Q&A with Gagan Rai, Managing Director and CEO, NSDL e-Governance

Please explain about your initiative – Vidyasaarathi.

Vidyasaarathi is an initiative by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov), which has a potential to bridge the gap in education finance in the country. It is an online platform that proposes to effectively bring together various stakeholders in the education ecosystem and is positioned as a user friendly, transparent and demand driven platform which is helping the corporate sector in playing a positive role in developing education finance for the Indian society at large. Vidyasaarathi aspires to empower the fund providers as well as students by developing an ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders.

Vidyasaarathi portal provides single window for students to access information and make application for educational scholarships. It has the following features:

• Information about various educational scholarships.
• Apply to multiple Educational Scholarships & Schemes.
• Facility for Corporates to download Students Scholarship Applications & Review the same.
• Facility for Educational Institutes/Corporates to register online.

What is the objective behind Vidyasaarathi?

To bridge the gap in education finance in the country and provide financial assistance to meritorious students from low income families

How can students apply for the scheme?

The process is simple and easy.

The applicant must "login" to Vidyasaarathi Portal then fill-up the basic profile and scholarship scheme specific details with all the necessary mandatory fields.

Which are the other schemes on Vidyasaarathi?

Students can search and apply to various education finance schemes provided on merit by fund providers, industries, and corporates. Students can refer to the various scholarship schemes listed on the Vidyasaarathi portal.

How do you connect students with corporate?

Students login using Vidyasaarathi website and fill the required details for the schemes that they find relevant for them. The website then collects the data and information submitted by students across India, verify the data, check their eligibility and submit the request to Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), our partner for this project. On the other hand, corporate collaborates with TISS and disburses the amount to the shortlisted students.

How has been the response?

The response is phenomenal. Through Vidyasaarathi, we have been able to reach out to over 7.5 lakh students so far from various scholarship schemes. We are associated with 23 corporate from different sectors in India. Through our association with them, we are reaching out to the underprivileged, deserving students across India.Vidyasaarathi is the support system of these students by helping them with education financing.