NEC Merit Scholarship 2025 for College and University students; Apply now!

Application portal for NEC Merit Scholarship 2025 is open for students pursuing diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate, M. Phil, and PhD degrees.

Debanjan Chamlagain

August 19, 2025

NEC Merit Scholarship 2025: The Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) and the Secretary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) have come up with a wonderful grant for students from the North East region, known as NEC Merit Scholarship 2025. This scheme will help students who are studying in different places in India, both inside and outside the North East – just they need to be permanent residents of the North Eastern States.

Like other schemes, the main aim of the NEC Merit Scholarship 2025 is to provide financial assistance to meritorious students from low-income families to meet part of their day-to-day expenses while pursuing higher studies. In this article, interested students can find all the details starting from the benefits of the scheme, and steps to apply to eligibility conditions.

Also Read: National Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies 2025: Apply for grant of Rs 15,000 per month

Eligibility

Only students who are permanent residents of the North Eastern States can apply for this scholarship scheme.
Starting from the academic year 2020-21, scholarships are given out using the National Scholarship Portal (NSP). However, students who were already receiving scholarships before these new rules came into effect will continue to get their scholarships as per the old procedure until the tenure of their scholarship ends.
If you’re chosen to receive the NEC Merit Scholarship 2025, you can have it for the entire duration of your course, as long as you meet the renewal conditions mentioned in Section 6 of the guidelines (attached below). They won’t extend the scholarship beyond the normal length of your course.
- Note 1: Students in integrated courses can get the scholarship for the entire duration of their course as per the rates mentioned below section (Benefits of NEC Merit Scholarship)
- Note 2: M.Phil. students can get the scholarship for 2 years, and Ph.D. students can get it for 3 years.
Candidates can’t receive this scholarship if they’re already getting financial help or a scholarship from another source. Also, if he/ she is a sponsored student with a full-time job during their study period or if they are already working or in service, they can’t get this scholarship.
Candidates can apply for this scholarship only in the year when their course starts. For the following years of your course, candidates can only renew the scholarship.
The scholarship shall be admissible to the students whose parent/ guardian’s annual income from all sources does not exceed Rs 8.0 lakh. The candidate shall furnish the income certificate issued by the competent authority.
The student must fulfil the following eligibility criteria in the previous qualifying examination for consideration for the scholarship:

Academic Level	Qualifying exam
Diploma	HSSLC/ Senior Secondary Leaving certificate examination from a recognized State/ Central board with a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate
Degree	HSSLC/ Senior Secondary Leaving certificate examination from a recognised State/ Central board with a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate
Postgraduate	Degree level examination in any discipline (BA/ BSc/ BE/ B.Tech/ MBBS/ LLB/ BCA/ BBA etc. of any recognized Institute/ University with minimum 60% marks in aggregate
M. Phil./ Ph D	PG degree from any recognized University with a minimum of 60% marks in aggregate

Documents required

Class XII Marksheet (wherever applicable)
HSLC/ HSSLC/ Secondary School Leaving/ Senior Secondary Leaving certificate (wherever applicable)
Graduation mark sheet (wherever applicable)
Post Graduation mark sheet (wherever applicable)
Annual Income Certificate of the parents
Aadhaar card
Bank Passbook for filling in bank details (bank account must be in the name of the applicant)
Caste certificate (if applicable)
Disability certificate (if applicable)
Permanent Residential Certificate (PRC) issued by the Dy. Commissioner/ Addl. Dy. Commissioners/ Sub-divisional officers of civil sub-divisions in NE States; except Sikkim where a Certificate of Identification (COI) is issued by the respective Deputy Commissioner in the Govt. of Sikkim to its Permanent residents. A certificate from any other authority will not be accepted
Synopsis signed by the project guide/ Director (Research) or any official authorized by the Institute/ University (in the case of M.Phil/ PhD candidates)

How to apply?

The students applying for the NEC Merit Scholarship 2025 must follow the given steps:

First of all, candidates need to visit the official website of the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) by clicking on the link given below
Click on the “Fresh Application” link given in the Application corner
Read the instructions given, then enter basic details and get registered on the portal
Next, log in to the application portal using the application ID and password sent to their registered mobile number
Fill personal and academic details and then proceed to the next step
Now, NSP will show a list of scholarship schemes, for which candidates are eligible based on the information provided by them in previous steps
From the list, select NEC Merit Scholarship 2025 and proceed
Now, check the list of documents that are required to be uploaded, and get them ready
Once documents/ images are uploaded, submit the application form and download it
Lastly, candidates need to take a printout of the application form and submit it along with a copy of all the relevant documents to the office of their college/ university for further approval

Selection Procedure

The selection of candidates for NEC Merit Scholarship 2025 will be purely on a merit basis. The merit list will be prepared exclusively on the basis of marks obtained by the candidate in the qualifying exams and complying with the level-of-course-wise slots allotted to the states.
The merit lists will be drawn from among finally verified applications as per the scheme guidelines and after following the laid down procedure on the NSP
In the case of selections for M Phil and PhD students, it will be done on the basis of the topic of research/ Synopsis which has relevance to the problems/ issues related to the NE Region. The Subjects/ topics for M.Phil and Ph.D. should invariably be directly, specifically, and currently relevant to the NE Region. Basic and theoretical research shall not be favoured in general
In case of a tie, preference shall be given to the candidate having a lesser family income
The application will undergo two levels of verification. The first level of verification occurs at the institute level, and the second level of verification is conducted by the applicant’s domicile state in the Northeast Region
To be considered for a scholarship, the applicant’s current institute must be registered on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) using the provided U-DISE/AISHE/NCVT Code and following the prescribed verification procedure. Applications from students whose institutes are not registered on NSP will be disregarded. It is essential that all Northeastern states ensure that the institutes where eligible candidates are enrolled are timely onboarded on NSP
The second level of verification will be carried out by a Nodal Officer designated for this purpose by the respective state governments in the Northeast
The designated Institute Nodal Officer is responsible for verifying that the student meets the eligibility criteria outlined in the scheme. They will have the option to accept, reject, or flag an application as defective
Nodal officers are advised to thoroughly check the accuracy of all details provided by the candidate. To verify the correctness, they may review the uploaded documents and any documents available in the institute’s records
When necessary, they may ask the student to provide original copies of documents. Additionally, they may have the option on NSP to return the application to the student for corrections if any errors are identified. However, Nodal officers are encouraged to verify the applications promptly to allow students the opportunity to make necessary corrections or submit additional documents

State-wise Allocation of Scholarships

There will not be any reservation/ quota on the basis of category/ religion/ gender for selections in the final merit list of NEC Merit Scholarship 2025. However, there is a pre-decided quota of the number of Fresh Scholarships to be awarded every year to candidates of different NER states at different levels, which is as follows:

States	Diploma	Graduation	Post Graduation	M Phil/ PhD
Arunachal Pradesh	20	130	52	7
Assam	30	200	80	10
Manipur	18	120	48	6
Meghalaya	18	120	48	6
Mizoram	18	120	48	6
Nagaland	18	120	48	6
Sikkim	10	70	28	3
Tripura	18	120	48	6
Total	150	1000	400	50

Important Dates

Events	Dates
Opening of Registration portal for NEC Merit Scholarship 2025	02 August, 2025
Closing date of the portal	31 October, 2025
Last date to verify the Defective application	15 November, 2025
Last date for Institute-Level Verification	15 November, 2025
DNO/ SNO/ MNO Verification	30 November, 2025