Study Abroad Scholarships (Scheduled Tribe)(SAS)

Overview

About SAS

Madhya Pradesh prices this scholarship in US dollars, not rupees. Its Tribal Affairs Department sets aside 50 awards a year for Scheduled Tribe students going abroad, and the tuition line alone runs to 40,000 US Dollars a year before living money is counted. Almost none of the process happens online. The form travels on paper to the Commissioner in Bhopal, and the shortlist is called to Bhopal to sit an interview before a single dollar is sanctioned.

The scheme has run since 2003, and it pays for one thing: study above the bachelor's level. A departmental order dated 24 July 2010 confined it to postgraduate and higher degrees, so a first degree abroad falls outside it, and the student is the one who picks the foreign institution and wins the admission, as recorded in the Madhya Pradesh CM Helpline scheme entry for Videsh Adhyayan Chhatravritti.

Scale is the number the myScheme entry leaves out. The Tribal Affairs Department states on its own overseas higher education scheme page that it gives the award to 50 students a year so they can study at recognised institutions abroad. That is a state-level target rather than a district quota, and the file is read in Bhopal instead of at the collectorate.

The money is unusually generous for a state scholarship and unusually specific. The department's entitlement record puts tuition at 40,000 US Dollars a year, a subsistence allowance of 9,000 US Dollars and a contingency allowance of 1,000 US Dollars, and adds visa fee, insurance, poll tax and travel on top.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

No opening or closing date is published against the scheme, and none is fixed in the rules either: the last date lives in the advertisement for that round. The pattern the department states is two rounds a year, usually April and October, with the first-come-first-served route open in between. Anyone tracking the scheme is better off watching the department's own notices than a fixed annual calendar, since the CM Helpline record puts the service time limit at NIL.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Three things decide the file before anyone reads the academic record. The applicant must be Scheduled Tribe, must not be older than 35, and the family's total annual income counted across every source must stay within Rs 10 lakh, on the department's stated criteria. The age is read as it stood on 1 January, per the state entitlement register, so a birthday later in the cycle does not close the door.

The department also asks for proof the scheme listing does not mention. A caste certificate issued by the Sub-Divisional Officer, a Madhya Pradesh domicile certificate from the competent authority and a self-certified income certificate are all compulsory, and doctoral applicants need two years of teaching, research or an M.Phil degree in the field on top of the marks bar. The award is given only for the subjects and courses the state government has approved, and a later departmental order bound into the scheme rules booklet widened that list to take in liberal arts and humanities, so an admission letter by itself does not settle the question.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The myScheme entry publishes no exclusion list, but the department's own conditions contain several. Only one child of a parent or guardian is ever eligible, and only once, on the applicant's own certification, per the Tribal Affairs Department scheme page. Someone who already holds a postgraduate degree cannot use the award to take an equivalent one abroad.

Study at the bachelor's level is out, because the July 2010 order limits the scholarship to postgraduate and higher degrees. And a candidate who submits a document or a statement later found to be false is treated as ineligible, is blacklisted for future rounds and faces recovery of anything already spent, under the department's published rules for the Videsh Adhyayan scholarship.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

No renewal conditions are published for this scheme either. What the department's published rules set out instead is a continuation test: the foreign university sends the state government a progress report every six months, and the institution is expected to warn the government of any serious problem that would bear on continuing the award. The sanctioned period is fixed and is not extended, so a course that overruns the funded length continues at the holder's own cost.

What you get

Award & benefits

Where the money lands matters more than the headline figure. Tuition goes straight into the university's account, while the subsistence allowance, the contingency allowance and the other allowances are paid into the applicant's own bank account, as the CM Helpline entitlement record states, which is why the scheme is run as a direct benefit transfer. A departmental order bound into the rules booklet tightened that further: the fee paid is the actual charge or the sanctioned ceiling, whichever is lower, and it is remitted to the university direct.

Travel is paid to a defined standard rather than at cost. Air travel under the scheme rules is economy, by the shortest route, to the point nearest the institution and home again. From the port where the holder lands the rules cover onward second class rail, the actual charge for coming ashore by ferry, a bus fare where the place of study sits off the rail network, and an air fare to the nearest combined rail and air station where it sits a long way off it. A candidate called for the selection interview is paid second class rail or ordinary bus fare from home to the interview city, which is a small point that matters when the interview is in Bhopal and the applicant is not. Nothing is payable for a spouse or children who travel with the holder, and the rules bar them from joining during the study period except by prior permission in an emergency such as serious illness.

• The scheme covers tuition fees of 40,000 US Dollars per year, along with a living allowance of 9,000 US Dollars and a contingency allowance of 1,000 US Dollars.
• Additional expenses such as visa fees, insurance, poll tax, airfare, and rail/bus fare are also provided.
• NOTE: The fees are paid into the University account and subsistence/contingency allowance and other allowances are paid directly into the applicant's bank account.

What to prepare

Documents required

Beyond the certificates listed against the scheme, three papers come from the department's own packet rather than from the applicant's file. The application form for foreign studies carries an attestation form to be signed by a Gazetted Officer or a Member of Parliament or of the State Legislature, an income certificate in the prescribed form to be attached in original, and a certificate of health signed by a Civil Surgeon, a District Medical Officer or an equivalent authority.

Applicants who are already employed have an extra step written into the scheme rules: the file is forwarded by the employer, with that employer's no objection certificate attached, and it has to reach the department by the date the advertisement fixes.

Step by step

How to apply

The scheme is offline and stays offline. The department invites applications twice a year, usually in April and October, through an advertisement, and outside those windows a candidate may download the form from the departmental website and send it directly to the Commissioner, Tribal Affairs Department, on a first-come-first-served basis. The attestation form in the packet is addressed to the Commissioner, Tribal Development, Satpura Bhawan, Bhopal, so that is where the paper ends up either way. The CM Helpline record lists no application fee and no service time limit for it.

That has a consequence students underestimate: there is no login that shows where a file has reached. MPTAASC, the department's own automation system, names the schemes whose applications it has taken online, and overseas study is not among them, so the paper file has no dashboard entry to refresh. The next visible signal after posting the form is the summons itself, because the district administration's account of the scheme is that applications are invited against a target set at state level and that applicants are then called to the department in Bhopal before any amount is sanctioned, as Khargone district sets out. Until that call arrives, a chase means the tribal welfare office in the applicant's own district, or the department's general helpdesk on 1800-2333-951 and helpdesk.tribal@mp.gov.in, both listed on the MPTAASC portal.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection runs through two committees, both of them inside the department, under its published rules. The scheme is put in the newspapers with a short account of its terms, and the prescribed form is printed as part of that advertisement rather than issued separately. Whatever lands by the last date the advertisement names is read first by a scrutiny committee, which cuts the field. Whoever survives that reading is summoned in front of the selection committee, and what that committee writes down after seeing each candidate in person, ranked in order of merit, is the last word on the award.

One tie break is written into the rules, and it owes nothing to the interview. Age settles a dead heat, and it is read off a school document rather than a passport: the date of birth entered on the higher secondary certificate decides, and seniority takes the place.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The conditions attached to the award are heavier than the application suggests, and the scheme rules spell them out. The money is secured rather than simply sanctioned. Before it moves, the holder swears a bond in the state's favour on non-judicial stamp paper in front of a notary, two sureties sign separate undertakings of their own behind it, and a second bond commits the holder not to stay on abroad once the course finishes or the sanctioned period runs out, whichever arrives first. The approved course or research topic cannot be changed, and a change of university is allowed once, and only where the research supervisor has left or the institution has stopped supporting that research area.

Return to India is the spine of the scheme. Every holder must come back, and no officer of the state or central government will issue a certificate excusing that. Anyone who came into the scheme out of a government or public sector job owes that employer five years of service once back in India, and the state lifts that only for reasons it puts on record and only against repayment of the entire scholarship. The visa is the candidate's own responsibility and the state gives no help obtaining it. Overpayment is recoverable, a defaulter's dues can be collected by the district collector as arrears of land revenue, and any suit arising from the scheme goes to the courts at Bhopal.

Get help

Contact

Unusually for a tribal welfare scheme, the decision desk sits at state headquarters rather than in the district. The entitlement record names the Commissioner, Tribal Affairs Department, headquarters Bhopal as the officer responsible, and puts the appeal at the same headquarters. The department's own scheme page gives a second address for applicants who need a human being closer to home: the Assistant Commissioner or District Organiser of the tribal welfare office. Write to the first about the award, and to the second about the paperwork.

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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References

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