The central government has brought PM Vidyalakshmi Yojana to provide financial assistance to meritorious students. Under this scheme, students with annual family income up to Rs 8 lakh will get a discount of 3 % on loans up to Rs 10 lakh during the moratorium period (while studying) as against the normal interest rate.
Under the scheme, meritorious students getting admission in the top 860 quality higher education institutions of the country will get benefit in education loan. This means that more than 22 lakh students will come under the purview of the scheme every year.
Any student will be able to take loan from banks and financial institutions without any security or guarantor. To expand the coverage and to help the banks, the Government of India will give 75 % credit guarantee on loan amount up to Rs 7.5 lakh. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the central sector scheme on Wednesday.
To become a beneficiary of the scheme, the student should not be eligible for benefit under any other government scholarship or interest waiver scheme. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, while addressing a press conference, said that this scheme will be completely digital, administered through a simple, transparent and student-friendly system.
About 7 lakh new students are expected to benefit from the scheme during 2024-25 to 2030-31 and on this basis a total expenditure of Rs 3600 crore is estimated on the scheme. Students can apply for education loan on the integrated portal ‘PM-Vidyalakshmi’ and can also submit a request for interest waiver.
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