State Government Overseas Scholarships in India

State government overseas scholarships in India are not one national programme. They are separate awards tied to your domicile, community, family income, course and university. In an official-portal review on 23 October 2026, we verified overseas-study schemes in 12 states or union territories, with several community-specific routes in Maharashtra and Telangana.

Two 2026-27 routes had a visible future deadline on the check date: Telangana’s BC/EBC award and Kerala’s OBC award, both due 31 October 2026. Maharashtra’s Tribal portal said applications were open but did not display a closing date on its landing page. Every other row below is marked closed, older-cycle or without a current window rather than being made to look open.

Which state government scholarships fund study abroad?

This is the verified list found on state and union-territory government portals. Each scheme name links to the relevant state page. “Not stated” means the current official page did not expose that figure; it is not an estimate. Award caps can still leave a funding gap.

All rows were checked on 23 October 2026. “Open”, “closed” and deadline labels name the cycle shown by the linked government page. Maharashtra’s common portal is the controlling 2026-27 status board. Rajasthan’s current window comes from its 2026-27 page, while the detailed award bands and 150-place split come from its latest published 2025-26 FAQ.

“Scholarship Grant: Upto 20 lakhs or as per admission letter which ever is less. One way Economic ticket and Visa charges.”
Telangana ePASS, overseas schemes

The review also checked official scholarship listings for the other states and union territories. Not finding a state-funded overseas degree award on a public portal is not proof that a new notification cannot appear. District notices, budget announcements and department PDFs are not always indexed together, so recheck your state’s welfare and higher-education departments before the next intake.

The table deliberately preserves incomplete cells. An annual intake from a press story, an award amount from a commercial directory or a deadline copied from an earlier cycle would make the comparison look fuller while making it less reliable. “Not stated on the current page” tells an applicant which question still needs an answer from the administering department.

Some state portals use “national” in a scheme name even though the state government administers the award. Karnataka’s National Overseas Scholarship for Minorities is one example. It remains in this list because its owner is Karnataka’s Directorate of Minorities. By contrast, a state circular that merely forwards the Union government’s National Overseas Scholarship notice does not create a separate state award.

One state can also operate several schemes without offering a general award to every resident. Maharashtra’s unified portal is an entry point to department programmes, not one common competition. Telangana ePASS works similarly. The correct comparison is therefore scheme against scheme, not state against state.

How should you read eligibility and award amounts?

Domicile is the first eligibility check, followed by community. A student domiciled in Maharashtra may have a different route for SC, ST, VJNT/OBC/SBC, minority, open/EWS or the SARTHI target group. Telangana similarly separates SC, ST, minority and BC/EBC applicants. Applying under the wrong department can waste the entire window even when your academic profile is strong.

Income is usually total family income from all sources, not only the student’s salary. The certificate format, issuing authority and financial year are scheme-specific. A ceiling written as “below ₹5 lakh” is stricter than “up to ₹5 lakh”; follow the government order rather than rounding the figure.

An award cap isn’t a promise that every cost will be paid. Tamil Nadu’s guideline caps its published package at ₹36 lakh across tuition and other eligible components. Telangana caps the grant at ₹20 lakh or the offer-letter amount, whichever is less. Goa quotes USD 25,000. If tuition, living costs and insurance exceed the permitted items, you need a separate funding plan.

Ranking rules also differ. Tamil Nadu uses top-250 QS universities for its Muslim scheme, Rajasthan’s detailed foreign route uses top 1-50 Times Higher Education institutions, and Kerala Unnathi uses top-500 Times Higher Education institutions. The ranking edition named in the notification matters because today’s website rank may not be the one the department uses.

Course level is another quiet exclusion. A scheme may support only a Master’s or PhD, while another includes undergraduate or postdoctoral study. Executive, part-time, online and pathway programmes can be outside the rules even when the university itself is eligible. Duration caps matter too: an award for two years does not automatically extend when a dissertation, placement or resit adds a term.

The intake number is a ceiling rather than an entitlement. A scheme with 75 places may select fewer candidates if applications fail documentary or merit checks. It may also redistribute places between subjects or communities under its order. The number helps to judge competition, but it cannot predict an individual result.

Living support requires the same caution as tuition support. “Maintenance” can be a fixed annual allowance, a reimbursement against evidence or part of one overall cap. Airfare may mean one outbound economy ticket rather than an annual journey home. Visa fees, health insurance and equipment appear in some orders and disappear from others. The sanction letter, not the scheme’s headline, determines the payable components.

What is the safest application sequence?

A reliable sequence begins with the current state order and ends with the sanction, not with a scholarship directory. The six stages below keep admission, eligibility, application evidence and the funding gap separate. They also make it easier to see when a required offer, visa document or ranking result won’t arrive before the state window closes.

1. Match domicile and category first. Open the current state notification and confirm that your caste/community certificate and residence proof use the accepted issuing authority.
2. Check the course and ranking rule. Confirm degree level, subject, university rank, country and maximum duration before paying an application deposit.
3. Work backwards from the state deadline. Several schemes require an unconditional offer. Telangana MJPOVN currently asks for COE/I-20 and visa as well, so an admission timeline can become the real deadline.
4. Build the funding gap. Subtract only benefits the order clearly pays. Keep tuition, maintenance, airfare, visa, insurance, equipment and deposits as separate lines.
5. Submit to the named portal. A general scholarship portal account does not replace the department form, physical verification or hard-copy submission where required.
6. Track merit lists and document queries. Registration is not an award. Save the application, acknowledgement, uploaded files and every portal notice.

Admission, scholarship selection and a student visa are three separate decisions. A university offer does not guarantee a state award, and being shortlisted for an award does not guarantee a visa. Do not make a non-refundable financial commitment on the assumption that all three will succeed.

Preparation usually takes six to eight weeks before the expected state notice. Income and community certificates can require local verification, while universities may take longer to convert a conditional offer into an unconditional one. The actual portal window can be shorter than this preparation period, especially when a notice is issued after overseas admission decisions have begun.

The sequence isn’t identical for every scheme. Telangana MJPOVN currently expects COE/I-20 and visa evidence at registration. Other programmes begin with an offer and handle travel documents later. The difference can affect whether a student targets a January, spring or autumn intake and whether a university deposit must be financed before the award decision.

After submission, state departments may publish a scrutiny list, ask for physical document verification, release a provisional merit list and then issue a sanction. These stages are not interchangeable. A name on a verification schedule means the application is being checked; it does not yet mean funds have been sanctioned.

There is also a timing mismatch between academic and government calendars. A foreign university may ask for a deposit months before a state department publishes its merit list. The scholarship order may reimburse approved expenses only after selection, leaving the applicant to cover an earlier payment. Written clarification from the department is more useful than assuming that a later scholarship will refund every pre-award cost.

Deferral is not automatic either. If admission moves to another intake, the scholarship authority may require a fresh application, revised offer or new sanction. A university’s permission to defer therefore says nothing by itself about whether state funding follows the student. This becomes especially important when a scheme names a selection year, academic year and course start period separately.

Which documents should you prepare?

The exact list comes from the current notification, but most state routes require evidence that families need time to assemble. Maharashtra’s 2026-27 portal, for example, publishes department documents and checklists separately. A complete file usually establishes identity, domicile, category, income, academic merit, an eligible overseas offer and the costs being claimed:

• domicile, caste or minority certificate in the prescribed form;
• family-income certificate, income-tax returns and Form 16 or non-filer declarations;
• passport, Aadhaar and bank-account details;
• marksheets, degree certificate and conversion evidence where grades are not percentages;
• unconditional offer, course duration, tuition schedule and university-ranking evidence;
• IELTS, TOEFL, GRE or GMAT result where the scheme requires it, even if the university waived it;
• visa, I-20 or Confirmation of Enrolment where the notification asks for one;
• undertakings about prior scholarships, family beneficiaries and return or service conditions.

Use the document year stated in the notification. A valid income certificate for one state programme may not be valid for another department or cycle.

Names and dates of birth should match across the passport, degree records, domicile certificate, Aadhaar and application. Ranking evidence should show the publication and edition required by the order, not a screenshot without context. Foreign-currency fee schedules are strongest when they come from the university and separate tuition from deposits, insurance and optional charges.

Employed applicants may need their own income evidence in addition to parental income. Self-employed families can be asked for business accounts, tax returns and affidavits. Where a department requires a hard copy after online submission, the acknowledgement and the final signed form become part of the file rather than duplicates that can be discarded.

What is not a state overseas scholarship?

The Government of India’s National Overseas Scholarship is a central scheme, even when a state department circulates its notice. The Union Social Justice Department owns its rules and selection. It isn’t counted in the state table, and the same boundary applies to the central ST overseas award run by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Education loans, interest subsidies, test-coaching grants and state counselling services are also excluded. They can help with study abroad, but they do not award a state scholarship for the overseas degree. A budget announcement is listed only after an implementing department publishes rules or a usable route.

You normally cannot claim two public awards for the same costs. The no-duplication undertaking in both schemes determines the choice between a state route and a national award. Students with broader eligibility can also compare the Inlaks Scholarship, Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, Chevening Scholarship, Rhodes Scholarship, Gat‍es Cambridge Scholarship and Oxford scholarships.

A loan is still relevant when an award has a cap, but it changes the financial risk. Gujarat and several other states publish overseas education loan or interest-support routes rather than comparable grants. Keeping them outside the scholarship table prevents a repayable benefit from being mistaken for an award.

Announcements need a similar distinction. Kerala’s 2026 budget announced a new minority overseas scholarship allocation, but a budget line alone does not provide an application form, final eligibility or a deadline. It can become relevant once the implementing department publishes the operational order; until then, it is not an actionable row.

The wider scholarship comparison places questions about State Government Overseas Scholarships in India beside government awards, university aid, trust funding and assistantships in one set of scholarship routes for Indian students studying abroad.

Sources

• Government of Maharashtra, Foreign Scholarship portal
• Government of Telangana, ePASS overseas schemes
• Government of Andhra Pradesh, Jnanabhumi
• Government of Kerala ODEPC, Unnathi
• Government of Kerala, eGrantz notice board
• Government of Tamil Nadu, overseas scholarship guidelines
• Government of Rajasthan, SVS 2026-27
• Government of Goa, Manohar Parrikar Goa Scholars Scheme
• Government of Jharkhand, Economic Survey 2025-26
• Government of Karnataka, Minority Welfare education programmes
• Government of Madhya Pradesh, OBC Foreign Study Scholarship
• Government of NCT Delhi, welfare schemes
• Government of India Akashvani, Uttar Pradesh Chevening partnership