You can apply for multiple education loans using a single window platform

Applying for loans is always tiresome, but do you know you can apply for multiple education loans using a single window platform. The government of India has recently launched the portal called Vidya Lakshmi, under the Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram (PMVLK), which acts as a platform to monitor scholarships and administer your educational loan requirements. All you need to get started is to register on the portal  and fill the form to search for educational loan offered by various banks. 

So far, 23 banks have registered with 42  schemes on the portal and 5 banks -SBI, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India -have integrated their system with the portal for providing loan processing status to students.

The portal also hosts a link (National Scholarship Portal) for students seeking government scholarships.

The portal has the following feature

• 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 e-mail grievances/queries relating to educational loans to banks
• Dashboard facility for students to view status of their loan application
• Linkage to national scholarship portal for information and application for government scholarships

The portal has been developed and maintained by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov) under the guidance of Department of finance ministry

Earlier, the Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley in the Union Budget for 2015-16  had proposed to set-up a fully IT based Student Financial Aid Authority to administer and monitor Scholarship as well as Educational Loan Schemes, through the PMVLK to ensure that no student misses out on higher education for lack of funds.

More than 18,000 students have already completed their registrations on Vidya Lakshmi Portal.

3 easy steps to apply Education loan

1.   You will need to register on the portal, www.Vidyalakshmi.co.in
2.   Fill-up the Common Education Loan Application Form by providing all the necessary details. This is a one-time procedure.
3.   After filling the form, you can search for educational Loan offered by various banks and apply as per your needs, eligibility and convenience.

Students can view the status of their application on the dashboard. If the loan is rejected, the student will have to contact the individual bank for more details. In case the bank puts the application on hold because it may require additional information, that will be indicated in the dashboard, which students will come to know when they log in to the portal. The loan, once approved, will be disbursed directly by the bank outside the portal.