After education minister Mr. Kapil Sibal proposed eradication of the class 10 board exam, another proposal came from the University Grants Commission back to back. This proposal by the United Grants Commission or UGC has been readily accepted and appreciated by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA). The proposal was in favor of the minority students so that they can afford and avail higher education without any constrains.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs on the recommendation of UGC has recently introduced scholarship granting facilities so as to aid financially weak students get a opportunity to refurbish their resume by bagging an extra degree. This scholarship program for the minority students will facilitate the students to pursue their education in Mphil or PhD from UGC recognized education institutes.  As of now, only 30 of these proposed scholarships have been allocated for only girl students. The scholarships will be offered to the boy students eventually if not many girl students opt for it. This has been a great effort by UGC and is already highly appreciated at different levels. Minority students will surely be highly benefited by this scholarship program and will be able to realize their dream of higher education efectively.

The prisoners have a reason to cheer even as they remain behind the bars in Jharkhand jail. Don Bosco Society, a church body has stepped forward to help the prisoners’ children to pursue education.

Don Bosco Prison Ministry will fund these children’s education. They will help the students by providing text books, school bags and other educational stationery. They will also keep a constant watch on the academic growth of the students. The students will also be benefited by counseling sessions. Such an initiative will secure a brighter future for them.

The scholarship amount has been finalized. Students up to class IV will receive Rs 500 while Rs 700 has been fixed for those in class VI and VII. Rs 1000 has been allotted for class VIII to X students and Rs 1500 is the amount for class X to XII students.

Numerous children of convicts housed in Birsa Munda Central Jail and Central Jail in Hazaribagh have been selected for scholarship. The selection process has been supervised by Sunil Kumar Barnwal, inspector-general (prison). The studious ones whose family faces a financial crunch has been chosen as the beneficiaries.

Everyone is of the opinion that such an initiative will lift up the morale of the students all across the districts of Jharkhand.

The most important aspect about higher education within the country or abroad is the finance part. The ways to fuel the cost of post secondary education at a reputed institute often plague the mind of the students. Recognizing this need of the students various alternatives ways of educational financing has been designed. Most oft heard options are scholarships, grants, awards and educational loans. A lot of thought goes into deciding they best way to fund higher education so as to avoid piling up on debt.  The cost of higher education in medical schools, engineering colleges and business institutes have been rising as these are the centers of learning that provide a professional orientation that groom the students for lucrative careers eventually. Scholarships are usually based on merit and are the main attraction for students who need financial assistance to fund their studies. However scholarships are also offered based on parameters like minority status, specialized field of study and financial condition. The alumni of an institute also form associations to provide scholarship to eligible students. Often employers assist the employee opting for a professional qualification by alleviating the financial burden in cases of the employee getting back to serve the organization after earning the degree.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is undertaking the Project Financial Literacy. This project aims to educate people particularly the school & college students, women, rural & urban poor, defence personnel and senior citizens about the Central bank and general banking concepts. A pilot program has been launched in Karnataka. The program has been launched in collaboration with the state government. The school and college curriculum will have concepts on financial and related materials. The financial literary will be made a part of non formal education. The projects has two parts, has two segments. In the first part, you will learn about general topics like the basics of banking, finance, markets, banking products and facilities. In the second portion you will learn about the functioning of our Central Bank in areas like monetary policy, currency management, forex management, public debt management and other topics. The RBI will also conduct an essay competition for school children. The RBI is also going to initiate an RBI Young Scholarship Award. Under this scholarship scheme, a countrywide competitive examination will be held and you will be given the opportunity to intern with the bank for two to three months. The opportunity is valid if you are pursuing graduation in Indian universities.

GRAViity is an organization run by the students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs). GRAViity is conducting a selection test for the economically challenged students, called Super 20. This test will evaluate the mental ability and the understanding of the basic concepts in physics, chemistry and mathematics of the students. The top twenty students will be offered free training for IIT-JEE. The test will be conducted on May 10. There is no registration fee. The students will have to call, in order register for the exams.

I feel we need more opportunities like this in our country. Every year we hear stories about students not being able to pursue engineering courses just because they are not able to afford the course fee. These students are come from extremely weak economic background. Sponsoring their education will have multiple effects on our economy. It will create a very rich pool of human resources and it will also pull some of the families out of the Poverty line. So investing in the education of these students is the best possible investment a country can make because it gives long term benefits.

  Studying at Stanford University is a dream for many Indian students. However it becomes difficult for many students and their parents to afford the huge expenses. Leave apart the lodging and food expenses, the tuition fees become impossible to bear by many Indian students. To give shape to the dream of the Indian aspirants, Reliance Group has come forward with their helping hand. Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowship has been created to help the Indian students with financial aid and scholarship programs so that they can complete their MBA degrees in Stanford University.

 The eligible students will be awarded full scholarship for the two years MBA program. This includes all expenses starting from applying for the course to attending the classes. This joint venture of the Reliance Group and Stanford is aimed to create dedicated and skilled professionals of Indian origin who after completing the MBA program at Stanford will act as a positive catalyst to improve the socio – economic condition of our country. I think this is a great attempt on the part of the Reliance Group to fulfill the dreams of the Indian merits. However the students after completing the MBA courses at Stanford are committed to return to India and serve Indian private or public sector for at least two years. So if you are aspiring to be the next business tycoon or a successful entrepreneur, then make sure you grab this financial help from Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowship program.

The Indian government is giving a large number of science scholarships to the bright students in order to attract them towards research. If the student ranks within first 20,000 in All India engineering or medical entrance test and chooses to graduate in science then the Indian government will give a sum of Rs 5,000 every month till the student complete his post graduation. The student will also get the opportunities to intern with the top researchers in the country during vacations.

Although India has one of the largest pool of researchers yet research is loosing its priority among students. While there is a marked increase in the number of students opting for economics and commerce yet there is a decreasing number of students opting for pure science subjects in their plus two. One of the primary reasons for not opting for research can be that a students opting for engineering can easily get a good job by the age of 23 whereas in research the time taken to enter the job market is much longer. A students can rarely manage a full time job and research. So the students are opting for programs that guarantees them job in the shortest period of time. Generally, its only the students with low ranks in the entrance exam enter the general course.

IPL has gifted 9 million Rand to the South African Education system. The Indian Premier League wants to leave a legacy of corporate educational responsibility now that they are in South Africa. According to the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, education is one of the pillars of modern India and investing in the education sector in South Africa is the right kind of investment. Through this initiative 300 lucky scholars from South African schools will get one year of free education.

This gesture is laudable. South Africa has been a friend of India for some time now. The IPL provides the perfect opportunity for Indian corporates to show that they care. However one really wonders how much investment in education the first version of IPL ever made. The Indian Premier League is a commodity and as such its promoters are at full liberty to invest in whichever sector they deem fit. However if Indian education is a model to be replicated in other countries, one wonders why exactly most graduates in India are still unemployable.

NTPC is a premier public sector enterprise in the power sector. The scholarships are offered for SC/ST students who are pursuing full time 3 year’s Diploma in engineering from a recognized institute. The student must have cleared their first year examination of the full time 3 year’s Diploma Engineering course in the disciplines of Electronic/ Electrical/ Mechanical/ Civil/ Instrumentation. The relatively meritorious students will be considered for the scholarships. The candidate should be a bona fide student of an institute of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Haryana,Punjab, Chandigarh or Rajasthan. The last date for receipt of applications is 20.04.2009.

The scholarship is going to provide for the student from the second year of Diploma Engineering course till the completion of the course. The students will need to perform continuously well in order to continue with the scholarship. The amount of the scholarship is limited to Rs1000 per month. More such scholarships should be offered to the students with weak financial background. However,more focus should be laid on the performance of the students and financial problems that they have. There are thousands of brilliant students who may not have a SC/ ST background but are financially restricted from having good education.