Manohar Parrikar Goa Scholars Scheme(MPGSS)

Overview

About MPGSS

The Manohar Parrikar Goa Scholars Scheme pays a Goan student who is already enrolled in a postgraduate or doctoral programme Rs 6,00,000 for study in India, or Rs 15,00,000 for study abroad. It provides for 40 scholars a year, 50 at most, chosen first on school and degree marks and then at an interview.

Goa re-notified it as the 2025 scheme in March 2026, and the new rules changed how those marks are weighed. That matters more than the headline amount if your Class 10 result is weaker than your degree.

The version in force is the Manohar Parrikar Goa Scholars Scheme, 2025, notified by Goa's Directorate of Higher Education (DHE) on 6 March 2026 and published in the Official Gazette, Series I No. 50, on 12 March 2026. It covers postgraduate and PhD study in any discipline, at an institution in India or abroad, and the gazette text says the scheme will be reviewed after 3 years. The previous round was run on the older rules: the DHE's 2024-25 scored list gives the marks "scored under Manohar Parrikar Goa Scholars Scheme 2018".

In practice the award goes to Goans who have already secured a place. You apply as a bonafide student of the programme in the year the scheme is announced, not while you are still choosing a university. The DHE's 2024-25 selection list shows how wide the net is. It names 30 scholars: 13 at institutions abroad, among them Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Stuttgart and the Technion, and 17 in India, from IIM Indore and AIIMS New Delhi to seven at Goa institutions such as Goa Medical College and BITS Pilani's K K Birla Goa Campus.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The DHE notifies the last date every year and advertises each round in local newspapers and on its website (scheme notification). For 2025-26 the window opened the day after the gazette publication, in the closing months of the academic year it was meant for:

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Four of the official criteria decide most applications (scheme notification):

• Age is counted on 1 January of the year for which the scheme is disbursed, and must not exceed 35 on that date (Official Gazette).
• Residence means 15 years in Goa, or, for an applicant of Goan origin, 7 years in Goa plus the birth certificate of a parent or grandparent born in Goa.
• Marks carry two separate bars: at least 60% in the qualifying degree, and at least 70 out of 100 on the weighted screening score described under Selection Process.
• Enrolment is proved by a bonafide certificate from your institution naming the programme and its start and end dates.

The qualifying degree should come from an institution "preferably located in Goa". The word is a preference, not a bar.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The 2025 notification rules out a few applicants in so many words (scheme notification):

• a candidate who canvasses in any form or brings political pressure, who is disqualified outright;
• a student on an integrated dual degree who is already in its PG stage, for that PG course;
• an applicant whose form is incomplete, since only complete applications are placed before the screening committee.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is nothing to renew. The notification defines the award as one sum for pursuing the studies and sets out no instalments or continuation test (scheme notification), and once you are selected for a year, your applications in later years are not considered (myScheme). A doctoral scholar on a long programme therefore receives the same sum as a student on a one-year master's.

What you get

Award & benefits

The award depends only on where the programme is, not on the course, the level or the fees charged:

The scheme provides for 40 awards a year. The selection committee can recommend more, with reasons recorded and government approval, up to a ceiling of 50 (scheme notification). The money comes from the state's Higher Education Promotion Fund, which the DHE manages, and is released only after the selection is final and approved by the government. It is not timed to your fee calendar: the notification leaves it to the applicant to arrange money for any fee deadline the course sets.

• Scholarship for Studies in India: Financial assistance of ₹6,00,000 is provided to each selected scholar pursuing postgraduate or Doctor of Philosophy studies in India.
• Scholarship for Studies Abroad: Financial assistance of ₹15,00,000 is provided to each selected scholar pursuing postgraduate or Doctor of Philosophy studies abroad.
• Number of Awards: Up to 40 scholars are selected every year.
• In exceptional circumstances, the number of awards may be increased.
• The total number of awards shall not exceed 50 in a year.
• Mode of Disbursement: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to the beneficiary's bank account.

What to prepare

Documents required

Documents are collected in two phases. The online form carries the identity, residence, marks and bonafide papers; the curriculum vitae, the 500-word write-up on why you should be chosen, and proof of extra-curricular achievements are asked for only from candidates shortlisted for interview (scheme notification, myScheme). The write-up is meant to set out your achievements and contribution to your institution, your peers and the community, and may say how the degree will serve Goa's development.

On the Goa Scholar Portal, photographs must be JPEG, JPG or PNG within 2 MB; most documents may be JPEG, JPG, PNG or PDF up to 2 MB; and graduation marksheets for all semesters may go up to 5 MB. The Aadhaar number is typed in for e-signing, and no Aadhaar copy is uploaded.

One portal quirk catches Goan-origin applicants. The form insists on uploads for a parent or grandparent residence certificate and a 7-year academic record, which the revised scheme no longer requires, and the portal's own instructions say to upload your residence certificate of at least 7 years in both fields (Goa Scholar Portal, scheme notification).

If your degree reports a CGPA or FGPA, include your university's conversion document on its letterhead. Without it, the DHE converts your grade as (CGPA - 0.75) x 10 (scheme notification).

Step by step

How to apply

Applications start on the SUGAM portal, which the 2025-26 advertisement told candidates to reach through the link on the DHE website only, and end with a printed copy sent to the DHE (2025-26 advertisement). The 2025-26 steps, from the DHE's instructions to applicants:

1. Open the scheme page on the DHE website and follow the link to SUGAM.
2. Register with your Aadhaar number, email ID and mobile number. Only one application is accepted per Aadhaar number, email ID and mobile number, so a wrong first attempt cannot be replaced.
3. Select the Manohar Parrikar Goa Scholars Scheme service on the SUGAM dashboard, which opens the Goa Scholar Portal, and fill in every section.
4. E-sign with your 12-digit Aadhaar number and the OTP sent to your registered mobile, preview the form and submit it. The portal's instructions add that no edits are allowed after submission (Goa Scholar Portal).
5. Download the submitted application from the portal's Dashboard tab, print it unchanged, and send it to the DHE at Alto-Porvorim by post or courier, or deliver it by hand, before the hard-copy deadline.

Tracking Your Application

The DHE names three places to follow an application: its website, the SUGAM portal and your email (DHE instructions to applicants). Discrepancies in a submission are sent by email; the list of candidates shortlisted for interview is uploaded on the DHE website after the screening committee's scrutiny; and only shortlisted candidates are told the interview date and time slot (DHE instructions to applicants, 2025-26 advertisement). For the 2024-25 round, the list of selected candidates was posted on the DHE scheme page and released with a state press note. Quote the registration number issued with your application in every letter or email to the DHE (scheme notification).

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection runs in two stages, each on 100 marks, and the 2025 rules reweighted the first.

Stage One: Screening on Marks

A screening committee, with a senior academician as chair, two government nominees and the DHE Director as member secretary, scores academic results only. SSC (Class 10) carries 50%, HSSC (Class 12) 30% and the graduation degree 20%, with every semester of the degree counted and no grace marks for NCC, NSS, sports or cultural activity. The top 100 candidates with at least 70 marks go to interview, and everyone tied at the 100th place is called (scheme notification). For an integrated degree only the CGPA up to graduation counts; for an integrated dual degree, the final CGPA.

The weights are new. The DHE's 2024-25 scored list gave Class 10 40%, Class 12 30% and the degree 30%, so under the 2025 rules a board result from years earlier counts for more and the degree for less. That list ran to 149 names, with screening scores from 96.528 at the top to 70.083 at the bottom, and the selection committee picked 30 of them as Goa Scholars (2024-25 selection list, press note).

Stage Two: Interview and Final Ranking

The final 100 marks are split four ways:

The selection committee is chaired by an academician of national or international repute and includes three academic experts, one expert from industry or administration, the Secretary (Higher Education) or a representative, and the DHE Director. Besides domain knowledge, the interview looks at confidence, attitude, creativity and "the promise of effective service" to the State, the country or the world (scheme notification). Because the interview, the institution and the extra-curricular record together outweigh the academic component, a candidate who only just cleared 70 at screening can still finish ahead of a higher scorer.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The conditions that bind a scholar after selection (scheme notification):

• A selected scholar signs a pre-receipt for the sanctioned amount and submits a bank certificate naming the account holder, account number, bank, branch address and IFSC, stating that the account is Aadhaar-seeded.
• The government may relax any clause for recorded reasons, and its interpretation of the scheme is final.
• Grievances go to the Administrative Secretary, whose decision is final, and none are heard more than 90 days after the selection committee's recommendation is declared (Official Gazette).
• The DHE may issue further guidelines to implement the scheme.

Get help

Contact

The printed application is addressed to the Directorate of Higher Education, Goa Education Complex, Alto-Porvorim, Goa 403 521 (DHE instructions to applicants). For trouble with the online form, the 2025-26 advertisement printed a helpline, 0832-2415585 / 2410824, answered during office hours (2025-26 advertisement). Those office hours, on the DHE's own page, are 9.30 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. and 2.00 p.m. to 5.45 p.m., and the Directorate's email is dir-dhe.goa@nic.in (DHE scheme page). Login and submission failures on the Goa Scholar Portal itself are a separate channel: its contact page lists techsupportgoascholar@gmail.com for technical queries (Goa Scholar Portal).

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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