The fees of schools, colleges and professional courses in India are continuously increasing, making it difficult for millions of families to afford higher education. To solve this problem, the central government runs many scholarship schemes. Most of these schemes are managed through the ‘National Scholarship Portal’ (NSP) where students can apply, get verified and check the status of their scholarship.
**PM-YASASVI Scheme**
PM-YASASVI is a big scholarship scheme of the Central Government, which is mainly launched for the students of OBC, EBC and DNT categories. It provides support at both school and higher education levels. Under this scheme, students can get scholarship up to ₹1.25 lakh from the Central Government. Additionally, depending on the category, benefits also include coverage of school and college fees up to ₹2 lakh and access to a laptop.
**PM Vidya Lakshmi Yojana**
This scheme provides education loans to students without any collateral or guarantee. Families with annual income up to ₹4.5 lakh are eligible for the loan with full interest subsidy. 3% subsidy is given on education loans up to ₹8 lakh. For loans up to ₹7.5 lakh, banks offer 75% credit guarantee to ensure easy loan access. Loans under this scheme are given for admission in educational institutions ranked by NIRF. Eligible students can apply for this scheme through Vidya Lakshmi portal.
**PM Higher Education Promotion Scheme**
The objective of this scheme is to provide financial assistance for higher education to promising students from poor background. It provides scholarships for taking admission in colleges and universities. Students receive ₹12,000 per year for the first three years of their undergraduate studies. For postgraduate studies, the scholarship amount is ₹20,000 per year. For professional courses like medical and engineering, financial assistance of ₹20,000 is given in the fourth and fifth years. To avail this scholarship scheme, it is necessary to have 80% or more marks in class 12th. Admission should be in regular course, and annual family income should not exceed ₹4.50 lakh.
National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies
This scholarship is given by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on the basis of merit. It helps in postgraduate studies and provides financial assistance up to ₹3 lakh for a two-year course. The age of those applying should be less than 30 years. Applications for this scheme can be made through the National Scholarship Portal.
