Scheme for Grant of Additional Scholarship to the Students of Other Backward Classes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, for Pursuing Higher Studies Anywhere in India after Secondary Level (Except Class XI & XII)(SGASSOBCANIPHSAISL(ECXIXII))

Overview

About SGASSOBCANIPHSAISL(ECXIXII)

The Social Welfare Department calls OBC students of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to three scholarship schemes in a single notice, and the one issued for the current session set two of them at a parental income ceiling of Rs 2.5 lakh and this one at Rs 8 lakh (Nicobar Times, 4 July 2026). That gap decides which island families the scheme is actually for, and it is the first thing to settle before filling anything in.

The Grant of Additional Scholarship (UT) to OBC Students is the Andaman and Nicobar Administration's own money rather than a share of a central scheme. The Department of Social Welfare pays it from funds under the UT Plan, at Rs 1,000 a month, to a non-creamy-layer OBC student who is a domicile of the islands and studying anywhere in India after the secondary stage (scheme notification, Directorate of Social Welfare, November 2020).

"Additional" describes the money, not a condition on the student. The notification's eligibility clause tests community and creamy-layer status, domicile, the qualifying examination, the type of course and a cap of two children per parent or guardian, and says nothing at all about another award: it neither requires one nor forbids one. What the department does is advertise this scheme in the same release as the two centrally sponsored OBC schemes it also administers, which is why the three are usually read together in the islands.

Here is how the notice divides the three, by stage and by ceiling:

The last column is where the scheme stops being a supplement to anything. A family earning above the central line but under the islands' line is shut out of the pre-matric and post-matric awards while still clearing this one, so for that band the word additional describes nothing they already hold: this is the only one of the three open to them.

The carve-out of Classes XI and XII lines up with the scheme beside it, since the post-matric award already covers Class XI onwards, but the notification itself gives no reason for the exclusion. What it leaves is a scheme that picks students up either straight after Class X, for a polytechnic diploma, an ITI trade or a vocational course, or after Class XII for a degree and anything above it. The present rules date from a notification of November 2020 that superseded an order of 27 October 2015 (scheme notification).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

Every date below is the portal's, and each applies to all three OBC schemes alike:

Those dates come from the National Scholarship Portal's schedule, not from the scheme's own rules. The notification says the department will announce the scheme and invite applications in May and June every year through advertisements in the leading newspapers of the UT and other suitable media, and the release carries its own distribution list, to the Daily Telegram, to Doordarshan for the news bulletin and to All India Radio for the Pradeshik Samachar (Department of Social Welfare press release).

In practice the portal calendar binds, and it has been running well past the notification's window: applications opened on 1 July in the current round (Nicobar Times) and only on 22 August a year earlier (The Wave Andaman).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The community test points at one list and one date. The applicant has to belong to an OBC named in the Andaman and Nicobar Administration's notification dated 16 December 2005 and be outside the creamy layer, has to be a domicile of the islands, and has to have passed Class X or Class XII from a recognised board before joining a recognised institution (scheme notification, Directorate of Social Welfare). Geography is the one condition the notification declines to impose: the institution may be "anywhere in the country", which puts an island student enrolled in a mainland college squarely inside the scheme.

On money, the notification is quieter than the advertisement. It sets no rupee figure of its own and leaves the income test to the non-creamy-layer certificate plus a declaration of family income. The rupee ceiling comes from the yearly notices instead: the 2025 round put parental annual income for this scheme at Rs 8 lakh against Rs 2.5 lakh for the pre-matric and post-matric awards (The Wave Andaman, 27 August 2025), and the notice reported on 4 July 2026 carries both figures unchanged (Nicobar Times).

What the notification enumerates is course types, not named courses, and the enumeration is long. The award runs to regular, full-time study, from post-matriculation non-degree courses that need only Class X, through graduation and post-graduation, to M.Phil, PhD and post-doctoral work, and across professional streams from pharmacy and nursing to hotel management and the CA, ICWA and CS qualifications. A post-graduate medical student stays eligible only while the course bars them from practising.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The sharpest bar is the one on repeating a level you already hold. Finishing a BA and starting a BSc, or holding an MA and beginning another MA, takes a student out of the scheme, and so does a second professional course after a first.

A separate note rules out anything the Central Government, a state or the UT Administration already funds: aircraft maintenance engineering, the private pilot licence course, courses at the Training Ship Dufferin, which the notification lists under its later name Rejendra, training at the Defence academies, pre-examination training centres, and every distance education course.

One condition never reaches the scheme listing at all, and it turns on neither money nor marks. If the Head of the Institution reports at any point that a scholar has been guilty of misconduct such as resorting to or taking part in strikes, or irregularity in attendance, the authority sanctioning the scholarship may cancel it outright, or stop or withhold further payment for whatever period it records in writing as fit.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

What the notification tests at renewal is promotion: within a course that runs for several years the award is renewed year to year provided the scholar moves up to the next higher class, and a student promoted under a university's own regulations carries the scholarship to the class they are promoted into. Failing a class for more than one year stops it.

Illness has its own route, written into the notification and easy to overlook. A scholar who could not sit the annual examination because of illness or another unforeseeable event may still be renewed for the next academic year, on a medical certificate or other sufficient proof recommended by the Head of the Institution. That certificate goes with the renewal form to the Director (Social Welfare), who screens it and sends it up with a recommendation for the sanctioning authority's approval.

Renewal keeps to the fresh application's calendar rather than one of its own: the department's 2026 call covered fresh and renewal claims under all three OBC schemes together (Nicobar Times, 4 July 2026).

What you get

Award & benefits

The rate is Rs 1,000 a month, payable for ten months in an academic session, credited directly to the beneficiary's Aadhaar-linked bank account by the Department of Social Welfare (scheme notification, clauses 3 and 4).

One payment rule catches almost every new applicant. The scholarship is admissible only to students who passed the previous academic session, and the notification spells out what that means with its own example: a student who has passed Class XI or Class XII becomes eligible only after completing the first year of the higher education or professional course. A first-year student is not being ignored by the system. They are simply not yet inside the payment rule.

Sanction is also subject to funds. The notification states plainly that the award will depend on fund availability in a particular financial year, so an eligible application is not by itself a payment.

• Value of Scholarship: Under this scheme, an amount of ₹1000/- per month shall be sanctioned to the eligible students belonging to the OBC category.
• Payment and Mode of Disbursal of Scholarship: The scholarship shall be payable for a duration of ten months in an academic session.
• The scholarship shall be admissible only to the passed-out students of the previous academic session. (e.g. A student after passing Class XI/Class XII will be eligible for a scholarship only after he/she completes 1st year of the higher education/professional course )
• The scholarship amount shall be directly credited to the Aadhaar-linked bank account of the beneficiary by the Department of Social Welfare.
• The award of a scholarship will depend upon the fund availability in a particular financial year.

What to prepare

Documents required

The paperwork splits by who signs it. The caste certificate and the non-creamy-layer certificate both have to be signed by an authorised revenue officer not below the rank of Tehsildar, and the non-creamy-layer certificate goes in as the original plus one self-attested copy. In the islands that certificate is itself an application: OBC/NCL Certificate is one of the services listed on the administration's ANI e-Seva portal.

The scheme listing asks flatly for an income certificate; the notification is more particular. It wants an income declaration by the parent or guardian, stating definite income from all sources, sworn on an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper. A government servant does not file that affidavit at all and submits a copy of the pay slip attested by the DDO instead (scheme notification, clause 9).

The rest is the qualifying certificates, a passport-size photograph signed by the student, the Aadhaar card, the first page of the bank passbook, and, for a renewal, the previous year's acknowledgement receipt and a marks statement counter-signed by the Head of the Institution. Every particular has to be verified and counter-signed by that Head, and separate forms are prescribed for a fresh sanction and for a renewal.

Step by step

How to apply

On the National Scholarship Portal this scheme sits under the head "State Scheme - Andaman and Nicobar", and one step there is specific to it and easy to get wrong: the department's press release tells applicants for the additional scholarship to choose "Incentive Scheme" under the Scheme Type drop-down box while registering and filling the form (Department of Social Welfare press release). The same drop-down was flagged again when the next round opened (The Wave Andaman, 27 August 2025), and getting it wrong is precisely the registration error the notices warn against.

Registration comes before any of that, as One Time Registration, and only then the application form itself. From there the file moves through three hands: the student submits, the institution verifies, and the District and State Nodal Officers clear it. That chain is how an island student in a mainland college is handled: the notification requires every particular to be verified and counter-signed by the Head of the Institution wherever that institution is, while the sanction stays with the islands.

Application Status and Track Your Payment are the two portal links that report back, and on this scheme they report on different offices: the form sits with the institution and then the nodal officers, while the money is released by the Department of Social Welfare into the Aadhaar-linked account. The calendar adds a blunter checkpoint after the close: a student whose application is found defective can verify and fix it up to 15 November 2026, a fortnight after the 31 October deadline. The same notice repeats that the bank account has to be active, Aadhaar-seeded and compliant with the bank's requirements before the money can move (Nicobar Times, 4 July 2026).

The notification also keeps the older paper route, written for the period before the scheme moved onto the portal: the application, complete with documents, goes through the Head of the Institution to the Director, Department of Social Welfare.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Clause 8 does the whole of the selecting, and it selects by reference: eligible OBC students get the scholarship on fulfilment of the criteria in clause 2 and then those in clause 6 (scheme notification). That is the eligibility test and the renewal conditions, and there is nothing else in it. No mark is ranked, no quota is divided, no list is cut at a line.

The machinery behind it is a departmental screening committee of three officers, the Programme Officer (ICDS) as chairperson with the Senior Investigator (Planning) and the Senior Investigator (OBC) as members. It submits the list of selected and non-selected students to the Secretary (Social Welfare), who is the sanctioning authority. The Lieutenant Governor may relax or modify any or all of the eligibility criteria for an individual OBC applicant, case by case, duly recording the recommendation in writing.

A reporting line runs the other way as well, back up from the department. The Secretary (Social Welfare) is to monitor and evaluate the scheme's financial and physical performance periodically, and the department has to furnish a yearly progress report on the number of beneficiaries who received the scholarship, alongside the last year's actual expenditure and the next year's proposal (scheme notification, clauses 11 to 13).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Once sanctioned, the award is tenable from the stage at which it was granted until the course ends, subject to good conduct and regular attendance certified by the Head of the Institution. Walking away mid-year is not a neutral act: the notification makes the money already paid recoverable, on the administration's direction.

A student who does not finish the course they were awarded the scholarship for, and joins another recognised professional, technical, certificate, diploma or degree course, may still be granted it, but only for the period after the one already paid for. And the administration reserves the right to change the scheme's provisions at any time at its own discretion, which is worth remembering before treating a published rate as fixed for the length of a four-year course.

Get help

Contact

The scheme's office is the Directorate of Social Welfare, Goalghar, Port Blair 744101, reachable on 03192 233356 and at director-sw@and.nic.in (Directorate of Social Welfare). That is the office a paper application or a renewal is addressed to, routed through the Head of the Institution, and the Director (Social Welfare) is the officer who screens a renewal before it goes up for sanction.

For the application itself the department points students to the National Scholarship Portal or to their own institution. There is no OBC helpdesk named in the notice, which is a real difference from the tribal welfare side of the administration: that directorate has set up desks in every school and college and a central one at the Directorate of Tribal Welfare in the Secretariat Complex (Nicobar Times, 4 August 2026).

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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