The National Scholarship Portal has revised its scholarship framework with effect from the Academic Year 2026-27. Under the revised rules a student who is already receiving a Welfare-Based Scholarship will not be denied a Merit-Based Scholarship if found eligible for it and the same protection applies in the reverse case as well. The decision follows the problems seen during the implementation of the deduplication module for the Academic Year 2024-25 when certain issues arose between the Department of School Education and Literacy and the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and a number of beneficiaries were flagged as duplicates. The Central Board of Secondary Education has urged all affiliated schools to share this update with eligible students and parents for wider awareness.
Why the Rules Were Revised
The government order notes that the principle of One Student-One Scholarship is generally followed. However the term scholarship is often used interchangeably for different forms of student support such as financial assistance and incentives. This created overlaps in eligibility and implementation. The examination of the flagged cases highlighted the need for a clear and uniform understanding across ministries and departments about the classification and scope and intent of government scholarship schemes. Ministries and departments have therefore been requested to classify their schemes under two broad categories for deduplication and conceptual clarity and policy harmonisation and uniform implementation.
Two Broad Categories of Schemes
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Category
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Purpose
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Examples
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Merit-Based Scholarship
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Rewards academic performance or achievement in a competitive or qualifying examination to promote excellence.
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National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) / Central Sector Scheme of Scholarships for College and University Students / INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research)
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Welfare-Based Scholarship
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Supports students from identified communities and categories or socio-economic groups to reduce financial hardship and promote equity.
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Pre-matric and post-matric scholarship schemes for SC/ST/OBC and minority students
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How the New Process for NSP Will Work
Application Submission and Editing
Details given in the first application will be retained and reused for all later applications. For each new application the applicant only needs to add scheme-specific details and upload relevant documents. If an application is marked as Defective the applicant can edit only the scheme-specific details. To change general or academic or institute or course details all applications must first be withdrawn.
L1 Verification
Tuition fees and admission fees and other non-refundable components updated during the first L1 verification will be auto-populated in later applications. The Institute Nodal Officer can see all applications of the applicant with their status. NIC-NSP has informed that deficiencies will be marked separately as scheme-specific issues and general or academic issues.
L2 Verification
All applications of an applicant will be visible at once to every concerned L2 Nodal Officer. For example the officer for each scheme can see the other application and its status and take consistent decisions. If deficiencies relate to general or academic details then all other applications will be automatically flagged under the Red Flag category.
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