Tata Steel Foundation Jyoti Fellowship for SC/ST Students (Class VII Onwards)

The Jyoti Fellowship is a long-running affirmative-action programme run by the Tata Steel Foundation that supports meritorious students from economically underserved Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families. Initiated in 1990, the fellowship provides annual financial assistance to students from Class 7 through graduation and post-graduation, including those pursuing professional courses such as LLB, B.Ed, BBA, BCA, Polytechnic, Forestry, Agriculture, Hotel Management, and MBA.

The programme is open to SC and ST students studying in Tata Steel's operational areas in Jharkhand and Odisha. In Jharkhand, eligible districts include Purbi Singhbhum, Paschimi Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Dhanbad, and Ramgarh. In Odisha, eligible districts include Ganjam, Jajpur, Keonjhar, and Sundargarh. Students entering Class 7 and first-year graduate courses appear for a merit selection test, while continuing fellows must maintain a minimum of forty-five percent marks for annual renewal.

Selected students receive class-wise annual cash assistance to help cover school and college expenses. Reported amounts include around rupees three thousand seven hundred fifty for Class 8, rupees four thousand five hundred for Classes 9 and 10, and rupees eight thousand five hundred at the intermediate stage, with higher amounts at graduation and post-graduation levels. The average disbursement is approximately rupees six thousand per scholar, and the programme has supported over thirty-one thousand fellowships across schools and colleges in the past decade.

Beyond financial support, the fellowship recognises academic merit among students from underrepresented communities and is administered as part of Tata Steel's Affirmative Action Policy under the Tata Steel Foundation, which has been active in tribal and scheduled caste education since 1990.