Bihar Scholarship Portal (e-Kalyan, Medhasoft and PMS Online)

What is the Bihar Scholarship Portal?

Bihar Scholarship Portal is the common name for the Government of Bihar's online scholarship system. In practice it is three separate websites, each run by a different set of departments, and choosing the wrong one is the first mistake most students make.

• pmsonline.bihar.gov.in. The Post-Matric Scholarship portal, used by Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class and Extremely Backward Class students studying from Class 11 upward, including degree, postgraduate and professional courses.
• medhasoft.bih.nic.in, the Education Department's portal for school and student incentive schemes, including the Class 9 bicycle grant, the Poshak (uniform) grant, the matric first-division incentive and Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana for girl students.
• ekalyan.bih.nic.in, the welfare departments' e-Kalyan gateway, which links to the scholarship and incentive schemes of the SC/ST Welfare Department and the Backward Classes and EBC Welfare Department.

Four departments feed into this system: the Education Department, the SC/ST Welfare Department, the Backward Classes and Extremely Backward Classes Welfare Department, and the Minority Welfare Department. Every payment across all three portals is made by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own bank account.

Who is eligible for a Bihar scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are domiciled in Bihar and can produce a residence certificate from your Circle Officer.
• You belong to the category the scheme covers: SC, ST, BC, EBC or a notified minority for the post-matric scholarships, or simply the relevant class for the universal school incentives.
• Your family income is within the ceiling. Reported ceilings are about Rs 2.5 lakh a year for SC, ST and BC post-matric applicants and about Rs 3 lakh a year for EBC applicants.
• You are enrolled in a recognised institution and can produce the admission record and fee receipt.
• You hold an Aadhaar-seeded bank account in your own name.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not domiciled in Bihar, even if you are studying at an institution inside Bihar.
• Your family income exceeds the ceiling for your category. This is verified against the income certificate and is a common ground for rejection.
• You are already drawing a central government scholarship for the same course and the same academic year. Double benefit for the same period is not allowed.
• You are studying at an unrecognised institution or on a course that the department has not approved for the scholarship.
• You are repeating a year you have already claimed the scholarship for. Post-matric awards are for progression, not for repetition.
• Your bank account is joint, dormant or not Aadhaar-seeded, which blocks the DBT credit even after sanction.

What documents are required for a Bihar scholarship?

Keep the income and caste certificates current. Both are issued with a validity period in Bihar, and an expired certificate is treated as no certificate at verification.

How to apply on the Bihar Scholarship Portal

1. Pick the right portal for your scheme. Class 11 and above, and a category scholarship: use pmsonline.bihar.gov.in. A school incentive or a girl student incentive: use medhasoft.bih.nic.in. If unsure, start from ekalyan.bih.nic.in, which links to the welfare department schemes.
2. Generate your NSP One Time Registration (OTR) number on the National Scholarship Portal if you do not already have one, using your Aadhaar details. Reported guidance is that post-matric applications need the OTR number along with Aadhaar.
3. Register as a new student on the chosen Bihar portal with your name, mobile number, email address and Aadhaar number, and verify the OTP.
4. Wait for departmental verification of your registration, which is confirmed by SMS to the registered mobile number.
5. Log in and fill the scholarship form with your personal details, category, family income, course and institution details, and your bank account number with IFSC.
6. Upload the scanned documents, caste certificate, income certificate, residence certificate, previous marksheet, admission and fee receipt, Aadhaar and passbook page.
7. Submit the form and print the acknowledgement. Note the application number; every future status check depends on it.
8. Submit the printed copy to your institution's scholarship nodal officer if your institution requires a hard copy, since the college or university has to verify your enrolment before the district office sanctions the award.

How to apply if you cannot use the portal yourself

1. Visit a Common Service Centre or Vasudha Kendra with all your original documents and get the online form filled. Only the government-notified service fee applies.
2. Alternatively, use your institution's scholarship cell, which files applications for its own students in bulk each session.
3. For a scheme run by a welfare department, the District Welfare Officer's office in your district headquarters can guide you on documents and on the current window.

How much do Bihar scholarships pay?

Amounts depend entirely on the scheme.

• Post-matric, SC and ST students — reported at about Rs 13,500 a year, with variation by course level.
• Post-matric, BC and EBC students, reported at about Rs 15,000 a year, again varying by course.
• Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana on Medhasoft: reported one-time amounts of about Rs 10,000 on passing Class 12 and about Rs 25,000 on completing graduation.
• Class 9 bicycle grant on Medhasoft: about Rs 3,000, one time, with no caste or income condition.
• Poshak (uniform) grant, a smaller class-linked amount for school students.

These rates are set by departmental order and are revised from time to time. Treat the figure on your own portal's scheme page and sanction letter as authoritative, not any figure circulated on social media. Professional and technical courses generally attract higher, course-linked amounts than general degree courses, and hostellers can attract a maintenance component that day scholars do not.

How to check your Bihar scholarship status

1. Open the same portal on which you applied.
2. Choose the application status or payment status option.
3. Enter your application number, or your registered mobile number where the portal allows retrieval by mobile.
4. The status will show one of: submitted, pending institution verification, pending district verification, sanctioned, or paid.
5. Where the status shows paid but no money has arrived, check the bank account first. An unseeded, dormant or closed account is the usual cause.

Why Bihar scholarship applications get rejected

• Income certificate above the ceiling for the claimed category.
• Expired caste or residence certificate at the time of verification.
• Bank account in a parent's name or a joint account instead of the student's own single-name account.
• Aadhaar not seeded to the bank account, so DBT fails after sanction.
• Name spelling mismatch across Aadhaar, marksheet and bank records.
• Institution not verifying the admission record within the window, which leaves the application stuck rather than rejected.
• Duplicate application for the same course and year, including a central scholarship already drawn.
• Applying after the window closed, since post-matric applications do not reopen once the district-level sanction process begins.

Most rejections are documentary and can be cured. Correct the document, then either use the portal's edit or re-application facility if the window is still open, or approach the District Welfare Officer with a written representation.

Key dates for Bihar scholarships

Bihar post-matric scholarship windows open once each academic session. The 2026-27 post-matric window was reported as running from 15 July 2026 to 15 September 2026. School incentive schemes on Medhasoft do not follow a public student deadline, because schools upload student data rather than students applying. Because dates shift each session, check the notice board on the portal you are using before assuming the window is open.

Where to complain about a Bihar scholarship

• Your institution's scholarship nodal officer, for verification stuck at college or university level.
• District Welfare Officer of your district, for post-matric sanction and payment issues under the SC/ST and BC/EBC welfare departments.
• District Education Officer, for Medhasoft school incentive schemes.
• The grievance or contact page on the portal you applied through, which carries the current departmental contact details.

Bihar's general public grievance route under the Bihar Lok Shikayat Nivaran Adhikar Adhiniyam is also available where the departmental route fails, through the block or sub-divisional public grievance redressal officer. No agent fee is payable at any stage for a scholarship, and no official will ask for your OTP.