Indira Gandhi Utkrisht Chhatravriti Yojana

What is Indira Gandhi Utkrisht Chhatravriti Yojana?

Indira Gandhi Utkrisht Chhatravriti Yojana is a merit scholarship of the Government of Himachal Pradesh, administered by the Directorate of Higher Education, Shimla. The scheme rewards students who finish at the very top of the state merit list and then continue into higher education, and it pays Rs 18,000 per year for as long as that course lasts.

The scheme is often written in English as Indira Gandhi Utkrisht Chattervriti Yojana or Utkrisht Chatravriti Yojana, and the same page on the ePASS portal carries all three spellings at different places. All refer to the same state sponsored scholarship, listed by the Directorate of Higher Education alongside the other state schemes for which it publishes annual merit lists.

Two things separate this award from most Himachal Pradesh scholarships. First, it is not need-based, there is no published family income ceiling, so a merit-list student qualifies whatever the household earns. Second, entry is capped by merit position rather than by budget: a fixed number of toppers is picked from each stream, so applying does not by itself put a student in the running. The merit list comes first, and the application follows it.

Key features

• State sponsored scheme, funded by the Himachal Pradesh government.
• Rs 18,000 per annum, paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own Aadhaar-seeded account.
• Renewable annually until the sanctioned course is completed.
• Two entry points, after Class 12, and after a three-year degree.
• Applications are filed on the HP ePASS portal and verified by the institution.

Who is eligible for Indira Gandhi Utkrisht Chhatravriti Yojana?

You can be considered if:

• You are a bonafide resident of Himachal Pradesh and can produce a domicile or bonafide certificate from the Tehsildar or equivalent authority.
• You have passed Class 12 from the HP Board of School Education, Dharamshala, and your name appears in the board's merit list for your stream; Science, Commerce or Arts. Ten toppers are taken from each stream.
• Or you have passed B.A., B.Sc. or B.Com. and appear in the corresponding university merit list. Ten toppers are taken from each of these three lists as well.
• You have actually taken admission in the next course, a degree course after Class 12, or a postgraduate or professional course after graduation. The scholarship supports continuing study, not the exam result on its own.

Reports on the scheme describe roughly 150 meritorious students a year receiving the award across all its categories once renewals of earlier batches are counted alongside fresh selections. Treat that as an indicative figure, the number sanctioned in a given year depends on the merit lists actually published and on how many earlier awardees are still drawing renewals.

You are not eligible if:

• You do not hold Himachal Pradesh domicile, even if you studied your whole school career inside the state.
• Your name does not appear in the board or university merit list for your stream. There is no alternative qualifying route such as a percentage cut-off applied to everyone.
• You have not joined a further course, or you have dropped out of the course for which the award was sanctioned.
• You are already drawing another state scholarship for the same purpose. Himachal Pradesh state schemes generally do not permit two state awards for the same course year, so declare any other scholarship on the application.

Students who fall just outside the merit list should look at the state's other schemes rather than reapplying here. Mukhya Mantri Vidyarthi Kalyan Yojana covers IRDP and BPL students, and Mukhiya Mantri Protsahan Yojana pays a one-time incentive to students who get into national institutions such as the IITs and AIIMS.

What documents are required?

Keep scans small and legible. The commonest upload failure on the ePASS portal is a marksheet photographed at an angle so the roll number cannot be read, which sends the file back for correction and costs a fortnight.

How to apply for Indira Gandhi Utkrisht Chhatravriti Yojana

1. Wait for the merit list for your stream to be published by the HP Board of School Education, Dharamshala, or by your university, and confirm that your name and roll number appear on it.
2. Open the Himachal Pradesh ePASS scholarship portal at hpepass.cgg.gov.in and go to State Sponsored Schemes.
3. Complete student registration, create the login, enter your Aadhaar number, and finish the e-KYC or OTP verification step. Note the user ID and password; you will need the same login for every renewal.
4. Select Indira Gandhi Utkrisht Chhatravriti Yojana from the list of state schemes and fill the application form with your personal details, Class 12 or degree marks, the institution you have joined, and your bank account details.
5. Upload the documents — domicile certificate, marksheet, admission proof, Aadhaar and bank passbook, and submit the form.
6. Take a printout of the submitted application, attach self-attested copies of the same documents, and hand the set to your college or university scholarship section.
7. Ask the institution to verify and forward your application on its own portal login. An application that is submitted but not forwarded will never reach the directorate.
8. Track the file on the portal under Know Your Status until the sanction and payment entries appear.

How to apply offline

There is no separate paper-only route to this scholarship, the application itself has to be created on the portal. What students without their own internet access can do is:

1. Visit your college or school scholarship cell with the domicile certificate, marksheet, admission proof, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
2. Ask the scholarship nodal officer to help you create the login and fill the form on the institutional system. Most government colleges in Himachal Pradesh run assisted filing sessions in the weeks after admissions close.
3. Alternatively use a Lok Mitra Kendra or Common Service Centre, which can fill the online form for a small notified fee, then take the printout to your institution for verification.

How much benefit does the scheme provide and when is it paid?

The award is Rs 18,000 per academic year. Payment is released by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own bank account after the institution verifies the application and the Directorate of Higher Education sanctions it. Because sanction depends on merit lists that are themselves published after the board results, the first instalment for a fresh awardee usually lands well into the academic session rather than at admission time.

Renewal continues the same Rs 18,000 for each subsequent year of the course. A student who moves from a three-year degree into a postgraduate course does not carry the old sanction forward automatically; the graduate-level merit list is a fresh selection.

How to check your application status

1. Log in at hpepass.cgg.gov.in with the user ID created at registration.
2. Open the application status or Know Your Status link for the current academic year.
3. Read which stage the file is at; submitted by student, verified by institute, sanctioned by directorate, or payment released.
4. If the status has been sitting at submitted by student for weeks, the problem is at your college, not at the directorate. Chase the nodal officer.

Why applications get rejected, and how to fix them

• Name not on the merit list. Nothing can be done at the application stage; selection is from the published list.
• Institution did not forward the application before the portal closed for the year. This is the single most common failure and it is entirely fixable if caught early.
• Domicile certificate expired or in the wrong format. Get a fresh bonafide certificate from the Tehsildar.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, or an account in a parent's name. The account must be the student's own and seeded for DBT.
• Name mismatch between the Aadhaar record, the marksheet and the bank account. Correct the bank or Aadhaar record first, then reapply.
• Duplicate state scholarship already drawn for the same course year.

Key dates to watch

The state scholarship window on the ePASS portal opens after the admission season and, in recent years, has closed on 31 October, with the institutional verification window closing a few weeks later. Neither date is fixed by statute and the directorate has extended them in past years, so check the notices page on education.hp.gov.in rather than relying on last year's calendar. The merit list notice for the scheme is published separately by the Directorate of Higher Education each year.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Higher Education, Shimla-171001, Himachal Pradesh
• Phone: +91-177-2656621
• Email: dhe-sml-hp@gov.in
• Office hours: Monday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

For portal-level problems. A login that will not open, a document that will not upload, a status that has not moved, start with your institution's scholarship nodal officer, who can see the file on the institutional login and escalate it. No fee is charged for this scholarship, and no agent can get a name added to a merit list.