National level Scholarships and Awards for students

Introduction

This is an attempt to fill in this information gap and provide the information on various National & State level Scholarships and Awards for students by the Government of India through its Ministries, Departments and autonomous institutions. This information is useful for the students who are pursuing their school level (class 1 to 12) education.

Scholarship is a boon for students, belonging to the weaker sections of the society, who are unable to further their education for some reason or the other. Scholarship is an incentive as well as encouragement for students, who are talented, but do not have the means to study further. There are a variety of scholarships – merit-based, need-based, student-specific, career-specific, and college-specific.

Along side providing free schooling, the Government of India and State governments have launched many schemes, scholarships and programmes to raise the levels of participation of the marginalised in school education. Aimed to decreasing dropout rate, reducing gender gap, motivating students for pursuing higher education and promoting equity.

Coverage

The scholarships covered in this compilation are given for studies in classes ranging from 1 till 12th, some of them continuing onwards, covering professional courses and (some) up till Ph.D level. This is helpful in pursuing higher education studies. Say for instance, the NTS which is given from class 9 onwards and subject to the student satisfying eligibility conditions, can continue till Ph.D. In a nutshell, the breakup is as follows.

1. Pre-matric scholarships - which provide scholarships for study in classes 1 to 10th.
2. Post-matric scholarships - which provide scholarships for studies from class 11 onwards and (some) continuing till Ph.D.
3. Secondary and onward grades - class 9 onwards till Ph.D (NTS, for instance).
4. Only for senior secondary grades - classes 11 and 12th, such as Maulana Azad Scholarship for meritorious girl students from minority communities.
5. Senior secondary classes - from class 11 onwards and continuing upwards, such as Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana.
6. Secondary and senior secondary grades - classes 9 to 12th only, such as Chacha Nehru Scholarship.
7. Scheme for Scholarship to Students From Non-Hindi Speaking States for Post Matric Studies in Hindi
8. Special Scholarship Scheme for Jammu & Kashmir

Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students

Under the Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students, the following students are eligible for consideration of award of scholarship.

• Who are above 80th percentile of successful candidates in the relevant stream from a particular Board of Examination, in class XII of 10+2 pattern or equivalent
• Having parental income of less than Rs.6.00 lakh per annum
• Pursuing regular courses (not correspondence or distance mode) from recognized educational institutions
• Not availing of any other scholarship scheme

The Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students is implemented through the State Education Boards and Central Board of Secondary Education who disseminate the information about the Scheme.

The Government also facilitates award of scholarships offered by the foreign governments for Indian students to pursue higher studies in the respective countries. The selection of candidates for such awards is done strictly on the basis of merit.