The government of India has a launched a website called vidyalakshmi.co.in for students seeking educational loans. A total of five banks ie SBI, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of India have integrated their system with the portal. The website www.vidyalakshmi.co.in was launched on the occasion of Independence Day i.e. 15th August, 2015. The portal has been developed and maintained by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov) under the guidance of Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Indian Banks Association (IBA).
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech for 2015-16 had proposed to set up a fully IT based student financial aid authority to administer and monitor scholarships as well as educational loan schemes through Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram (PMVLK).
The portal will provide information about educational loan schemes of banks; common educational loan application form for students; facility to apply to multiple banks for educational loans; and facility for banks to download students’ loan applications.
The portal will provide information about
- Educational loan schemes of banks
- Common educational loan application form for students
- Facility to apply to multiple banks for educational loans
- Facility for banks to download students’ loan applications.
