Pragati Scholarship Scheme Documents Required: Complete Checklist

To apply for the Pragati Scholarship Scheme on scholarships.gov.in you need eight core items: your OTR number, Aadhaar, admission proof, income certificate, Class 10/12 or diploma marksheets, a bank passbook in your own name, a declaration on the number of girl children, and (if asked) a tuition fee receipt. This checklist explains what each document proves, the format rules the National Scholarship Portal enforces, and the mistakes that get an application marked defective. Pragati Scholarship Scheme, AICTE's Rs 50,000-a-year award for girl students in technical courses, is the parent scheme; this article details the paperwork rather than the eligibility.

The complete document checklist

• One Time Registration (OTR) number. The 14-digit number generated on scholarships.gov.in against your Aadhaar or Aadhaar Enrolment ID. It is your identity on the portal, not an upload.
• Aadhaar card: used for OTR, e-KYC and face authentication. The name must match your marksheets and bank account.
• Admission proof for the AICTE-approved course; first-year admission letter, or lateral-entry second-year admission proof for diploma holders. Proves you are in an eligible technical course.
• Income certificate: proves family income is within the Rs 8 lakh ceiling; must be from the competent authority.
• Class 10 and Class 12 or diploma marksheets; establish merit in the qualifying examination, on which selection is made.
• Bank account passbook; must be in the student's own name and Aadhaar-seeded, because payment is by Direct Benefit Transfer to the student.
• Declaration on the number of girl children in the family: supports the two-girl-children-per-family cap.
• Tuition fee receipt, not always mandatory, but sometimes asked by the institute at the verification stage.

What each document proves

• Aadhaar is the spine of the application, it drives e-KYC, face authentication and the DBT credit. Every other name must agree with it.
• The income certificate is the eligibility gate; an amount above Rs 8 lakh, or a certificate from the wrong authority, ends the application.
• The marksheets decide selection, since Pragati is a merit scholarship within each degree and diploma pool.
• The bank passbook decides whether the money can actually reach you; a wrong-name or unseeded account fails DBT even after sanction.
• The girl-children declaration enforces the cap of two daughters per family.

Format and size rules on the portal

The National Scholarship Portal accepts document uploads within defined size and format limits, typically PDF or common image formats with per-file size caps shown on the upload screen. To avoid a defective marking:

1. Scan clearly — a blurred or cropped certificate is a common rejection cause.
2. Keep each file within the size shown on the upload field; compress if needed without making text unreadable.
3. Upload the correct document in the correct slot, an income certificate uploaded in the marksheet field is treated as missing.
4. Match the form fields to the document. The number, name and date you type must match the uploaded certificate exactly.

Common document mistakes

• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, marksheet and bank account, the single most common defect. Reconcile all three before applying.
• Bank account in a parent's or joint name instead of the student's own: DBT will fail.
• Income certificate from a non-competent authority or expired; get it from the correct issuing officer.
• Admission proof for a non-AICTE-approved course, confirm the course and institution are AICTE-approved first.
• Skipping the girl-children declaration. It is mandatory, not optional.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to upload the OTR number as a document? No. The OTR is your login identity generated against Aadhaar, not an uploaded file.

Is the tuition fee receipt always required? No, it is sometimes asked by the institute at verification, so keep it ready even though it is not a mandatory upload.

Whose name must the bank account be in? The student's own name, Aadhaar-seeded and NPCI-mapped, because the DBT credit goes to the student, not the college.

Which income limit applies? Family income up to Rs 8 lakh a year, certified by the competent authority.

For eligibility, benefit and the full step-by-step application, see the parent guide to Pragati Scholarship Scheme. Applying is free; Common Service Centres may charge the notified Rs 30 for assisted filing, but no agent can charge to sanction a scholarship.