Govt moots Venture Capital Fund for OBCs

A new scheme Venture Capital Fund for OBCs on similar lines as Venture Capital Fund for SCs to be launched with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore.  

According to a Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment statement today, Rs 140 crore has been provided for the scheme in 2018-19. Skill development training has been provided to 13,587 manual scavengers and their dependents and 809 manual scavengers and their dependents have been provided bank loans.

For the pre-matric scholarship for OBC, the income eligibility has been increased from Rs 44,500 per annum to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum. For pre-matric scholarship for SC, the income eligibility has been raised from Rs 2.00 lakhs to Rs 2.5 lakhs.  

Stipend for day scholars has been raised from Rs 150 to Rs 225 and for hostelers' eat has been raised from Rs 350 to Rs 525, the statement said.

Top-class education for scheduled castes has been raised from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh per annum. For free coaching for SC and OBC students, the income eligibility has been raised from Rs 4.5 lakhs to Rs 6 lakhs.  

Stipend has been raised from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500 for local students and from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 for outstation students. For pre-matric scholarship for OBC, the rates of scholarships has been increased substantially. 

The earlier rates of scholarships of day scholars from class I to V, class VI to VIII and class IX to X of Rs 25, Rs 40 and Rs 50, respectively, for 10 months have been revised to Rs 100 per month for 10 months from Class I to X. Earlier rates of scholarships of hostellers from Class III to VIII and Class IX to X of Rs 200 and Rs 250, respectively, for 10 months have been revised to Rs 500 per month for 10 months from Class III to X.

Adhoc grant for all students under the scheme is Rs 500 per annum. Under the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes, the assistance has been increased from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 28,000 per student.

There is an increase of 12.10% in the budget allocation for Ministry of Social justice and Empowerment in the Union Budget 2018-19 over 2017-18. In 2017-18, it was Rs 6908.00 crore which has now been increased to Rs 7750.00 crore in 2018-19. 

Also there is an increase of 11.57% in the budget allocation for schemes in 2018-19 over 2017-18. In addition, there is an increase of 41.03% in the budget allocation for the welfare of OBC in 2018-19 over 2017-18.