The Government on Thursday approved a Centrally-sponsored scheme of merit-cum-means-based scholarship for students belonging to minority communities to be implemented by the states and the Union Territories.

The scheme, which was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) at its meeting chaired by the Prime Minister will be launched during the current financial year 2007-08 targeting 20,000 scholarships per annum, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told newspersons after the Cabinet meeting.

Students from the minority communities fulfiling the merit-cum-means criteria and pursuing professional/technical courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in institutes recognised by the appropriate authorities will be eligible for this scholarship.

As per the scheme, 30 per cent of the scholarships will be reserved for girls.  Under the scheme each student will get a scholarship of Rs 25,000 per annum.

Students getting admissions to IIMs, IITs, NIITs and AIIMS will get the entire tution fees charged by these institutions as scholarship. 

The CCEA also gave its approval for incurring recurring expenditure of Rs 761.69 crore during the Eleventh Plan for the scheme.