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Scholarship

NEC Merit Scholarship for North Eastern Region Students 2026-27

North Eastern Council (NEC), Ministry of DoNER

Important dates

Posts & who can apply

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More information

⚠️ Only renewals are open right now

• The National Scholarship Portal currently lists this scheme with a renewal window only: 15 July 2026 to 31 October 2026. If you already hold an NEC Merit Scholarship, that is your deadline.
• A fresh award is only ever made in the year your course COMMENCES — every later year is a renewal. So if your course started in an earlier year and you never applied, you cannot join the scheme now for that course.
• Fresh applications are advertised by your State Government department and in the newspapers as well as on the portal.

What you get

• A flat amount per year by DBT, paid directly by NEC into a bank account in your own name — preferably Aadhaar-linked, and it must stay active for the whole tenure.
• Paid from the date of admission or commencement (registration, for M.Phil/Ph.D) until the course finishes. M.Phil is funded for 2 years and Ph.D for 3.
• The same rates apply to fresh and renewal cases.

Who can apply

• You must be a PERMANENT RESIDENT of one of the eight North Eastern States — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim or Tripura.
• ⚠️ Our automatic eligibility check cannot test that: it matches a single named state, and this scheme accepts any of eight. Check it yourself.
• You need a Permanent Residential Certificate from the Deputy Commissioner, Additional Deputy Commissioner or Sub-Divisional Officer — except in Sikkim, where it is the Certificate of Identification. A certificate from any other authority is not accepted.
• Parent or guardian annual income from all sources must not exceed ₹8,00,000, certified by the competent authority.
• At least 60% in aggregate in the qualifying examination for your level (class 10 or 12 for a diploma, class 12 for a degree, a degree for PG, a PG degree for M.Phil/Ph.D).
• The scholarship is for study in India only, at an institute recognised by the Government, and your institute must be registered on NSP with its U-DISE, AISHE or NCVT code — an application their institute cannot verify is not considered.
• ⚠️ You must not be receiving any other scholarship or financial assistance. Sponsored candidates in full employment, and working or in-service candidates, are not eligible. The scholarship is not available for an internship or practical training.

How places are decided

• Purely on merit — the list is built from marks in the qualifying exam alone. If two candidates tie, the one with the LOWER family income is preferred.
• There is no reservation or quota by category, religion or gender.
• M.Phil and Ph.D selection also weighs the research topic: it must be directly, specifically and currently relevant to the North Eastern Region, and basic or theoretical research is not generally favoured.
• If a state's quota goes unfilled for want of eligible candidates, those places pass to students from other NE states on inter-se merit.
• The state-wise quota below is for FRESH scholarships. Renewals are funded as per actual numbers, from the same pot.

How to apply

1. Apply online on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) at https://scholarships.gov.in/ — it is the only route. Applications sent directly to the ministry or the institute are not accepted.
2. One Time Registration (OTR) comes first. You register once at https://scholarships.gov.in/otrapplication/ with Aadhaar-based e-KYC and get an OTR number, then use it for this and every other NSP scholarship, this year and in later years.
3. There is no application fee.
4. After you submit, your institute verifies the application, and then the district/state/ministry nodal officer verifies it. Both happen after the student deadline and neither is something you can do for them — submit early enough that they have time.
5. You may also apply through the NSP mobile app or the UMANG app.
6. Verification is at two levels — your institute first, then the nodal officer of your own NE state.

The deadlines that follow yours

• Your deadline is the first of four. The three after it belong to your institute and to the verifying officers, and the schedule is published by NSP.
• ⚠️ An application your institute never verifies is not an application. Submit early and then confirm with your institute that they have verified it.

Official documents & links

• Scheme guidelines (PDF, scholarships.gov.in) — Official notification · Official — scholarships.gov.in

These are the documents this page was written from. Where the government portal published a PDF, the copy above is the one we read — open it and check anything that matters to you.

See notification ↗ — Applications are submitted here, on the government's own site.

Frequently asked

What is the minimum qualification for NEC Merit Scholarship for North Eastern Region Students 2026-27?

10th pass (varies by post — see the posts table on this page).

How do I apply for NEC Merit Scholarship for North Eastern Region Students 2026-27 quickly?

Check your eligibility on Filled in about thirty seconds; if eligible, Filled fills the official form from your saved profile — you review it and submit on the official portal yourself.

Last checked 6 Aug 2026

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