The Ministry of Education has extended the last date for students to submit applications on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) for the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) for the academic year 2024-25. The deadline has now been extended to October 31, 2024. Interested and eligible students can apply by visiting the official website, scholarships.gov.in/student.
On the NSP portal, scholarship applications undergo two levels of verification. The first level (L1) is carried out by the Institute Nodal Officer (INO), while the second level (L2) is conducted by the District Nodal Officer (DNO). The deadline for INO verification (L1) is November 15, 2024, and for DNO verification (L2) is November 30, 2024.
The official notification states: "The scheme provides one lakh fresh scholarships each year for Class IX students who pass the qualifying exam conducted by State/UT governments. The scholarship continues through renewal for Classes X to XII, based on the student's academic performance. The scheme is applicable only to students in State Government, Government-aided, and local body schools. The scholarship amount is Rs. 12,000 per student per annum."
The National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) is implemented via the National Scholarship Portal (NSP), a centralised platform for government scholarships. As of October 15, 2024, a total of 84,606 new applications and 158,312 renewal applications have been submitted.
Scholarships under NMMSS are directly transferred to the bank accounts of selected students through the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) using the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. To be eligible, students must have a parental income not exceeding Rs. 3.5 lakh per annum and must have achieved at least 55% marks (or equivalent grade) in the Class VII examination, with a 5% relaxation for SC/ST students.