A National Workshop with the State Nodal Officers of the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) was held on 6th March 2024 at Mirza Ghalib Hall, Scope Complex, New Delhi. State Education Officers / State Nodal Officers (NMMSS) of States and UTs attended the Workshop in hybrid mode which was presided over by Ms. A. Srija, Economic Adviser, Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, and attended by officials from DBT, NIC and CSC. The workshop deliberated on areas related to the status of registration of fresh and renewal candidates on the NSP, eKYC status of Institutes, biometric authentication process of INOs, DNOs etc. and also on the new features to be added to the NSP from 2024-25.
Delivering the opening remarks, Ms. A.Srija spoke about the importance of timely scholarship payments to children from economically weaker sections and the need for prompt verification of applications by State Level officers on NSP. She also appreciated the good performance by the States/UTs during 2023-24 and requested them to constantly monitor the implementation of the scheme at the district/block/cluster right up to the school level on a regular basis when the NSP portal is open for registration and verification of applications. The States/UTs were asked to provide orientation to the parents/teachers and students on the procedure for registering on the NSP to avoid getting fake, defective or rejection cases. The SNOs were also asked to orient parents on registering the correct full name of the child, father and mother in the school records as well as the Aadhaar registry to avoid mismatch at a later stage on NSP. Appreciation certificates were awarded to the 7 Best Performing States and UTs during the event.
Shri Devender Kumar, Director (DBT Mission) emphasised on Aadhaar payment bridge being introduced in the NSP portal from the year 2024-25 onwards. He also talked of the provision of introducing One Time Registration (OTR) on the NSP. The team from NIC-NSP made a presentation on the new developments made in NSP during 2023-24, the features on NSP for registration and verification to be introduced during 2024-25 which was followed by detailed interaction between State Govt. officials and officers from the Ministry of Education, DBT, NIC-NSP & CSC. Shri Saarthak Sachdeva, Vice President, Common Service Centre, New Delhi spoke about bio-authentication of Heads of Institutes and Institute Nodal Officers, on the NSP.
Three Best Performing States made presentations on the best practices being adopted by them to expedite registration/verification on the NSP portal of eligible candidates within the timeline given on NSP.
Under the ‘National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme’ scholarships are awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue their education up to the secondary stage. One lakh fresh scholarships are awarded to selected students from class IX every year and their continuation/renewal in classes X to XII for students studying in State Government, Government-aided and local body schools. The amount of the scholarship is Rs. 12000 per annum.
The National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) is boarded on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) – a one-stop platform for scholarship schemes given to students. NMMSS scholarships are disbursed directly into the bank accounts of selected students by electronic transfer through the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) following DBT mode. This is a 100% centrally funded scheme.
Students whose parental income from all sources is not more than Rs. 3,50,000 per annum are eligible to avail of the scholarships. The students must have a minimum of 55% marks or equivalent grade in the Class VII examination to appear in the selection test for the award of a scholarship (relaxable by 5% for SC/ST students).
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SS/AK