Centre withholds overseas scholarship for 66 candidates, says clearance subject to fund availability

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18 hours ago

The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has issued provisional scholarship letters to 40 out of 106 selected candidates for the 2025-'26 National Overseas Scholarship, saying that the remaining 66 will receive theirs 'subject to availability of funds'.
In previous years, all selected candidates were issued letters at the same time, the Hindustan Times reported.
The National Overseas Scholarship, which began in 1954-'55, supports students from Scheduled Castes, Denotified Nomadic Tribes, semi-nomadic tribes, landless agricultural labourers and traditional artisan communities.
The scheme funds master's or PhD degrees at the top 500 global universities as per QS rankings, offering up to $16,920, or nearly Rs 14.5 lakh, annually for a maximum duration of three years for master's programmes and four years for PhD programmes.
It provides 125 scholarships annually, capped at 10% per state. The applicants must have a family income under Rs 8 lakh per annum.
The QS World University Rankings are a ranking of the world's top universities produced by Quacquarelli Symonds and published annually since 2004.
In the Union Budget announced in February, the Centre allocated Rs 130 crore to the National Overseas Scholarship for 2025-'26.
This was a 36.84% increase from Rs 95 crore in 2024–'25, the newspaper reported. As of December, the ministry had disbursed Rs 56.29 crore to 80 beneficiaries for the academic year 2024-'25.
In a notice dated July 1, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said that it received 440 applications for the 2025-'26 academic year between March and April.
It shortlisted 106 candidates for the scholarship, placed 64 on a 'non-selected' list and rejected 270 applicants.
The 'non-selected' category included students left out due to the 10% cap per state or other quotas. These candidates may still be considered if those initially selected fail to submit the required documents.
The scheme has 125 slots, but the allotments depend on the availability of funds. This means that the rejections are not final and students may still receive the scholarship later, as per the Hindustan Times.
An unidentified official from the ministry told the newspaper that the Union government has funds but they cannot be released without clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'It is an issue with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs not approving the money allocated to these scholarship schemes,' the official was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. 'We have the money but we also need green signal from above to give it out.'
The Maulana Azad National Fellowship, which is open for candidates from Muslim, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian communities, has also seen delays, with more than 1,400 PhD scholars not receiving stipends since January 2025, the Hindustan Times reported.
There were also discrepancies with the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes. For the June 2024 cycle, the National Testing Agency first published a selection list of 865 scholars in March 2025.
However, it revised the list in April, reducing the selections to 805 and replacing 487 previously chosen candidates with new ones, the newspaper reported.