Odisha Announces Nua-O Scholarship For UG, PG Students, Govt Offers Financial Aid

Nua-O Scholarship Programme: The Odisha government has planned to introduce the Nutana Unnata Abhilasha, Odisha (Nua-O) scholarship scheme for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Under this programme, the state government aims to provide financial assistance of Rs 9000 to male students and Rs 10,000 annually to female students. 

Meanwhile, male students belonging to SC, ST, and Nirman Shramik (construction worker) families will get Rs 10,000, while female students of the same categories will receive Rs 11,000 annually. Attending an event in Jaipur, the Chairperson of 5T (transformational initiative) and Nabin Odisha scheme, V K Pandian, said that the scholarship programme aims to empower youth with continuous skilling, re-skilling, and up-skilling opportunities.

The decision to introduce the Nua-O scholarship was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The announcement of the new programme was made at the Nu-O festival held in Jaipur. 

Nua-O Scholarship Programme Details

The Nua-O scheme aims to cover 30 districts across the state with a budget of Rs 385 crore for 2023-24 to 2025-26 fiscals. The programme will focus more on students belonging to the tribal and remote areas. The scholarship will be available for students of undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in state universities and government and non-government aided colleges including Sanskrit colleges under the Higher Education department. 

Eligible students can avail the scholarship scheme for the current academic year from February 20, 2024, onwards. Speaking at the event, V K Pandian said that this will be a new era of student empowerment towards realising the CM's vision of 'Nabin Odisha' (New Odisha). Moreover, a corpus of Rs 300 crore will be created and by August 2024, Nua-O magic smart cards will be given to all eligible students to avail additional benefits such as bus or train travel, access free WiFi, online courses, skill development, and coaching programmes. 

According to data, about 4.5 lakh undergraduate and 32,000 post-graduate students are expected to benefit from the Nua-O scholarship. However, students must note that whose parents are Income Tax payees or are permanent government employees would not be able to avail of the scholarship.

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