In the Bollywood cinema of old, if there was one quintessential problem for the character of a parent, it was the dilemma of getting their son or daughter married. A more realistic and modern version of the same scenario would be of a parent worried about sending their child to college after their schooling is done with.

The biggest headache for a parent today is to save money for their child’s college education. Every parent understands the value of quality higher education for their child’s future. However, the rising cost of education has put most private colleges beyond their meagre savings. In the present scenario, a parent must in fact start saving for their children’s education even before their birth!

Of course, there is a secret to escaping this dilemma and not being worried about finances when choosing the course or institution to study. And this secret is called a scholarship.

A scholarship is free financial aid provided to a student for pursuing or continuing their studies. There are many conditions or eligibility criteria that could apply for a scholarship, and these usually differ from scholarship to scholarship depending upon the objective of the scheme. Scholarships can be offered specifically for students in a particular geography, of a particular gender or religion, based purely on merit, or purely on need, or a combination of the two, given to those with a particular talent, or ability in a sport, and many other such cases. There is a scholarship in the world for almost everyone.

From central and state governments, to private organizations, educational institutions, NGOs and charitable trusts or foundations, and even high net worth individuals – many stakeholders seek to promote the cause of education by setting up a scholarship.

In India, there are thousands of crores worth of scholarship funds available for students from many of these above sources. For the longest time though, most of these scholarship funds would go unutilized, due to a lack of information and awareness about these schemes.

Thankfully, the government has taken many steps recently to make scholarship information more accessible to students. One of these steps is the launch of the National Scholarship Portal.

The National Scholarship Portal is a simplified platform by the Government of India that lists all government scholarships at a single place. Students can register their details on the portal and apply for various scholarships. Once they receive a scholarship, the funds are directly disbursed to their bank accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer.