Government scholarship rules revised for 2026-27: The scholarship framework on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) has been revised with effect from the Academic Year 2026-27. The Centre has approved that if a student receiving a Welfare-based Scholarship becomes eligible for a Merit-based Scholarship, the latter shall not be denied to the student, and vice versa.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has urged all affiliated schools to disseminate the information among eligible students, parents, and other stakeholders for wider awareness.
A government-issued special order states that during the implementation of the deduplication module on the National Scholarship Portal for the Academic Year 2024-25, certain issues arose between the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL) and the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment (DoSJE), with a number of beneficiaries being flagged as duplicates.
The examination of these cases highlighted the need for a clear and uniform understanding across ministries and departments regarding the classification, scope, and intent of scholarship schemes implemented by the Government of India.
According to the government order, while the principle of "One Student - One Scholarship" is generally followed, the term "scholarship" is often used interchangeably for different forms of student support, including financial assistance and incentives. This has resulted in overlaps in eligibility and implementation.
"For deduplication, conceptual clarity, policy harmonisation, and uniform implementation, ministries and departments have been requested to classify their schemes under the following broad categories," the order further states.
Merit-based Scholarships
These scholarships are granted based on academic performance, ranking or achievements in a competitive or qualifying examination. Their primary objective is to reward excellence and promote merit.
These include the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS), the Central Sector Scheme of Scholarships for College and University Students, and Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE).
Welfare-based Scholarships
These scholarships provide financial support to students belonging to identified communities, categories or socio-economic groups to reduce financial hardship and promote equity.
These include pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes for SC, ST, OBC, and minority students.
At Application Submission And Editing
a. Application details furnished during the initial application submission would be retained and reused for all subsequent applications.
b. For submitting subsequent applications, applicants would only be required to furnish scheme-specific details and upload relevant documents.
c. In cases where an application is marked as "Defective", applicants would be permitted to edit only scheme-specific details. For modification of general, academic, institute or course details, all submitted applications would first be required to be withdrawn.
At L1 Verification
a. Tuition fees, admission fees, and other non-refundable fee components updated during L1 verification of the first application would thereafter be auto-populated in subsequent applications.
b. During L1 verification, all applications submitted by the applicant, along with their respective status, would be visible to the Institute Nodal Officer (INO).
c. NIC-NSP further informed that while marking applications as "Defective", deficiencies would be categorised separately as:
1. deficiencies relating to scheme-specific details; and
2. deficiencies relating to general or academic details.
At L2 Verification
a. All applications submitted by an applicant, along with their respective status, would simultaneously be visible to all concerned L2 Nodal Officers. This would facilitate consistency in decision-making across multiple applications submitted by the same applicant under different scholarship categories.
For instance, where an applicant submits one application under a Welfare-based scheme and another under a Merit-based scheme, the concerned L2 Nodal Officers for both schemes would have visibility of the other application and its status.
b. In cases where deficiencies pertain to general or academic details, all other applications of the applicant would automatically be flagged under the "Red Flag" category.
