National Overseas Scholarship for SC Candidates

What is the National Overseas Scholarship?

National Overseas Scholarship for SC etc. Candidates is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that pays for a Masters degree or a PhD abroad for low-income candidates from the Scheduled Castes, Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, landless agricultural labourer families and traditional artisan families.

According to the scheme guidelines published on the NOS portal, 125 fresh awards are made in each selection year, subject to availability of funds. The category break-up is 115 for Scheduled Castes, 6 for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes and 4 for landless agricultural labourers and traditional artisans. 30 per cent of the awards each year are earmarked for women candidates, and no single state may take more than 10 per cent of the total slots.

Selection is not by examination. A merit list is drawn up by the QS World University Ranking of the institution from which the candidate holds an unconditional offer of admission, with the higher-ranked offer ranking higher. Ties are broken on marks in the qualifying degree.

Main features

• Covers Masters and PhD level only. Bachelors courses are excluded.
• Family income ceiling of Rs 8 lakh gross per annum.
• Age limit of 35 years as on 1 April of the selection year.
• Minimum 60 per cent marks or equivalent grade in the qualifying degree.
• Payments are made abroad by the Indian Mission in the country of study.

Who is eligible for the National Overseas Scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You belong to the Scheduled Castes, to the Denotified, Nomadic or Semi-Nomadic Tribes, or to a landless agricultural labourer or traditional artisan family.
• Your gross annual family income is Rs 8 lakh or less in the last completed financial year, certified by a Revenue Officer not below the rank of Tehsildar. Family here means you, your parents, siblings under 18, your spouse and your children under 18. For a married woman, the income of her in-laws, spouse and children under 18 is counted.
• You are not more than 35 years old as on 1 April of the selection year.
• You scored at least 60 per cent marks or the equivalent grade in the qualifying examination.
• You hold an unconditional offer of admission for a Masters or PhD from an accredited foreign institution.

You cannot apply if:

• You are going abroad for a Bachelors level course in any discipline.
• You are already staying, studying or have completed studies abroad using any other scholarship from the central government, a state government or any other agency, or using your own funds. Such candidates are not eligible.
• You already hold the same level of qualification, you cannot use the scholarship for a second Masters or a second PhD in the same level.
• Your research topic concerns Indian culture, heritage, history or a social studies topic based on India. These topics are outside NOS.
• You have already received the award once, or you are a third child of the same parents. Not more than two children of the same parents or guardians may be awarded.
• Your family income exceeds Rs 8 lakh a year.

Employed candidates are eligible but must furnish a No Objection Certificate from their employer, and if they were government servants before going abroad they are required to continue serving the government on return.

What documents are required for the National Overseas Scholarship?

How to apply for the National Overseas Scholarship

1. Secure an unconditional offer of admission for a Masters or PhD from a foreign institution, preferably one in the top 500 of the latest QS World University Rankings, which is the requirement for first-round selection.
2. Obtain your caste certificate and an income certificate from a Revenue Officer not below the rank of Tehsildar, showing gross annual family income for the last completed financial year.
3. Collect marksheets for every semester of your qualifying degree and, if your university issues only CGPA, a university-certified conversion formula.
4. Watch nosmsje.gov.in for the first round, which opens in April or May for 40 days. A second round opens in September or October if slots remain.
5. Register and complete the online application on nosmsje.gov.in, upload every document listed in Annexure I of the guidelines, and submit it. An incomplete application is summarily rejected.
6. Use the 4-day correction window that follows the 40-day application period to fix any errors in your submitted form.
7. Wait for the merit list and the provisional award letter. If your family income exceeded the ITR threshold, submit the ITRs and the CPC intimation under Section 143(1) before the final award letter is issued.
8. After the confirmation of award letter, complete verification of original documents, execute the bond with two sureties and furnish solvency certificates within six months, or the award lapses.

How much does the National Overseas Scholarship pay?

Air passage is reimbursed for an economy class ticket by the shortest route, booked through Balmer Lawrie, Ashok Travels & Tours or IRCTC, and claimed from the Indian Mission after joining the university. The return ticket is booked by the Mission.

The contingency allowance covers books, essential equipment including a laptop, conference and workshop travel, thesis typing and binding, and university fees such as registration, examination, library and student service fees. It does not cover English or other language courses.

Duration of assistance: up to 4 years for a PhD and 3 years for a Masters degree, or the sanctioned course duration, whichever is earlier. Maintenance allowance is linked to progress reports, the first semester is paid as two advances at three-month intervals, and thereafter quarterly against satisfactory progress reports collected by the Indian Mission.

Obligations after the award

Awardees must return to India within 30 days of completing the course and stay in the country for at least a year, looking for opportunities to serve in government departments and ministries. A selected candidate must execute a bond before a notary with two sureties for the actual amount spent or Rs 50,000, whichever is higher.

Defaulting: abandoning the course, moving to another country or university without permission, or failing to complete the programme: makes the awardee liable to refund the entire amount spent with 12 per cent annual interest, plus a penal rate 2.5 percentage points higher if the money is not repaid within six months of demand. Furnishing false documents attracts recovery with 15 per cent compound interest and blacklisting.

Candidates may defer joining by a maximum of one year or two intakes, whichever is earlier, from the date of the provisional award letter.

Where to get help

• Official portal: nosmsje.gov.in, applications, results and grievances
• Grievances about results are accepted on the portal for 30 calendar days from publication, and only for inadvertent errors made at the scrutiny stage. No additional documents are accepted during grievance redressal.
• Indian Mission in your country of study handles all payments, progress reporting and the return air ticket once you are abroad.

There is no application fee. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment does not use education consultants or agents for this scholarship, and paying anyone to secure an award is neither necessary nor effective.

How to check your National Overseas Scholarship application status

There is no separate tracking number or SMS alert system for NOS. Everything runs through the applicant's own login on nosmsje.gov.in.

1. Log in to your account on nosmsje.gov.in with the registration ID and password created at the time of application. The dashboard shows the current stage of your file: submitted, under scrutiny, shortlisted, provisional award, or rejected with a reason code.
2. Watch for the merit list, published on the same portal after the 40-day application window and the 4-day correction window close. It is arranged by the QS World University Ranking of each candidate's admission offer, not by a roll number, so search the list by your own name and application number rather than expecting a rank-ordered position to mean anything across categories.
3. Check your registered email and the portal notice board together. The Ministry sends the provisional award letter and any query about missing documents by email, but the authoritative copy of any communication is always posted on the portal, so a missed email is not a valid reason to miss a deadline.
4. After a provisional award, the status field updates again once the Ministry receives your ITR and CPC intimation (if your income exceeded the threshold), and again once the bond and solvency certificates are verified, at which point it changes to confirmed award.
5. If nothing changes in your dashboard for weeks after the merit list is due, do not call around, because no dedicated helpline for NOS is published. Instead, raise the query directly through the portal's own contact or grievance option, quoting your registration number.
6. Once abroad, status tracking moves off the portal entirely: the Indian Mission in your country of study takes over disbursal, and each quarterly payment depends on the progress report you submit to the Mission, not on anything visible on nosmsje.gov.in.

Because NOS is decided once a year by a fixed merit list rather than continuous processing, most of the "status" a candidate can meaningfully check is binary: either your name is on the year's award list after the result is declared, or it is not. A status stuck at "under scrutiny" through the correction window generally means a document flagged by the system still needs to be re-uploaded before the window closes.

Common reasons National Overseas Scholarship applications get rejected

• Missing semester marksheets. The guidelines list this as an outright rejection ground, not a query-and-fix item. Applicants who studied under a system with supplementary or backlog exams often upload only the final consolidated marksheet and skip earlier semesters. Fix: gather every semester's marksheet before you start the form, including any semester you cleared late, and upload each one individually rather than a single combined transcript unless your university issues only that.
• A conditional rather than unconditional offer of admission. An offer letter that says admission is subject to submitting further documents, a language test score, or a deposit is not the "unconditional offer" the scheme requires. Fix: go back to the foreign university's admissions office and get every condition cleared and a fresh unconditional offer letter issued before applying, since a conditional offer uploaded to save time is routinely rejected rather than treated as provisional.
• Admission to a course or institution outside NOS's scope. Bachelors-level admissions, and research proposals centred on Indian culture, heritage, history or India-based social studies, fall outside the scheme regardless of how strong the rest of the application is. Fix: confirm before applying that the admitted course is Masters or PhD level and that a doctoral research topic is not primarily about India.
• Income certificate from the wrong authority or of the wrong vintage. A certificate issued by an authority below the rank of Tehsildar, or one that states income for a year other than the last completed financial year, is a frequent scrutiny failure. Fix: get the certificate reissued by a Revenue Officer of at least Tehsildar rank, dated for the correct financial year, and covering the exact family members the scheme counts (self, parents, siblings under 18, spouse, and children under 18, or in-laws for a married woman).
• Already using another scholarship or self-funding abroad. Candidates who are already enrolled and studying abroad on any other central, state or self-funded arrangement are ineligible for NOS, and disclosing this after selection triggers cancellation rather than simple rejection. Fix: apply for NOS before you commence the course abroad on any other funding, not after.
• Third child of the same parents, or a repeat awardee. Because not more than two children of the same parents or guardians may receive the award, and no individual can be awarded twice, applications that quietly omit an older sibling's earlier award are rejected once cross-checked. Fix: disclose any prior family award status accurately; the scheme's own records catch this at the verification stage even if the online form does not block it upfront.
• Missing employer NOC for employed candidates. An employed applicant who does not attach a No Objection Certificate from their employer is treated as having an incomplete application. Fix: request the NOC well before the application window closes, since employers, especially government departments, can take weeks to issue one.
• Family income above Rs 8 lakh once ITR is cross-checked. Some applicants self-certify income within the ceiling but their ITR, filed later for the CPC intimation requirement, shows a higher figure. Because the scheme requires the CPC intimation under Section 143(1) before the final award letter, a mismatch discovered at this stage cancels the provisional award rather than merely delaying it. Fix: reconcile your income certificate figure with what your actual ITR will show before applying, not after provisional selection.