Merit·cum·Means Scholarships For Under Graduate Studies In Various Branches Of Agriculture And Animal Science Subjects(MCMS-UGSVB-AASS)

Overview

About MCMS-UGSVB-AASS

The ICAR Merit-cum-Means Scholarship is settled inside your college, not on a national merit list. The Council asks each approved college how many students it actually admitted to the first year of its Bachelor degree course, allots that college a fixed number of scholarships against that figure, and then tells the college which candidates have been selected (ICAR guidelines for the Merit-cum-Means Scholarship). That single design choice explains most of what follows, including why there is no status page to refresh.

This is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's income-tested award for undergraduates in Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering, Home Science, Dairy and Animal Husbandry, and the rulebook it still runs on took effect on 1 April 2007 (guidelines).

ICAR's Agricultural Education Division describes the scheme as aimed at meritorious undergraduates from below poverty line families in those subjects, awarded annually on merit-cum-means (ICAR, Human Resources Development). Read that as the intent rather than the test. What the guidelines actually apply is a fixed ceiling on the parents' income, not a below poverty line card, and where the two descriptions pull apart it is the guidelines that decide an application.

The number of awards is capped before any student is ranked. Scholarships not exceeding seven and a half per cent of the actual admissions to a college's Bachelor degree courses in Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering, Home Science, Dairy and Veterinary Science are allotted to that college, to be awarded there strictly on merit-cum-means (guidelines).

That cap matters more than the merit bar does. Because the quota is tied to your own college's first year intake, you are competing against the students sitting beside you, not against every agriculture undergraduate in the country. A strong applicant at a large college with many low income families can lose out where a weaker applicant at a small college gets through.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No annual last date is published for this scheme, and none is recorded against it: the scheme record carries an opening date and no closing date (myScheme record). The guidelines key the cycle to the academic calendar instead of to a fixed date, with the call for particulars going out soon after the courses start, and the award taking effect from the month the candidate joins the college (guidelines).

The practical reading is that the date binding you is the one your college sets on its own notice, usually within the first weeks of the first year. Ask the scholarship section during admission formalities rather than waiting for a national announcement that does not come.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Two tests run together and both have to be cleared. The merit test asks for not less than 60% marks, or grade points equivalent to that, in the aggregate of the qualifying examination (guidelines).

The means test is the other half, and it is drawn on the parents' annual income rather than on anything the student earns. Only those whose parents have an income not exceeding one lakh rupees a year are eligible, and the guidelines provide no reduced rate for a family sitting just above that line, so an applicant is either inside it or outside it (guidelines).

The scholarship is ordinarily admissible to a person of Indian nationality as defined in the Constitution, or to a person domiciled in India, irrespective of sex, race or religion (guidelines).

One condition catches out students who took a gap or repeated a year, and almost nothing written about this scheme mentions it. A candidate who passed the qualifying examination in a year earlier than the year of award is ordinarily not eligible for consideration. The way back in is a high score: at least 65% in the aggregate, in a qualifying examination held not earlier than 5 years before the year of award, and then only in order of merit (guidelines).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

An awardee may not draw any other regular scholarship or stipend while holding this one, and a regular loan scholarship is written into that bar as well. A student already receiving one has to surrender it, after which this scholarship is paid only from the month following the surrender. The single carve-out is a fee concession granted by the institution where the student is studying, which may be kept (guidelines).

Nothing is filed under exclusions on the scheme record itself, so a student reading only that will meet neither bar until the college applies it.

There is no half scholarship anywhere in this scheme. Where the parents' income crosses the ceiling, the student is not simply struck off: a national prize of Rs 500 and a certificate of merit are awarded in place of the scholarship (guidelines).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Renewal is annual, and it is not automatic. It turns on two things together: promotion to the next class, and at least 50% marks or equivalent grade points in the aggregate of the previous class's annual examination, whether the university or the college conducted it. Marks of 49.5% or more are rounded up to 50% for this purpose (guidelines).

Miss that bar and the consequence depends on what exactly went wrong. A scholar who qualifies in the promotion examination but falls short of the aggregate has the scholarship suspended for one academic year, and it is renewed on reaching the required standard in the following annual examination. A scholar who is not promoted has it cancelled. Where a scholar fails a non-final annual examination and is eligible for a supplementary examination a few months later, the award is held in abeyance and the subjects passed across the two examinations are read together to see whether the aggregate is reached (guidelines).

The paperwork sits with the college. Each year the Council asks the Head of the Institution for a progress report in the prescribed form for scholars continuing into the next year, and that report is what determines continuance. The income affidavit works differently: the parent or guardian files it once, at initial selection, and it is not called for again each year as long as the other renewal conditions are met (guidelines).

What you get

Award & benefits

The award is Rs 1,000 per month per student. The rulebook set it at Rs 500 a month when the scheme took effect, and the ICAR office order printed at the end of the same document revised it upward, with all other terms unchanged (guidelines).

Tenability is the full duration of the degree course, but the guidelines also fix a maximum period, and that maximum depends on the examination you were admitted on rather than on the degree alone. Two students in the same classroom can therefore carry different ceilings.

For a Dairy Science or Dairy Technology degree the guidelines take Higher Secondary, or the Pre-University equivalent, as the admission qualification, and fix the maximum tenable period at four and a half years (guidelines).

Payment runs from the month the candidate joins the college. On renewal it resumes from the month following the last month paid, but only where the course of study is continuous; where it is not, there can be a break between one class ending and the next beginning for which nothing is paid, and the guidelines state that no request for relaxation of that rule will be entertained (guidelines).

• The value of the scholarships for undergraduate studies in Agriculture (including Agricultural Engineering & Home Science) and Animal Science subjects will be ₹ 1,000/- per month per student. The scholarship will be tenable for the full duration of the degree course in the concerned subject.

What to prepare

Documents required

Your college will ask for the set listed on the scheme record, and one item in it decides more outcomes than the rest combined: the income certificate from the designated State or Union Territory authority.

It is worth knowing what income ICAR means before that certificate is drawn up. For a salaried family it is basic salary plus income from any other source, leaving out dearness pay, dearness allowance, city compensatory allowance, overtime allowance and house rent allowance, while deputation allowance, honorarium, special pay and bonus are all counted in. Income liable to income tax is taken as computed for assessment after rebatable deductions. Income not liable to tax, such as income from agriculture, is taken net of the expenses incurred in earning it, which is the clause that matters most in a farming household (guidelines).

Separately from the certificate, the parent or guardian of each selected scholar submits an income affidavit at selection (guidelines).

Step by step

How to apply

The application is on paper and it goes to your college. The mode recorded against this scheme is offline, and what sits behind its application link is a printable form rather than a portal login (myScheme record).

ICAR starts the cycle from its own side rather than yours. Soon after the courses start, the Council calls for particulars of the eligible students admitted to the first year class of the different degree courses, together with the number of actual admissions to each (guidelines). Your job is to be inside that return, which means securing admission to an ICAR recognised agricultural university, getting the income certificate issued in time, and handing the completed form with your marksheets and bank details to the college office before it compiles the list.

How to Track the Application and the Payment

There is no candidate login and no status screen for this scholarship, so tracking is done through the college. Selection travels that route: the number of scholarships available in each course at each college, and the names of the candidates to be selected, are communicated by the Council to the colleges concerned (guidelines).

Money travels the same route. Funds are normally released to the Head of the Institution for each academic year in advance, against a progress report or certificate confirming that the scholar joined, the actual date of joining, and a formal demand for funds. The Head of the Institution then pays the scholars in regular monthly instalments, taking the conduct and regularity in attendance of each scholar into account (guidelines). A missing month is therefore a question for the college's scholarship or accounts section, which holds both the sanction letter and the money, and only after that for ICAR.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection is a merit ranking run within a single college's allotted quota, on merit-cum-means. Candidates who clear the means test and the marks bar are ranked, and where two candidates have equal aggregate marks in the qualifying examination the tie is broken on the marks they obtained in the science subjects of that examination (guidelines).

Scholarships that fall vacant during a year, through cancellation or otherwise, do not lapse. They are re-awarded strictly on merit to other candidates in the same college who meet the eligibility conditions, taking effect from the month the new awardee joined the class in that academic year, and running for the remaining period of the course under the same renewal conditions (guidelines).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Good conduct and regularity in attendance are implied conditions for the scholarship continuing. A scholar may not change institution or college during the tenure of the award except with the prior approval of the Council (guidelines).

Three things end the award: unsatisfactory progress during the studies, giving up the chosen course before completing it without the Council's prior approval, and irregular attendance. The Head of the Institution is expected to report habitual irregularity, behaviour, or participation in strikes to the Council, and may suggest suspension or cancellation (guidelines).

Cancellation is the one decision with no way back. A scholarship once cancelled is not restored whatever reasons are put forward, including better performance by the scholar at later house and university examinations, and the Council's decision in these matters is final and binding (guidelines).

Get help

Contact

Nothing about this scholarship moves without the college you are admitted to. It files the return of first year admissions, it receives the sanction and the funds, and it hands over the monthly instalment, which makes its scholarship or student welfare section the place where a question about your own award is actually answered.

Above the college sits the Council's Division of Education. What it publishes for the Deputy Director General (Agricultural Education) is a phone line, 91-11-25841760, and ddgedu.icar@gov.in (ICAR contact directory). Write with your college's name, your degree course and your year of admission in the first line, because the Council's records for this scheme are held college by college rather than by student.

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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