Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana(KVPY)

Overview

About KVPY

A student hunting for a KVPY 2026 exam date is hunting for a paper that will not be set. The last KVPY aptitude test was held on Sunday, 22 May 2022 (KVPY selection procedure, archived official site), and the scheme's own home page then carried the ending in a single line: "DST has decided to subsume KVPY with INSPIRE. KVPY Aptitude test will not be conducted from the year 2022 onwards. Ongoing KVPY fellows will continue to receive fellowship as per norms from DST" (KVPY home page, archived official site). So there is no registration to make, no fee to pay, no admit card to download and no result to wait for. Coaching pages, mock papers and countdown timers for a current KVPY cycle are describing something that stopped.

The scheme ended by a departmental decision, not by a lapse or a court order. DST's announcement, headed "INSPIRE-SHE to encourage talented students towards science research careers without KVPY Examination" and last updated on 23 Jul 2022, records that on the recommendations of a Committee of Scientific Experts the programme "is subsumed into Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research- Scholarship for Higher Education (INSPIRE-SHE) with enhanced number of fellowships", because the examination was catering to a small group of about 300 students while charging their parents an examination fee and carrying a high operational cost (Department of Science and Technology).

Before that, KVPY had run since 1999 as the country's flagship talent search in the basic sciences, funded by DST and handed to the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore to organise, with a Management Committee and a National Advisory Committee over it (KVPY, about the programme, archived official site). What it offered a school student was not a prize but a long horizon: a fellowship and contingency grant carried up to the pre-Ph.D. level or five years, whichever came earlier, with summer camps in research and educational institutions along the way. That combination of early identification and years of funded exposure is what separated it from a one-time merit award, and it is what former fellows name when they describe how they entered research.

The afterlife has been quiet but real. Fellows already on tenure in 2022 were not cut off, and the students holding a provisional 2021 award were told what to do next: forward their details to the INSPIRE Programme Division at DST after joining the first year of a basic-science undergraduate programme, so the fellowship could be activated with effect from 1 August 2022 (KVPY home page, archived official site). The Open Government Data platform still carries a record titled "Year-wise Details of Funds Sanctioned under the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) from 2022-23 to 2024-25", which is the fiscal trace of that run-off (Open Government Data Platform India). A closed intake with a paying tail is the accurate description; an abolished scheme is not.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The dates left on the record are administrative, and they mark the handover rather than a cycle.

No forward date exists. There is no examination calendar, no registration window and no result date to wait for.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Entry was staged by where the student stood in their science education, and each stage carried its own stream label. Stream SA sat with a student still in Class 11, Stream SX with a student in Class 12 heading for a science degree, and Stream SB with a student already in the first year of a basic-science degree. The marks bar and the science-subject condition for each stream are published in the scheme record below, and they were tested when the application was made, not when the money moved.

Selection and payment were separate events, which is the part most summaries of KVPY blur. A fellowship awarded under any of the three streams "will be started after the XII Standard/ (+2) / I year UG, only if they pursue an undergraduate course in Basic Sciences", and the student had to reach that course with at least 60% in aggregate, or 50% for SC, ST and PwD candidates, in the mathematics and science subjects of the Class 12 board examination (KVPY eligibility, archived official site). A Class 11 selection was therefore a claim on a future degree rather than a school stipend, and a fellow who went to engineering, medicine or a professional course simply never activated it.

Two further boundaries sat outside the marks. The fellowships were for Indian nationals studying in India, and a student intending to take an undergraduate programme through a distance-education or correspondence route was not eligible to apply at all (KVPY eligibility, archived official site). The eligible course family was the basic-science degrees, B.Sc., B.S., B.Stat., B.Math. and Integrated M.Sc. or M.S., and then M.Sc. at the postgraduate stage, so nothing in the scheme reached a student outside that list however strong their aptitude test would have been.

There was one thing an SA fellow got in the waiting year. During the interim period before the degree began, the scheme invited these students to the National Science (Vijyoshi) Camp, with travel expenses and local hospitality met by KVPY (KVPY eligibility, archived official site).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The scheme record publishes no exclusion list, and the binding one has to be read off the fellowship's own rules. The sharpest of them was about the subject, not the student: a KVPY fellow who opted out of the basic-science stream at any stage forfeited the fellowship and the contingency grant forthwith (KVPY fellowships, archived official site). Moving to a professional course mid-degree ended the award on the spot, with no notice period and no pro-rata claim.

Holding money from anywhere else ended it too. Every fellow signed a declaration that they were not in receipt of a fellowship or scholarship from any source, government or private, and undertook not to accept one for as long as they held the KVPY fellowship. A fellow who did hold another award had to choose in writing: forgo the KVPY fellowship, or surrender the other one and keep it (KVPY renewal formats, INSPIRE portal). The head of the institution endorsed that declaration separately, certifying that the student was not receiving any fellowship, contingency or stipend from any source other than the KVPY award. A state scholarship or an institute merit stipend was, in practice, the commonest way a selected candidate lost the fellowship without ever failing an examination.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Renewal was annual and conditional, and the condition was printed on the certificate the fellow filed every year. Continuation was "subject to the student passing the exam each year with first class 60% (50% for SC/ST/PWD) marks in aggregate or equivalent grade points", to necessarily passing all the subjects prescribed for that academic year, counted as two semesters where the course ran on semesters, and to participation and satisfactory performance in the summer project (KVPY renewal formats).

A bad year was not always fatal. The fellowship was discontinued if the marks were not obtained, but a fellow who passed all subjects and cleared the 60%, or 50% for SC, ST and PwD candidates, in a subsequent year could have it renewed from that year onward, a concession the scheme applied from the 2012 awardees onward (KVPY fellowships, archived official site). What could not be recovered was the year already lost.

The summer requirement worked on a ladder rather than as a single rule. A first-year fellow attended the summer camp; from the second year of the degree onward, participation and satisfactory performance in a summer programme or project at an academic institution of national or international repute, or at a DSIR-approved laboratory, was mandatory for renewal, and the mentor's assessment travelled with the course performance certificate (KVPY fellowships, archived official site).

The paperwork behind those conditions was heavier than most annual scholarships ask for. Form 1 required the head of the institution to certify the fellow as bona fide, list the subject-wise marks obtained against the maximum in the science subjects for the year just finished, name the course, stream and expected year of completion, and set out the subjects being taken in the coming year. The same form asked for the summer projects of the latest three years, each with its place, its dates and the mentor's name and address, and the fellow signed that part personally.

From late 2022 the whole renewal moved onto DST's INSPIRE web portal. A serving fellow logged in, verified personal details, bank details and the record of instalments already released by IISc, then uploaded the two signed and sealed forms together with attested copies of the marks statement as a single PDF file (INSPIRE portal notice on KVPY, 30 September 2022).

What you get

Award & benefits

The rate moved once, at the point where the fellow crossed out of the early years of the degree.

Both rows are keyed to years of the degree, which is worth noting because summary listings of KVPY often present the lower rate as a school stipend for Class 11 and 12. The scheme's own fellowship page ties Rs 5,000 a month to the first three years of the undergraduate course, and its eligibility page starts the money only once the student joins that course.

The contingency grant is the part outsiders skip past. It was not spending money but a research float, released annually alongside the stipend and meant for the things a young researcher needs and a college budget rarely covers.

What sat around the money mattered as much. Summer camps were organised for fellows in research and educational institutions across the country (KVPY, about the programme, archived official site), and each fellow was issued an identity card that opened special privileges at national laboratories and universities which had agreed to extend them, library and laboratory access among them (KVPY fellowships, archived official site). The annual National Science (Vijyoshi) Camp put young fellows in a room with leading researchers across branches of science and mathematics (IISER Kolkata, Vijyoshi National Science Camp). Tenure ran to the pre-Ph.D. level or five years, whichever came earlier, so a fellow selected in Class 11 could still be drawing on the award while finishing a master's degree.

Payment ran in quarters rather than months. The transfer notice refers to processing the instalment for the quarter May 2022 to July 2022 on the strength of the data IISc supplied, and to the next release covering the academic year August 2022 to July 2023 (INSPIRE portal notice on KVPY).

• Scholarships and Awards: Under this scheme, scholarships and grants are provided to students, offering financial assistance for studies ranging from undergraduate programs (such as B.Sc., B.S., B.Stat., B.Math., Int. M.Sc., M.S.) to postgraduate programs (such as M.Sc. and M.S.).
• For school students (11th & 12th): Scholarship of ₹5,000/- per month and contingency grant of ₹20,000/- per year.
• For undergraduate and postgraduate students: Scholarship of ₹7,000/- per month and contingency grant of ₹28,000/- per year. - For Masters students: Scholarship of ₹7,000/- per month and contingency grant of ₹28,000/- per year.
• Note 1: Apart from this scholarship, KVPY scholars are also given opportunities to study and do research in various research institutes, universities and laboratories.
• Note 2: KVPY scholars get opportunities to participate in research work in the field of science and technology.
• Note 3: Scholars get opportunities to attend various workshops, seminars and conferences, which help in their development.
• Note 4: KVPY exam provides students a path to build a promising career in science and research, and it gives them the opportunity to study in the premier science institutes of India.

What to prepare

Documents required

With no live application, the document list that still matters is the renewal set, and it is short and specific: Form 1 signed and stamped by the head of the institution, Form 2 declaring no other fellowship and endorsed by the same officer, and attested copies of the year's marks statement, all uploaded as one PDF (KVPY renewal formats). The generic list in the scheme record below, the photograph, the qualification certificates and the bank details, belongs to the original application rather than to anything a student can act on now.

Step by step

How to apply

Nobody can apply. No aptitude test is being held, no application window opens and no fee is being collected, because DST replaced the entry route rather than pausing it (Department of Science and Technology). Any site advertising a KVPY registration link, a form fee or an admit card for a current year is selling something the department is not running.

A student who already holds a KVPY award has one thing to do rather than none. Provisional awardees from the last cycle were directed to send their details to the INSPIRE Programme Division at DST once they joined the first year of a basic-science undergraduate course, and fellows already drawing the money were migrated to the INSPIRE web portal on data IISc emailed on 19 September 2022, each receiving a link at the address IISc held to set a password and verify their record (KVPY home page, archived official site; INSPIRE portal notice on KVPY). Checking what has actually been paid means logging into that portal, where the released instalments sit beside the personal and bank details before renewal papers can be uploaded.

For everyone else, the successor route is open and its terms are published. Under INSPIRE-SHE, 12,000 scholarships worth Rs 80,000 a year each are announced annually from the 2017 batch onward, for students in bachelor's and master's courses in the basic and natural sciences. Eligibility runs through one of several channels rather than through a scheme examination: aggregate marks within the top 1% of a Class XII board, a rank inside the top 10,000 in the JEE or the medical entrance test with enrolment in a basic-science course, top 1% board marks with admission to an Integrated M.S. at an IISER, NISER, the Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Basic Sciences at the University of Mumbai or Visva-Bharati, selection under KVPY itself, or status as an NTSE, JBNSTS or International Olympiad scholar (INSPIRE-SHE FAQ, Department of Science and Technology). Of that annual pool, DST put the share reaching former KVPY aspirants at 2000 fellowships a year, read off national examinations they were already writing, including a JEE or NEET rank inside the top 10,000, without paying any fee (Department of Science and Technology).

Applications for INSPIRE-SHE are made online only, on the INSPIRE web portal, where the call for applications is advertised and where a selected candidate later downloads the provisional offer letter; the lists of selected and rejected students are published on the portal's home page. Money reaches an INSPIRE-SHE scholar by Direct Benefit Transfer into a State Bank of India account in the scholar's own name, and DST's own guidance is that release usually takes three to four months after the annual performance report and mark sheets are approved, with the departmental email to be used only if nothing has arrived five months after that approval (INSPIRE-SHE FAQ).

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection was built around an aptitude test set and conducted by IISc, taken at centres across the country in both Hindi and English, with objective questions drawn from physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology. There was no prescribed syllabus for it: the paper aimed at understanding and analytical ability rather than factual recall, within the syllabus up to Class 10, Class 12 or the first year of the degree as the stream required (KVPY FAQ, archived official site). The interview that once followed the test was dropped before the end, and the final merit list shows it: the KVPY-2021 award was recommended in order of merit on the marks obtained by candidates in the aptitude test, with no interview stage in it (KVPY Fellowship Award 2021, archived official site).

Entering that test cost money, which is the fact behind DST's reasoning for the change. For KVPY-2021, the application fee was Rs 1,250 for General and OBC candidates and Rs 625 for SC, ST and PwD candidates, bank charges extra, payable only at the KVPY application portal and never refunded once the application was submitted (KVPY applications, archived official site).

The empanelment marks for the final cycle survive on the scheme's own result page, and they are lower than the cut-off tables still circulating on coaching sites suggest.

Those were provisional lists, in order of merit on aptitude test marks, with the award subject to verification of documents, and a separate extended merit list ran below each of them. The scheme published a cut-off of this kind with every result, and only the captures of its own website keep them readable now.

DST's reasoning for retiring the test reads as a policy statement rather than an administrative note, because it names what the model cost: the examination reached a small group of about 300 students a year, it added another competitive examination to a school student's calendar, and it made parents pay a fee to enter. Folding selection into results students were already producing removed all three at once (Department of Science and Technology).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The award letter survived the transfer intact. DST's notice states that the conditions mentioned in the Letter of Award remain continued, so a fellow moving onto the INSPIRE portal in 2022 stayed bound by the terms accepted at selection rather than by a new set (INSPIRE portal notice on KVPY).

Academic performance carried the heaviest of those terms: first class in aggregate every year, with every prescribed subject passed, certified by the Dean or head of the institution rather than self-declared. The summer project was not optional enrichment but a renewal condition in its own right, judged on participation and satisfactory performance. And the exclusivity undertaking ran for the whole tenure rather than only at entry, with an obligation to inform the scheme if any other fellowship or stipend started later (KVPY renewal formats).

The attestation rules were equally firm. Forms carried the signature and seal of the Dean or head of the institution, and marks statements travelled as certified copies rather than downloads.

Get help

Contact

No KVPY helpdesk remains. The scheme's own website no longer serves pages, and its remaining official material sits on DST's INSPIRE portal, where a menu heading labelled KVPY holds the transfer notice and the two renewal forms (INSPIRE portal). Correspondence about a legacy KVPY fellowship goes to the INSPIRE Programme Division at the Department of Science and Technology, the desk the scheme itself named when it closed the intake and the same desk that answers INSPIRE-SHE payment queries (KVPY home page, archived official site; INSPIRE-SHE FAQ).

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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