Education: The Union Cabinet has approved the PM Vidyalaxmi scheme to ensure no meritorious student is denied higher education due to financial constraints. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced the details of PM Vijayalakshmi's scheme on his Twitter handle for students who wish to get admission to higher educational institutions but face financial constraints. Any student who secures admission to higher education institutions, and falls within the eligibility conditions can avail of education loans to pursue higher education institutions through the PM Vidyalaxmi Scheme. The scheme will cover more than 22 lakh students every year. The main objective of this scheme is to empower millions of students from the poor and middle class.

The minister said, ''Students having annual family income of up to Rs 8 lakh lakh shall be eligible to get 3% interest subvention on education loans up to Rs. 10 lakh.'' ''Financial assistance to meritorious students is a key recommendation of NEP 2020. PM Vidyalaxmi is one more concrete step towards implementation of NEP.'', said Pradhan.

How to avail of education loans through Vidyalaxmi scheme?

 Education loans under PM Vidyalaxmi will be facilitated to students securing admissions in the top 860 HEIs of the country based on NIRF. Students will be able to avail the Education loans through a transparent, student-friendly and digital application process which will be common to all banks. The Department of Higher Education will have a unified portal PM-Vidyalaxmi on which students will be able to apply for education loans as well as interest subvention, through a simplified application process to be used by all banks. Payment of interest subvention will be made through E-vouchers and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wallets.

 
What is PM Vidyalaxmi scheme?

The PM Vidyalaxmi scheme is a new Central government scheme that offers financial support to meritorious students who wish to pursue higher education but face financial constraints.  This is another key initiative stemming out of the National Education Policy, 2020, which recommended that financial assistance should be made available to meritorious students through various measures in both public and private HEIs. 

Any student who gets admission to a quality Higher Education Institution (QHEIs) will be eligible to get collateral-free, guarantor-free loans from banks and financial institutions to cover the full amount of tuition fees and other expenses related to the course.