Himachal expands loan scheme to cover overseas education

Himachal Pradesh government has expanded the scope of the Dr YS Parmar Vidyarthi Rin Yojna to include overseas education, aimed at empowering meritorious students from economically weaker sections (EWS).

This initiative will benefit students aspiring to pursue higher studies in foreign institutions, ensuring that financial limitations do not hinder their educational aspirations. A detailed SOP will be issued shortly by the education department in this regard.

Chief minister (CM) Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the state government has launched the student loan scheme from the financial year 2023-24 to support the eligible meritorious students of EWS. The scheme provides educational loans at an interest rate of just 1 percent to eligible bona fide Himachali students.

“Our government is committed to providing quality education to all youth and with the launch of this scheme, no deserving student in the state will be deprived of higher or professional education due to financial constraints. This decision reflects the state government’s unwavering commitment to making quality education accessible to all, regardless of economic background. The government has allocated ₹200 crore to support such students under this scheme,” added the CM.

Students from families with income below ₹4L eligible for loan

Students from families with an annual income below ₹4 lakh are eligible for the loan, which will cover educational expenses such as tuition fees, boarding, lodging, books and other related costs. Students can avail of loans upto ₹20 lakh from any scheduled bank in the state. To address delays in disbursement, the government will maintain a corpus at the district level, overseen by the deputy commissioner, to release the first instalment of the loan when immediate payment is needed.

The scheme will cover students pursuing diploma and degree courses in professional, and technical education, such as engineering, medicine, management, nursing, pharmacy, law and more, as well as students from ITIs, polytechnics, and those pursuing PhD programmes. A minimum of 60 percent marks in the previous class is required and students must be under 28 years of age at the time of admission.