HRD Ministry okays quota for OBC students in NTSE-II

The Class X students belonging to other backward classes (OBCs) will be entitled for reservation in the national talent search examinations (NTSE) from 2019.

The proposal has been approved by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar for the Stage II of the NTSE.

"Approved reservation for #OBC students in #NTSE National Talent Search Examination Stage-II conducted by @NCERT," the HRD Minister tweeted on on Tuesday.

The NTSE is conducted for class X students in two stages every year. Those qualifying the nationwide test are entitled for varying amounts of scholarship upto PhD level, starting from Classes XI to XII.

While the first stage of the nationwide test is conducted at the state-level under respective State governments, the second stage of the test is held by the NCERT for those qualifying in the state-level test (NTSE-I).

Untill so far, only scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) students availed the benefits of reservation in the NTSE as no provision for providing reservation to OBC candidates was made for the nationwide test.

"The reservation for the OBCs in NTSE Stage II will be in addition to reservation for SC, ST, and persons with disability category students as per central government norms," a ministry official said.

While a student qualifying the NTSE gets Rs 1,250 per month for Classes XI to XII, the scholarship amount for studying at undergraduate and post graduate level is fixed at Rs 2000 per month. Amount of scholarship for PhD is decided in accordance with the university grants commission norms.

At present, a total of 1000 students are selected for the scholarship on the basis of their performance in the second stage of the NTSE.

"Doubling of the number of the NTSE stage II scholarship from 1000 to 2000 is under active consideration," Javadekar said.