The University Grants Commission (UGC) recently declared that three national fellowship schemes have been transferred to concerned ministries. The official notice was uploaded by the Commission on the official UGC website — ugc.ac.in.
The official notification reads, “It is brought to the notice of all the stakeholders that UGC implemented these schemes up to September 30, 2022, only. The concerned ministries are implementing the schemes directly, w.e.f. October 1, 2022. All the stakeholders are advised to make any future correspondence in this regard with the following Agencies/Ministries.”
As per the notice, the National Fellowship for SC (NFSC) and the National Fellowship for OBC have now been transferred to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of India. Also, the Maulana Azad National Fellowship has been handed over to the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
The Maulana Azad National Fellowship provides integrated five year fellowships in form of financial assistance to students pursuing higher degrees from six notified minority communities — Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Parsi and Sikh.
On the other hand, the National Fellowship for SC (NFSC) is provided to candidates who belong to scheduled caste and are pursuing higher studies in Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering and Technology. There are 2000 slots for all subjects under this scholarship.
The National Fellowship for OBC is open to candidates pursuing higher studies and are from the Other Backward Class (OBC). There are 300 slots for award of fellowship every year for all the subjects.