Students, here is how you can get education loan in just three easy steps

Education Loan: Every year, lakhs of students clear their senior secondary examinations and opt for various professional degrees like MBBS, engineering, law and others too. Also, there are students who want to do an MBA from a prestigious institution. A majority of these students do not have the funds and therefore, apply for education loans. However, getting all the documents, applying to various banks, checking processes and interest rates make it all quite a cumbersome process. To ease the pain or taking on an education loan, the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, operates a dedicated portal called Vidya Lakshmi - vidyalakshmi.co.in.

The Vidya Lakshmi portal ensures that students can avail educational loans easily through a single window system of banks for education loans. Banks follow Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) guidelines in this regard which stipulates that education loan applications have to be disposed off, in the normal course, within a period of 15 to 30 days. The Portal has been developed and maintained by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov) under the guidance of Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). 

So far, 36 banks including State Bank of India (SBI) have registered themselves at the portal. Applicants have options to choose from 96 loan schemes. You can apply for an education loan using the portal in three simple steps:

1. Register at vidyalakshmi.co.in
2. Fill up a single form
3. Apply to multiple banks

While registering on the Vidya Lakshmi portal, you should keep in mind these things:

1. Name- Enter student's name as per 10th class marksheet or as per the marksheet attached with your loan application
2. Mobile Number- Enter a valid mobile number. A student can provide a mobile number of parent/guardian
3. Email ID- Enter a valid email ID. Email ID will not be allowed to change. All necessary communications will be sent on this email ID.

NOTE: Vidya Lakshmi Portal is a first of its kind portal providing single window for Students to access information and make application for Educational Loans provided by Banks as also Government Scholarships. The Portal has the following features:

* 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;

* Facility for Banks to upload loan processing status;

* Facility for Students to email grievances/queries relating to Educational Loans to Banks;

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* Dashboard facility for Students to view status of their loan application and

* Linkage to National Scholarship Portal for information and application for Government Scholarships