In a major boost in the education field a new scheme PM-Vidyalaxmi has been approved.
The Union Cabinet which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the PM-Vidyalaxmi scheme on November 6. The approved scheme is an effort towards giving financial help to the students who are meritorious to get higher education.
The scheme PM- Vidyalaxmi is a major step forward in making education accessible to students who face financial constraints in pursuing higher education.
About the Scheme PM-Vidyalaxmi
The PM- Vidyalaxmi scheme approved by the cabinet is a central sector scheme which aims to provide financial support to the meritorious students and financial constraints do not prevent the student from pursuing higher education. The PM-Vidyalaxmi scheme comes from the recommendation of the New Education policy 2020, that financial help to meritorious students should be given in both public and private higher education institutions.
Under the PM-Vidyalaxmi scheme provision is there to avail a collateral free and guarantor free education loan to students who are able to get admitted to quality higher educational institutions. As per the official notification, under the scheme if a student who gets a loan of Rs.7.5 lakh the student will be eligible for a credit guarantee of 75 per cent. The official notification also mentioned an interest subvention of 3 per cent will be given for loans up to Rs. 10 lakhs during the moratorium period. This is for students whose family income is around Rs.8 lakhs annually and who do not benefit from other interest subvention and scholarships given by the government.
According to the official statement it said that an outlay for the scheme from the year 2024-25 to the year 2030-31 has been made. The outlay is of Rs.3,600 crore for the scheme. The students will be able to benefit from the scheme. The expected students who will be able to avail the benefits from the scheme are around 7 lakhs.
According to the official statement released the scheme will be applicable to the quality higher educational institutions of the country that are ranked by NIRF. The institutions that have the ranking within the top 100 rank be it private or government institutions, the state government higher educational institutions who have the rank from 101-200 and all the central government institutions.
The list will be updated each year and the number of Quality higher education institutions presently includes 860 institutions and around 22 lakhs students.
The scheme is made to remove any financial problems for students who want to get higher education for this the scheme is being administered by a simple and transparent system, and is fully digital. To make the process easier a portal ‘PM-Vidyalaxmi’ will be. For students so that they can apply for loans easily, with simple application process to avail loan and the payment of interest subvention will be made by E-vouchers and Central bank digital currency wallets.
