Provisional award letters given to all selected candidates under National Overseas Scholarship: govt.

Weeks after withholding provisional award letters to 66 selected candidates from marginalised caste and tribe backgrounds under the government’s National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) scheme, the Social Justice Ministry informed Parliament on Tuesday (July 29, 2025) that the letters had been issued to all selected candidates.

On July 1, the Ministry declared the list of candidates selected under the NOS scheme meant for students from Scheduled Castes, Denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, and landless agricultural labour socio-economic backgrounds. It said that for the 2025-26 period, it had selected 106 students who will avail the scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies in top universities abroad.

Rahul’s objection

However, the Ministry had added that it was issuing provisional award letters to 40 of them and that it would get to the rest 66 candidates “subject to availability of funds”. Reports on this declaration of NOS results had led Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi to attack the Narendra Modi-led government over its commitment to removing the barriers for Bahujan students trying to move forward.

On Tuesday, responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale said, “For Selection Year 2025-26, provisional award letters have been issued for all selected 106 students.”

In the reply, the Ministry added that the Expenditure Finance Outlay Committee for the NOS scheme had initially approved an outlay of ₹175 crore to be spent over five years (₹35 crore each year).

“The expenditure, however, under the NOS Scheme for the period 2021-22 to 2024-25 has been ₹298.39 crore which is in excess of the approved budgetary outlay of ₹175 crore for five years. Further, additional funds allocated under Budget Estimate (BE) for 2025-26 is ₹l30 crore,” the reply added.