The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India has invited online applications for National Fellowship under the scheme ‘National Fellowship & Scholarship for Higher Education of ST Students’ for the year 2023-24. 

The fellowship is awarded to ST candidates for pursuing Ph.D/integrated M.Phil+Ph.D programmes. 

Number of scholarships is 750 which will be distributed among (i)  Divyangjan – 38 (ii) Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) -25 (iii) Female – 225 and (iv) ST Others – 462.

Duration: Fellowship will be provided for 2 years or date of submission of dissertation, whichever is earlier in case of M. Phil; 5 years (2+3) or date of submission of dissertation, whichever is earlier for M. Phil + Ph D and 5 years or date of submission of dissertation, whichever is earlier for Ph.D.

Scholarship Amount: For M.Phil, it is Rs. Rs.31000/- per month with an annual contingency grant of Rs 10000/- for Humanities & Social Sciences and Rs. 12,000/- for Science/Engineering/Technology. 

For Ph.D, scholarship will be Rs.31000/- for the first two years and Rs.35000/- for the remaining 3 years. Annual contingency grant for Humanities & Social Sciences will be Rs. 20,500/- and that for Science/Engineering/Technology, Rs. 25,000/-

Eligibility: Applicants should have a Post-Graduation with minimum 55% marks at the final examination/grading at PG level. Applicant should have taken admission for regular and full time M. Phil/Ph.D courses in the following categories of University / Academic Institutes: (i) Universities/Institutes/Colleges included under section 2(f)/12(B) or 2(f) and 12(B) of UGC Act (ii) Deemed to be Universities included under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 and eligible to receive grant-in-aid from UGC (iii) Universities/ Institutes/ Colleges receiving grants by Central/ State Government (iv) Institutes of National Importance, as notified by Ministry of Higher Education, Government of India. 

Eligible students who have got an offer of admission in IITs/AIIMS/IIMs/IISER will be given priority and slots meant for ST-Others category will be reduced proportionately. 

There are no income criteria for eligibility in respect of this scholarship. Maximum age limit is 36 years, as on 1.7.2023.

Application: Application can be submitted online at https://fellowship.tribal.gov.in/  latest by 31.08.2023. 

Detailed Guidelines including the selection procedure are available at this website.