheme the Institute offers, again at very minimal cost. Therefore the total compensation would be the salary+housing+health benefits. Market rent rates in metropolises can be up to 5 times the salary per month, thus raising the value of the compensation significantly! Special "re-entry" fellowships are offered by the DST (Ramanujan Fellowship) and the DBT (Ramalingaswami Fellowship). These, and Wellcome Trust-DBT fellowships offer significantly higher salaries (approx 50% more) to incoming faculty.

Many institutions have daily visiting doctors or even a full medical clinic all free. They provide primary/GP services and prescriptions. Some Institutes have tie ups with hospitals. Usually the insurance through the institute will cover prescriptions. Hospital stays will be covered in the range of 50-90% depending on the type of room (private v/s semi-private) you choose.