FUNDING THE FUTURE

Online portals have made it simpler to explore and apply for education loans and scholarships

- Aprajita Sharma

Your child has worked hard to get admission into her dream coll­ege. She has the offer letter, and now it’s time to arrange funds. But what if you are a bit short? You will have to explore education loans or hunt for grants and scholar­ ships. The government has simplified the process with dedicated online portals— vidyalakshmi.com for educa­tion loans and vidyasaarathi. com and scholarships.gov.in for scholarships. Let’s look at the details:

HOW TO APPLY FOR A LOAN

The NSDL (National Securities Depository Ltd) e­ Governance Infrastruc­ ture, under the guidance of the department of financial services (DFS), department of higher education and the Indian Banks Association (IBA), has developed a com­ mon portal, Vidyalakshmi. The DFS guidelines say that all education loans must be routed through this portal.

After you sign up and fill the Common Education Loan Application form, filters appear for location, course and loan amount. Once the details are put in, a list of loan schemes from public sector banks, cooperative banks and even private banks will show up. Before selecting a loan, check scheme details and eligibility criteria thoroughly. You can apply to three banks at the same time. Needless to say, public sector banks sanc­tion the maximum number of education loans. “We get around 1,000 applications a month on the vidyalakshmi portal. As part of the pro­ cess, we ask students to ap­ ply through the portal even if they approach us directly,” says Virendra Sethi, head, mortgages and other retail assets, Bank of Baroda.

HOW TO ENSURE LOAN APPROVAL