Scholarships for Higher Education for Young Achievers Scheme (SHREYAS) (OBC & Others)(SHREYAS)

Overview

About SHREYAS

SHREYAS for OBC and Other students is not the free coaching scheme that most SHREYAS searches are chasing. It is an accounting wrapper around a doctoral fellowship and an interest subsidy on overseas education loans, and only the fellowship is taking new people: fresh applications for the subsidy have not been considered or accepted since FY 2023-24, on the ministry's own standing instruction (Impact Assessment of the Dr Ambedkar interest subsidy scheme, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment). Nothing under this name pays for a degree taken in India, and the coaching most searchers want belongs to a different SHREYAS in the same ministry.

SHREYAS (OBC & Others) is a name given to two Central Sector schemes that the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment already ran separately: the National Fellowship for OBC students and the Dr Ambedkar Central Sector Scheme of Interest Subsidy on Educational Loans for Overseas Studies for OBCs and EBCs. The scheme document places them together for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26 and sets a single stated purpose, educational empowerment of OBC and EBC students, in the SHREYAS scheme guidelines issued under File No. 11019/02/2019-BC-I.

Only one of those two doors is open to a new applicant. The department's own impact assessment, generated by its Statistics Division in April 2025, records that the ministry has instructed that fresh applications for the interest subsidy will not be considered or accepted till further orders, and that from FY 2023-24 the scheme is discontinued for the time being for fresh applications (Impact Assessment of the Dr Ambedkar interest subsidy scheme, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment). Everything the fellowship half does is live; everything the subsidy half does is a rulebook for borrowers already inside it.

A Lok Sabha reply of 11 February 2025 states the position bluntly. The OBC umbrella has two sub-schemes, and of those two, only the first is a scholarship scheme at all; the Parliament answer on Scholarships for Young Achievers says so in the same breath as it describes the far larger SC umbrella with its four sub-schemes.

That SC umbrella is where the confusion starts. The department's own Year-End Review calls it SHREYAS-SC and lists its parts as free coaching for SCs, OBCs and PM CARES children, Top Class Education for SCs, the National Overseas Scholarship for SCs, and the National Fellowship for SCs (Year-End Review 2025, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment). An OBC student appears in exactly one of those four, the coaching scheme, and it is not part of the scheme described on this page.

Scale separates the two as well. Central expenditure under SHREYAS for OBCs reached Rs 89.70 crore across 2,009 beneficiaries in 2023-24, against Rs 372.22 crore and 8,249 beneficiaries on the SC side in the same year, per the Lok Sabha reply of 11 February 2025.

Women were close to half of that count throughout, and in 2019-20 they outnumbered men. The gender rule written into the scheme does not account for it, because it sits on the wrong component: the earmark of a minimum 50 per cent of each year's outlay for girl candidates applies to the interest subsidy alone, and the fellowship, which carries almost all of the money, has no such reservation in the SHREYAS scheme guidelines.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

Neither component has ever run to a student-facing calendar, which is why the scheme record shows blanks where an opening and a closing date would sit. Timing comes from outside the scheme in both cases.

For the fellowship, the driver is the NET calendar: two selection rounds a year, each tied to a UGC-NET or CSIR-UGC-NET result, with the award letter valid for three years from issue. The subsidy's written rhythm is the quarterly meeting of the recommendatory committee and the point in the financial year at which the allocation runs out, but with fresh applications suspended that clock is running on claims already lodged.

The scheme period itself was written as 2021-22 to 2025-26. Budget provision has continued past it: the Union Budget carries Rs 181.25 crore for SHREYAS for OBCs and EBCs in 2026-2027, against Rs 250.13 crore budgeted and Rs 105.48 crore revised for 2025-2026, in Notes on Demands for Grants 2026-2027, Demand No. 93. The split inside that figure is the plainest statement of where the scheme now lives: Rs 181.15 crore sits against the fellowship line and Rs 0.10 crore against the interest subsidy.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The two components test completely different things, and a student who qualifies for one is almost never in the running for the other.

For the National Fellowship for OBC students, the gate is a research qualification. The candidate must belong to the OBC category, must have qualified UGC-NET JRF or the CSIR-UGC NET JRF joint test, must secure placement in a university, IIT or recognised institution, and must be doing a regular full-time M.Phil or PhD there. The offer letter carries a validity of three years from the date of issue, and a candidate already enrolled starts the fellowship from the result declaration date or the joining date, whichever falls later (SHREYAS scheme guidelines).

Nothing in those conditions mentions family income. The fellowship follows the NET merit list, and the guidelines set no income ceiling for it.

The interest subsidy works the other way round and is means tested. The student must already hold admission in an approved course abroad at Masters, M.Phil or PhD level from the discipline list in the guidelines, must already have taken a loan from a scheduled bank under the Indian Banks Association education loan scheme, and must clear an income test: OBC applicants against the prevailing creamy layer criterion, EBC applicants against a ceiling of Rs 5.00 lakh per annum from all sources. The income proof accepted is the document already filed for the loan, an ITR, a Form 16, audited accounts, or an income certificate from a State government or UT administration, per the SHREYAS scheme guidelines.

Recognition of the enrolling institution matters for the fellowship in a specific way. It has to sit under Section 2(f) or Section 12(B) of the UGC Act 1956, be a grant-in-aid deemed university under Section 3 of that Act, be funded by a State or Central government, or be an Institution of National Importance, as the SHREYAS scheme guidelines sets out.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Employment is the disqualifier that catches people out. Employees of any university, educational institution, or Central, State or UT government cannot draw the fellowship, and the guidelines close the obvious workaround by naming study leave and extraordinary leave as no defence. A scholar found to be employed during the M.Phil or PhD research is a listed ground for cancelling the award outright.

Holding a second award is the other bar. A candidate once considered eligible is not entitled to any other fellowship or similar benefit from the Central government, a State government, the UGC or any other body offering something comparable, which the guidelines justify as avoiding duplication and increasing coverage.

On the loan side the bars are about finishing and about staying Indian. The subsidy can be drawn once in a lifetime, at Masters level or at PhD level and not both; leaving the course part-way for any reason at all, or being thrown out on disciplinary or academic grounds, forfeits it; and surrendering Indian citizenship at any point while the loan is still running ends it too.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Neither component asks the student to reapply each year, but both can stop paying.

The fellowship's step-up is the thing to plan for. After two years as Junior Research Fellow, the tenure extends for a further three years as Senior Research Fellow only if the research progress is assessed as satisfactory against UGC norms, and the combined JRF and SRF period cannot exceed five years. A doctoral candidate whose thesis takes longer than that is on the institution's resources for the rest.

Continuity of payment depends on the host institution rather than the scholar. The guidelines put monthly confirmation of each awardee by the university on a dedicated web portal, with a stop-payment link the institution uses when a fellow resigns or relinquishes the award. Transfer of the research place is allowed once in the entire tenure, and the university makes that change on the portal itself.

The interest subsidy has no renewal cycle in the same sense. It runs for the moratorium period defined by the IBA loan scheme, and ends there.

What you get

Award & benefits

The fellowship rate is where the published record and the current rate diverge, and it is worth reading the two together. The scheme guidelines pegged JRF at Rs 31,000 per month and SRF at Rs 35,000, with the clause that rates track UGC fellowships. A Rajya Sabha reply of 20 December 2023 then recorded the revision made under that clause: JRF from Rs 31,000 to Rs 37,000 per month, and SRF from Rs 35,000 to Rs 42,000 per month for the remaining tenure, with effect from 1 January 2023 (National Fellowship For OBC Students, Rajya Sabha reply).

House rent allowance follows the UGC pattern and is payable only where hostel accommodation is not provided; a scholar who refuses hostel accommodation the institution has offered forfeits the HRA claim. Escorts or reader assistance of Rs 2,000 per month is admissible across all subjects for physically and visually handicapped candidates under the SHREYAS scheme guidelines. Sickness, leave and maternity entitlements are not written out here at all; the guidelines simply borrow whatever the UGC applies to its own fellows.

Volume is capped rather than open-ended. The scheme carries 1,000 Junior Research Fellowships a year, split 750 for UGC-NET JRF subjects and 250 for the CSIR-UGC NET JRF science streams, with at least 5 per cent of slots reserved for research scholars with disabilities, on the corporation's own NFOBC scheme page. Those slots sit over and above the OBC candidates who get UGC fellowships through ordinary reservation.

The loan component pays interest, not fees. The Government of India bears 100 per cent of the interest payable during the moratorium, which the scheme defines as the course period plus one year or six months after getting a job, whichever comes earlier, on loans up to a maximum of Rs 20 lakh; principal instalments and all interest after the moratorium remain the student's (SHREYAS for OBC & Others, 14 November 2023).

• The scheme provides 1,000 Junior Research Fellowships per year for eligible OBC students. Out of the total 1,000 slots, 750 fellowship slots are allocated for subjects covered under the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test – Junior Research Fellowship.
• The remaining 250 fellowship slots are allocated for subjects covered under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test – Junior Research Fellowship for Science streams.
• These 1,000 fellowship slots are over and above the number of Other Backwards Classes students selected under the normal reservation policy of the Government for University Grants Commission fellowships.
• Rate of fellowship: The rates of fellowship for JRF and SRF will be at par with the UGC Fellowships. Presently, these rates are as follows:
• Fellowship in Science, Humanities and Social Science₹ 31,000/- PM for initial two years (JRF) ₹ 35,000/- PM for remaining tenure (SRF)Fellowship in Engineering & Technology₹ 31,000/- PM for initial two years (JRF) ₹ 35,000/- PM for remaining tenure (SRF)Contingency for Humanities & Social Science₹ 10,000/- PM for initial two years (JRF) ₹ 20,500/- PM for remaining tenure (SRF)Contingency for Science, Engineering & Technology₹ 12,000/- PM for initial two years (JRF) ₹ 25,000/- PM for remaining tenure (SRF)Escorts/Reader assistance (All Subjects)₹ 2,000/- PM in cases of physically and visually handicapped candidates
• The House Rent Allowance (HRA) will be on the UGC pattern and will be payable to those students who are not provided with hostel accommodation. In case hostel accommodation offered by the University/institution is refused, the student will forfeit his claim of HRA. Other facilities, such as medical facilities, leave, including maternity leave, will be governed as per the guidelines of the UGC in case of their fellowship programme.

What to prepare

Documents required

The fellowship paperwork is thin because the NET result does the heavy lifting, and the scheme record sets that short list out. What it does not say is that the OBC certificate for the interest subsidy has a prescribed form. The guidelines attach it as Annexure-I, the standard Government of India OBC proforma issued by a District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner, and it must certify both the community and that the applicant does not fall in the creamy layer under the Department of Personnel and Training memorandum of 8 September 1993. Banks are instructed to take that certificate in that format.

Income documentation for the subsidy is deliberately reused rather than freshly generated. Whatever income certificate the student produced to get the education loan sanctioned is acceptable for the income ceiling test.

Step by step

How to apply

SHREYAS is a budget heading, not a scheme a student can apply to, so nothing on it takes an application: the name has no form, no portal and no common entry point, and each component is reached through a channel of its own. The blank where an application link would be is therefore correct rather than missing data.

Qualifying for the fellowship is the application. Merit in each NET cycle produces the list, and the implementing agency publishes that list and issues the award letters off it without asking the candidate for anything first. Implementation has moved since the guidelines were written: they name the UGC as nodal agency, while a January 2024 release records that the ministry now implements the scheme through the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation as the designated Central Nodal Agency (SHREYAS for OBC & Others, 5 January 2024). The awardee's own step comes afterwards, at the enrolling institution, which uploads the documents and confirms the scholar each month.

The interest subsidy route starts at a bank counter and is closed at that counter. Canara Bank is the nodal bank, and a claim travels from the branch that sanctioned the education loan to that nodal bank rather than from the student to the ministry, but no new claim is being taken up while the instruction not to consider or accept fresh applications till further orders stands (Impact Assessment of the Dr Ambedkar interest subsidy scheme, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment). The department still publishes the live Canara Bank portal link on its scheme page for the Dr Ambedkar interest subsidy, which is where a reopening would surface first.

Where to Check Status

Searching for a SHREYAS status page will not find one: the umbrella name has no tracker, and each component is followed where its money actually moves. Fellowship payment runs on a dedicated web portal at scholarship.canarabank.in, on which the host university files a monthly confirmation for each awardee and uses a stop payment link when a fellow resigns or relinquishes the award, per the SHREYAS scheme guidelines. The confirmation therefore originates at the university, not at the ministry, which makes the scholarship or research section of the enrolling institution the first place to take a month that shows no credit.

The subsidy has no student-facing view at any stage. Implementation is placed with the nodal bank under a memorandum of understanding with the ministry in the same SHREYAS scheme guidelines, so the file lives with the branch that uploaded the claim and with Canara Bank above it, and a borrower asking which quarter their claim went up in is asking the only question the branch can answer.

How winners are picked

Selection process

For the fellowship, merit in the qualifying examination decides everything. Selection is made on the basis of merit in each UGC-NET JRF and CSIR-NET JRF examination and happens twice a year, and the guidelines state that the awarding body's decision is final with no appeal against it. The 5 per cent reservation for students with disabilities is applied at this stage.

The subsidy is settled quite differently, by a committee sitting four times a year. It is chaired by the ministry's Joint Secretary for the Backward Classes Division and includes the Finance Division and the nodal bank, and it recommends rather than scores: applications come to it in quarterly batches and go back with a recommendation. The guidelines then describe the scheme as funds-limited in plain terms, releasing money on a first-come first-served basis up to whatever the year's budget allows, with region-wise notional allocations set at the start of the financial year and professional courses given preference.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Cancellation is spelled out at length, and most of what it reaches is the research rather than the money. Plagiarism or unethical practice in any form, unsatisfactory progress and an adverse report from the host institution end an award as surely as a false claim does, and so does taking up a job while the M.Phil or PhD is under way.

Verification sits with the institution rather than the ministry at every step that matters. Genuineness of the OBC certificate is the enrolling university's call, made before any detail reaches the payment portal, and the same university carries the duty of ruling out a parallel fellowship or project payment at the moment of selection. Cancellation for fraud is the institution's to make as well, with the nodal agency only informed afterwards.

On the subsidy side the consequence of a false statement is financial as well as administrative: the subsidy is withdrawn, the amount already paid is recovered with penal interest, and criminal action under the law is separately available. Violating any scheme condition stops the subsidy immediately.

Both components cap what the administration may keep, at the same rate but on different bases: the fellowship limits remuneration and overheads for evaluation and monitoring to 3 per cent of the scheme's total allocation, while the subsidy provides up to 3 per cent of the annual budget allocation for administrative and allied costs, per the SHREYAS scheme guidelines.

Get help

Contact

Fellowship queries go to the National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, which lists 011-45854421 and nf-obc@nbcfdc.gov.in on its NFOBC scheme page. Interest subsidy queries belong with the branch that sanctioned the loan first, and with Canara Bank as nodal bank after that. Beyond that the only published number is the department's general toll free line, 18002021989, which sits in the header of every page on its site including the scheme listing for SHREYAS (OBC & Others); there is no separate SHREYAS helpline.

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.

Explore more

Related scholarships

References

Sources