Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the NUA-O Scholarship, with the distribution of Rs 28 crore worth of sanction orders among 28,112 students of 57 colleges in Sambalpur, Deogarh and Angul districts, Monday. 5T and Nabin Odisha Chairman Kartik Pandian, as per the directive of the CM, visited the three districts and distributed the scholarship sanction orders among the eligible students. “As many as 13,423 students from 21 colleges of Sambalpur district, 11,265 students from 25 colleges of Angul district, and 3,424 students from 11 colleges of Deogarh district will get their scholarship amount in their bank accounts,” the 5T Chairman said, while distributing the sanction orders. He also interacted with students from 57 colleges in these districts.
According to sources, NUAO Scholarship will be available for students pursuing UG and PG programmes in state universities and government and non-government aided colleges, including Sanskrit colleges under the Higher Education department. Under the initiative, male students will get Rs 9,000 annually, while female students will receive Rs 10,000. Male students belonging to SC/ST and Nirman Shramik (construction worker) families will get Rs 10,000, while female students of the categories will receive Rs 11,000 annually. The NUA (Nutana Unnata Abhilasha)-O initiative of the state government aims at empowering youth with continuous skilling, re-skilling, and upskilling opportunities. With a budgetary allocation of Rs 385 crore for 2023-24 to 2025-26 fiscals, the initiative will cover all 30 districts, prioritising tribal and remote areas. Pandian said the decade of 2024-34 will be the era of the youth, who will be empowered by the state government to achieve the goal of NUA Odisha. “Like the empowerment initiatives for women through Mission Shakti, major interventions for youth engagement, empowerment, and development will be implemented in the next 10 years. The process has already started through the college transformation projects across the state.
In this context, the NUA-O program was launched last year and has been a major success, and as a next step, the NUA-O scholarship program has been launched,” the 5T Chairman said. Pandian said that the government’s next major initiative will be to cover all the students through the launching of the Nabin Odisha Magic Card which will be a ‘passport to prosperity’. The online registration portal for the card will be launched March 5, 2024. Distribution of the card will begin August 15. “Based on points earned through various activities and parameters, the cards will be upgraded to ‘silver, gold, and platinum’ level. The cards will be allotted and upgraded based on the performance of student in terms of attendance, discipline, academic performance, participation in extracurricular activities, sports, online courses and personality development courses,” he said. These cards can provide access to various facilities like bus, train, and flight concession, access to data recharge and Wi-Fi, e-libraries, online academic courses, personality development courses, coaching centres, skill development courses, career counselling, language courses including Odia and English, ‘Earn While You Learn’ opportunities and volunteering opportunities.