Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on 10 August 2026 released scholarship and fellowship funds worth Rs 21.35 crore for agriculture students at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI) in Pusa, New Delhi. The funds were transferred directly to the bank accounts of more than 6,000 students through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) using Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). The launch marks the integration of ICAR’s scholarship and fellowship schemes with the NSP-DBT infrastructure, ensuring that future payments reach students every month without delays.
What Is the NSP-DBT System for Agriculture?
The National Scholarship Portal (NSP) is a unified online platform developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 2015 under the Digital India Programme. It serves as a single window for students from Class 1 to Ph.D. to apply for more than 140 scholarship schemes offered by central and state governments, UGC, AICTE, and various ministries. The portal was built by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and operates under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).
The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism ensures that approved scholarship amounts are credited directly into the Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts of beneficiaries, eliminating intermediaries and reducing the chances of fund leakage or duplication. The DBT process is tracked through the Public Financial Management System (PFMS), which provides real-time monitoring of fund flows from the government to the student’s account.
The NSP-DBT system for agriculture specifically covers scholarship and fellowship schemes run by the Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. Until now, ICAR scholarships were disbursed through a separate institutional mechanism that often led to delays of several months. The new integration with NSP streamlines the entire process, from application to verification to payment, under one digital platform.
Under the updated system, students apply on the NSP portal, their applications are verified by their institution and then by district or state-level authorities, and once approved, the scholarship amount is transferred directly to their bank accounts every month. This marks a shift from lump-sum annual or semi-annual payments to regular monthly assistance, which is particularly important for students from economically weaker backgrounds who depend on timely funds for living expenses and academic costs.
Four ICAR Scholarship Schemes on the NSP
The Department of Agriculture Research and Education has listed four merit-based scholarship and fellowship schemes on the NSP for the 2026-27 academic year. All four schemes are managed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and cover every stage of agricultural education, from undergraduate study to doctoral research. The portal for applications opened on 1 June 2026, with a common student application deadline of 31 October 2026.
NTS-UG and NTS-PG
The ICAR National Talent Scholarship (NTS) is awarded in two tiers. The NTS-UG provides Rs 3,000 per month to undergraduate students who secure admission to an ICAR-recognized Agricultural University located outside their state of domicile. The NTS-PG provides Rs 5,000 per month to postgraduate students under similar conditions. Both scholarships are designed to encourage national integration by supporting students who move across state boundaries for agricultural education.
To qualify, students must have been admitted through ICAR’s All India Entrance Examination for Agriculture (AIEEA), must be enrolled full-time, and must not hold any other scholarship or employment during the tenure. The scholarship is renewed annually, provided the student maintains the required academic performance and good conduct as certified by the head of the institution.
ICAR Post Graduate Scholarship
The ICAR Post Graduate Scholarship (PGS) is aimed at students entering Master’s programmes in agriculture and allied disciplines through the All India Competitive Entrance Examination. Unlike the NTS, this scheme does not require studying outside one’s home state. Selected candidates receive a fellowship plus a contingency grant as prescribed by ICAR, for a maximum duration of two years.
The minimum eligibility marks are 60% or an OGPA of 6.60/10.00 for General, OBC, and Under Privileged States (UPS) categories, and 55% or an OGPA of 5.50/10.00 for SC, ST, and Physically Challenged (PC) categories. This fellowship enables concurrent admission to Master’s programmes at State Agricultural Universities, ICAR-Deemed Universities (including IARI, IVRI, NDRI, and CIFE), Central Agricultural Universities, and Central Universities with agriculture faculties such as BHU, AMU, Visva-Bharati, and Nagaland University.
JRF/SRF for Doctoral Studies
The Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) constitute ICAR’s flagship doctoral-level fellowship, awarded on the basis of the ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF entrance score. The fellowship is designed to support doctoral research in agriculture and allied sciences, with selected scholars receiving a fellowship and contingency grant as per ICAR norms.
The upper age limit for the JRF/SRF is 30 years, and applicants must hold a minimum of 60% marks at the Master’s level. A key requirement is that the Ph.D. must be pursued at an Agricultural University different from the one where the student completed their graduation or postgraduation, which encourages academic mobility and cross-institutional research collaboration.
How the DBT System Will Benefit Students
The integration of ICAR scholarships with the NSP-DBT system is expected to resolve several long-standing problems that agriculture students have faced. Under the old system, scholarship disbursements were often delayed by months or even an entire academic year, leaving students financially strained. The new system ensures that once an application is approved, payments are credited to the student’s bank account every month.
The system also brings greater transparency. Each application goes through a clearly defined verification chain: the student submits on the NSP portal, the institution verifies it, district or state-level authorities provide further clearance, and the final approved amount is transferred through PFMS. Students can track their application status online at every stage, reducing the need for physical follow-ups at government offices.
The Aadhaar-linked bank account requirement serves as a deduplication check. The NSP automatically prevents the same student from claiming multiple scholarships for the same academic period, which was a recurring problem in the old paper-based system. Students who do not have Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts will need to link their accounts before receiving payments, and the portal now provides information on the Bharat Aadhaar Seeding Enabler (BASE) platform launched by NPCI to facilitate this process.
For the 2026-27 academic year, the first monthly DBT cycle for agriculture scholarships is expected to begin in December 2026, after the completion of all verification rounds. The student application deadline is 31 October 2026, institute-level verification must be completed by 15 November 2026, and district or state-level verification by 30 November 2026.
Significance for Agricultural Education
The launch of the NSP-DBT system carries broader implications for India’s agricultural education ecosystem. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), established on 16 July 1929 as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, is the apex body for coordinating, guiding, and managing research and education in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, and animal sciences across the country. Operating as an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), ICAR today oversees a network of 113 ICAR institutes and 74 agricultural universities, making it one of the largest national agricultural research systems in the world. The Union Minister of Agriculture is the ex-officio President of the ICAR Society.
The ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), commonly known as Pusa Institute, where the launch event took place, is one of ICAR’s most prestigious constituent units. It has been a deemed university since 1958 and is located on the Pusa Campus in New Delhi. IARI serves as a flagship research institution for crop science, plant breeding, soil science, and agricultural engineering, and its Graduate School trains some of the country’s top agricultural scientists.
At the event, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan stressed that agricultural education must go beyond classroom learning to equip students with practical skills and real-world understanding of farming challenges. He noted that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the government continues to prioritise food security, nutrition, and farmers’ income security in the agriculture sector. The Minister also encouraged agriculture students to explore careers in innovation, start-ups, and research rather than limiting themselves to seeking traditional employment.
Dr. M.L. Jat, Secretary of DARE and Director General of ICAR, emphasised that student empowerment must ultimately translate into improved livelihoods for farmers. He highlighted the need for agricultural education to continuously evolve in response to changing times and to equip a new generation with the scientific capabilities and innovative thinking required to develop meaningful solutions for the farming community.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Bhagirath Choudhary, underscored the importance of knowledge, science, technology, and innovation in strengthening Indian agriculture, stating that agriculture remains the foundation of India’s economy and society. He added that empowering agricultural education and nurturing young talent would be crucial to accelerating the country’s journey towards becoming a developed nation.
The event also saw the participation of Dr. Yashpal Singh Malik, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Education), ICAR, who highlighted the role of fellowships in advancing reforms in agricultural education, and Dr. C. Srinivasa Rao, Director of ICAR-IARI, who proposed the formal vote of thanks. Thousands of students from ICAR institutions across the country joined the programme online, while senior officials and scientists attended in person at the Pusa campus.
Key Takeaways
- The NSP-DBT system for agriculture scholarships was launched on 10 August 2026 at ICAR-IARI, Pusa, New Delhi, by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
- A total of Rs 21.35 crore was released through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to the bank accounts of more than 6,000 agriculture students across the country.
- The National Scholarship Portal (NSP) was launched in 2015 under the Digital India Programme by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
- ICAR was established on 16 July 1929 as an autonomous body under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), and today oversees 113 ICAR institutes and 74 agricultural universities.
- Four ICAR scholarship schemes are listed on the NSP for 2026-27: NTS-UG (Rs 3,000/month), NTS-PG (Rs 5,000/month), ICAR PGS (fellowship for Master’s), and JRF/SRF (fellowship for Ph.D.).
- Under the new system, agriculture students will receive their scholarship amounts every month through DBT, replacing the previous practice of delayed lump-sum payments.
- The student application deadline for the 2026-27 academic year is 31 October 2026, and the first monthly DBT cycle is expected to begin in December 2026.
