New Akanksha Scheme (Educational Loan) (GNDTDC)(NASELGNDTDC)

Overview

About NASELGNDTDC

The New Akanksha Scheme (Educational Loan) is money you borrow and repay with interest, not a grant. The Gujarat Nomadic and Denotified Tribes Development Corporation (GNDTDC) lends it to students from the state's Nomadic Tribe (NT) and Denotified Tribe (DNT) communities who have taken a seat in a professional course such as medicine, engineering, MBA, MCA or nursing.

The Social Justice and Empowerment Department created GNDTDC by a resolution dated 2 February 2015, specifically for the state's nomadic and denotified communities, according to the corporation's introduction page.

Most of what it lends is not the state's own money. GNDTDC's scheme page splits every loan "૯૦ % કેન્દ્રીય નિગમના, ૫ % રાજય સરકાર અને ૫ % લાભાર્થી ફાળાની રકમ", that is, ninety per cent from the central corporation, five from the state government and five from the student. The corporation's FAQ page names that central lender as NBCFDC (the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, New Delhi), and NBCFDC in turn lists GNDTDC among its state channelising agencies. That link explains why GNDTDC's figures mirror NBCFDC's education-loan terms, while the Directorate's page for the same scheme quotes a lower limit.

Before the rate or the ceiling matters, GNDTDC's own rules decide whether the loan is usable at all: the seat must have come through the state's central admission committee, the loan needs guarantors or property as security, and one family can carry only one corporation loan at a time.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

There is no fixed yearly window. GNDTDC's FAQ says applications are invited online through newspaper advertisements, and that the advertisement is issued only after NBCFDC and the state government provide funds and the annual plan is approved, so the timing moves with the money. Because the ACPC admission letter is compulsory, your application can only be complete after the committee has allotted your seat.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Community comes first. Gujarat's Directorate of Developing Castes Welfare keeps the two lists that decide it: the Nomadic Tribes list (Bajaniya, Bhand, Vadi, Vansfoda, Od, Ravaliya, Saraniya and others) and the Denotified Tribes list, which names twelve communities, among them Chhara, Dafer, Miyana, Vaghri and Chunvaliya Koli. If your community is not on either list, this loan is not yours to apply for, whatever your income.

GNDTDC's scheme page sets the income test in Gujarati: the family's annual income "₹. ૩ લાખ સુધીની રહેશે", up to three lakh rupees, and at least half of all lending ("ઓછામાં ઓછા ૫૦ ટકા") goes to families earning up to "₹. ૧.૫૦ લાખ", one and a half lakh a year. Those are NBCFDC's own terms too: its education-loan page fixes the family income at Rs 3.00 lakh and asks channel partners to release at least 50% of the money to families earning up to Rs 1.50 lakh.

The Directorate's scheme page adds an age band that GNDTDC's own page does not print, "વયમર્યાદા ૧૮ વર્ષથી ૩૫ વર્ષ હોવી જોઇએ", an age limit of eighteen to thirty-five years. A student outside that band should ask the district office which page it follows before filling the form.

The condition GNDTDC's FAQ treats as non-negotiable is how you got your seat. Asked whether an ACPC letter is compulsory, GNDTDC's FAQ answers yes, which means admission through Gujarat's Admission Committee for Professional Courses. The Directorate's scheme page says the same thing in its own words: the loan is for students admitted through the central admission committee.

The course list is wider on the online form than on the scheme pages. The application form offers Dental, B. Physiotherapy, B. Optometry, BAMS, BHMS, B.Pharm and M.Pharm, M.Sc (Bio-Tech), M.Sc (IT), M.Ed and GNM Nursing alongside medicine, engineering, MBA, MCA and nursing.

A diploma holder moving into a degree is within reach too: the one education-loan case the corporation publishes as a success story is an automobile diploma holder who used the loan to finish the degree.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

In practice, no ACPC letter means no loan. That rules out a management-quota seat, which the scheme pages name, and any other seat filled outside the committee's process. The FAQ does not say how it treats a seat won through a national admission process outside ACPC, so a student in that position should get the district office's answer in writing before applying.

A family's existing debt to the corporation also blocks a new application. The online portal tells anyone who has an unpaid loan from the corporation not to apply, and it allows one applicant per family under one scheme. The corporation's FAQ adds that no other family member gets a loan until the running one is repaid, and that you can borrow from only one of the Developing Castes Welfare corporations, not from GNDTDC and a sister corporation together.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

GNDTDC publishes no renewal procedure for later years of the course. The application form asks which year or semester you want the money for, so ask your district office before the next year begins whether it releases the next tranche on the same file or wants a fresh application.

What you get

Award & benefits

How much you can borrow depends on which official page you read, and neither Gujarat page dates its figure. As read in September 2026, GNDTDC, the lender, states on its own scheme page that "આ યોજના માટે લોનની મહત્તમ મર્યાદા ₹.૧૫ લાખ સુધીની છે", a maximum of fifteen lakh rupees, and adds "વિદેશમાં અભ્યાસ માટે ₹. ૨૦ લાખની મર્યાદા છે", twenty lakh for study abroad. The education-loan listing on its application portal also reads fifteen lakh.

The Directorate of Developing Castes Welfare, the parent department's office whose scheme page myScheme lists as the guidelines, prints "₹.૧૦ લાખ" (ten lakh) in the same paragraph on the same day. Its criteria block on that page adds a yearly cap for ACPC admissions, "વાર્ષિક રૂ. ૨,૫૦,૦૦૦/- અને સમગ્ર અભ્યાસક્રમ માટે રૂ.૧૦,૦૦,૦૦૦/-", two and a half lakh a year and ten lakh for the whole course. The myScheme record reproduced below, as captured on 8 July 2026, carries the ten-lakh figure.

GNDTDC's pair matches NBCFDC's education-loan page, which caps a loan at Rs 15.00 lakh for study in India and Rs 20.00 lakh abroad. GNDTDC is the lender and its portal is where the application is filed, but the figure that binds you is the one in your sanction, so budget on the lower number until the corporation confirms the higher one in writing.

On interest the Gujarat pages agree. GNDTDC's scheme page and the Directorate's page both read "વ્યાજનો દર વાર્ષિક ૪ % રહેશે. વિદ્યાર્થીની માટે આ દર ૩.૫ % છે": four per cent a year, and three and a half per cent for a female student. NBCFDC's education-loan page sets the same pair, 4% for boys and 3.5% for girls. Only the benefits list in the myScheme record below prints a higher rate for female students than for male students, and the myScheme record's own FAQ answer gives female students 3.5%, so treat that line as a slip in the listing.

There is no subsidy on top of the low rate. GNDTDC's FAQ says its loans carry no subsidy, so you repay the full principal with interest.

The loan is costed from your actual course, not handed out as a flat sum. The application form asks for the admission fee for the whole course, the tuition fee (on the institution's letterhead), the exam fee, hostel charges for lodging and food, the estimated cost of books, stationery and equipment, and the insurance premium, and adds them into a total requirement.

• 1. Loan Amount: The maximum loan limit for this scheme is up to ₹10,00,000/-.
• 2. Included Expenses: The loan amount will include the following: Admission and tuition fees
• Expenses for books, uniforms, essential materials, and exam fees
• Accommodation and food expenses
• Insurance – Policy premium
• 3. Interest Rate: 4% per annum for male students
• 5% per annum for female students
• 4. Contribution: 90% contribution from the Central Corporation,
• 5% from the State Government,
• 5% from the beneficiary
• 5. Repayment Period: The loan will have to be repaid in 60 equal monthly installments including interest.
• The loan will be recovered within 6 months of completion of the course or upon getting a job, whichever is earlier.

What to prepare

Documents required

The myScheme list below leaves out the paper GNDTDC's FAQ puts first: a caste certificate in the applicant's name from the competent authority. The same answer asks for the family's income certificate from the competent authority, a school leaving certificate or a medical officer's certificate as proof of age, attested copies of the ration card and election card, and an Aadhaar copy. Keep the ACPC admission letter ready as well, since the FAQ treats it as compulsory, and have the institution put the tuition fee on its letterhead, as the form requires.

A second set of papers is due only after the selection committee gives preliminary approval. The FAQ lists a notarised affidavit or e-stamp from you and one from your guarantor, an adhesive stamp, Aadhaar seeding, five or ten signed blank cheques, proof of property along with its charge entry, assessment or tax receipt, and a consent form. Line up your guarantor and the property papers before you apply, since they are asked for only after approval.

Step by step

How to apply

Applications are filed on GNDTDC's online portal, gndcdconline.gujarat.gov.in, where the education loan is listed as New Akanksha Yojana. The corporation's How To Apply guide sets out the sequence:

1. Pick the education loan (New Akanksha Yojana) and click "Apply Now".
2. Fill the form and click "Submit". The form must be filled in English.
3. Write down your Confirmation No. On this portal the application number and the confirmation number are the same thing.
4. Use "Edit Application" if anything needs correcting.
5. Upload your photo and signature under "Upload Photo".
6. Upload your documents under "Upload Document".
7. Click "Confirm Application" to send the form forward.
8. Print the confirmed application and keep it.

An application that is edited but never confirmed has not been sent, so step 7 is the one to double-check.

Tracking the Application and the Repayments

The portal's Know App Status page shows where your file stands: choose the education loan (New Akanksha Yojana) from the scheme list, then enter your application number and date of birth. If you have lost the number, the KnowApp No page recovers it from the scheme, your mobile number and date of birth.

Once the loan is running, the corporation's FAQ says details of the instalments you have paid are available from its office. Instalments are paid at the designated bank branch using the bank book the corporation issues, or through the bank's payment gateway.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection sits with the corporation, not with your college. GNDTDC's FAQ says applications are first sorted district by district into complete and defective lists, which then go before the beneficiary selection committee chaired by the corporation's chairperson; for education loans, the power to approve or reject rests with the Managing Director. Preliminary approval is given within the unit limits in the advertisement, in each district in proportion to the population of the communities, and within the funds available.

Priority is written into three places. The FAQ gives preference to widowed or deserted women and to applicants with disabilities, the Directorate's page gives it to the poorest income band, BPL families, widows, deserted women and educated unemployed applicants, and NBCFDC's rule that at least half the money reach families earning up to Rs 1.50 lakh applies on top (NBCFDC, Education Loan).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

GNDTDC sets the security by the size of the loan. For a loan above Rs 1 lakh, GNDTDC's FAQ asks for two guarantors, each either a government or semi-government employee or a person owning immovable property worth one and a half times the loan, with a charge recorded against that property; it also lists ten post-dated cheques from the borrower. The rule is written for all of the corporation's loans rather than for education alone, so ask the district office which form of security it will accept for your amount.

Repayment starts sooner than a national moratorium might suggest. GNDTDC's scheme page says the loan "વ્યાજ સહિત ૬૦ સરખા માસિક હપ્તામાં ભરપાઇ કરવાની રહેશે", sixty equal monthly instalments including interest, with recovery beginning within six months of finishing the course or on getting a job or business, whichever comes first. The five-year moratorium on NBCFDC's education-loan page is for NBCFDC's recoveries from its channel partners, not a grace period for the student.

The rate is not frozen either. NBCFDC's pattern of finance, in force from 1 April 2025, lists education loans of up to Rs 25.00 lakh at 8% a year to the beneficiary. GNDTDC's own pages still show the lower rates quoted under Award & Benefits, so get the rate that applies to you in writing before you sign the loan documents.

Changing banks mid-loan has its own step in the FAQ: you hand back the cheques drawn on the old account and give fresh cheques with a copy of the new passbook.

Get help

Contact

NBCFDC's list of channel partners gives the corporation's address as Block No. 19/2, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar 382010, with the phone number 07923258776 and the email swontdntnigam@gmail.com. GNDTDC's own contact page places the Managing Director's office on the second floor of Block 19 in the same building, lists its number as "+૯૧ ૭૯ ૨૩૨૫૮૭૭૫", which ends in 5 rather than 6, and gives the email md-ntdnt-gnr@gujarat.gov.in.

For help inside your own district, the same contact page lists the Developing Castes office in each district, headed by a Deputy Director in some districts and a District Social Welfare Officer in others, where a Social Welfare Officer (Corporation) acts as the corporation's District Manager. The Directorate whose page carries the ten-lakh version of this loan works from the third floor of Block 4 in the same Jivraj Mehta Bhavan complex, according to the footer of its scheme page.

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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