National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST Students: How to Check Application and Payment Status

Checking your status under the National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST Students (NFST) depends on which of its two components you applied for: the fellowship is tracked on the National Tribal Fellowship Portal at fellowship.tribal.gov.in, and the scholarship is tracked on the National Scholarship Portal at scholarships.gov.in. Confusing the two portals is the most common reason applicants think their status has "disappeared." For eligibility and benefit details, see the parent NFST guide; this article covers only how to track status and what each stage means.

Which portal tracks your status

• Fellowship component (M.Phil/PhD research): log in at fellowship.tribal.gov.in with the credentials you registered with.
• Scholarship component (premier-institute tuition): log in at scholarships.gov.in with your One-Time Registration (OTR) number.

Use the portal you actually applied on. A fellowship applicant will find nothing on NSP, and vice versa.

How to check fellowship application status (step by step)

1. Open fellowship.tribal.gov.in and click the applicant login.
2. Enter your registered user ID / mobile / email and password, and verify the OTP if prompted.
3. Open the Application Status or dashboard section.
4. Read the current stage against your application reference number.

The dashboard typically shows the application sitting at one of these stages: submitted, pending institute/university verification, ministry scrutiny, or selection/result. The single most important stage to watch is institute verification, an application the university never verified is treated as incomplete and does not move forward. If your status is stuck there, contact your university's scholarship or research cell, not the ministry.

How to check scholarship application status (step by step)

1. Open scholarships.gov.in and log in with your OTR number.
2. Go to the application status / track section.
3. The tracker shows verification at two levels separately: institute-level (L1) and state or ministry-level (L2).

If institute-level verification is still pending after the NSP deadline, chase your institute's nodal officer: NSP applications not verified by the institute lapse.

How to check payment (DBT) status

NFST money: both the monthly fellowship and the scholarship stipend; is paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into your Aadhaar-seeded bank account. To confirm a payment:

1. Check the disbursement or payment section of the relevant portal (fellowship.tribal.gov.in or scholarships.gov.in) for a "released/credited" marker against the instalment.
2. Cross-check your bank passbook or statement for the credit.
3. If the portal shows "released" but no credit reached your account, the usual cause is that the bank account is not Aadhaar-seeded. Get the seeding done at your bank branch, then raise the issue through the portal.

What each status means and what to do next

• Submitted / under process: no action needed yet; wait for institute verification.
• Pending institute verification: act now — contact your university/institute cell to complete it.
• Verified / forwarded to ministry: in the queue for scrutiny; wait.
• Selected / sanctioned: confirm your bank details are Aadhaar-seeded so DBT does not fail.
• Released but not credited: bank-side issue, almost always Aadhaar seeding: fix at your branch.
• Rejected: read the recorded reason and use the correction/grievance route (see the NFST troubleshooting article).

Where to get help

• National Scholarship Portal helpdesk: 0120-6619540 (as listed on the parent NFST guide) for scholarship-component and NSP payment queries.
• Ministry of Tribal Affairs, New Delhi: 011-23383303.
• Your university/institute scholarship or research cell, the fastest fix for a status stuck at verification.

FAQ

I applied for the fellowship but nothing shows on NSP: is my application lost? No. Fellowship status lives only on fellowship.tribal.gov.in, not NSP.

Portal says "released" but I got no money. Why? Most often the bank account is not Aadhaar-seeded, which blocks the DBT credit. Seed it and follow up on the portal.

Who fixes a status stuck at "institute verification"? Your university or institute. The ministry cannot verify on their behalf.