If you are an OBC or EBC student with a bank loan for a Masters, MPhil or PhD abroad, the Government of India will bear the interest that builds up during your moratorium, on the first ₹20 lakh of the loan. It does not touch your principal, and it stops when the moratorium ends.
This is the Dr. Ambedkar Central Sector Scheme of Interest Subsidy on Educational Loans for Overseas Studies for OBCs and EBCs. Guidelines run with effect from 01.10.2017, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment funds it, and Canara Bank is the nodal bank.
All five must be true.
Guideline FAQ 1 is blunt about the third gate: state and UT lists are not followed here, only the Central List kept by the National Commission for Backward Classes. See our OBC non-creamy-layer certificate guide.
Ask a branch manager about an education loan interest subsidy and you will hear about CSIS, the Central Sector Interest Subsidy for study inside India. Different scheme, different ministry. This one is overseas only, OBC and EBC only, post-graduate only.
They do not stack. Guideline FAQ 2 puts the case of a student who used CSIS for an undergraduate course, and answers that this benefit is one time only and not allowed even if a similar benefit has been availed under a different scheme. A CSIS-subsidised BTech can cost you this one later.
For the domestic scheme, see how to apply for an education loan interest subsidy, or the CSIS not-credited escalation route.
Rohit borrows ₹22,00,000 for a two-year Masters abroad. Only ₹20,00,000 counts for the subsidy calculation, because guideline FAQ 11 caps the eligible loan component at ₹20.00 lakh. His moratorium is the course period plus one year, so three years. Say his bank charges 10% a year, an assumption here, not a rate the scheme fixes.
The real figure lands well below that, because the loan is released in instalments. The Ministry's impact assessment gives the actual scale: average subsidy per beneficiary was ₹1,96,964 in 2016-17, ₹1,52,700 in 2017-18 and ₹1,33,220 in 2018-19.
Paragraph 8 of the guidelines is headed FUNDS-LIMITED Nature of the Scheme:
“Due to budgetary constraint, in practice, it has not been possible for the Central Government to provide assistance for giving subsidy on interest to all eligible students. The funds will be released to the applicants on first-come first-served basis, subject to a maximum amount to be worked out every year based on total budget made available that year, under the scheme.”
Eligible is not the same as funded. Get the loan sanctioned and the claim into the bank early in the financial year, because the pot is fixed and it empties.
The scale is small. Spending rose from ₹0.69 crore in 2014-15 to ₹20.94 crore in 2018-19, and 6,936 students were assisted in those five years.
Two tie-breakers apply. Paragraph 7 earmarks at least 50% of the yearly outlay for girl candidates, though guideline FAQ 10 releases the unused part to male students, and the Ministry found beneficiaries were 77% male. Guideline FAQ 12 prefers students from Government universities.
There is no public portal. The claim moves through your lender.
Guideline FAQ 9 makes the certificate filed at loan application the proof of income, so the paperwork at sanction decides your case. See also education loan moratorium and repayment rights.
Checked on 6 August 2026, the Ministry still lists this among its live educational schemes, and published an impact assessment in April 2025. But the scheme page carries only the 2017 guidelines and a 2020 income letter, its Active and Archive tables are empty, and no application window or deadline is published.
The Ministry publishes the application link as canarabankcsis.in/ACSIS/ on both the scheme page and the schemes index. It did not respond when tested from two networks on 6 August 2026, so do the paperwork at your branch.
On income, be careful. The guidelines fix EBC at ₹2.50 lakh a year and, for OBC, cross-refer to the creamy layer criteria in force rather than printing a number. The latest published change is a Ministry letter to Canara Bank, File No. 12013/03/2020-BC-I dated 17.07.2020, revising the criteria to ₹8.00 lakh per annum for FY 2020-21. Nothing later appears on the scheme page, so confirm the figure in force with your branch.
The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment is a public authority under the RTI Act, 2005, and so is a nationalised nodal bank. The guidelines create records: a region-wise notional allocation of funds each financial year under paragraph 8, quarterly progress reports from the nodal bank under paragraph 12, and quarterly Recommendatory Committee meetings under paragraph 7.
A section 6(1) application to the CPIO, Backward Classes Division, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, with a ₹10 fee, can ask for:
Reply is due in 30 days. If none comes, a first appeal under section 19(1) goes to the First Appellate Authority within 30 days of that deadline. If the Ministry says the records sit with the bank, section 6(3) requires transfer within 5 days. Draft it with the AI RTI Drafter, escalate with the First Appeal Builder, and see The RTI Playbook.
No. Guideline FAQ 2 says the benefit is one time only, and not allowed even if a similar benefit has already been availed under a different scheme. A CSIS-subsidised undergraduate loan closes this door for your Masters abroad.
Yes, if the degree is awarded by the foreign university. That is guideline FAQ 13. Get it in writing from the institution and put it on the bank file at sanction stage, because it gets queried a year later when you are no longer in the country.
No. Guideline FAQ 9 treats the income certificate filed with the loan application as proof of annual income, and a later rise or fall has no effect on eligibility. Parental income counts only when the student is unemployed, or on unpaid sabbatical.
No. Guideline FAQ 1 states that applicants must belong to communities in the Central List of OBCs, and that state and UT lists will not be followed here. Get the certificate in the form annexed to the guidelines, signed by the District Magistrate.
The subsidy goes. The guidelines withhold it from students who discontinue mid-stream for any reason, and from those expelled on disciplinary or academic grounds. Obtained on a false certificate, it is cancelled and recovered with penal interest, apart from criminal action.
Email your branch asking it to record this claim on your loan file, to say which quarter it will be uploaded in, and which income ceiling it applies. Keep the reply.
All opened and read on 6 August 2026.