Question : Scholarships for Minorities

(a) the expected outcomes/benefits of making the central pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarships for minorities to be demand driven;

(b) the manner in which the Government is expected to meet the financial requirements when this is implemented;

(c) the number of students and the amount of pre-matric and post-matric scholarships disbursed during each of the last three years and the current year, State-wise, scholarship-wise;

(d) whether there is any imbalance in the number of applications received by the Ministry from various States and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the steps taken by the Government to ensure that maximum students benefit from Minority Scholarship Schemes?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF MINORITY AFFAIRS
(SHRI MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI)

(a): All the three Scholarship Schemes for Minorities viz. Pre-matric, Post-matric and Merit-cum Means Scholarship Schemes, are budget driven and there is no proposal at present to make them demand driven.

(b): Does not arise.

(c): The number of students and amount of Pre-matric and Post-matric scholarships disbursed during each of the last three years are annexed. The disbursal of scholarship for the year 2016-17 is yet to commence as the National Scholarship Portal (NSP 2.0) has been operationalized on 01.07.2016 with submission of online applications with effect from 15.07.2016.

(d): The State-wise and Community-wise physical allocation of each State/UT is fixed based on 2001 Census.

(e): To ensure that maximum eligible students benefit from Minority Scholarship Schemes, from the year 2015-16, all the three Scholarship Schemes viz. Pre-matric, Post-matric and Merit-cum Means Scholarship Schemes are being implemented online through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP).
Ministry has also taken initiatives to give wide publicity through print advertisements and broadcast/telecast of audio/video spots through All India Radio (AIR), Doordarshan/Private TV Channels, FM Channels, Digital Cinema, and various means of outdoor publicity, to make the target group aware of the programme.

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