What is Vidya Lakshmi Loan Scheme?

A web-based portal www.vidyalakshmi.co.in was launched on the Independence Day for the benefit of students seeking educational loans. It will jointly manned by the Union ministries of Finance, HRD and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). According to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley this was being done to enable all poor and middle class students to pursue higher education without any constraint of funds.

The Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram is aimed at ensuring that no student misses out on higher education for lack of funds. It will provide a single window electronic platform for scholarships and educational loans. It will serve as a one-stop shop for information and application on educational loans extended by various banks.

The salient features include- information about educational loan schemes of banks; common educational loan application form for students; facility to apply to multiple banks for educational loans; facility for banks to download students’ loan applications; facility for banks to upload loan processing status and for students to email grievances/queries relating to educational loans to banks; dashboard facility for students to view status of their loan application and linkage to national scholarship portal for information and application for government scholarships.

So far, 13 banks have registered 22 educational loan schemes on the Vidya Lakshmi Portal and 5 Banks viz; SBI, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank & Union Bank of India have integrated their system with the portal for providing loan processing status to students.