Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS)::Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation Ltd.

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  Project Category : Best Initiative for Electronic Delivery of Services (EDS)

  Details of Applicant :

  Name:  Dr. Mohd. Iliyas Rizvi, IFS
  Address: 5^th Floor, A.P.HAJ HOUSE, Opp. PublicGardens,Nampally
  City: Hyderabad
  State: A.P
  Country: India
  ZIP Code :  500001

  Details of Project/Implementing Agency :

  Name of Organisation: Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation Ltd.
  Address: 5th Floor, Haj House, Opp: Public Gardens
  City: Nampally, Hyderabad
  State: Andhra Pradesh
  Country: India

  Name of the head of Organisation: Dr. Mohd. Ilyas Rizvi, IFS

  Website: www.apsmfc.com

  Brief description of the programme/project/Initiative :

  The Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) for Minority students was taken up in the year 2008-09 to enable the students of Post Matric studying from Class XI upto Ph.D. including all professional courses viz; B.Tech, M.Tech., MBA, MCA, MBBS, MS, MD etc. to apply for the Fee reimbursement and Scholarship scheme online through our Website – www.apsmfc.com and to get rid of the old manual system of filling the manual application forms. Subsequently it was extended to Pre matric students from Class I to Class X. In this system the student apply online through our website- www.apsmfc.com and after filling online the application, he/she take the print-out and along with required 2 to 3 documents and submit the application form to the College and the College Authorities in turn will give the Bonafied Certificate and write their online Account number for the reimbursement of tuition fee , then these forms come to the District Offices/ Executive Directors of Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation (APSMFC), where the documents are validated online with respect to the printout and online sanction is given by the ED, APSMFC of the concerned district and the online advice is sent to the bankers to transfer the fees amount directly into the bank account of the College and the scholarship amount directly into the bank account of the student and in turn the Bankers transfer the amount online as per the advice and after execution of advice, they submit the file online again to our server and the executed action of the banker is updated online in our system. Students and the Colleges have been given online facility for tracking their online application by typing Unique Token number issued to the students on our website, where he is able to see the status of his application. Similarly Colleges have been given password and they can download the sanction proceedings online and they can also know as to how many students have been sanctioned scholarship and fee and to how many students the tuition fee and scholarship is pending due to want of which certificate. SMs and E-mails alerts are also sent to the students giving them information regarding sanction of their fee reimbursement and scholarship.

  Why was the project started :

  The Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) for Minority students was taken up in the year 2008-09 to enable the students of Post Matric studying from Class XI upto Ph.D. including all professional courses viz., B.Tech, M.Tech., MBA, MCA, MBBS, MS, MD etc., to apply for the Fee Reimbursement and Scholarship scheme online through our Website – www.apsmfc.com and to get rid of the old manual system of filling the application forms. Subsequently it was extended to Pre Matric from Class I to Class X.

  Objective :

  To create awareness among the minority students about the scholarship and fee reimbursement of Government of India and State Government, to build confidence among the students community, Colleges and Managements regarding sanction and release of scholarships and fee reimbursement to the minority students, bringing transparency and accuracy in the system – develop user-friendly system and improve reconciliation of accounts etc., motivate students to take more and more admissions in good Colleges, and reduce dropout rate from studies due to financial constraints, improve literacy rate among minority communities, create self-confidence among minority , last but not the least – Bring the minority community as equal partner in development and progress of our Nation.

  Target group :

  Minorities comprising of 6 communities viz; Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis & Jains.

   Geographical reach:

  All India. All the students of Minority Community belonging to  all the (23)  districts of Andhra Pradesh and  students of Andhra Pradesh studying  in  National Institutes like IITs,  NIITs and IIMs   etc. throughout the country .  Therefore  geographical reach is all India.

  Please Specify Reach Within India : All India. All the students of Minority Community belonging to all the (23) districts of Andhra Pradesh and students of Andhra Pradesh studying in National Institutes like IITs, NIITs and IIM etc., throughout the country. Therefore geographical reach is all India.

  Please Specify Reach Outside India : Yes

  Date from which the project became operational : 01-10-2008

  Is the Project still operational : Yes

  10 points that make the programme/project innovative?

  1. The system is highly scalable and capable of catering to thousands of students concurrently. The system scaled up to the load and served a few lakh students online with respect to accepting the applications (write operations).
  2. The system is tuned to serve over one lakh transactions per day at present. This configuration is good enough to serve the Minority student community. The Data centre of NIC which has highly scalability, security and reliability is being used to host the application.
  3. The Storage Area Network is capable of storing several lakhs of student records online for any required duration of time (years).
  4. The students who are beneficiaries of this scheme and major stake holder are able to submit their application online and track the sanction and release of fees and scholarship to them.
  5. The next stakeholder is the College where the students are enrolled and studying. The Colleges have been given link to   their software so that they can download sanction proceedings and to know about how many students have been sanctioned scholarship and fee reimbursement and how much. Moreover SMS Messages are also being sent to Students about sanction and reimbursement of Fees and Scholarship through our online messaging system.
  6. It is accessible from anywhere – any time.
  7. It is 24 x 7
  8. The earlier cumbersome system has been reduced to a large extent.
  9. It is accurate and efficient.
  10. Data is preserved for future use.

  
  5  achievements of the programme/project?

  1. The Online Scholarship System is being used by more than five lakh students  every year.
  2. Due to Online scholarship system drop-out rate among the minority students  has been reduced to a large extent.
  3. Number of minority students taking admission in the Professional courses  and specialized courses  is increasing year by year.
  4. It  have developed  the confidence among  the minority students to take admissions  and pursue their education without paying fees to the  Colleges.
  5. It has reduced the middle men and it has produced  accurate, efficient, transparent system  for transferring the scholarship and Fees to the minority students  who are  the most backward in the society and thus the goal of bringing back the minority students  to take active part  in the development  and progress of the Nation has been achieved.

  
  5 Key challenges faced while implementing programme/project/initiative and how was it overcome ?

  1. Voluminous work. About more than five lakh students  are to be served in time bound manner.
  2. To avoid middle-men and to make the system transparent.
  3. Streamlining the Fee structure of  large number of Universities having large number of affiliated Colleges  each having different fee structure.
  4. To create confidence among  minorities that Fees will be paid to the Institutions without any  botheration to them. Reconciliation and audit of accounts.
  5. Developing the online tracking  system for students. Checking  and eliminating  duplication of entries if any.

  
  5 points – How can the programme serve as a model that can be replicated  by others?

  1. No where inIndiathe Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) is available.
  2. It has been selected as one of the best practices  by Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances.
  3. It has eliminated middle-men  and it is  most accurate, efficient , transparent system which serves lakhs of minority students  of Andhra Pradesh.
  4. Similar  Scholarship  Schemes are available in other States and in Government of India, which can also use our OSMS.
  5. Officers from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Delhi etc. and Delegates fromSaudi Arabia,Jordan,Palestine, USA, Jedda    have visited our Office and studied our OSMS so that they can try to replicate the same in their State and Country.

  
  5 points to elaborate on the scalability of  the programme/project/initiative:

  1. The system is highly scalable and capable of catering to thousands of students concurrently.   The system scaled up to the load and served a few lakh students online with respect to accepting the applications (write operations).
  2.  The system is tuned to serve over one lakh transactions per day at present.  This configuration is good enough to serve the Minority student community.  The Data centre of NIC which  has highly scalability, security and reliability is being used to host the application.
  3. The Storage Area Network is capable  of storing  several lakhs of student records  online for any required duration of time (years).
  4. The students who are beneficiaries  of this scheme and major stake  holder are able to submit their application online and track the sanction and release of fees and scholarship to them.
  5. The next stakeholder is the College where the students are enrolled and studying.  The Colleges  have been given link to their software so that they can download sanction proceedings and to know about how many students have been sanctioned scholarship and fee reimbursement and how much. Moreover SMS Messages are also being sent to Students about sanction and   reimbursement of Fees and Scholarship through our online messaging system.