Backward Classes Foreign Study Scholarship Scheme(BCFSSS)

Overview

About BCFSSS

More than one state government runs a scholarship under almost this name, so the boundary matters before anything else. This one belongs to Madhya Pradesh, and its rulebook is the Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department's Foreign Study Scholarship Rules of 2007. The department budgets for 50 students a year, which makes the scheme a contest rather than an entitlement. Two features catch most applicants off guard: the state picks its scholars at an interview held wherever it directs, before they have a confirmed seat abroad, and the money is released against a bond that binds the scholar until the course ends and they are back in India.

Madhya Pradesh funds three levels of study under this scheme and no others: a postgraduate course, a research degree, and a research programme taken up after a PhD, all in specified fields abroad. The Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department has run it since 2007 as a state scheme, with the review committee and the selection committee both constituted by the department itself, according to the state's scheme directory entry maintained on the CM Helpline portal.

The scale is deliberately small. The department's administrative report records a provision to benefit 50 students a year, and the actual count sanctioned, fresh awards and renewals of earlier awards together, has moved between 26 and 75 in recent years. In 2023-24 the department reported 64 students funded, of whom 14 were women.

The rulebook has been amended twice since it was notified. An order of 2012 raised the annual number of scholarships and pinned the yearly advertisement to the end of June, and an order of 2018 raised the number again and added a condition the original rules never carried: the institution abroad has to be ranked inside the QS World University Rankings cut-off that the order names. Both orders are reproduced at the back of the department's rules booklet, which is published as a scan of the signed originals, so the cut-off itself has to be read off that scan.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The calendar hangs on one fixed point and one variable. The fixed point is the advertisement, which the amended rules require by the end of June every year, published in the newspapers; the variable is the last date for applications, which exists only inside that advertisement and is not published as a standing deadline anywhere else. Age is reckoned on 1 January of the year of application, so a candidate turning too old in February is still eligible that cycle.

After selection the clock starts again. A finally selected candidate has a fixed window, cut to one year by the 2012 amendment, to secure admission at a recognised foreign university or institution, after which the scholarship lapses on its own and no request for more time is entertained. Progress reports from the institution then fall due every six months for as long as the award runs.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The academic bar is set separately for each level rather than as one rule. For a postgraduate course the rules ask for a first class or 60 percent in the bachelor's degree; for a PhD, the same standard in the relevant postgraduate examination plus two years of teaching, research or professional experience or an M.Phil; and for research after a PhD, that standard in the postgraduate examination together with the doctorate and experience in the field. The state directory entry puts the age ceiling at under 35 years on 1 January of the year of application, relaxable by up to 10 years by the committee in special cases.

Two limits sit outside the marks and the age. Only residents of Madhya Pradesh may apply for the department's schemes, as its guidelines page states, so a backward class student domiciled elsewhere is outside this scheme whatever their marks. And the rules restrict the award to one candidate per family and one award per person: a second child of the same parents or guardian is not eligible, self-certification on the point is required, and nobody who has already held the scholarship is considered again.

Candidates already in a job are not excluded, but they cannot apply directly. Their application has to be forwarded by the employer with a no-objection certificate, addressed to the Commissioner of the department at Satpura Bhavan in Bhopal, and it must reach the office by the date the advertisement fixes.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Nothing here is shut out by category; what ends a candidacy is conduct, and the rules say where the line falls. A document or a statement later held to be false makes the candidate ineligible outright, and where money has already gone out it is recovered with 15 percent interest on everything spent, the candidate is blacklisted for the department's future schemes, and the state approaches their employer to open departmental proceedings.

A married scholar cannot take or later call over a spouse and children during the study period without the state's specific prior permission, granted only in an emergency such as serious illness, and the state pays nothing towards them in any case. The scheme also stops short of the finish line by design: the rules say plainly that it does not include finding the scholar a job, nor any help in finding one after the course ends.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Continuation is not automatic and it is not a form the student files. The rules require the university or institution abroad to send Madhya Pradesh a progress report every six months, and to tell the state about any serious adverse development that calls for a decision on whether the scholarship should run on. An institution dealing with a defaulting scholar is expected to warn them that the tenure will not be stretched.

Beyond the tenure ceiling the scheme simply ends. An extension can be considered only where the competent authority of the institution, together with the Indian mission in that country, certifies that a specific further period is essential to finish the course, and even then the decision rests with Madhya Pradesh alone. One change of university is allowed across the whole tenure, and only where the research supervisor has left or the institution has withdrawn support, the work done so far transfers, and the total duration of the award does not move.

What you get

Award & benefits

There is no rupee figure to quote, and the state directory records the sanction only as being per the scheme rules. The rules set the money in foreign currency instead. The annual maintenance allowance is 7,700 United States dollars at every level of course, or 5,000 pounds sterling where the candidate studies in England, and a contingency allowance of 500 dollars a year, 325 pounds in England, covers books, necessary equipment, study travel, typing and the binding of the thesis. Tuition fees and the insurance premium are paid at actuals, as is the poll tax in the countries that charge one. Those rates sit inside the rules as framed in 2007 and the rules reserve to the department the power to revise them, which is why the current year's advertisement is the only safe statement of the amount.

Travel is covered separately and narrowly. The scheme pays economy class airfare by the shortest route to the point nearest the institution and back, along with second class rail or ordinary bus fare between the port of landing and the place of study. The visa fee is the student's own cost, and so is the insurance cover for the country of study, though the premium is reimbursed. A scholar may hold a research or teaching assistantship abroad, but the rules cap what it may pay at 2,400 dollars a year, or 1,560 pounds in England, and anything earned over that cap is deducted from the maintenance allowance. Payment reaches the beneficiary's bank account by direct benefit transfer, as the department's guidelines describe for its schemes.

The tenure ceiling is the real limit on what the scheme is worth:

Staying on past those periods is treated as time spent without any financial assistance, except that the return airfare to India still stands.

• To provide financial assistance to students belonging to the backward class.

What to prepare

Documents required

Alongside the certificates the scheme record lists, the department applies a standing document set to all its schemes: Aadhaar, the Samagra ID, the caste certificate, a domicile certificate, the annual income certificate, educational certificates, a copy of the bank passbook and a passport size photograph, per its guidelines page. The income certificate is doing specific work here, because the rules test the annual income of the employed candidate, or of the parents or guardian, from all sources against the ceiling prescribed for the creamy layer rather than against a figure of the scheme's own.

Two papers are not needed at the application stage but decide whether the money is ever released. A selected candidate must execute a bond in favour of the Government of Madhya Pradesh on non-judicial stamp paper before a notary, with two sureties who fill separate surety forms, and a second bond undertaking not to remain abroad once the course ends or the scholarship period expires, whichever comes first. Employed candidates need the employer's no-objection certificate before their application can even be forwarded.

Step by step

How to apply

There is no year-round window. The scheme is advertised in newspapers with a brief note on its terms, and the 2012 amendment fixed that advertisement to the end of June each year; the prescribed application form is part of the advertisement itself, and the last date is printed in it. Applications go to the department in Bhopal, with employed candidates routing theirs through their employer. There is no application fee.

The route on paper and the route in practice have drifted apart, so check both. The state directory names the district touchpoint as the Assistant Director of the Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department at the Collector's office, with a service timeline of one month and the Collector as the appellate authority, while the department's own guidelines now say applications for its schemes are filed online on its website, with mandatory fields and uploads, and an incomplete or erroneous application liable to be rejected. Whichever route the year's advertisement names, print the acknowledgement the portal generates after a successful registration.

Tracking a filed application is a manual affair rather than a status bar. The department says selected applicants are informed by mobile or email and that the benefit is transferred to the bank account by DBT, and it points anyone stuck on an application, a payment or a selection to its contact portal, helpline number or email for a written grievance. A grievance filed through the CM Helpline carries its own complaint status lookup, which is the closest thing to a live tracker this scheme has.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Everything received by the closing date goes to a scrutiny committee, which shortlists. Shortlisted candidates are then called before the selection committee for an interview, and the merit list that committee prepares from its assessment of each candidate is what settles the award. Merit is the stated basis for sanction; the department constitutes both committees.

The tie-break is unusually specific and worth knowing. Where two candidates finish level, the rules decide between them on the date of birth entered in the higher secondary examination certificate, and the older candidate is selected. Candidates called to the interview at the place the state names are paid second class rail fare or ordinary class bus fare from home to that city and back.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The bond is the spine of this scheme. It is executed in favour of the state for the amount spent on the scholar or a floor the rules fix, whichever is higher, and the two sureties who sign it are liable alongside the scholar. A scholar declared a defaulter owes the whole sum back with 12 percent interest a year, and 2.5 percent penal interest is charged on the balance if it is not repaid within six months of the demand; where the sureties do not pay either, the Collector of the district recovers it as arrears of land revenue. Default is defined broadly and includes leaving the country of study for another, going missing, switching university or course without permission, returning to India in an emergency without informing the state, and an adverse report from the institution.

Coming home is not optional. Every scholar must return to India, and the rules forbid any officer of the state or central government from issuing a certificate that relieves them of that obligation. A scholar who was a state, central or public sector employee before the award has to serve that employer for five years after returning, a condition the state can waive for recorded reasons only if the entire scholarship amount is repaid. Any overpayment is recoverable, and the employer is authorised to recover it. On matters the rules do not cover, the state's decision is final, and any suit arising from the scheme falls to the courts at Bhopal.

Get help

Contact

The department sits at Vallabh Bhavan, Bhopal 462004, and its contact page puts its counter hours at 10 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday, government holidays excepted. That page leaves its helpline and email fields blank, so the usable addresses come from elsewhere: the Commissioner's office for this scheme is at Satpura Bhavan in Bhopal, where employed candidates' applications are to be sent, and the state directory prints bcbpl@nic.in in the field meant for the scheme's online application link, which is the only address it publishes at all.

For anything local, the Assistant Director of the Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Department at your district Collectorate is the designated officer, and the Collector hears appeals.

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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References

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