NEW DELHI, Nov. 11 -- A change in how the Union government allocates scholarships under its flagship INSPIRE-Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) scheme has sharply reduced the number of awards available to school boards of several states, including Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, while boosting quotas for students from other state and central education boards, according to official data for 2024 and 2025. In 2025, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) introduced quotas by school education board based on the number of Class 12 examinees rather than the number of applications received from students of each board. This change led to a nearly 66% drop in the number of Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) students cleared for the science scholarship. Anindita Bhadra, professor at IISER Kolkata, questioned the revised allocation model. "It is rather stupid to change the board-wise allocation. The earlier rule made sense, and was less biased. A state with a higher population is now likely to see more candidates with the fellowship, while more eligible students from other states will lose out," she said....