Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that the student credit card (SCC) scheme of Bengal has crossed the landmark figure of 1 lakh sanctioned cases.
In a post on X, Banerjee said the flagship initiative, aimed at supporting higher education, allows students to avail themselves of loans up to Rs 10 lakh at a nominal interest rate, with the entire interest subsidy borne by the state government.
“Happy to share that under our Student Credit Card Scheme, the number of sanctioned cases has crossed today the landmark figure of 1,00,000,” Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister also stated that the scheme will continue to help “budding talents” pursue their academic and career goals and extended her wishes to all students for a “very prosperous future.”
“In this flagship scheme of our government, the students are provided education loan up to ₹10 lakh at a very nominal interest rate. The interest subvention/ subsidy amount is entirely borne by the state government. The scheme will continue to assist the budding talents in reaching their desired goals. Wish all our students a very prosperous future!” Banerjee wrote on X.
The Student Credit Card Scheme was launched in 2021 to make education more accessible by reducing the financial burden on students seeking to study in India or abroad. In the initial stage after the launch, the nationalised banks were reluctant in providing loans against SCC and the government had to hold several meetings to bring these banks on board for loans against SCC. So, during that time the cooperative banks provided loans.
The SCC scheme is designed to support students to pursue secondary, higher secondary, madrasah, undergraduate and postgraduate studies, including professional degrees and other equivalent courses in any school, madrasah, college, university and other affiliated institutes within and outside India. Students studying in various coaching institutions for appearing in different competitive examinations like Engineering, Medical, Law, IAS, IPS, WBCS etc, can also avail of the loan under this scheme. The loan can also be used for purchasing laptops, books, tablets, etc. or educational travel and research.