Applications for Round 1 of the Azim Premji Scholarship, cohort 2026, are open from 10 August to 31 August 2026. Girl students who are shortlisted receive Rs 30,000 a year for the full length of their first undergraduate degree or diploma — up to Rs 1.5 lakh across a 2 to 5 year course. It is not a merit scholarship: the Azim Premji Foundation states that it is not awarded on merit, caste, income or religion. If you are a girl who passed Class 10 and Class 12 from a government school in one of 21 eligible States and Union Territories, and you have joined the first year of a recognised UG course this session, you can apply. There is no fee at any stage. The window closes in three weeks.
Azim Premji Scholarship 2026: dates, amount and who it is for
| Round 1 application window, cohort 2026 | 10 August to 31 August 2026 |
| Amount, for shortlisted applicants | Rs 30,000 per year, for the full duration of the course |
| Total over a course | Up to Rs 1.5 lakh (courses of 2 to 5 years) |
| Who can apply | Girl students only, in the first year of their first UG degree or diploma |
| Selection basis | Not awarded on merit, caste, income or religion |
| Age limit | None |
| Application fee | None, at any stage |
| Where to apply | The Foundation’s own scholarship portal, and nowhere else |
Who is eligible: both conditions must be true
The Foundation lists two conditions, and you need both, not either:
- You passed Class 10 and Class 12 as a regular student from a government school or college in one of the eligible States or Union Territories listed below. Both classes. From a government institution.
- You have taken admission in the first year, for academic session 2026–27, as a regular student of a recognised undergraduate degree or diploma course of 2 to 5 years, at a government or a credible and bona fide private college or university — anywhere in India. It must be your first UG degree or diploma after Class 12.
The second point is the one students misread most often. The State condition applies to where you did your schooling, not where you are studying now. A girl who finished Class 12 from a government school in Bihar and has joined a college in Pune this year still qualifies.
Four things that make you ineligible
These sit in the Foundation’s FAQ rather than the headline eligibility box, so most coverage skips them. Any one of them rules you out:
- Distance or open learning mode. You have to be a regular student. The FAQ answers this with a flat no.
- You are in the second year or later of your course. First year only.
- You already hold or held a Wipro scholarship — the Santoor scholarship is the example the Foundation itself gives.
- You have secured admission to any Azim Premji University programme for academic year 2026–27 or earlier.
One small warning about the official page itself: FAQ question 2 currently says admission “for academic session 2025–26”, while the eligibility box and FAQ questions 4 and 5 all say 2026–27. Three places against one, and 2026–27 is the year that matches this cohort — but if you spot the contradiction on the site, that is why.
Eligible States and Union Territories for 2026-27
Twenty-one in total. Andhra Pradesh and Delhi (NCT) are new additions for 2026–27 — if you studied in either, this is the first year you can apply.
Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi (NCT), Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand.
If your State is not on this list, you are not eligible this year. The Foundation says the programme is expanding in phases — it began in 2024–25 across districts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, and reached 18 States and one UT in 2025–26. A State missing today may appear in a later cohort.
Documents required for the Azim Premji Scholarship 2026 application
Six documents, uploaded online. The Foundation is unusually specific about what it will reject, so read this before you start rather than after an upload fails. Every file must be PDF, PNG or JPG, sized between 30 KB and 500 KB.
- Passport photograph — 2×2 inch, colour, front-face, taken within the last 6 months. Not a selfie. No filters, no emojis, nothing covering your face, nobody else in the frame.
- Aadhaar card — clear, colour, unedited soft copy of the front side, with name, photograph, date of birth and gender all readable. Not a screenshot, not blurred, not a photocopy.
- Bank details — first page of your passbook showing account holder name, account number, IFSC and branch. If you have no passbook, or the details are handwritten or unclear, use a bank statement for the last one month instead. The account must be a savings account in a scheduled commercial bank, and active.
- Class 10 marksheet — front side, clear and unedited. Not an online marksheet, not a transfer or leaving certificate, not password protected, not cropped.
- Class 12 marksheet — same rules as above.
- College admission proof — either a Bonafide Certificate or a Tuition Fee Receipt, showing your name, college name, degree and course name, year of study, course start date, issue date, academic year, and the seal or signature of the issuing authority.
The recurring theme in those rejection rules is original and unedited. Photograph the document itself in good light; do not photograph a photocopy, and do not crop or annotate the image. The Foundation publishes a detailed document guideline in English, Hindi, Kannada, Odia, Assamese and Telugu, plus explainer videos, both linked from its applications page.
Nobody should ask you for money
The Foundation carries an explicit caution on its own page: it does not charge any fee at any stage of the scholarship application process, and warns against impostors who claim otherwise. Take that seriously. A scholarship aimed at girls from government schools is exactly the kind of scheme that attracts agents offering to “get your application approved” for a payment.
Three rules keep you safe here and on every scholarship portal: apply only through the Foundation’s own website, never pay anyone for the application, and never share a password or OTP with someone who calls or messages you — no genuine official asks for one. The Foundation runs a support line on WhatsApp at 9019960536, Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM. For the longer version of this, read our guide to fake admission calls and how to check whether a website is real.
If you applied in an earlier round, or need a renewal
Two situations that are not this window, and get confused with it constantly:
- You applied in Round 1 of September 2025 or Round 2 of January 2026. Confirmation and disbursal for shortlisted applicants from those rounds are still in progress. Do not file a fresh application — log in to the existing portal and check your status.
- You are already on the scholarship and need it renewed. Renewal is a separate track with its own window, not this one.
Also worth knowing: this is labelled Round 1, and the previous cohort had a second round in January. The Foundation has not published a Round 2 date for the 2026 cohort, so treat 31 August as your deadline rather than assuming another chance appears.
Worth applying even if you have other support
Rs 30,000 a year is not a token amount for a first-year undergraduate, and because selection is not merit based, a student who did not top her board exam has the same claim on it as one who did. If you are piecing together the money for a degree, this sits alongside the central government routes rather than replacing them — our guides to the NSP CSSS renewal and payment process and the PM Vidyalaxmi education loan checklist cover the two most common ones.
The window is short. Applications close on 31 August 2026, and the documents take a day or two to gather if your bonafide certificate is not already in hand. Start with the college certificate, since that is the one that depends on somebody else’s office. Deadlines across boards and entrance exams are tracked on our Important Dates calendar, and parents helping with the paperwork may find the Parent Zone a useful starting point.
Always confirm on the official website before acting.