Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday launched the country's first National Scholarship Portal mobile app here that would make the government welfare schemes more accessible to needy students.Naqvi said that the app will ensure a "smooth, accessible and hassle-free scholarship system for students from poor and weaker sections".Naqvi said the students will get all the information regarding various scholarships on this mobile app. They will be able to apply for scholarships through the app. The students can also upload necessary documents on this app, can check the status of their application and scholarship disbursement status etc.Students from far-flung/hilly areas and from the North-East will benefit the most.He said that all the scholarships are being given directly into the bank accounts of the needy students under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode through the National Scholarship Portal which has ensured that there is no scope for duplication and leakage.
The Minister pointed out that the Ministry of Minority Affairs has gone "completely online", which has eliminated middlemen and the benefits of every scheme are reaching directly to the needy without any obstacle.The Minister said that during the last four years, about three crore students belonging to the poor and weaker sections of minorities have benefited from various scholarship programmes. The beneficiaries include about 1.63 crore girls.He added that the school dropout rate among Muslim girls, which was earlier more than 70 per cent, has now been reduced to about 35-40 per cent due to awareness and educational empowerment programmes of the Modi government."Our goal is to bring it down to zero per cent. A transparent and hassle-free scholarship system has helped in this endeavour and the new mobile app will help strengthen this transparent mechanism," Naqvi said.