Nagaland State Merit Scholarship

What is the Nagaland State Merit Scholarship?

Nagaland State Merit Scholarship is a scholarship sponsored 100 percent by the Government of Nagaland and administered by the Directorate of Higher Education, Kohima. The scheme rewards academic merit rather than financial need: it pays a yearly award to indigenous students of Nagaland who are in post-matric study, anything above class X, and who cleared their last examination with a high mark.

According to the Directorate's guidelines, the scholarship is delivered through the state's Common Scholarship Portal at scholarship.nagaland.gov.in, the single window through which the Nagaland Scholarship Nodal Cell (NSNC) runs 23 different scholarship programmes for the state.

Key features

• Fully state funded, with no central share.
• Merit-based, with hard percentage cut-offs rather than an income test.
• Paid annually, with separate Fresh and Renewal application tracks.
• Covers class 11 and 12, Diploma, Bachelor's degree, B.Ed. and postgraduate study.
• Awards differ for general courses and technical, professional or allied courses, and for day scholars and hostellers.

Who is eligible for the Nagaland State Merit Scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are an indigenous inhabitant of Nagaland pursuing post-matric study in a recognised institution, or you are a non-indigenous inhabitant permanently settled in Nagaland who secured a top 10 position in a board or university within Nagaland.
• You meet the qualifying percentage for your class. For a fresh application that means 80 percent in class 10 (to apply in class 11 or Diploma 1st year), 80 percent in class 12 (Bachelor's 1st year), 80 percent in the Diploma (lateral entry into Engineering 2nd year), 70 percent in graduation (B.Ed. 1st year), or 70 percent at graduation level (PG 1st year).
• You are in the first year of your course. Engineering students entering the second year by lateral entry after a Diploma may still apply as fresh.
• You are pursuing a Diploma or Certificate course of not less than two years duration, if that is your course type.

Renewal applicants must be last year's beneficiaries continuing in the same course. The renewal cut-offs are 80 percent in class 11 (for class 12), 80 percent in Diploma 1st or 2nd year, and 70 percent in the preceding degree or PG year.

You cannot apply if:

• You failed your last examination; repeaters are not eligible.
• You are already a beneficiary of any other scholarship scheme.
• You are an employee of any government or semi-government establishment.
• You already availed this scholarship; fully or partly — at one stage of study and then switched to another course at the same level. A student who drew the award during a BA and then moved to a BSc is not eligible.
• You changed course level on completing a course but applied as a renewal rather than fresh. That must be a fresh application.

NIOS students may apply provided they meet the same conditions and had the subject combination of English, Alternative English or MIL, Science, Mathematics and Social Science at class 10.

How much does the Nagaland State Merit Scholarship pay?

Each award is built from three parts: an obligatory fee (OF), a book grant (BG) and a monthly stipend (MS) paid for 10 months for fresh awards and 12 months for renewals. The Directorate's revised rates table gives the following annual totals:

Two patterns are worth noting. A hosteller always gets more than a day scholar at the same level, because the monthly stipend is higher. And at PG level the general and technical rates converge at the same figure.

What documents are required?

For a fresh application: attested class 10 mark sheet; attested mark sheets of the last qualifying examination; attested Scheduled Tribe Certificate and Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate; Part B form in original if you study outside Nagaland; Permanent Residential Certificate if you are a non-indigenous inhabitant; hostel certificate if you are a hosteller; photocopy of the front page of the bank passbook; photocopy of the admission receipt; and one recent passport photograph pasted on the printed form.

For a renewal: self-attested mark sheets of the last examination; Part B in original if studying outside Nagaland; hostel certificate for hostellers; photocopy of the admission receipt; and photocopy of the bank passbook front page.

The bank account must be in the applicant's own name. If the applicant is a minor, a joint account is acceptable only where the applicant's name appears first in the passbook. The Directorate states it will not be responsible for non-receipt of the scholarship where wrong or inactive account details were supplied.

How to apply for the Nagaland State Merit Scholarship

1. Open the Common Scholarship Portal at scholarship.nagaland.gov.in during the application window, 1 August to 31 October 2026 for the 2026-27 session.
2. Register and select Nagaland State Merit Scholarship, then choose Fresh or Renewal correctly. Choosing the wrong track is a common cause of rejection.
3. Fill the e-form with your personal, course, bank and hostel details. Merge multiple mark sheets into a single file before uploading, as the guidelines require.
4. Upload the scanned documents listed above and submit the form. Corrections after submission are not entertained, so check every entry first.
5. Print the submitted form, paste a recent passport photograph on it, and attach the physical documents.
6. If you study within Nagaland, hand the printed form and documents to your own institution for verification by its Institution Nodal Officer (INO). The Directorate will not entertain forms submitted directly by students studying inside the state.
7. If you study outside Nagaland, send the printed form and documents by speed post or hand post to the Scholarship Section, Directorate of Higher Education, Below New Secretariat Complex, Kohima 797001, within the stipulated time.

How is the application verified?

Verification runs in two levels. The INO of your institution compares your online application against the hardcopy you submitted and either verifies or rejects it with a reason. Once cleared at institution level, the Directorate verifies it at state level. Applications from students outside Nagaland skip the institution stage and are verified directly by the Department against the hardcopy received by post.

If your INO rejects the form within the stipulated date, you may re-apply with corrected details and documents. Institutions do not verify online applications where no hardcopy was submitted, which is why an online submission alone is never enough. Institutions must retain the forms and documents for at least five years for audit.

Why State Merit Scholarship applications get rejected

• Bank account not in the applicant's name, an explicit ground for rejection.
• Hardcopy never submitted to the institution or posted to the Directorate.
• Incomplete or wrong entries in the e-form, or missing enclosures.
• Mark sheets not merged into a single file where several were needed.
• Repeater or failed student applying despite the bar.
• Wrong hostel proof, a hosteller inside Nagaland must use the Department-issued Hosteller Form, not a warden's letter.
• Part B incomplete for outside-Nagaland applicants. A stamped signature is not accepted, both the head's official seal and the institution's round seal are compulsory, and over-writing invalidates the form.

Help and grievance redressal

• Nagaland Scholarship Nodal Cell, Directorate of Higher Education, Below New Secretariat Complex, Kohima 797001.
• Nodal officer: Shri S. Lisepi Sangtam, Assistant Director to 9612520569.
• Institution nominations and INO queries: hescholarship@gmail.com.
• Portal: scholarship.nagaland.gov.in for application status.

Applying is free. The Directorate warns that a false statement, declaration or document gets the applicant blacklisted and debarred from every scholarship scheme for the whole period of study, with recovery of any amount already paid.

How to check your application status

The Common Scholarship Portal is the only place that shows a live status for the Nagaland State Merit Scholarship, since the scheme has no separate SMS or call-centre tracking system.

1. Go to scholarship.nagaland.gov.in and log in with the same credentials you used to submit the application.
2. Open your dashboard and look at the application stage shown against your Fresh or Renewal form. The status moves through the same two checkpoints described in the verification process: pending at institution level, verified or rejected by the Institution Nodal Officer (INO), and then pending, verified or rejected at Directorate level.
3. If your status shows rejected at INO level, check with your own institution's INO directly, they hold the reason and the hardcopy you submitted, and the portal itself may not spell out the reason in detail. A rejection at this stage can usually be corrected and resubmitted if the window is still open.
4. If your status is stuck at pending well after the institution's verification deadline has passed, that most often means your hardcopy was never received, either your institution has not forwarded it, or, for applicants studying outside Nagaland, the posted form has not reached the Directorate. Confirm the postal or hand-delivery receipt before assuming a portal error.
5. For students studying outside Nagaland, there is no INO step; status will move directly from submitted to verified or rejected once the Scholarship Section at the Directorate processes the hardcopy sent by post.
6. If the portal status is unclear or has not updated for an extended period, contact the Nagaland Scholarship Nodal Cell at the Directorate of Higher Education, Below New Secretariat Complex, Kohima 797001, or reach the nodal officer, Shri S. Lisepi Sangtam, Assistant Director, at 9612520569. Institution-side queries can also go to hescholarship@gmail.com.
7. Disbursal itself is a separate step from verification: a "verified" status at Directorate level means your application has cleared, not that the amount has already reached your bank account. Since payment goes to the bank account entered on the form, keep that passbook active and check with the bank if verification is complete but no credit has appeared.