Ahead of crucial assembly elections in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh, the Union government is working on an integrated digital platform for managing all the scholarships that it offers under different schemes. Starting October, scholarships for about 3.15 crore students, including 2.5 crore from Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes will be fully digitised and processed online.
Citing sources ET reported that government is now beta testing the electronic platform that will serve as the single point of entry for all scholarships awarded to students by the ministries of social justice and empowerment, education, tribal affairs, and minority affairs.
The government is of the view that an online platform will streamline all scholarship programmes that have been plagued by challenges such as money being syphoned off to non-beneficiaries, state governments failing to contribute their fair amount to scholarships, and deserving students losing their scholarships when they change institutions.
The Centre will be able to address all of these concerns because the portal will incorporate features such as a fixed schedule for scholarship payouts, automatic disbursement of the Centre's share of scholarship funds as the state contributes its share and scholarships that are beneficiary-specific rather than institution-specific.
Currently, the portal is operational and being tested. It will be available for distribution in October. The administration has not yet determined the portal's name. The christening and final deployment will take place following a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) tasked with spearheading this endeavour.
The Centre will allow all state governments to integrate their scholarship programmes to this portal, creating a one-stop-shop for information on various scholarship programmes.
