The Inlaks Scholarship
Funded by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation for postgraduate study in the UK, Europe and the US- Foundation funded
- Master's to PhD
- 2026 cycle
Tuition, living, one-way travel, visa and health support.
Plus travel, visa and health
Full time overseas
At a top-rated institution
Applicants not published
2027 terms not published
12 pm, zone not stated
Should you apply for the Inlaks Scholarship?
Apply if you already hold an eligible overseas offer and your subject fits the 2026 rules. The scholarship offers up to INR 1.14 crore. Subject exclusions can rule you out. So can earlier overseas postgraduate study. Ten scholars were named for 2026, while applicant numbers were not published.
| Fit | Profile | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Strong fit | Indian resident with an eligible offer in the UK, Europe or the US | The course, marks and study history meet the published rules. |
| Possible | Conditional offer with final academic documents pending | Every offer condition must be cleared before the final interview. |
| Not this cycle | Offer not secured before the scholarship form closes | Admission evidence is required when applying. |
| Poor fit | MBA, Computer Science or most Engineering applicants | These subjects were excluded in 2026, apart from narrow published exceptions. |
Two things are genuinely hard here. You must win admission before the scholarship application. Overseas admission and funding calendars don’t always align. Your subject must also fit ten exclusions and only three narrow exceptions. A strong academic profile can’t rescue an ineligible course.
Planning can begin now. The next round stays unknown until the Foundation releases a fresh application document. Every rule here remains labelled 2026. This stops an applicant from mistaking an older birth cut-off, form field or deadline for the next cycle.
How much is the Inlaks Scholarship worth?
The Foundation can provide up to USD 120,000, about INR 1.14 crore, under its 2026 instructions. Funding can cover nine months to four years. The actual award depends on the course. It combines tuition, living costs, one-way travel, visa costs and a health allowance.
| What it pays | INR | USD | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course-specific package for tuition, living, one-way travel, visa and health allowance | Up to INR 1.14 crore | Up to USD 120,000 | Across the funded course |
| Maximum value of Foundation support | INR 1.14 crore | USD 120,000 | Nine months to four years |
Converted at USD 1 = INR 94.88, the RBI reference rate dated November 2, 2026. The Foundation does not publish a fixed component-by-component award schedule.
If your full course cost is above the ceiling, a Master’s or MPhil application needs assured funding for the gap. The funding can be institutional or personal. A doctoral application needs assured institutional funding instead. Any extra funding received after selection must also be reported to the Foundation.
If the total funding required to complete the proposed course of study exceeds the above amount, at the time of application candidates must show evidence that they can cover the additional costs on their own with proof of documents.Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, Application Instructions, 2026
The scholarship doesn’t fund visa, travel or health insurance on their own. The Foundation calculates living support using its guidelines. One-way travel and visa amounts use preset rates. Those rates weren’t publicly listed for the 2026 cycle.
Who is eligible for the Inlaks Scholarship from India?
An Indian passport holder living in India could apply under the 2026 eligibility rules. The applicant needed an eligible admission offer, the required marks and no overseas postgraduate qualification. The course had to be full time and last nine months to four years. It also had to sit outside the published exclusions unless a stated exception applied.
| Requirement | Rule | India |
|---|---|---|
| Citizenship and residence | Indian passport holder resident in India when applying. | Eligible |
| Birth date | Born on or after January 1, 1996 for the 2026 cycle. | Cycle specific |
| Degree origin | Recognised Indian degree, or two continuous years back in India after an overseas undergraduate degree. | Check route |
| Marks | 65%, 6.8/10 or 2.6/4 in listed arts fields; 70%, 7.2/10 or 3/4 in listed science fields. | Field decides |
| Admission | Conditional or unconditional offer required at application; every condition cleared before final interview. | Offer first |
| English condition | Any English certification condition cleared before the scholarship application. | Earlier deadline |
| Course | Full-time Master’s, MPhil or doctorate lasting nine months to four years. | Eligible levels |
| Overseas postgraduate study | No overseas postgraduate qualification and no postgraduate course already started abroad. | Disqualifying |
| Subject | Ten excluded fields in 2026, with three narrow published exceptions. | Check exactly |
Four things that cost Indian applicants the award
Treating admission as a later step
The Foundation required evidence of admission with the scholarship application. Starting the university process after the form opened left no safe margin.
Clearing an English condition too late.
Final transcripts could remain conditional until the final interview. An English-language certification condition had to be cleared before applying for the scholarship.
Reading an exception broadly
The Imperial exception covered Engineering and Natural Sciences there. It did not make every Computer Science, Engineering or medical course eligible elsewhere.
Ignoring earlier overseas study
An overseas postgraduate qualification or a postgraduate course already started abroad made an applicant ineligible in the 2026 cycle.
How hard is it to win the Inlaks Scholarship from India?
The Foundation’s 2026 announcement names 10 Inlaks Scholars. The award was restricted to eligible Indian applicants. It does not say how many people applied. It also omits the preliminary and final interview totals. So a success rate or one-in-N chance cannot be calculated honestly.
| Cycle | Applied | Interviewed | Won | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Not published | Not published | 10 | Not published |
The selection still has three stages. They are an eligibility review, an online preliminary interview and a final in-person interview in Mumbai. Stage totals were not published. So the information cannot show whether the largest drop happens on paper or in either interview round.
When was the Inlaks Scholarship deadline for 2026?
The 2026 form closed at 12:00 pm on 31 March 2026 under the application instructions. The Foundation did not state a time zone. So no Indian-time conversion can be verified. Reference uploads and pending additional-funding evidence had a separate April 7 deadline. No 2027 dates were published by November 3, 2026.
| Stage | 2026 date | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Application deadline | March 31, 12:00 pm | One-sitting online form closed; time zone was not stated. |
| References and funding proof | April 7 | Reference links expired; pending extra-award proof was emailed. |
| Paper review | April | Eligible applications were reviewed. |
| No-shortlist notice | April 30 | No communication by this date meant no move to the next round. |
| Preliminary interviews | Around May | Shortlisted applicants were interviewed online. |
| Final interview | Third or fourth May weekend | Successful preliminary candidates attended in person in Mumbai. |
A safe plan starts several months before March. The admission offer must already exist when the scholarship form is submitted. The Foundation does not publish a fixed opening date or final-result date. Neither date should be inferred from the completed 2026 calendar.
How do you apply for the Inlaks Scholarship?
The 2026 process used one online form under the Foundation’s instructions. The form could not be saved or edited. Applicants needed an admission offer and complete funding figures. They also needed supporting files, a statement of purpose and two referees before submission. Up to two interview rounds followed.
Six steps, in order
Secure an eligible admission offer.
Hold a conditional or unconditional offer for a full-time eligible course in the UK, Europe or the US before opening the scholarship application.
Build the full course budget
Enter tuition and health insurance for the whole course, including every PhD year. Arrange proof for any amount above USD 120,000.
Prepare the mandatory files
Keep the passport, CV, photo, offer, fee statement, academic records and any required portfolio, links or writing samples ready in the specified formats.
Draft the statement and brief two referees
The form had a Statement of Purpose section. Students needed two academic referees; working applicants could use one professional referee.
Complete the form in one sitting
Use uninterrupted time and stable internet. The form could not be saved, refreshed or edited after submission, and only one submission was accepted.
Finish reference and interview stages
Referees uploaded signed letters through emailed links. Shortlisted applicants then faced an online preliminary interview and an in-person final interview in Mumbai.
The Foundation had not opened a 2027 application by November 3, 2026. It had not published new instructions either. Reuse the preparation sequence. Replace every cycle-specific date, birth cut-off, form field and file rule when the new document appears.
Who has won the Inlaks Scholarship from India?
The Foundation’s 2026 announcement names 10 scholars. They were heading to universities in the UK and US across journalism, planning, mathematics, law, engineering, illustration, development studies, anthropology and economics. The page confirms their intended courses. It does not state current roles, so those cells remain empty.
| Scholar | Cycle | Studied | Now | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aiswarya Raj | 2026 | MA Journalism, Columbia Journalism School | 2026 announcement | |
| Shaurya Singh | 2026 | Master’s in City Planning, MIT | 2026 announcement | |
| Surya Raju | 2026 | MASt Pure Mathematics, Cambridge | 2026 announcement | |
| Stuti Rai | 2026 | LLM, Cambridge | 2026 announcement | |
| Sivaranjani HC Rajan | 2026 | Master’s in Advanced Aeronautical Engineering, Imperial | 2026 announcement | |
| Tsozo Hoshi | 2026 | MA Illustration, Edinburgh | 2026 announcement | |
| Sahil Sharma | 2026 | PhD Development Studies, King’s College London | 2026 announcement | |
| Jishnu Kesh | 2026 | PhD Biological Anthropology, Cambridge | 2026 announcement | |
| Nishant Misra | 2026 | MSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, LSE | 2026 announcement | |
| Chandranshu Yadav | 2026 | MSc Modern South Asian Studies, Oxford | 2026 announcement |
The cohort spans taught and research degrees. The named courses also show how narrow exceptions work in practice. Sivaranjani HC Rajan’s Imperial aeronautical engineering course fits the published Imperial exception. That example does not extend engineering eligibility to every institution.
- The 2026 award offered up to USD 120,000, about INR 1.14 crore, for nine months to four years of study.
- The Foundation named 10 scholars for 2026 but did not publish the applicant total or success rate.
- The 2026 form closed on March 31, 2026, while reference uploads remained open until April 7.
- Applicants needed 2 referees and could submit the online form only once, in one sitting.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Inlaks Scholarship fund an MBA or Computer Science degree?
No, not under the 2026 rules. Management Studies including MBA, Computer Science, Business and Finance were listed as excluded subjects. The published exceptions covered Engineering and Natural Sciences at Imperial College London. They also covered Documentary filmmaking and Western Classical singing. None created a general MBA or Computer Science route.
Can I apply for the Inlaks Scholarship without an admission offer?
No. The 2026 rules required evidence of admission when the scholarship application was submitted. A conditional offer was allowed. Yet all conditions had to be cleared before the final interview. English certification had an earlier deadline when it was an offer condition. It had to be completed before applying for the scholarship.
Can I apply if I already have a postgraduate degree from abroad?
No. An applicant with a Master's or PhD from an overseas institution was ineligible under the 2026 rules. The same exclusion applied after starting postgraduate study abroad. Finishing it was not required. An overseas undergraduate degree followed a different route. It required two continuous years living, working or studying in India.
Does the Inlaks Scholarship have a return-to-India rule?
The 2026 scholarship page and application instructions did not publish a general post-study return obligation. They did require Indian passport holders who lived in India when applying. Do not import a return rule from another Inlaks programme. An older secondary article cannot add one unless the current scholarship terms state it.
How many people receive the Inlaks Scholarship each year?
The Foundation's recipient announcement names 10 Inlaks Scholars for 2026. It does not publish the application or interview totals. So no acceptance rate can be calculated from the public evidence. A later cohort may be larger or smaller. Its own recipient announcement must be counted separately.
Sources
These primary pages and documents support the award value, 2026 rules, dates, selection stages and named scholars.
Sources checked on November 3, 2026. This page covers the completed 2026 cycle; 2027 terms were not published.
| No. | Source | Evidence role |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | The Inlaks Scholarship | Value, eligibility, exclusions and selection stages |
| 02 | Application Instructions, 2026 | Funding, deadline, documents, references and application process |
| 03 | The Inlaks Scholars 2026 | Ten named 2026 recipients and intended courses |
| 04 | Reserve Bank of India current rates | USD to INR conversion dated November 2, 2026 |
