Scholarships for engineering and medical students from Maharashtra

Summary: Most Maharashtra government scholarships for engineering and medical courses are applied for after admission, on the state's MahaDBT portal. The central merit scholarship is on the National Scholarship Portal. Income, domicile and caste documents decide eligibility, so get them ready during Class 12.

When these scholarships apply

The schemes below are for students who have already taken admission to a degree course, usually through the state's Centralised Admission Process (CAP) run after MHT‑CET, NEET or JEE Main. Nothing is paid during Class 11 and 12. The work a family can do in advance is to get the certificates ready, because a missing income or caste validity certificate in July or August is a common reason we see students miss a year's benefit.

Everything on this page was checked against the official portals in September 2026. Amounts, income limits and rules are revised through Government Resolutions (GRs), so confirm the details on the scheme page for your year before you apply.

Maharashtra state schemes on MahaDBT

The state's scholarship and fee reimbursement schemes are listed on the MahaDBT portal, mahadbt.maharashtra.gov.in. Each scheme has its own page with eligibility, benefits and documents. The portal notes that the older version (MahaDBT 1.0) is open only for pending applications from earlier years, so the application screens for 2026‑27 may look different from what older cousins remember.

Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Shikshan Shulkh Shishyavrutti Yojana (EBC), for technical courses

Run by the Directorate of Technical Education, this covers students admitted to professional and technical courses such as engineering through CAP. According to the scheme page:

• The student must be a domicile of Maharashtra, admitted through CAP.
• Family income must not be more than ₹8 lakh a year.
• Boys get 50% of tuition fee and exam fee reimbursed; girls get 100%.
• Deemed and private universities are not covered.
• Only two children from a family can take the benefit in the same year.
• The student should not be taking any other scholarship, and needs at least 50% attendance in the previous semester (freshers excepted).

Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Fee Reimbursement Scheme, for medical courses

The Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) runs a matching scheme for MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BHMS, BUMS, B.Sc Nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and some other health science courses. It applies to students admitted under the general or SEBC category and reimburses 50% of tuition and exam fees. A separate DMER scheme listed on the portal reimburses 100% of tuition and exam fees for eligible girls.

Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh hostel maintenance allowance

This scheme helps with living costs for students who stay in a hostel or paying-guest accommodation. On the technical education version, the scheme page says it is mainly for students whose parents are registered labourers or marginal landholders (alpabhudharak), and it lists a family income limit of ₹8 lakh. The yearly allowance depends on the city where the student studies, with higher amounts for Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and similar cities. DMER has its own version for medical students. Check the amount table on the scheme page, since it differs by department and city.

Post-matric scholarships for reserved categories

Separate departments run post-matric scholarship and freeship schemes for SC, ST, OBC, VJNT and SBC students. These cover tuition and exam fees and a monthly maintenance allowance, with different income limits for each scheme (the Government of India post-matric scholarship for SC students, for example, lists a family income limit of ₹2.5 lakh). The OBC scheme page notes that, under a GR of 8 July 2024, girls get 100% of the benefit. A caste certificate is needed, and the ST scheme page adds that a caste validity certificate is mandatory for professional courses.

Scholarship for minority students in professional courses

The Minority Development Department runs a scholarship for Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Sikh, Parsi, Jain and Jewish students in professional and technical courses. The technical course version pays up to ₹50,000 a year or the actual tuition and exam fee, whichever is less, for Maharashtra domiciles who passed Class 10 in Maharashtra, with a family income limit of ₹8 lakh. DMER runs a version for medical courses.

Central schemes open to Maharashtra students

Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students

This Ministry of Education scheme (now part of PM-USP) is based on Class 12 board results. Under the current guidelines published on the National Scholarship Portal:

• The student must be above the 80th percentile of successful candidates in their stream in their Class 12 board.
• Gross family income must be up to ₹4.5 lakh a year.
• The scholarship is ₹12,000 a year for the first three years of a degree. For B.Tech and B.E. it is ₹20,000 in the fourth year, and five-year professional courses get ₹20,000 in the fourth and fifth years.
• It cannot be combined with other merit scholarships, state scholarship schemes, fee waivers or reimbursement schemes.
• Renewal needs at least 50% marks in the annual exam and 75% attendance.

Applications are only through the National Scholarship Portal (scholarships.gov.in).

Because the central scholarship cannot be combined with state fee reimbursement, compare the two before applying. For a student whose tuition fee is large, the state reimbursement is often worth more; for one in a college with low fees, the central scholarship may be. Work it out with the actual fee of the college.

AICTE Pragati and Saksham, for engineering

The All India Council for Technical Education runs Pragati for girls and Saksham for students with disabilities, admitted to AICTE-approved technical institutions at degree or diploma level. The AICTE page lists ₹50,000 a year for each scholar, with applications through the National Scholarship Portal. Details and yearly guidelines are on the AICTE student schemes page. These apply to engineering and other AICTE courses, not to MBBS or BDS.

A worked example

Take a hypothetical engineering college in Maharashtra with a tuition fee of ₹1,20,000 a year and an exam fee of ₹2,000, and a family income of ₹5 lakh, admitted through CAP in the open category.

Over four years, that is roughly ₹2.4 lakh for the boy and ₹4.9 lakh for the girl, if the fee stays the same and the student meets the attendance and renewal conditions. These numbers are only an illustration; use the real fee of the college your child joins.

Documents to prepare during Class 12

• Domicile certificate of Maharashtra, in the student's name.
• Income certificate for the previous year. Renewal applications need a fresh one every year.
• Caste certificate and caste validity certificate for reserved categories. Validity can take weeks to come through, so apply early in Class 12.
• Aadhaar linked to a bank account in the student's name. MahaDBT pays into an Aadhaar-seeded account, and the central scheme needs an account in the student's own name.
• Class 10 and Class 12 mark sheets, and later the CAP allotment documents.
• For the hostel allowance: a registered labourer or marginal landholder certificate where applicable, and the hostel or PG agreement.

Keep scanned copies in one folder, and ask the college scholarship desk about deadlines in the first week after admission.

For Class 10 students, our free IMGSAT scholarship test is a separate thing: it is our own test for admission to our Class 11-12 programme, and it does not replace any of the government schemes above.

Common questions