Scholarships Worth Rs 12,773 Crore for 1.44 Crore SC Students

The correct answer is Rs 12,773 crore. The release states that more than 1.44 crore Scheduled Caste students have benefited under the Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Scholarship Schemes and that scholarships amounting to Rs 12,773 crore have been disbursed to support their education. Option A is the most dangerous distractor because that amount does appear in the release, but it belongs to a different group: more than 1.01 crore students of the Other Backward Classes and the Economically Backward Classes received assistance of Rs 2,445.05 crore under the same pre-matric and post-matric schemes. The two pairs should be memorised together as pairs, so that the beneficiary count and the amount are never separated. Options B and D are figures close enough to the correct one to catch a candidate working from a hazy memory, but neither appears in the release.

The correct answer is from May to December. Under the Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas, the annual examination schedule of the National Entrance Test for SHRESHTA has been advanced from May to December. The purpose given in the release is practical: an earlier test lets counselling and admission be completed in time, keeps the process aligned with the academic calendar, and reduces both delay and the number of students who drop out while waiting. Option D reverses the two months and is the classic trap in questions of this kind, so read the direction of the change carefully; the test now happens earlier in the cycle, not later. Options A and C name months that do not appear in the release at all. Candidates should also note the full form of SHRESHTA, since examiners ask for it as often as they ask for the reform itself.

The correct answer is the National Overseas Scholarship Scheme. The release says that to strengthen the authenticity of documents and prevent fraudulent claims, a system for verifying income and caste certificates on the spot, directly with the authorities that issued them, was introduced under this scheme from the academic year 2024-25, and that the measure helps ensure the benefit reaches genuine candidates aspiring to study abroad. Each of the other options is a real scheme named in the same release but carries a different reform, so they must be kept apart. SHRESHTA is where the entrance test was advanced from May to December. The National Fellowship for SC Students is where a mandatory seven-day grievance window was introduced from the academic year 2025-26, following the declaration of the UGC-NET and Joint CSIR-UGC NET results. The Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme is where the disbursement figures come from.