Government launched education loan portal for students seeking loans
On 20 August 2015, Government launched a web-based portal www.vidyalakshmi.co.in for the students seeking educational loans.
In order to ensure that no student misses out on higher education due to lack of funds, finance minister in the Union Budget for 2015-16 had proposed to set a fully IT-based Student Financial Aid Authority.
In line with this proposal this portal was launched with an aim to administer and monitor scholarship as well as educational loan schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram (PMVLK).
The launch of this portal also aims to bring all banks providing educational loans under one roof.
About the portal:
- The portal has been developed and maintained by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov) under the guidance of Ministry of Finance, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).
- It is a first of its kind portal that provides access to information and makes application for educational loans provided by banks and also government scholarships under a single window.
- The portal also has a provision to apply to multiple banks for educational loans and facility for banks to download students’ loan applications among others.
- It also carter facility for banks to upload loan processing status and students can view status of their loan application and linkage to National Scholarship Portal for information and application for government scholarships on the dashboard of the portal.
- Up till now over 13 banks have registered and 22 educational loan schemes on the Vidya Lakshmi Portal.
- SBI, Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank & Union Bank of India have integrated their system with the portal for providing loan processing status to students.
Note: PMVLK was launched on 15 July 2015 under the government’s ambitious National Skill Development Mission.
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Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015