Vidyalakshmi Education Loan Scheme

Vidya Lakshmi Education loan was launched under the Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram, which was initiated to improve the literacy rates in the country. The scheme is a completely IT-based student financial aid authority to administer and monitor scholarship and educational loan schemes.

Table of Contents

• Education Loan Scheme
• Education Loan Interest Rate
• Features of Education Loan
• Education Loan Eligibility
• Student Eligibility Criteria of Education Loan
• How to Apply for an Education Loan?
• List of Banks Registered with Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan
• Benefits of Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan Scheme

Education Loan Scheme

Vidya Lakshmi education loan scheme helps the students procure the loans as soon as possible and bridges the gap between the required amount of funds to complete the course and the deficit amount. Vidya Lakshmi portal education loan was set up to fulfil the needs of young minds to be turned into employable minds. However, some people mispronounce it as Vidya Laxmi, which is wrong.

The Vidya Lakshmi Education Portal is one of its kind, and it was set up by various government bodies such as the Department of Financial Services (Ministry of Finance), Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Human Resource Development), and Indian Banks Association (IBA).

Vidya Lakshmi Education loan portal was developed by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov), and they are also responsible for maintaining this portal. With the help of the scheme, the students are enabled to easily apply for a loan. And they can track their loans at any point since this portal is linked to many National Scholarship Schemes.

Vidya Lakshmi Educational Scheme Contact:

• Vidya Lakshmi education loan helpline number: 020-2567 8300
• Vidya Lakshmi education loan mail id: vidyalakshmi@nsdl.co.in
• Working Hours: Monday to Friday - 9:30 am to 6 pm

Education Loan Interest Rate

The Vidya Lakshmi education loan interest rate starts from 8.40%. However, they can avail of education loans up to INR 4 Lakh without any collateral for a tenure of up to 15 years.

Interest rates for Vidya Lakshmi education loans vary from banks, and it also depends on the loan scheme. The loan aims to encourage the students to complete their higher education despite having a financial deficit.

The Vidya Lakshmi education loan details and interest rates for male and female students in popular banks are,

For Male Students:

• Up to INR 7.5 Lakhs - 12.75% p.a. as on 01.01.2017
• Above INR 7.5 Lakhs - 11.50% p.a. as on 01.01.2017

For Female Students:

• Up to INR 7.5 Lakhs - 12.25% p.a. as on 01.01.2017
• Above INR 7.5 Lakhs - 11% p.a. as on 01.01.2017

Note: The interest rate varies on each bank eligible for providing the loan.

Security

Co-obligation of parents and no security is required for loans up to INR 7.50 Lakhs. And for loans above INR 7.50 Lakhs, co-obligation of parents and collateral security of suitable value accepted by the bank.

Repayment and Moratorium Period

The repayment period will only start after 1 year of course completion or 6 months after securing a job.

Features of Education Loan

The scheme's main objective is to provide eligible students with an easy and effective system of accessing education loans to attain a quality education. Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan is a provision given to students where they get access to the information and can also apply for various education loans and scholarship schemes.

The features of Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan consists of

Education Loan Eligibility

The courses eligible for the Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan is Graduation, Post-graduation including regular technical and professional degree or diploma courses conducted by colleges or universities approved by UGC, AICTE, IMC, Government, etc.

Other eligible courses are as follows.

• Regular degree or diploma courses are conducted by autonomous institutions like IIT, IIM, etc.
• Teacher training or nursing courses are approved by the Central Government or the State Government.
• Regular degree or diploma courses like aeronautical, pilot training, shipping, etc., approved by the Director-General of Civil Aviation/Shipping

The course eligibility for abroad studies are as follows.

• Job-oriented professional, post-graduation degree, technical graduation degree courses, and diploma courses like MCA, MBA, MS, etc., offered by reputed universities.
• Courses conducted by CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants), CPA (Certified Public Accountant) in the USA, and similar courses.

Student Eligibility Criteria of Education Loan

The primary student eligibility is they should have Indian Citizenship to apply for a Vidya Lakshmi education loan.

Few of the other primary and secondary eligibility criteria are as follows.

• The students should have already secured admission to either professional or technical courses through an entrance test/selection process conducted by the respective university.
• Going for abroad studies, the students should have compulsorily secured admission to a university or an institute abroad when they applied for Vidya Lakshmi educational loan.
• There are no minimum qualifying marks stipulated in the last qualifying examination to apply in the Vidya Lakshmi portal.

How to Apply for an Education Loan?

Students must register themselves on the Vidya Lakshmi education portal to apply for the loan. The procedure applies to all the banks registered under the Vidya Lakshmi education loan scheme.

Follow the instructions and procedures mentioned below to register, log in, and apply for a Vidya Lakshmi education loan.

• The student should register themselves at the Vidya Lakshmi portal, i.e., www.vidyalakshmi.co. to log in.
• The students should fill the Vidya Lakshmi common education loan application form. Fill in all the necessary details mentioned in the form and upload the documents required for the Vidya Lakshmi education loan to get the student login.
• After filling the Vidya Lakshmi portal education loan form, the student can search for educational loans and apply for them according to their needs, convenience, and eligibility in the Vidya Lakshmi portal.
• You will come across the Vidya Lakshmi login page here. For this, you need to go to the Vidya Lakshmi portal.
• The Common Educational Loan application is the single student form that needs to be filled to apply for Educational Loan to multiple banks/schemes.
• CELAF is the form prescribed by the IBA, the Indian Banks Association and accepted by all banks. The online form is provided on the Vidya Lakshmi education portal to apply for a loan.
• The students can view their Vidya Lakshmi loan status and processes through the applicant's dashboard on the portal.
• The amount of money applied will be disbursed by the bank directly outside the portal.

List of Banks Registered with Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan

There are 39 banks registered with Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan Scheme, and there are currently 130 loan schemes offered.

The following banks are registered with Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan Scheme.

39 Banks Registered with Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan Scheme

Abhyudaya Co-Operative Bank	Karnataka Bank	Central Bank of India
Allahabad Bank	New-India Co-operative Bank	Canara Bank
Andhra Bank	Corporation Bank	DNS Bank
Bank of Baroda	RBL Bank	Federal Bank
Dena Bank	Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd.	Indian Bank
HDFC Bank	United Bank of India	Indian Overseas Bank [IOB]
IDBI Bank	Vijaya Bank	UCO Bank
State Bank of India [SBI]	ICICI Bank	Pragathi Krishna Grameen Bank
Karur Vysya Bank [KVB]	Kotak Mahindra Bank	Axis Bank
Bank of Maharashtra	Oriental Bank of Commerce	Kerala Gramin Bank
Punjab National Bank [PNB]	Union Bank	Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank
Punjab and Sindh Bank [PSB]	Bank of India [BOI]	J & K Bank
GP Parsik Bank	Syndicate Bank	New India Bank

Benefits of Vidya Lakshmi Education Loan Scheme

Through the Vidya Lakshmi portal, students can view, apply and track the education loan applications in a single place.

Below are the benefits of the Vidya Lakshmi Educational Portal.

• All the information related to education loans is provided in one place, i.e., Vidya Lakshmi portal.
• It gives a simple way to apply for education to different banks through a single student form.
• It also provides a link to the National Scholarship Portal to view and apply for government scholarships.
• It allows students to contact the respective bank for their queries and complaints.
• Banks can also download the student loan application form.
• Banks can also upload the status of loan processing.
• It provides the direct transfer of loan amount to the associated bank account of the student without getting in touch with Agents.
• This portal provides faster processing of loan amounts without any hidden charges.