National Overseas Scholarship For Scheduled Tribes (ST) Students(NOS-ST)

Overview

About NOS-ST

Twenty Scheduled Tribe students are picked for the National Overseas Scholarship in a selection year, and fewer than twenty leave. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs told the Rajya Sabha that of the 20 candidates selected in each of the selection years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24, the numbers who actually joined a foreign university were 14, 18 and 11, and that fund released under the scheme in the corresponding financial years was 4.95 crore, 4.00 crore and 7.00 crore (Press Information Bureau, 31 July 2024). The difference between a provisional award and a boarding pass is where this scheme is won or lost.

This is a Central Sector scheme run by the Scholarship Division of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and paid out abroad through Indian Embassies and Missions under the Ministry of External Affairs. It buys a degree rather than a discount: tuition at actuals plus a living allowance priced in the currency of the host country, for a Scheduled Tribe student admitted to a foreign institution inside the top 1000 of the QS World Ranking (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27).

As recently as July 2025 the Ministry described the scheme in the Lok Sabha as supporting higher studies abroad in Master's Degree, Ph.D. and Post-Doctoral Research, with no restriction on specific countries provided the applicant is admitted to a reputed foreign institute or university (Press Information Bureau, 24 July 2025). From the 2026-27 selection year the door narrowed. The Ministry's own answer to whether financial assistance is available for post-doctoral research programmes is a single word, No, and its answer to whether candidates who have already joined their course abroad may apply is the same (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27). Masters and PhD are what remain, and the applicant the scheme now wants is one holding an offer letter and still in India.

Read against the Ministry's older numbers, that change reads less like tightening and more like triage. In a reply on the three selection years to 2020-21, the Ministry reported 138, 162 and 215 applications received, 124, 127 and 203 candidates called for interview, 20 provisional awards a year, and its own finding that even selected students were often unable to obtain admission in universities abroad (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1091, 26.07.2021). Awarding first and admitting later was leaking slots, and the rule now runs the other way round.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The scheme has no standing calendar date. The Ministry opens the portal for a stated window and announces it by advertisement in Employment News and other dailies, through institutes, universities and state governments, and on its own portal (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs).

That window moves, and it has been extended before. The 2021-22 round was open from 22.11.2021 to 31.12.2021, and the 2025-26 round was extended with the new deadline set at 15th July 2025, 5:30 PM (Scholarship & DBT, Ministry of Tribal Affairs). Each selection year gets its own advertisement, filed on that page by name, NOS Advertisement 2026-27 alongside NOS Advertisement 2025-26 and the years before it (Scholarship & DBT, Ministry of Tribal Affairs). That advertisement, and not last year's dates or a coaching site's summary, is the document that fixes the window an applicant is working to.

Three other dates are fixed by rule rather than by advertisement, and all three are read against the selection year rather than against the date of application: the maximum age of 32 or 35 as on 1st July, the income certificate covering the financial year 2025-26, and the 2 years within which a selected candidate has to join the course after the provisional award letter is issued, after which the award automatically gets cancelled (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The two bars that end most applications are age and money, and both are read on fixed dates rather than on the day you apply.

The income certificate itself is dated, not just the income. For this cycle it has to cover the financial year 2025-26, that is 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2026, and it has to be issued by a competent authority of the state government not below the rank of Tehsildar. A monthly income certificate is refused outright, and where the father is alive but reports no income, a declaration in the prescribed format explaining why is part of the application rather than an afterthought (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27).

Within the Scheduled Tribe pool the scheme carries a second, smaller reservation. Of the awards in a year, 17 go to Scheduled Tribe candidates and 03 to candidates from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, and six slots are earmarked for female beneficiaries, transferable to male beneficiaries only if they stay unfilled (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27). A PVTG applicant needs the PVTG certificate as well as the ST certificate, and the community name on it is matched against the latest Gazette notification, so a spelling that differs from the notification is treated as a defect and not as a typo.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Bachelor level courses in any discipline are outside the scheme, and post-doctoral research left it from 2026-27. Two exclusions are less obvious and cost more applications. A candidate already receiving a scholarship or financial assistance from the university or institution abroad is not eligible, and a candidate selected for a state government scholarship cannot hold that and this central award together; one has to be given up (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27).

The family-level bar is absolute rather than sequential. Only one child of the same parents is eligible, and an individual can take the award once, so a younger sibling cannot inherit the slot after an elder one has used it, and a candidate who has already held it cannot come back for a higher degree.

Cancellation, once you are abroad, comes with recovery of what has already been paid. The guidelines list admission secured on false documents, returning to India without completing the course, and involvement in illegal or anti-national activity, misconduct, narcotic substances, violation of the host country's law or a police case as grounds on which the Ministry may both cancel the award and recover the money, with the single exception of a failure to complete caused by ill-health and certified by a medical officer nominated by the Indian Mission (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no annual renewal form on the NOS portal. The award runs till the course or research is completed or till the prescribed duration ends, whichever comes first, and the guidelines cap that at 4 years for a PhD and at 1 or 2 years for a Master's degree depending on the course (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs).

What replaces a renewal form is a reporting duty. The awardee submits a progress report on the NOS portal once every 6 months, and the Indian Mission separately collects performance reports from the university and posts joining, discontinuation and similar events back onto the Ministry's portal (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs). Miss the reporting and the Mission, not the Ministry, is the office that notices first.

An extension beyond the prescribed duration is allowed only on the university's recommendation, and it carries no money of any kind except the return air ticket to India (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27). A thesis that slips a year is therefore self-funded.

What you get

Award & benefits

The scheme prices its allowances in the currency of the country you study in, and the guidelines name only two of those countries explicitly. Everything else is settled at the US Dollar rate or its equivalent.

None of it reaches the student as an advance. The Ministry does not release payment directly: after the awardee joins, the university sends bills and vouchers to the Indian Mission, the Mission pays, and the Ministry reimburses the Mission (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27). A student who has budgeted on the tuition arriving before the semester fee is due has budgeted wrong.

One clause covers the years when a campus is not reachable. If a pandemic, natural calamity or war sends an awardee back to India to study online, the maintenance allowance drops to the Junior Research Fellow rate for a Master's degree and the Senior Research Fellow rate for a PhD under the National Fellowship for ST students, and the foreign rate resumes only when the student rejoins the university abroad; the same substitution applies for a period of field study in India, and in that case the to and fro airfare is payable once for the whole course (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs).

• Sl. No.Scholarship ComponentDetails1.Annual Maintenance AllowanceThe Annual maintenance allowance in USD15,400 ($ Fifteen thousand four hundred only) in US/ Pound sterling 9,900 (£ Nine thousand nine hundred only) in United Kingdom for all level courses. For other countries, the USD or equivalent rates would be applicable.2.Annual Contingency and Equipment AllowanceThe Annual Contingency and Equipment Allowance for books/essential apparatus/study tour/typing and binding of thesis etc. will be $ 1532 (US Dollars One thousand five hundred thirty-two only) for the candidates in US and for candidates in United Kingdom, it will be £ 1116 (Pounds sterling One thousand one hundred sixteen only). For other countries, US Dollar or equivalent rates would be applicable.3.Poll TaxActuals shall be paid, wherever applicable.4.Visa FeesActual visa fees in Indian Rupees will be paid.5.Incidental Journey ExpensesIncidental journey expenses up to US Dollars 20 or its equivalent in Indian Rupees are permissible.6.FeesTuition fees and other non-refundable fees which is required to be compulsorily paid by the student for completion of the course, as per actuals.7.Medical Insurance PremiumActuals as charged will be admissible. The Indian Embassy/Mission in the respective country will however examine the reasonableness of medical premium opted/claimed by the student.8.Cost of Air PassageAir passage grant on actual basis from India to the nearest place to the educational institution and back to India, by economy class and shortest route at best available price shall be provided.9.Local TravelSecond class railway fare from the port of disembarkation to the place of study and back; in case of far flung places not connected by rail, bus fare from the place of residence to the nearest railway station, actual charge of crossing by ferry, air fare to the nearest rail-cum-air Station will be permissible.Note: Extension of stay beyond prescribed duration for levels of courses as mentioned above, will be without financial assistance of any kind except the air passage to return to India, if the candidate decides to come back to India on completion of the course.

What to prepare

Documents required

Documents are not uploaded to the scholarship portal in the ordinary sense. Registration is separate on the National Overseas portal and on DigiLocker, and the application then pulls what it needs from DigiLocker, from the Issued Documents section where the government has already issued a record and from the Drive section where the applicant has uploaded the rest. Everything goes in as a PDF except the profile photo, which is a JPEG or JPG sized between 50 KB and 100 KB (Instructions Manual for Filling Online Application, Academic Year 2026-27).

Three requirements catch applicants who assume a marksheet is a marksheet. Only the 10th board certificate or a birth certificate is accepted as proof of date of birth. A CGPA, OGPA or FGPA transcript has to be accompanied by the institution's conversion formula sheet, and an M.Phil. marksheet is not considered against the minimum marks criteria at all (Instructions Manual for Filling Online Application, Academic Year 2026-27).

Two of the papers are declarations the applicant downloads and signs rather than certificates a government office issues: the declaration that only one child of the family is availing the scholarship, and the declaration explaining a father's nil income. A deceased father's death certificate, or both parents' in the case of an orphan applicant, sits in the same list (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27).

Step by step

How to apply

The application is entirely online at overseas.tribal.gov.in and runs in three stages: registration on the National Overseas portal, registration on DigiLocker for anyone who does not already have an account, and the form itself (Instructions Manual for Filling Online Application, Academic Year 2026-27).

Registration is where mistakes become permanent. It is done on an Aadhaar number, or on an Aadhaar enrolment number if the card has not yet issued, and the name has to match the matriculation certificate. Once registration completes, name, date of birth, email, mobile number, domicile state and domicile district cannot be changed, and the email address doubles as the login. The form itself can be filled across as many sittings as you like using Save Draft, but Final Submit closes it for editing (Instructions Manual for Filling Online Application, Academic Year 2026-27).

The education block asks for the Indian university's AISHE code, for whether you have cleared GRE, GMAT, TOEFL or IELTS, and for the QS world rank of the institution that has made you an offer, along with the validity date of the offer letter and your expected joining date. Where a candidate is holding several offers, the instruction is to upload the one from the institution with the best QS world ranking or the one the candidate intends to join (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27).

Tracking the application after submission happens inside the same login: the applicant signs in to the portal with the registered credentials and reads the position under the heading Application Status (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27). The result is not only a portal event. The Ministry posts the provisional merit list of eligible candidates on its own website (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs), and the selection lists for past years, including the PVTG lists, sit under Scholarship and DBT on the Ministry's site (Scholarship & DBT, Ministry of Tribal Affairs). Anything that breaks on the portal goes to the Ministry's grievance module rather than to an email thread.

How winners are picked

Selection process

There is no entrance test. Merit is the rank of the university that admitted you, and separate merit lists are drawn for each field of study, so a management applicant competes against management applicants for the slots set aside for that stream.

Inside a stream, the list is ordered on the institution's QS world ranking, and a tie between two candidates holding offers from equally ranked institutions is broken on the marks or grades secured in the qualifying examination (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs). Where a stream cannot be filled that way, the vacant slots go to an interview before a committee of experts constituted by the Ministry, and candidates who have cleared GRE, GMAT or TOEFL are preferred at that stage. A shortlisted candidate called to that interview is entitled to reimbursement of second class train or bus fare from the place of residence to the place of interview, by the shortest route.

Selection produces a provisional award letter first. The confirmation letter follows only after verification, which for a candidate with an offer letter is done through the State or UT administration and covers the caste and income certificates, along with an antecedent form, a health certificate, passport and visa copies, and a joining report submitted after the student joins (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The award is tied to one course at one institution. A candidate cannot change the course of study or research, or the institute, for which the scholarship was sanctioned, and the guidelines make the visa the candidate's own responsibility. Any overpayment received through the Indian Mission or another government agency has to be refunded to the Mission, and before the return tickets are booked the awardee has to upload course completion details and a brief account of the study to the Alumni Module on the NOS portal (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs).

Travel is arranged, not reimbursed on a receipt. The ticket booking request goes to the Ministry's portal in the prescribed format, with an email, one month before departure, and the Ministry then arranges the air ticket (FAQs for ST Students, National Overseas Scholarship 2026-27). Any dispute in India arising out of the scheme falls to the courts of the Union Territory of Delhi, while a dispute abroad is handled by the Indian Mission (NOS guidelines, Ministry of Tribal Affairs).

Get help

Contact

The Scholarship Division that runs the scheme publishes a landline, 011-24013773, and the address nos-mota@tribal.gov.in for the National Overseas Scholarship, along with a students' query and grievance login for anything that fails on the portal (Instructions Manual for Filling Online Application, Academic Year 2026-27). The Ministry's grievance module is the route it names for a change of contact details after submission, because the form itself will not accept one.

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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