Grant of Additional Scholarship (UT) to OBC Students for Higher Studies

What is the Grant of Additional Scholarship (UT) to OBC Students?

Grant of Additional Scholarship (UT) to OBC Students is a Union Territory scheme of the Andaman and Nicobar Administration, run by the Directorate of Social Welfare at Goalghar, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair). The scheme supports Other Backward Classes students who belong to the islands and who go on to higher education after the secondary level, whether they study in the islands or on the mainland.

The word "additional" is the important one. The Andaman and Nicobar Administration already routes two centrally-driven OBC scholarships through the National Scholarship Portal, the Pre-Matric Scholarship to OBC Students for Classes IX and X, and the Post-Matric Scholarship to OBC and EBC Students from Class XI onwards. The Additional Scholarship sits on top of that structure as a UT-funded incentive aimed squarely at higher studies. Its rules are deliberately different from the other two: the income ceiling is far more generous, and Classes XI and XII are carved out.

According to the Directorate of Social Welfare press release F.No.8-18/SW/OBC/2025/Part File-I dated 3 July 2026, the scheme is described as "Grant of Additional Scholarship to OBC students of ANI to pursue higher education anywhere in India after Secondary Level (Except Class XI & XII)". That single sentence carries most of the scheme's design.

Key features

• UT scheme funded by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration, delivered through the National Scholarship Portal alongside the central OBC scholarships.
• Parental annual income ceiling of Rs 8 lakh, against Rs 2.5 lakh for the pre-matric and post-matric OBC scholarships.
• Tenable anywhere in India, so island students at mainland colleges qualify.
• Paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own Aadhaar-seeded account.
• Both fresh and renewal applications are invited in the same annual notice.

Who is eligible for the Additional Scholarship to OBC students?

You can apply if:

• You belong to the Other Backward Classes category in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and hold a valid OBC certificate and a non-creamy layer certificate.
• You are a domicile of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Your parental annual income from all sources does not exceed Rs 8 lakh.
• You have passed the secondary level (Class 10) and are enrolled in a recognised course of higher education: graduation, post-graduation, a professional or technical course, a diploma or a research degree.
• Your institution is anywhere in India, including outside the islands.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are in Class XI or Class XII. These two years are explicitly excluded from this scheme; apply instead under the Post-Matric Scholarship to OBC and EBC Students.
• Your parental income exceeds Rs 8 lakh a year.
• You fall in the creamy layer and cannot produce a current non-creamy layer certificate.
• You are not a domicile of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, even if you are OBC and studying in the islands.
• You do not belong to the OBC category. Scheduled Tribe students of the islands have their own parallel Additional Scholarship run by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, and Economically Backward Class students are covered by the Dr Ambedkar Post-Matric Scholarship.

The Directorate of Social Welfare has in past years also flagged an upper limit on the number of children per family who may draw the benefit, so read the current scheme page on the National Scholarship Portal before a second child in the same household applies.

What documents are required?

Scan every document cleanly before you begin. The National Scholarship Portal rejects blurred uploads and oversized files, and a rejected upload is the most common reason an application is marked defective.

How to apply for the OBC Additional Scholarship online

1. Open the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in during the application window. For 2026-27 the portal opened on 1 July 2026.
2. Complete the One Time Registration (OTR), including Aadhaar-based face authentication, if you have not already done so. Save your OTR number.
3. Log in and choose "State Scheme - Andaman and Nicobar" as the scheme head.
4. In the Scheme Type dropdown select "Incentive Scheme", then pick Grant of Additional Scholarship (UT) to OBC Students.
5. Fill in your personal, academic, income and bank details exactly as they appear on your documents. A name spelt differently on Aadhaar and on the bank passbook will stall the payment later.
6. Upload the scanned OBC certificate, non-creamy layer certificate, income certificate, mark sheets, bonafide certificate, bank passbook and photograph.
7. Submit the application and save or print the application ID.
8. Ask your college or institute to complete institute verification, which for 2026-27 runs from 1 July to 30 November 2026.

Submit well before the closing date. The directorate's own advisory asks students to apply early "to avoid last-minute issues", which in practice means portal congestion in the final week of October.

Key dates for 2026-27

These dates are taken from the Directorate of Social Welfare press release dated 3 July 2026, which notifies the same schedule for the Pre-Matric Scholarship to OBC Students, the Post-Matric Scholarship to OBC and EBC Students and this Additional Scholarship together. The schedule shifts each year with the National Scholarship Portal calendar — in 2025-26 the portal opened on 22 August 2025 and closed on 31 October 2025, so treat the current year's press release as authoritative.

How to check your application status

1. Log in to scholarships.gov.in with your OTR credentials.
2. Open the "Check Your Status" or applicant dashboard option.
3. Read the stage shown against your application ID: submitted, defective, verified by institute, or verified by DNO/SNO.
4. If the status shows defective, correct and re-submit before the defective verification deadline, which for 2026-27 is 15 November 2026.

A status that stays at "pending at institute" close to the deadline is a signal to visit your college scholarship cell in person rather than wait.

Why applications get rejected, and how to fix them

• Income certificate above Rs 8 lakh or issued in an earlier year. Get a fresh certificate for the current year.
• Non-creamy layer certificate missing or expired. This is separate from the caste certificate and both are needed.
• Applying while in Class XI or XII. Switch to the Post-Matric Scholarship to OBC and EBC Students, which covers those two years.
• Institute verification not completed. The application dies at the college stage unless the institution's nodal officer approves it in the portal.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, dormant or non-KYC-compliant. The directorate treats this as the leading cause of disbursement failure.
• Mismatch between Aadhaar name, bank name and application name. Correct the weakest record before re-applying.

Where to get help

• Directorate of Social Welfare, Goalghar, Port Blair (Sri Vijaya Puram) - 744101, telephone 03192-233356, email director-sw@and.nic.in.
• Your college or school scholarship cell, which handles institute-level verification and is the first stop for a stuck application.
• National Scholarship Portal help section at scholarships.gov.in for technical, OTR and face-authentication problems.

Applying is free. No agent or middleman can charge you to register on the National Scholarship Portal, and no official will ask for your Aadhaar OTP.