PM Vidyalaxmi Scheme: a simplified financial assistance scheme to help the students in higher education

Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced the PM Vidyalaxmi Scheme in which talented and meritorious students will be benefited by getting financial support to complete their education. The scheme is estimated to be outlaid by a budget of 3, 600 crores. The cabinet has approved a new central sector scheme named PM Vidyalaxmi Scheme, that will help the students to pursue higher studies .

As it is posted on the social media platform, X by the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the PM Vidyalaxmi Scheme will be available for the students who have a family income up to 8 lakh annually. They will get a 3 percent interest subsidy in the education loans up to Rs 10 lakh. The meritorious students who used to be withdrawn from education due to financial constraints will not be withheld from getting enrolled in higher education.

Any student who is eligible as per the criteria can avail the Vidyalaxmi Scheme for getting into the higher education institutions. The scheme is estimated to cover above 22 lakh students every year. This scheme has been approved by the union cabinet setting the sim to provide equal opportunities to the students belonging to the poor and middle class sections.

This scheme is a very major feature of the NEP 2020 as it stated financial assistance to the poor and downtrodden should be  the main objective of the education system. So PM Vidyalaxmi Scheme is a step forward towards this direction, as stated by the education minister Mr Pradhan.

The scheme will be applicable for both public and private Higher Education Institutions. Any student who gets enrolled to a quality Higher Education Institution (QHEIs) will be eligible to avail collateral-free, guarantor-free loans from banks and financial institutions to cover the full amount of tuition fees and rest of the expenses that the course demands.

Under PM Vidyalaxmi scheme, the education  loans will be forwarded to students who would  take admissions in the top 860 HEIs of India according to NIRF. The process of the Education loans will be transparent, student-friendly and digitalised. This will be universal to all the banks. There will be a unified  portal by the Department of Higher Education called PM-Vidyalaxmi on which students will be able to apply for all the required applications such as education loans as well as interest subvention, through a simplified application process which will be used by all banks. Payment of interest subvention will be made through E-vouchers and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wallets.