There is no KVPY Fellowship 2026. The Kishore Vaigyanik
Protsahan Yojana was discontinued by the Department of Science and Technology
(DST) in 2022 and merged into the INSPIRE programme. No KVPY aptitude test has
been conducted since 2021.
The scheme that replaced it — INSPIRE SHE (Scholarship
for Higher Education) — is itself in limbo. DST has not notified a new
batch since 2024. In August 2026, the government told Parliament the scheme is
under redesign, not discontinued.
If you are a Class 11 or 12 science student searching for KVPY 2026 registration, you will not find an application form, because none
exists. This page explains what happened, what your options are, and how to
avoid the fake pages circulating online.
What was KVPY?
Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana — literally “Young
Scientist Promotion Scheme” — was launched in 1999 by the Department of Science
and Technology and administered by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc),
Bangalore. It ran for 23 years.
Its purpose was narrow and unusual among Indian
scholarships. It did not reward exam performance in the conventional sense. It
looked for aptitude toward research, and it caught students early — as early as
Class 11 — before they committed to engineering or medicine.
KVPY at a glance (historical record)
Full form Kishore
Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana
Launched 1999
Administering body IISc
Bangalore, on behalf of DST
Streams SA
(Class 11), SX (Class 12), SB (1st-year UG)
Selection Written
aptitude test + interview
Monthly fellowship ₹5,000
– ₹7,000
Annual contingency grant ₹20,000
– ₹28,000
Support duration Up
to pre-PhD level
Key perk Direct
admission route to BSc (Research) at IISc
Last aptitude test 2021
Final result declared 24
June 2022 (SA, SB, SX)
Current status Discontinued
from 2022
The IISc admission pathway was what made KVPY genuinely
prestigious. A KVPY fellow could enter one of India’s top research institutions
without a separate entrance exam. Losing that route is the part most students
still feel.
Read: How
to Apply for Wipro Scholarship 2026?
Why DST scrapped KVPY
DST’s official notice was blunt and short:
DST has decided to subsume KVPY with INSPIRE. KVPY Aptitude
test will not be conducted from the year 2022 onwards. Ongoing KVPY fellows
will continue to receive fellowship as per norms from DST.
The decision came out of a high-level review meeting held on
1 June 2022. Two reasons emerged from official briefings at the time.
The exam cost more than the fellowships. Running a
nationwide aptitude test across three streams, with interviews, had an
operational cost that exceeded the money actually disbursed to students. DST
officials indicated the savings would be redirected into roughly 300 additional
fellowships.
The exam was being used for the wrong thing. Officials
observed that a large share of KVPY candidates were not enrolling in basic
science programmes at all. They were treating the KVPY paper as free,
high-quality practice for JEE and NEET. The scheme was identifying talent, but
that talent was walking straight into engineering and medical colleges — the opposite
of the scheme’s stated goal.
DST’s broader position was that it wanted to move away from
finding scientific talent through competitive examinations altogether.
Whether that reasoning holds up is debatable. The
counter-argument, raised repeatedly by science educators, is that KVPY’s early
catchment at Class 11 was precisely its value, and that INSPIRE SHE’s
board-marks-based selection catches students after they have already chosen
their stream.
What replaced KVPY:
INSPIRE SHE
INSPIRE — Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired
Research — is DST’s umbrella programme, launched in 2008. It has three
components:
SHE (Scholarship for Higher Education) — undergraduate and
integrated PG. This is where KVPY was folded in.
AORC (Assured Opportunity for Research Careers) — PhD-level
fellowships.
Faculty Scheme — post-doctoral.
KVPY compared with
INSPIRE SHE
Feature KVPY
(till 2022) INSPIRE SHE
Entry stage Class
11, 12, 1st-year UG After
Class 12
Selection method Aptitude
test + interview Board marks
or entrance rank — no separate exam
Annual value ₹60,000
– ₹84,000 + contingency ₹80,000
(₹60,000 + ₹20,000 research grant)
Monthly payout ₹5,000
– ₹7,000 ₹5,000 via DBT
Awards per year ~250
– 300 (per DST briefings before closure) ~10,000
– 12,000
Age criteria Class-based 17 – 22 years
IISc direct admission Yes No
Application fee Nil Nil
Portal kvpy.iisc.ernet.in online-inspire.gov.in
The scale difference is the headline. INSPIRE SHE awards
roughly forty times more scholarships. What it loses is selectivity, the
research-aptitude filter, and the IISc pathway.
INSPIRE SHE
eligibility
A student qualifies through any one of these routes:
·
Top 1% in the Class 12 board examination from a
recognised board
·
All India Rank within the top 10,000 in JEE
Main, JEE Advanced or NEET
·
Medal winner at an international science
Olympiad
·
NTSE scholar or JBNSTS scholar
·
Admission into an IISER or NISER integrated
programme
Historically, KVPY
fellows
Course restriction. Only Natural and Basic Sciences —
Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Geology and allied disciplines, at
BSc, BS or Integrated MSc level. Engineering, medicine and other professional
courses are not covered, even if you qualified through a JEE or NEET rank.
Renewal. You must maintain at least 60% marks, or GPA 7.0,
each academic year. The ₹20,000 component is not automatic — it requires
completing a six to eight week summer research project. Payment is by Direct
Benefit Transfer to an Aadhaar-linked account.
The 2026 situation:
read this carefully
This is where most websites are publishing speculation. Here
is what is actually documented.
The last INSPIRE-SHE batch awarded was 2024. DST records show
no new batch notified since.
Budget allocation has vanished. The Union Budgets for
2025-26 and 2026-27 show no allocation under the DST head through which the
INSPIRE programme was previously funded — the Science and Technology
Institutional and Human Capacity Building scheme. That head last received ₹542
crore in 2024-25.
An RTI confirmed the 2025 cycle was cancelled. A BSc student
from Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh filed an RTI application on 18 March 2026. DST
replied on 15 April 2026, stating that the INSPIRE SHE-2025 advertisement would
not be announced.
Students’ groups escalated it. On 31 March 2026, ABVP
publicly flagged the delay, noting that the notification normally appears
between September and October, and demanded both immediate notification and clearing
of pending disbursements.
DST confirmed the 2026 cycle is also skipped. In July 2026,
a DST official stated on record that the fellowship would not be notified that
year, without giving a reason.
The government then said it is a redesign, not a closure. In
August 2026, Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh, in a
written reply in the Rajya Sabha, stated that the scheme is presently under
redesign to further strengthen its objectives.
Where the money went — INSPIRE SHE scheme lifetime figures,
from the August 2026 Rajya Sabha reply
Total disbursed since 2008 ₹2,784.15
crore
Total beneficiaries 1,36,298
students
States and UTs covered 33
Uttar Pradesh 60,263
scholarships
Karnataka 26,164
scholarships
Rajasthan 23,467
scholarships
Meanwhile, some institutions have stepped in. IISc Bengaluru
now provides institute-funded assistance of ₹5,000 per month to undergraduate
students. Previously, INSPIRE-SHE holders were excluded from this aid; with no
2025 batch, all UG students there now receive it.
Key dates timeline
Documented milestones, KVPY closure through the INSPIRE SHE
pause
Date Event
1999 KVPY
launched by DST
2008 INSPIRE
programme launched
2021 Last KVPY
aptitude test conducted
1 June 2022 DST
high-level review meeting on KVPY
24 June 2022 Final
KVPY results declared (SA, SB, SX)
July 2022 DST
notice: KVPY subsumed into INSPIRE
2024 Last
INSPIRE-SHE batch awarded
18 March 2026 RTI
filed on missing 2025 notification
31 March 2026 ABVP
flags notification delay publicly
15 April 2026 DST
RTI reply: SHE-2025 will not be advertised
July 2026 DST
official confirms 2026 also not notified
August 2026 Govt
tells Rajya Sabha: scheme under redesign
What should a science
student do right now?
If you were already a KVPY fellow: your fellowship
continues. DST’s 2022 notice explicitly protected ongoing fellows. Disbursement
delays have been reported — raise them through your institute’s scholarship
cell first, then DST’s grievance channel.
If you were an INSPIRE SHE scholar from the 2024 batch or
earlier: renewals for existing scholars are a separate process from new
notifications. Keep your academic performance above the 60% or GPA 7.0
threshold and file renewal on time through the portal.
·
If you are a Class 12 student in 2026: there is
currently no open application. Do three things.
·
Keep your documents ready. Class 12 mark sheet,
endorsement form from your institute, Aadhaar-linked bank account. If the
redesigned scheme is notified, windows have historically been short.
·
Monitor the official portal only —
online-inspire.gov.in. Not aggregator sites, not Telegram groups.
Build a parallel plan. Institute-level financial aid (IISc,
the IISERs and several central universities run their own UG support), state
government merit scholarships, and private science scholarships. Do not build
your funding plan around a scheme that has not been notified for two
consecutive years.
How to spot a KVPY or
INSPIRE scam?
·
Because “KVPY 2026” still carries heavy search
volume, fake registration pages have appeared. Apply this logic.
·
KVPY has no application process. Any site
offering a KVPY 2026 form is fraudulent.
·
INSPIRE SHE has never charged an application
fee. Anyone asking for payment is running a scam.
·
INSPIRE SHE accepts no offline applications.
·
The only authorised portal is
online-inspire.gov.in — not a lookalike domain, not a “helpline” agent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is KVPY 2026
registration open?
No. KVPY was discontinued in 2022 and there is no registration
process for any year after 2021.
Will KVPY ever come
back?
DST has given no indication of reviving KVPY as a standalone
scheme. Its stated position in 2022 was a move away from identifying talent
through competitive exams. The government’s August 2026 Parliament reply
referred to redesigning INSPIRE SHE, not restoring KVPY.
Do existing KVPY
fellows still get paid?
Yes. DST’s notice stated that ongoing KVPY fellows continue
to receive their fellowship as per norms.
Is INSPIRE SHE
discontinued too?
Officially no. The government told the Rajya Sabha in August
2026 that the scheme is under redesign. In practice, no new batch has been
notified since 2024, and the funding head has no budget allocation in 2025-26
or 2026-27.
When will INSPIRE SHE
2026 be notified?
No date has been announced. Historically the notification
appeared between September and October. Any specific expected date you see
online is speculation, not official.
Can engineering or
MBBS students apply for INSPIRE SHE?
No. Even if you qualify through a JEE or NEET rank, the
scholarship only supports Natural and Basic Science courses — BSc, BS,
Integrated MSc. Switching to a non-science or professional course cancels the
scholarship.
Is BSc Agriculture or
BSc Life Sciences eligible?
Life science streams — Botany, Zoology, Biochemistry — at
recognised universities are covered, provided you meet the top 1% board
criterion or another eligibility route. Agriculture sits in a grey area
depending on the institution and course structure; verify against the notification
text when one is issued.
How much does INSPIRE
SHE pay?
₹80,000 per year — ₹60,000 as scholarship (₹5,000 monthly
via DBT) plus ₹20,000 as a summer research grant, which requires completing a
six to eight week research project.
Is there an entrance
exam for INSPIRE SHE?
No. Unlike KVPY, selection is based on board marks, entrance
exam ranks, Olympiad medals or NTSE and JBNSTS status. There is no separate
aptitude test.
What replaced the
KVPY route to IISc?
Nothing directly equivalent. IISc’s BSc
(Research) programme now admits through JEE Main, JEE Advanced and NEET scores.
The dedicated research-aptitude pathway that KVPY provided no longer exists.
