The Indian Government has introduced many Schemes in order to develop and up bring the economically backward students and give them an opportunity for receiving higher education. There were mainly two scholarship schemes, namely National Merit Scholarship Scheme for brilliant students from XI standard to Post graduation. Another one was the Scholarship Scheme for talented students at class VI to XII in mostly the rural areas. Both these programs were introduced by the Department of Education. Later on both these programs were merged and bought together under the name “National Merit Scholarship Scheme”. This initiative was also taken up by the Department of Education and was implemented from the year 2005-06 onwards.

Scholarship for Higher education

The National Merit Scholarship Scheme was provided to the meritorious students from the IX class onwards to the Post Graduate level. But during the year 2007-08, due to the lack of funding from the Planning commission, the scheme had to be discontinued with effect from 2007 April onwards.

Later on the school education system came under the control of a newly formed department, the ‘Department of School Education & Literacy’. The new Department came in to effect from the year 2007-08. Under the supervision of the ‘Department of School Education & Literacy’ a new scheme has been implemented for the upliftment of educationally backward students. This came to be known as the ‘National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme’. The National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme provides financial aid to the students from the IX standard to the XII standard.

The Department of Higher Education has also launched another scheme for bright students from financially backward family, who desires to go to colleges and universities. This scheme got an approval for Rs.1000 crore during the XI 5 Year Plan. The Scheme has come to be known as the “Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students”.

Purpose of various College and University Students Scholarship Schemes

The main objective of the above mentioned scholarships is to assist meritorious students with financial assistance for those who are coming from low income families. These scholarships will help them to meet a portion of their day to day expenses while doing their higher studies.

Possibility and reach of Scholarships

All the scholarships are awarded to various studies on the basis of the marks scored by them in the senior secondary examinations. Every year the number of scholarships awarded under the schemes add up the 82000. This is equally divided between 41000 boys and 41000 girls who have opted for graduation or post graduation studies in different Colleges and Universities along with various Professional courses.

Distribution of Scholarship

The division of the number of scholarships in each State boards will be on the basis of the State’s Population which come in the age group of 18 – 25 years. Further the segregation will also be based on the CBSE and ICSE and the number of students clearing from different Boards. The number of scholarship is equally divided between boys and girls. The overall number of scholarship for a State board will be disseminated amongst the pass outs of students in the Science, Commerce and Humanities streams in the ratio of 3:2:1.

Department of Technical Education

Qualification and Eligibility requirements

The scholarship is offered only to top meritorious students. The students who have more than 80% of marks in the relevant stream are only eligible for submitting an application for the scholarship. The eligibility requirements are laid out by the Department of Personnel and Training and are expected to be modified from time to time. The candidates must have done a regular course from a recognized education organization and must not be availing any other scholarship schemes during the same period. These criterions are applicable to all the students in various categories.

Reservation

Students belonging to a particular category, minority and financially weaker section in the society are eligible for the scholarship on the foundation of merit. The reservation is on a condition based laid out by the Central Reservation Policy and internal allocate. The scholarships are only available for the students who belong to the non-creamy layer of the society. According to the guidelines the income ceiling for the non creamy layer is Rs.4.5 lakh per year. Currently, the prevailing reservation for SC is 15 %, for the ST is 7 ½ % and for the OBC is 27%. The physically Handicapped students in the entire category will have an additional 3 % reservation.

Selection methods in practice

There is an examining body that comes up with the merit list of the scholars who are likely to be eligible for the scholarship. The candidates must be eligible within 5 weeks after the result is published by the concerned Board. The candidate’s parent’s income will be taken under consideration before preparing the list. Later on from the list formulated, the Board will sent the students a registered letter for getting the conformation of acceptance of scholarship within 15 days after receiving the letter. The candidates from the acceptance are not received within 30 days will not be considered eligible and the next eligible candidates will be given the chance.

Amount of Scholarships

At present the level of scholar ship offered by the Department of higher education is up to Rs.1000 per month for the students at Graduation level. For the Post graduate level students, the amount received is up to Rs.2000/- every month. For the students joining the professional course will also get and amount of Rs.2000/- every month during the 4th and 5th year. The scholar ship will be rewarded for 10 months in an academic year.

Duration of Scholarships and Its Up-gradation

The students are given an option to upgrade the scholarship under this scheme on a yearly basis till the Post graduation level in the similar stream. For professional courses the scholarship is given only till the graduation level for the course. As for all other courses the candidates can renew their scholarship up to 5 years to the maximum.

The renewal of the course will depend, provided that the student have secured up to 60 % or more in the annual examination. The candidate’s attendance is also another factor for the renewal process. The candidate is required to have at least 75% attendance by the student. The candidate must also maintain a clean code of conduct and should not have undergone any sort of in-disciplinary activities. The will lead to the forfeiture of scholarship.

Good conduct and reliability in attendance is a must for prolongation of the scholarship. The decision of the MHRD will be ultimate and obligatory in such cases. Scholarship once cancelled will not be invigorated under any condition.

Imbursement of Scholarship

Scholarship will be rewarded to the chosen students unswervingly by the Central Government into their Bank Account. The imbursement of scholarship will commence from the month the admittance is attain.