Student scholarship disbursement

Digital ID is used to authenticate student identities during scholarship applications and enable direct transfer of scholarship funds into Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The Ministry of Education launched the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) in 2015 in collaboration with State Education Departments. The NSP serves as a unified platform for students to apply for various scholarships offered by the central and state governments. Aadhaar authentication ensures that only eligible students receive benefits and prevents duplicate or fraudulent claims. Students must provide their Aadhaar number during online registration on the NSP portal, which verifies their identity against the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) database. Once verified and approved, scholarship amounts are transferred directly to Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts of the students through direct benefit transfer (DBT), which eliminates intermediaries and ensures timely receipt of funds. The NSP covers multiple scholarship schemes, such as pre-matric, post-matric, merit-cum-means, and minority scholarships. In Nagaland, 41,793 beneficiaries received post-matric scholarships for the 2024-2025 academic year. These scholarships totaled INR 563.8 million (approximately USD 7 million), with all payments processed through Aadhaar-based authentication on the NSP. The portal has received 1.58 million Aadhaar-based applications.