New Delhi, Oct 31 (PTI) Reservation for OBC students inNational Talent Search Examination (NTSE)-stage II conductedby the NCERT has been approved, Union Human ResourceDevelopment Minister Prakash Javadekar said today.
The 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Class studentswill be effective from 2019 as the process for the 2018examination has already commenced, the minister said.
The reservation for OBC students will be in addition toalready existing 15 per cent quota for scheduled castestudents, 7.5 per cent for students from Scheduled Tribes andfour per cent for physically challenged students.
"Approved reservation for #OBC students in #NTSE NationalTalent Search Examination Stage-II conducted by @NCERT,"Javadekar said in a tweet.
He also said that increasing the number of scholarshipsfrom 1,000 to 2,000 for the second stage of NTSE is also under"active consideration".
Class 11 and 12 students get Rs 1,250 per month under thescholarship, while undergraduate and postgraduate students getRs 2,000. For PhD students, the amount is decided according toUGC norms, he added.
The stage-1 of the examination is conducted by stategovernments, while the stage-II is conducted the NationalCouncil of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) toidentify and nurture talented students.
Sources said the state governments may also be asked toprovide reservation to the OBC category. Some states arealready providing the OBC reservation.
Earlier, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court hadasked to study the feasibility and necessity of providingquota to OBC students, the sources said.
Following it, an NCERT committee had favoured quota forOBC students to be implemented as per central governmentnorms, they added. PTI MPTIR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.