About Pradhan Mantri Vidyalaxmi Scheme:
- It is a flagship initiative of Ministry of Education that seeks to make quality higher education accessible to deserving students facing financial constraints.
- Eligibility Criteria for Students:
- It is available to students who have secured merit-based admission through competitive exams in any of the designated Quality Higher Education Institutions (QHEIs) in India.
- The scheme provides education loans for all degree and diploma courses.
- Eligibility Criteria for Higher Education Institutions:
- Top 100 ranked HEIs in the overall/ category-specific and/or domain-specific rankings in the latest list of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) published by the Ministry of Education
- Top 200 ranked HEIs under the governance of State/Union Territories governments in the latest list of NIRF published by the Ministry of Education
- All remaining HEIs under the governance of the Government of India.
- Loan Repayment Period: The repayment period of the education loan would be up to 15 years excluding the moratorium period (course period + 1 year).
- Credit Guarantee: Loans up to ₹ 7.5 lakhs are provided 75% credit guarantee by Government of India.
- Interest Subvention:
- For students with up to ₹ 8 lakhs annual family income, the scheme provides for 3% interest subvention on loans up to ₹ 10 lakh.
- This is in addition to the full interest subvention already offered to students with up to ₹ Rs. 4.5 lakhs annual family income.
- The scheme offers affordable education loans with interest rates capped at the bank's Externally Benchmarked Lending Rate (EBLR) + 0.5%.
- The educational loans are provided through Scheduled Banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), and Cooperative Banks participating in the scheme.
- Under this, interest subvention and credit guarantee benefits are available only once for undergraduate, postgraduate, or integrated courses.
