National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme

The “National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme” is a Central Sector Scheme launched in 2008 by the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India. The objective of the scheme is to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue their education at secondary stage. Under this scheme, it is proposed to award 1,00,000 scholarships to the gifted or meritorious students whose parental income is not more than ₹3,50,000/- per annum from all sources at the time of selection of awardees for scholarship. Each State/UT has [fixed quota](https://dsel.education.gov.in/sites/default/files/NMMSS_Guidelines_22.pdf) of scholarship for concerned age group of class VII and VIII. The scheme will provide reservation to different categories of students as per the State/UT norms; as different States/UTs have their own norms of reservation. This scholarship will be provided on yearly basis to the students studying as regular students and entering in class IX in a Government, Government-aided, local body schools. Thus, the scholarship will be for a maximum period of four years. The scheme has been approved for continuation for another 5 years during the period of 15th Finance Commission cycle from 2021-22 to 2025-26.