The centre has awarded 5,500 fellowships to Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in the past three years. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs came up with the ‘National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST students. Under this scheme, 750 scholarships and fellowships are given to meritorious tribal students every academic year. Earlier, the same was awarded by UGC.
According to the reports, the government has spent more than Rs.70 crore in the 2017-18 academic year to award 2,078 fellowships to Scheduled Tribe students. Whereas in the year 2016-17 the government spent Rs.73.12 crore to award 2,197 fellowships. A total of 5,683 tribal students benefited from the scheme in the past three years, revealed the final report.
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Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, Jasvantsinh Bhabor informed that there is no state or university wise allocation on the number of fellowships to be awarded under this scheme. Earlier, the implementation of National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST students was done through UGC. However, from the 2017-18 the ministry decided to implement the scheme itself.
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For the implementation of the scheme, a special portal/platform has been designed by the ministry. The portal has the facility of online applications to ensure that the fellowship and scholarship amount is timely released into the students account directly.
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