Arivu Education Loan Scheme(AELS)

The Arivu Education Loan Scheme is an education loan run by the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC), a state-owned corporation established in 1986. KMDC operates under the Government of Karnataka and its Minorities Welfare Department, with a mandate to improve the educational and socio-economic standing of the state's religious minority communities. Arivu is KMDC's education-loan scheme for students entering professional courses.

The scheme supports professional programmes across several fields, including medicine such as MBBS, engineering such as BE and BTech, management such as MBA, computer applications such as MCA, law such as LLB, and streams in pharmacy and agricultural sciences. Admission is tied to Karnataka's common entrance route, so applicants qualify through CET or NEET. KMDC does not pay the money to the student directly; it transfers the sanctioned amount to the bank account of the student's college through Direct Benefit Transfer, and repayment is set on concessional terms with a service charge in place of standard bank interest.

Arivu is meant for students from Karnataka's recognised religious minority groups, namely Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Parsis, who are permanent residents of the state and fall within KMDC's family-income limit. The exact income ceiling, per-year loan amounts and repayment conditions are fixed by the corporation.

Sources: Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation – Arivu Education Loan Scheme · Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation Limited – About KMDC