Modi govt withholds scholarships for majority of SC, ST, poor students, cites fund shortage
New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has issued scholarship award letters to less than 40% of the selected candidates under the National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) scheme for the academic year 2025–26, citing lack of funds. According to The Wire, only 40 out of 106 selected candidates have received provisional scholarship letters, while the remaining 66 are told their awards “may be issued… subject to availability of funds.”
The ministry said it has not yet received clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In previous years, all selected candidates received their scholarship letters at once, but this year, the ministry is sending letters in phases, reportedly due to funding uncertainty.
The NOS programme, instituted in 1954–55, offers financial support to students from Scheduled Castes (SC), Denotified Nomadic Tribes (DNT), semi-nomadic tribes, landless agricultural labourers, and traditional artisan families, with an annual income below ₹8 lakh.
An official from the ministry told Hindustan Times that the funds are available, but final disbursal requires approval from the cabinet panel. “We have the money, but we also need the green signal from above to give it out,” the official said.
Repeated Scholarship Disruptions
The Wire reports that this is not an isolated incident. Over 1,400 PhD scholars under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme have faced delayed stipends since January 2025. In some cases, payments have not been made since late 2024. The MANF supports researchers from six notified minority communities—Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, and Parsi.
Delays and confusion have also plagued the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes. The National Testing Agency initially released a list of 865 selected candidates in March 2025. However, in April, a revised list cut the number to 805 and removed 487 names that were previously included.
Rahul Gandhi Writes to PM
On June 10, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Modi highlighting the poor conditions of hostels and irregularities in scholarship disbursements. He pointed out that students from Dalit, Adivasi, EBC, OBC, and minority communities have been disproportionately affected.
He cited the example of Bihar, where the state scholarship portal remained inactive for three consecutive years, leading to zero disbursals for the 2021–22 academic year. Gandhi also noted that the number of Dalit students receiving scholarships had nearly halved—from 1.36 lakh in FY23 to 69,000 in FY24—and described the current scholarship amounts as “insultingly low.”
With multiple schemes now in disarray, students from historically disadvantaged communities are left facing uncertainty over their academic futures.
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Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade: India on Pak Army Chief's nuclear threat
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New Delhi (PTI): Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's "stock-in-trade", New Delhi said on Monday, in a strong response to Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir's nuclear threat directed at India from the US soil.
India said Munir's remarks reinforced the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in Pakistan where the military is "hand-in-glove" with terrorist groups.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail and that it will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard national security.
It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country, the MEA said in an apparent message to the US.
In an address to Pakistani diaspora in Florida's Tampa, Munir reportedly made the nuclear threat in case his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India.
The Pakistani Army Chief also warned that Islamabad would destroy Indian infrastructure, if they hit water flow to Pakistan.
"We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us," media reports quoted him as saying.
The Pakistan Army Chief's comments are part of a pattern in Pakistan as whenever the US supports the Pakistan military, they always show their true colours of aggression, government sources said.
It is a symptom that democracy does not exist in Pakistan and it is their military which controls the country, they said.
"Emboldened by reception and welcome by the US, the next step could possibly be a silent or open coup in Pakistan so that the Field Marshal becomes the President," said a source.
Munir is currently on a visit to the US, his second in two months.
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