The central govenment's generosity in allocating funds to scholarships meant for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) students at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has eased the financial burden on the B-school.

For the last two years or so, SC and ST students whose annual family income is below Rs 4.50 lakh have been getting need-based central govenment scholarships of Rs 8 lakh per annum, which covers tuition fees and other expenditure. Officials say that IIM-A, which gave out scholarships to 239 students worth Rs 4.80 crore last year, is saving an average of Rs 1.6 crore since the increased allocation to the central SC, ST scholarship fund. "Two or three years ago, the central govenment didn't offer scholarships to SC, ST students. In the last two years, the central govenment has been very generous in offering scholarships to SC and ST students whose family income is less than Rs 4.50 lakh. So that outgo has been reduced in our total budget," said Professor Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, chairman of the admission committee at IIM-A.Bandyopadhyay said students who have availed of the need-based scholarships go not get IIM-A scholarships, as they can't avail of two scholarships simultaneously. According to IIM-A's scholarship figures, 239 students got scholarships with IIM-A disbursing a total of Rs 4.80 crore in the 2015-16 batch. In the 2014-15 batch, 198 students got scholarships, for which IIM-A disbursed Rs 6.23 crore. For the 2013-14 batch, 206 students got scholarships for the B-School had disbursed Rs 6.45 crore.

The sanctioned amount was above Rs 6 crore for the 15-16 batch, but the amount disbursed was Rs 4.80 cr as 22 students withdrew, having availed of the need-based scholarship for SC and ST students from the central govenment, said a statement by IIM-A.

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