Azim Premji Scholarship 2026: Applications Close Today, ₹30,000 Per Year — Check If You Qualify Before The Window Shuts

If you are a first-year college student who finished school in a government institution, the next few hours are worth ₹30,000 a year to you. Round 1 of the Azim Premji Scholarship 2026 closes today, August 31, and the form sits on the Foundation's website at azimpremjifoundation.org under New Registrations – 2026 Cohort.

The money is not a single grant. It continues for the whole length of your first undergraduate degree or diploma, which puts a five-year course at ₹1.5 lakh in total, credited straight to your bank account.

The three-question test

Before you open the form, answer three questions honestly. If all three come back yes, apply today.

Are you a girl student? The programme is exclusively for young women.

Did you pass both Class 10 and Class 12 as a regular student from a government school or government college in one of the eligible states or union territories? Both years must be government, and both must be regular, not private or open schooling.

Have you taken admission this year, for the 2026–27 session, into the first year of a recognised undergraduate degree or diploma of two to five years, as a regular student? Your college may be government or private and may be located anywhere in India — that part is open.

If all three are yes, nothing else stands between you and the form.

The eligible states, including two new ones

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 and Uttarakhand.

Andhra Pradesh and Delhi (NCT) have been added for this cohort. Students from those regions who checked last year and found themselves outside the list should look again today.

Note carefully what the list governs. It refers to where you went to school, not where you are studying now. A student who finished Class 12 at a government school in Bihar and has joined a private college in Pune remains eligible.

Marks are not the gate

This deserves its own line, because it stops eligible students from applying every single year. The Azim Premji Scholarship is not a merit award. There is no minimum percentage, no ranking against other applicants and no age limit. A student who scraped through Class 12 has exactly the same standing here as a topper, provided the eligibility conditions are met.

Four ways applications get rejected

Most failed applications are not failures of eligibility. They are failures of paperwork or of reading. Four causes account for the bulk of them.

The first is course stage. This scholarship is for the first year of your first undergraduate qualification after Class 12. Second-year students, students already holding a degree, and anyone enrolled in distance learning are outside it.

The second is the disqualification clauses. If you have secured admission to any programme at Azim Premji University for 2026–27 or earlier, or if you are or have ever been a recipient of a Wipro scholarship such as the Santoor scholarship, you cannot apply.

The third is document quality. The Foundation lists what it will not accept, and it is strict. No selfies. No photos with filters, emojis or another person in frame. No screenshots or photocopies of Aadhaar. No online marksheets, no transfer or leaving certificates, no password-protected files, and nothing cropped, edited, blurred or written on.

The fourth is file specification. Uploads must be PDF, PNG or JPG, and each file must weigh between 30 KB and 500 KB. Anything outside that band will not go through. Sort your files before you start rather than mid-form.

What to have open on your desk

A recent 2x2 inch colour passport photograph, front-facing, taken within the last six months.

A clear colour copy of the front of your Aadhaar card showing name, photo, date of birth and gender.

The first page of your bank passbook showing account holder name, account number, IFSC and branch. If your passbook is handwritten or unclear, use a bank statement from the last month instead. The savings account must be active and with a scheduled commercial bank.

Your Class 10 and Class 12 marksheets, front side, clear and unedited.

Proof of college admission — either a bonafide certificate or a tuition fee receipt, carrying your name, college and course names, year of study, course start date, issue date, academic year, and the issuing authority's seal or signature.

Filling the form

Open the applications page on azimpremjifoundation.org and click New Registrations – 2026 Cohort. Enter your mobile number and verify the OTP. Set up a user ID and password, log in, and complete the personal, academic and course sections. Upload your documents. Enter your bank details slowly and check every digit of the account number and IFSC, because the disbursal follows those figures and nothing else. Preview the full form, submit, and save the confirmation.

Nobody should be asking you for money

The Foundation has put out a plain warning: it charges no fee at any stage of this scholarship, and applicants should be alert to impostors who claim otherwise. There is no agent, no facilitator and no processing charge. The only route is the official website.

If you need genuine help, the Foundation runs a WhatsApp helpline on 9019960536, open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm.

What comes after today

Students shortlisted in the earlier rounds, September 2025 and January 2026, can log in to the portal to follow their confirmation and disbursal status. Renewal applications for the 2024 and 2025 cohorts, covering the 2026–27 academic year, open from September 2026.

The Foundation has said it reached 1.95 lakh girl students in 2025–26, up from more than 25,000 when the scheme was piloted across three states in 2024–25. Today's window is the entry point into that cohort — and it does not reopen.