New Delhi: University Grants Commission (UGC) provides financial assistance to selected candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) categories under various scholarships/fellowships schemes to encourage their interest in Higher Education. Scholarship/fellowship-wise number of SC/ST beneficiaries assisted by the UGC during the financial year 2015-16 are as under:
| S.No | Name of Scheme | Number of beneficiaries during FY 2015-16 | Nodal Ministry |
| 1 | Post Doctoral Fellowship for SC/ST | 766 | Ministry of Human Resource Development |
| 2 | PG Scholarship for Professional Courses for SC/ST | 904 | |
| 3 | Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for SC candidate | 19,623 | Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment |
| 4 | National fellowship Higher Education for ST Students since 2015 [Formerly RGNF – ST] | 4,929 | Ministry of Tribal Affairs |
UGC has informed that it has undertaken the following measureswith a view to facilitate smooth disbursement of fellowships/scholarships to the students under the various schemes:
- all fellowship schemes have been brought under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
- disbursal of grants to awardees is being routed through PFMS.
- a dedicated web portal (https://scholarship.canarabank.in/AdminLogin.aspx) has been created for migration of legacy cases on DBT platform.
- a fellowship tracking portal has been developed https://scholarship.canarabank.in/scholar/Login.aspx where the students can check the status of payment, date of upload of documents etc.
- a dedicated email-id ugcfellowships.ugc@gmail.com is created to facilitate the redressal of student grievances especially relating to disbursal of fellowship/ scholarships.
- a dedicated telephone number (011-23235640) has been provided to attend to calls from students relating to grievances/complaints/ problems on disbursal of grants under various fellowship/ scholarship schemes.
This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.
