A Seminar on ‘Issues on Education Loans for Minority Students’ was organized by NMDFC. Academicians from Jamia Milia Islamia University, Al-Falah University, Maulana Azad University, Guru Nanak Institute of Management & Information Technology, Bankers from SBI, Canara Bank and PNB, Officials from the State Channelizing Partners viz.J&K Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) & Rajasthan Minority Finance & Development Cooperative Corporation (RMFDCC) and officers from NMDFC participated in the seminar.
2. Dr. Rakesh Sarwal, CMD, NMDFCin his keynote address highlighted the importance of making higher education accessible to Minorities and address issues of awareness, accessibility and credit Guarantee. He informed that NMDFC has already taken up the issue of co-borrowers for the orphans with the Government.
3. The suggestions received during the seminar included: –
(i) For NMDFC, to remove 20% ceiling in educational loans for SCAs, Include Insurance Premium and allow higher lending for education loans.
(ii) For Banks, to simplify loan process, inclusion of short-term cost-intensive highly employment-oriented courses such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Web development etc., and provide for insurance of Education loan.
(iii) For Higher Education Institutions, to include & popularise Vidhya Laxmi Portal www.vidyalakshmi.co.in and JanSamarth Portal www.jansamarth.in on their websites. Greater involvement in publicity, facilitation and recovery of loan.In case of orphans explore possibility of faculty acting as co-borrowers.
(iv) General recommendations for creating awareness about the Education loan facilities amongst the students and the stakeholders through Social Media platforms, banners, posters, pamphlets, prospectus, awareness booths at Universities and Educational institutions, Establish Mechanism for coordination between students, Educational institutions and Financial institutions/Banks to facilitate easy availability of Education Loans.
4. The seminar ended with the decisions to create a whatsapp group involving various stakeholders such as Higher Education Institutions, Banks, NMDFC and State Channelising Partners of NMDFC. Further it was also decided to revise NMDFC’s Educational Loansscheme tomake it more accessible.
