Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship For Scheduled Caste Candidates(RGNFSCC)

Overview

About RGNFSCC

UGC settled the name question in its own award paperwork. Its revised award list for Scheduled Caste candidates is headed "National fellowship for Scheduled Caste students [ Formerly Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for SC Candidates ]", and the candidate IDs printed under that heading still begin RGNF (UGC revised selection list). So the RGNF name is the scheme's history, not a live application route. What changed underneath the name matters more to a scholar than the name itself: the old UGC text was written for SC candidates doing full-time research without a JRF of UGC-NET or UGC-CSIR NET, ranked on post-graduation percentage (UGC RGNF-SC guidelines), and the scheme as it runs today admits nobody who has not cleared one of those two tests.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment funds this as a Central Sector Scheme introduced in the financial year 2005-06, and publishes it as the National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste Students (NFSC). The governing guidelines took effect on 25 November 2021 and were modified on 13 March 2023 (NFSC guidelines).

The SC track was not the only one renamed. UGC's ST guidelines open by recording that the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship scheme for Scheduled Tribes "has been renamed as National Fellowship for Higher Education of ST Students" (UGC NFSTS guidelines), and the two halves then separated: the ST fellowship went fully to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs from selection year 2017-18, while UGC carried on implementing the SC one. Money on the SC side was never small. Rs 1123.91 crore was released towards the fellowship for SC candidates between the financial years 2007-08 and 2016-17 (Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 4611, 22 July 2019).

Who runs the payments changed after that, and recently. Until September 2022 the scheme was implemented through UGC; under the revised procedure for releasing funds through a Central Nodal Agency, the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) took it over with effect from 1 October 2022 (PIB, 13 December 2022). That is why an SC research scholar today deals with NSFDC and a bank portal rather than with a UGC bureau. As for how many people are actually on it, 4,350 scholars had received the fellowship up to January 2025 (PIB, 26 March 2025).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

There is no NFSC deadline to miss, because the scheme opens no window of its own. Its calendar is the NET calendar, and NTA runs both qualifying tests twice a year (PIB, 2 August 2023). What is time-bound is joining, and that clock runs from the award letter.

An already-admitted candidate who does not join within those three months has the candidature cancelled, and the guidelines say the joining period will not be extended.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Two things decide it, and marks are not one of them. NFSC goes to SC candidates who qualify UGC-NET (JRF) or the Joint UGC-CSIR NET examination and secure admission in a university or institution recognised by UGC, and the ministry has confirmed to the Lok Sabha that the scheme carries no age limit (PIB, 10 March 2026). Nothing in that test rewards a higher post-graduation percentage, which is the exact reversal of the old RGNF rule.

The fellowship will also not follow a scholar into just any Ph.D. seat. Accreditation is the deciding factor for the two university routes: a central or state university under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act and a deemed university under Section 3 each need valid NAAC accreditation to host an NFSC scholar. An institution fully funded by the state or central government and empowered to award degrees, or an Institution of National Importance, qualifies on its status instead. The research itself has to be regular and full-time (NFSC guidelines).

Between two qualified candidates, the one already admitted wins. Where enough admitted candidates are not available, NET-qualified candidates without admission are picked in merit order, and a separate merit list is drawn up for them if needed. Transgender candidates are eligible to apply, as the scheme record on this page also records.

Disability is handled differently now than it was under RGNF. The current guidelines fold SC candidates with disabilities into the existing PwD quota under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and set 40 per cent as the minimum degree of disability for any concession or benefit (NFSC guidelines). The RGNF text had instead ring-fenced 3 per cent of its fellowships for SC candidates with disabilities (UGC RGNF-SC guidelines).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The exclusion field on the scheme record is blank at source. The disqualifications are real, but they sit in the fellowship guidelines rather than in the record, and there are four of them.

Being on a payroll ends it. Anyone employed by a university, a college, an educational institution or a central, state or UT government is excluded, and taking study leave or extraordinary leave in order to do the M.Phil. or Ph.D. does not cure that. One fellowship at a time is the second rule: a scholar must declare that no other scholarship, fellowship or monetary benefit is being received, and a scholar already drawing one has to relinquish it or forgo the NFSC selection. Third, a scholar who does not finish the research work inside the fellowship period cannot come back and apply again. Fourth, anyone who has already availed such a Ph.D. fellowship, wholly or in part, is out (NFSC guidelines).

Worth knowing if you are reading old RGNF material: the UGC-era text carried a separate cancellation list covering misconduct, unsatisfactory research progress, later-discovered ineligibility, employment during the research and any fraudulent activity (UGC RGNF-SC guidelines). Those grounds belong to the superseded rulebook, not to the NFSC one.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nobody re-applies each year. Continuation runs on the university's certification, and the step up from junior to senior fellow runs on an assessment of the research.

Two years after joining as a Junior Research Fellow, satisfactory progress extends the tenure by three more years at Senior Research Fellow rates for a scholar enrolled in Ph.D. or M.Phil. plus Ph.D. For the combined course the split is explicit: two years for the M.Phil., then another three after upgradation to the Ph.D. course. The money keeps moving because the university confirms continuation twice a year on a semester basis, within the 10th of the semester's first month; on that certification the fellowship is released within the 15th of every month with no further intervention from the university (NFSC guidelines). The JRF-to-SRF upgradation itself is a portal transaction the institution initiates, and NSFDC publishes the upgradation formats alongside each exam cycle (NSFDC NFSC page).

What you get

Award & benefits

There is a live discrepancy here that a scholar should know about before budgeting. The guidelines peg NFSC rates at par with UGC's own fellowship, and as modified in March 2023 they still print the rates notified with effect from 1 January 2019: Rs 31,000 a month for the initial two years as JRF and Rs 35,000 for the remaining tenure as SRF (NFSC guidelines). UGC's own Junior Research Fellowship page now publishes the higher figures, and NSFDC carries a separate NFSC notice titled "Revision of Fellowship Rates dated 25.10.2023" (NSFDC NFSC page). Answering on the parallel OBC fellowship, which runs on the same UGC-pegged rates, the ministry dated that revision to 1 January 2023 and gave the before-and-after as Rs 31,000 to Rs 37,000 for JRF and Rs 35,000 to Rs 42,000 for SRF (PIB, 7 February 2024). Treat the award letter as the binding figure.

Escort or reader assistance of Rs 2,000 per month is admissible in all subjects to physically handicapped and visually handicapped candidates (NFSC guidelines).

House Rent Allowance turns entirely on where the scholar sleeps. It is paid at 8, 16 or 24 per cent by city classification, but only to a scholar not provided with hostel accommodation; a scholar given a hostel seat draws the hostel fee alone, with mess, electricity and water charges outside it; a scholar who refuses a hostel seat the institution offered forfeits the HRA claim; and where no hostel is available, actual rent is reimbursed subject to the Government of India ceiling (NFSC guidelines). NSFDC publishes the applicable NFSC HRA slabs as a dated notice of its own, so check the current one rather than assuming the slab from an older award letter (NSFDC NFSC page).

Maximum tenure is five years, and no extension is permissible beyond it.

What to prepare

Documents required

The identity and category papers listed on this page are the ones the scheme record publishes, and the caste certificate is the one that decides whether money moves. Its genuineness is verified by the university or institution itself before the awardee is allowed to draw anything (NFSC guidelines), so a certificate that has never been through the host institution's own scrutiny is the usual point at which a joining stalls.

The rest of the record's paperwork belongs to the UGC era. Its quarterly Continuation Certificate, the yearly progress report and the contingency and HRA annexures are UGC proformas, submitted to a UGC-designated bank branch. Under NSFDC the continuation confirmation is a semester-wise portal transaction instead, and the blank forms are cycle-specific: NSFDC publishes a Verification-cum-Joining Report format and the JRF-to-SRF upgradation formats separately for every UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC NET cycle, so the correct form is the one filed under your own exam cycle (NSFDC NFSC page).

Aadhaar is not simply uploaded either. It is seeded against the scholar's record, forwarded to UIDAI for authentication by one-time password, then authenticated and approved by the institution's nodal officer before payments follow it (NSFDC Aadhaar seeding SOP). A scholar claiming HRA files a monthly confirmation certificate with the institution in the prescribed format.

Step by step

How to apply

There is no NFSC application form in the ordinary sense. You register with the National Testing Agency for UGC-NET (JRF) or the Joint UGC-CSIR NET, declare the Scheduled Caste category, and the NET result does the rest. NSFDC then publishes the list of NFSC-eligible candidates and the subject and category-wise cut-off for that cycle, and the award letter is downloadable from the same page (NSFDC NFSC page).

The scholar's own work starts after the award letter. Registration happens on the Scholarship and Fellowship Management Portal hosted at scholarship.canarabank.in: create the account under New User-Registration, file the online joining report, select the university, and the institution then links you and the system generates a payment schedule against your student ID. Linking is allowed within 24 months, and where a NET result was declared more than two years earlier the nodal officer has to raise an exception request from the university side (NSFDC scholar corner FAQs).

The same login is the tracking tool, and most of what it shows is a transaction someone at your own university has to complete. Aadhaar seeding carries its own status line, which reads "Seeded and Authenticated but not Approved" while it waits on the nodal officer acting as checker (NSFDC Aadhaar seeding SOP). Monthly payment confirmation, semester-wise confirmation, HRA modification, contingency modification and stop-payment marking are all institution-side entries visible against your record, and grievances are raised in the scholar corner itself (NSFDC scholar corner FAQs). A stalled fellowship therefore usually has a named person at your own university to chase. Payment reaches the Aadhaar-seeded bank account by Direct Benefit Transfer (PIB, 10 March 2026).

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection is arithmetic done by an examining body, not a committee reading research proposals. The department's scheme page states it plainly: SC candidates to be awarded NFSC are selected by the National Testing Agency through the UGC NET and Joint CSIR UGC NET exams, the cut-offs in marks or percentile are prepared by NTA, and NSFDC has no role in either the selection or the cut-offs (Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, NFSC).

The slot arithmetic is worth reading before you read a cut-off. Of the 2000 fellowships a year, 1500 are earmarked for UGC-NET-JRF in humanities and social sciences and 500 for the Joint UGC-CSIR NET in the science stream, and both tests are held twice a year (PIB, 2 August 2023). If one side's slots go unfilled the vacancies may be taken by the other test in the same academic year, and a shortfall of 25 per cent or more triggers a review of the allocation for the next year (NFSC guidelines).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

A scholar cannot hold any appointment, paid or otherwise, or draw salary, stipend or emoluments from another source during the tenure, the single relief being academic leave of up to one year. The gap between an M.Phil. result and Ph.D. admission may not exceed two years, no fellowship is paid across that gap, and the total tenure stays at five years excluding it. Overpayment is recoverable: a scholar who discontinues the course or goes on inadmissible leave must report it and refund whatever was paid beyond that date, and the institution's nodal officer is accountable for stopping the automatic monthly release and effecting the recovery (NFSC guidelines).

On the administrative side, NSFDC's implementation charge is capped at 1 per cent of the total fellowship it disburses, and it is required to run a monitoring dashboard for the ministry, a grievance redressal portal and a call centre (NFSC guidelines).

Get help

Contact

NSFDC answers NFSC queries on the toll-free number 1800110396 and at nfsc.nsfdc@gmail.com (Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, NFSC). A stalled joining report, a rejected beneficiary code, an unapproved Aadhaar authentication or a missing monthly payment is usually faster through your institution's nodal officer, because those are university-side transactions on the portal. Questions about the cut-off or about your place on the eligible list belong with NTA, which prepares both.

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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