AICTE – Saksham Scholarship Scheme For Specially-Abled Student (Degree)(SAK-DEG)

Overview

About SAK-DEG

Nobody is ranked out of the degree-level Saksham award. Under the heading "Number of Scholarships" the degree guidelines say only that every eligible specially-abled student admitted to the first year of a degree course, or to the second year through lateral entry, at an AICTE-approved institution will get the scholarship, and AICTE's own FAQ answers the reservation question the same way: there is no SC, ST or OBC percentage, because all eligible students receive it (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree; AICTE Saksham FAQs).

The real constraint is documentary, then. AICTE publishes the degree selections year by year as their own documents, and they are short: 77 students for 2023-24, and 99 students for 2024-25, each list covering the whole country and naming every selected candidate's institution and state (Selected students, Saksham Degree 2023-24; Selected students, Saksham Degree 2024-25). Those are counts for two named years, not a standing intake, and the scheme fixes no target for either. What a list that short tells a degree applicant is that the losses happen at entry windows and at verification, and both of those sit inside a student's own control.

One caution before any of the older numbers you may have read. AICTE still hosts, alongside the current file, a summary of how Saksham ran for cases submitted up to 2020: a fixed 1000 awards a year split 500 for degree and 500 for diploma, reservation of 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST and 27% for OBC applicants, and a tuition component of Rs 30,000 with Rs 2000 a month for 10 months on top, rather than one flat sum (AICTE Saksham scheme summary for cases up to 2020). Every one of those terms is superseded. None of them appears in the degree guidelines a current applicant is assessed under.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

AICTE's FAQ declines to publish opening and closing dates and sends students to NSP instead (AICTE Saksham FAQs), so the portal's own entry for the Technical Degree scheme is the date of record. It publishes a chain of four dates, and only one of them is the student's own.

The gap between rows two and three is what catches degree students out. Submitting on the closing day leaves the institution about a fortnight to verify, and an unverified application is not considered at all. One thing the portal does not settle is who may file a renewal inside that calendar: AICTE's notification decides that separately, and for 2026-27 it admits the 2023-2024 degree batch and no diploma batch of the same intake (AICTE notification, academic year 2026-27).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

There are exactly two ways into the degree scheme, and both are entry-year doors: admission to the first year of a degree-level course, or admission to the second year of a degree-level course through lateral entry, in an AICTE-approved institution of the respective year (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). The disability test is a certified 40% or more, and the income test is a family ceiling of Rs 8 lakh a year read against the current financial year rather than the previous one, on a certificate the state or union territory government issues.

The certificate that proves the door is not the same for the two of them. Direct entry to the first year is carried by the HSC or Class 12 certificate, which AICTE marks as the degree-level document, while lateral entry into the second year of a degree is carried by the diploma certificate (AICTE Saksham FAQs). The ITI certificate listed a line above it in the same AICTE document belongs to lateral entry at diploma level and does nothing for a degree claim.

How old that certificate may be is capped: no more than two years may separate the year of passing the qualifying examination from the session of admission to the degree course (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). AICTE's NSP operating manual worked the same rule out in years for the 2020 cycle: a first-year degree applicant had to have cleared 10+2 in 2020, 2019 or 2018, and a lateral entry degree applicant had to have cleared the diploma in one of those same three years (AICTE operating manual for students, NSP).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The two exclusions a degree student is most likely to walk into are about the level of the course, not about disability or income. A postgraduate enrolment and a dual degree enrolment each appear by name on AICTE's direct rejection list, and the FAQ's own eligibility table narrows the scheme to a UG degree programme in an AICTE-approved institution (AICTE Saksham FAQs). A five-year integrated or dual-degree branch that a student thinks of as an ordinary bachelor's course is the case worth checking before applying.

Approval bites at course level too, not only at institution level. AICTE rejects outright where the student is admitted to a non-technical course, where the course is not AICTE-approved in the current academic year, where the university or institute is not AICTE-approved in the current academic year, and where the disability certificate is missing or came from something other than a competent authority. A degree student at a well-known university can still fall out if that particular branch was not on AICTE's approved list for the year.

Money from anywhere else closes the file as well. In the FAQ's eligibility table this is not an afterthought but the sixth condition a degree applicant has to satisfy, and the guidelines add the sting: any scholarship, emolument, salary or stipend from any other source during the course discontinues Saksham and makes the entire amount already paid refundable to AICTE by demand draft in favour of "Member Secretary, AICTE", payable at New Delhi (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). Failing a year or dropping out ends further eligibility outright, and a student who is not promoted forfeits the award.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

A degree award is renewed further than any other award in this scheme. A first-year admission is renewable across a maximum of 4 years of study and a lateral entry admission across a maximum of 3, so a direct entrant files three renewals and a lateral entrant two (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree).

That extra year shows up in which batches AICTE lets back in. Its 2026-27 notification reopens renewal to the 2023-2024 batch at degree level alone, while the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 batches are reopened at degree and diploma level together, all of them on the portal and under the same closing date the fresh applications get (AICTE notification, academic year 2026-27). A degree student who entered in 2023-2024 has a final year still to claim; the diploma course of the same intake finished before the window opened.

The claim itself rides on one form the college writes rather than the student: a promotion certificate certified by the Head of the Institution, filed through the National Scholarship Portal, which the guidelines describe in their own words as a passing certificate or mark sheet with a letter from the head of the institution (AICTE Saksham FAQs; AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). It is AICTE's Appendix-III, and it asks for the student's photograph, the NSP application ID, the roll number, the branch, the domicile state and the year of study. Worth noticing on that last line: the printed form offers 2nd year or 3rd year (Lateral Entry) and prints no fourth-year option, though a degree renewal can reach the fourth year.

What you get

Award & benefits

Rs 50,000 a year is the figure at both levels of Saksham; what differs at degree level is how many times it can arrive. A first-year entrant can draw it across four years of study and a lateral entrant across three, each instalment paid as one lump sum towards college fee, a computer, stationery, books, equipment and software, with nothing extra payable in lieu of hostel or medical charges (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). The guidelines add a detail students rarely expect: no documentary proof has to be attached for any of those purchases while availing the benefit. Payment is annual and by direct benefit transfer, after selection.

• ₹50,000/- per annum for every year of study i.e. maximum 4 years for the first year admitted students and maximum 3 years for the second year admitted students through lateral entry as lump sum amount towards payment of college fee, purchase of computer, stationeries, books, equipment, software, etc.
• After selection, the awardee will be paid a scholarship through DBT mode on annual basis.
• The scholarship will be renewed for the next year of study on receipt of renewal through National Scholarship Portal by submitting a passing certificate/ mark sheet along with letter from the Head of the Institution on the online portal

What to prepare

Documents required

The upload list forks at the entry door, and AICTE prints it as one list without flagging the fork. Everyone attaches the SSC or Class 10 certificate and mark sheet. On top of that a direct first-year degree applicant attaches the HSC or Class 12 certificate and mark sheet, and a lateral entry degree applicant attaches the diploma certificate and mark sheet in its place (AICTE Saksham FAQs). Attaching the wrong one of those two is a rejection, and so is a copy that is blurred, unreadable, in another person's name, or swapped for an unrelated document.

Two AICTE forms then have to be produced by other people, which is where the timeline usually slips. Appendix-I, the bonafide certificate, comes from the Director, Principal or Head of the Institution and has to carry the NSP application ID and the current year of study with the inapplicable options struck off. Appendix-II, the family income certificate, is for the current financial year and needs the signature and stamp of a competent revenue officer, the form itself naming the Tehsildar, District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner. Neither is a document a student can produce alone on the closing day.

The disability certificate is the one the scheme is built on. Its absence, or issue by anything other than a competent authority, sits on AICTE's direct rejection list rather than among the fixable defects.

Step by step

How to apply

Pick the right listing before anything else. The National Scholarship Portal carries AICTE Saksham twice, as "Technical Degree" and as "Technical Diploma", each a separate scheme entry with its own guidelines file and its own dates, and both filed as welfare-based rather than merit-based schemes (National Scholarship Portal, all scholarships). A degree student who opens the diploma listing loses the cycle.

The form itself only exists inside a window AICTE announces first: the guidelines require the candidate to apply online on NSP after the application process is initiated and a notice is published on the AICTE website (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). Inside the portal the scheme sits under Post Matric, which is the category AICTE's operating manual tells Saksham applicants to select on the General Information screen; the same registration walkthrough shows where the application ID is generated, and that ID is what every certificate afterwards has to quote (AICTE operating manual for students, NSP).

Verification then runs through two desks, neither of them a social welfare office: the host institution where the student is studying verifies the online application, and the Department of Technical Education of the respective state or union territory verifies it as the second level of scrutiny (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). Nothing gets as far as either desk without Aadhaar: the FAQ makes an Aadhaar card and an Aadhaar-seeded account in the candidate's own name conditions of submitting the form, not merely of being paid on it (AICTE Saksham FAQs).

Then there are three places to look, not one, and they answer three different questions. Whether the form has moved is a question for the Application Status service on the portal. Whether the money has moved is a question for Track Your Payment, which hands the search to the Public Financial Management System (National Scholarship Portal). Whether you were selected at all is answered nowhere on NSP: AICTE posts the degree selected list on the scheme's own page as a file separate from the diploma list, so a degree applicant opens the degree PDF and ignores the other (AICTE Saksham scheme page).

How winners are picked

Selection process

There is no merit list to climb, which is why the portal files this scheme under welfare rather than merit. Because the guidelines award the scholarship to every eligible applicant at degree level, selection is a verification exercise, and the guidelines say what fails it: incomplete applications are summarily rejected, and only verified online applications are considered for the award (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree).

A provisional list of shortlisted candidates goes up on AICTE's web portal, and the date it appears starts two clocks of different lengths. A query about the list itself has one month from that date and nothing is entertained afterwards. A query about money that never arrived because the account number was invalid or wrong has six months from the same date (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree). Neither clock starts on the day you applied, so a degree applicant who stops checking the scheme page after the deadline can lose a remedy without ever knowing it opened.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The scheme is implemented and monitored by AICTE, which is why the shortlist, the grievance windows and the payment queries all sit on AICTE's portal rather than the ministry's. The guidelines also carry a percentage conversion rule that surfaces whenever a mark sheet has to be read: CGPA multiplied by 9.5 gives the percentage, total marks take precedence where a mark sheet shows both, and letter grades such as A1 or B2 are converted to CGPA first (AICTE Saksham Scheme Guidelines, Degree).

Read the dated degree guidelines file, not a summary. The superseded document AICTE still hosts also required admission through the centralized admission process of the state or central government, and a degree applicant admitted any other way would fail on it (AICTE Saksham scheme summary for cases up to 2020). The current degree guidelines set out three eligibility conditions and none of them is about how the seat was allotted.

Get help

Contact

Saksham has its own mailbox even though it shares a helpline number with AICTE's other student schemes: saksham@aicte-india.org and 011-29581118 for the scheme, helpdesk@nsp.gov.in for the portal (AICTE Saksham FAQs; AICTE operating manual for students, NSP). Writing to the wrong one costs days in a cycle where the student's own deadline is two weeks ahead of the institute's. A rejected income certificate or a name missing from the degree selected list is an AICTE question; a login failure or an upload that will not attach is an NSP one.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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