Education Loan in India: Taking education loan will be easy, new portal is coming, loan giving banks will also increase

The Union Education Ministry is finalizing a plan to make education loan easier for students. Work is also being done on the mission of providing world class best research journals to the students and faculty studying in government institutions without any fees. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has directed the ministry to add new features to the existing portal to ease the process of applying for education loan under the new central scheme ‘PM Vidyalakshmi’ and reduce paper formalities. A new plan will also come regarding research journal.

How will the new education loan portal be?

Purnendu Kishore Banerjee, Joint Secretary in the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, said that the existing portal is expected to be redesigned by the end of December. Students are currently applying through the old portal. The application format is out of date. At present, the bank is processing those who are applying. Once the new portal is ready, the ministry will have all the data. Currently there are seven-eight different tabs in the portal. Unnecessary parts are being removed.

A two-page online form is being prepared in small format. Only the documents required for Aadhaar verification will have to be uploaded. The new structure will have to be integrated with the bank and the bank will also have to change the software. Application can be made on a single portal. The bank will process the application number generated in the Vidyalakshmi portal.

More B.Tech-MBA students are among those taking loans.

Banerjee said that currently around 3 lakh students get education loan in a year. Most of these students take loans for B.Tech and MBA courses. The average ticket size of the loan is up to Rs 10 lakh. There is no upper limit for education loan in the new scheme. As far as rebate on interest is concerned, an upper limit of Rs 10 lakh has been fixed for it. One lakh promising students will get the benefit of interest rebate.

12 banks give about 98% loans

According to the Education Ministry, along with big banks, private banks will also come under the scope of this scheme. If we look at the trend of last 10-15 years, only 12 public sector banks provide 98% loan coverage. Private banks are less. 12 banks including Canara Bank, SBI, Union Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India have a major stake. Some rural banks are also involved in this.

Research culture will increase with the new scheme

A new scheme may be launched soon to promote research culture in the country, which will prove to be a game changer. Under this scheme, students of government institutions will get access to the best research journals available abroad without any fees. Currently, institutions and colleges have to pay for the best research journals, but now this facility will be available for free. This will promote research culture.