Foreign edu grants help many in ‘creamy layer’

Foreign edu grants help many in ‘creamy layer’

Hemali Chhapia TNN

07.12.2020

Mumbai: ₹180 crore: that is the cost borne by the Maharashtra government in the last decade for hundreds of students who flew out for a foreign education under an all-expenses paid, state-sponsored scheme.

The beneficiaries included several whose annual family income exceeded the yearly fees at the top universities where they were admitted. While the really needy – a farmer’s son or an auto driver’s daughter – too applied, many of the scholarships were disbursed to those who needed no financial aid. The scheme foots the entire bill for Scheduled Caste and neo-Buddhist students, including tuition, living expenses, airfare, and ancillary charges like a laptop, books, with no upper limit.

TOI accessed the details of the beneficiaries and found that between 2014 and 2020, scholarships were awarded to 379 candidates for post graduate or PhD studies abroad. Of these, 60 declared family income to be more than ₹15 lakh a year. Another 115 pegged annual family income at more than ₹6 lakh, the income ceiling that the social justice department was looking at introducing in May this year, but could not after a few protests.

Sangharsh Aglave whose annual family income was ₹53 lakh, Shwetali Tonpe (₹42 lakh), Aarush Tagade (₹38 lakh), Antariksh Waghere (₹35 lakh), Sanjyot Thite (₹35 lakh), Amit Rajbhoj (₹33 lakh), Pulkit Ghoderao (₹31 lakh), and Palash Patole (₹s24 lakh) were all awarded the full-funded scholarship to study abroad.

Full report on www.toi.in