ISI Kolkata stipend: ₹5,000 to ₹12,400 a month, 31 Oct

This one works differently from most scholarships on this site, and the difference is worth understanding before you spend time on it.

The Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata pays a monthly stipend to its degree students as a matter of course. The Institute's rules say a monthly stipend is awarded at the time of admission to each student. You do not win it against other applicants — you get it by getting into ISI. The hard part is the entrance examination, not the scholarship form.

ISI is funded by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which is why the stipend appears as a scheme on the National Scholarship Portal, open from 1 June 2026 with student applications accepted until 31 October 2026.

What you get, by programme

• B.Stat and B.Math — ₹5,000 a month, plus a contingency grant of ₹5,000 a year
• PG Diploma in Statistical Methods and Analytics, for students domiciled in the North East states — ₹3,000 a month, plus ₹3,000 a year
• M.Stat, M.Math, MS (QE), MS (LIS) and MS (QMS) — ₹8,000 a month, plus ₹8,000 a year
• M.Tech (CS), M.Tech (CrS) and M.Tech (QROR) — ₹12,400 a month, plus a contingency grant of ₹8,000 a year

The stipend is paid at the end of each month, for twelve months in each academic year. The first payment comes after two months of admission, with retrospective effect, provided you have stayed on the programme for at least two months.

The contingency grant is not pocket money — it is reimbursed against bills, for things like books, printing and photocopying, stationery, computer peripherals, storage media, software including antivirus, membership fees for professional bodies and online courses, conference travel and registration, laboratory consumables, journal subscriptions, publication fees and high-speed internet. Claims have to be submitted in the right financial year, and unspent balance does not carry forward.

How you lose it, semester by semester

The stipend is awarded initially for the first semester only. What you get in every semester after that depends on the last one. The rules are precise:

• If your composite score in any course is under 35% (45% in core courses for M.Tech QR&OR and MS QMS), or you are under 45% in more than one course, or your average across all credit courses is under 45%, you get no stipend the following semester
• If you meet the continuation requirements, average at least 60%, and have at most one credit course below 45%, you get the full stipend
• If you average at least 45% but under 60% on the same terms, the stipend is halved
• If overall attendance in any semester falls below 75%, no stipend the following semester
• The Dean of Studies can withdraw the stipend for unsatisfactory conduct on campus

Scores are counted after back-paper examinations. A withdrawn stipend can be restored in a later semester on improved performance or attendance, but never with retrospective effect — the months you lost stay lost.

A student repeating a year gets no stipend, no contingency grant and no prizes during the repeat year. There is one door left open: a repeating student from an economically underprivileged background, for whom this would force them to discontinue, can appeal to the Dean of Studies or the Students In-charge for financial support.

The rule that catches people

If you receive a scholarship from another government agency, the ISI stipend is discontinued. And if a scholarship is awarded to you later with retrospective effect, you are required to return the stipend already paid — failing to return it is treated as unsatisfactory conduct.

So if you are holding, or about to be awarded, a central or state government scholarship, work out which one pays more before you accept both. At ₹8,000 or ₹12,400 a month the ISI stipend is worth more than most.

There is also prize money: in each semester the Teachers' Committee may nominate a few students for outstanding examination performance for cash awards.

How to apply

Admission to ISI comes first, through the Institute's own entrance examination and interview — that process runs on isical.ac.in and is not part of the National Scholarship Portal.

Once you are an admitted student, the stipend scheme is listed on the NSP at scholarships.gov.in under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, open until 31 October 2026. Do your One Time Registration first, then apply under the stipend scheme for UG and PG studies at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Your institute verifies the application on the portal after you submit.

Dates checked on 9 August 2026. Deadlines in India move without notice, so confirm on the official portal linked above before you apply.