Applications Invited For National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS)

The Ministry of Education, GOI, is inviting applications for the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme. The deadline for the submission of applications under this scheme is 31st August of this year.

The National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme or NMMSS is a scheme of the central sector, with the goal of awarding scholarships to meritorious students belonging to the economically weaker sections to prevent dropouts at Class 8 and motivate them to carry on with their studies at the secondary level. 

Every year, one lakh new scholarships are awarded to selected Class 9 students and renewed for Classes 10 to 12 for study in State Government, Government-aided, and local body schools. The NMMSS scheme is available on the NSP portal.

The public can now access the One-Time Registration (OTR) application, which features a new mobile app, an updated web version, and a renovated site. 

Students can now register online for OTR through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) aka NSP portal. Through the portal, OTR/Reference numbers have been assigned to students who applied for the NSP for the academic year 2023–24, and they have been notified about the same via SMS.  

The following instructions have been stated for students who have applied on the NSP in the academic year 2023-24:

• NSP, in the academic year 2023-2024, introduced an optional face authentication service. OTR numbers have been assigned to students after the completion of the face authentication process and these numbers have been sent to the students through SMS on their registered mobile numbers. By using the NSP portal, these students can directly apply for scholarships.
• In case a student did not receive their OTR number through SMS, they can use the “Know Your OTR” feature available on the NSP portal to retrieve it.
• For students who completed the OTP-based eKYC but didn’t complete the face authentication process in academic year 2023-24, reference numbers have been assigned. In order to obtain the OTR number, completing the face authentication process on the NSP portal is a must for students.

How can the OTR number be generated?

To generate the OTR number, the following steps need to be followed:

Step 1: Download and install Aadhaar Face RD services on an Android device or download and install the NSP OTR App from the Google Play Store.

Step 2: Open the mobile app and then select the “eKYC with FaceAuth” option which is highlighted in red color. 

How is verification for NMMSS done on the NSP portal?

The verification for NMMSS on the NSP portal consists of two levels of verification.

Level-1 verification is done by the Institute Nodal Officer and its deadline is 15th September. Level-2 verification is done by the District Nodal Officer and its deadline is 30th September.