Vidya Lakshmi Portal was launched by the Government on August 15, 2015 to ensure that students can avail loans easily through single window system of banks for education loans. Banks follow Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) guidelines in this regard which stipulates that education loan applications have to be disposed off, in the normal course, within a period of 15 to 30 days.

As per National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Year-wise number of applications made through Vidya Lakshmi Portal are as under:

Year	Number of applications
2015-16	992
2016-17	11854
2017-18	63242
From 01.04.2018 to 29.07.2018	68302

As on 29.07.2018, details of status of applications since launch of the Portal, is as under:

Total Applications Received	144390
Applications Sanctioned	42733
Applications Rejected/Closed	26392

Source: NSDL

As reported by Public Sector Banks (PSBs), the average time taken to process loan applications ranges from 15 to 30 days on receipt of completed application form.

As reported by NSDL, 22119 applications are pending as on 29.07.2018 for more than 6 months. Major reasons for pendency of application include application being non-compliant under IBA Education loan scheme and/or students not submitting desired information, lack of proper response from students to the queries raised by banks. Depending on the reason for pendency of applications, banks take necessary action for its effective disposal. The students are contacted by the banks for early submission of required documents.

This was stated by Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Education loan portal streamlines single-window applications; banks process under IBA timelines and address pendency by student follow-up. Vidyalakshmi Portal is a single-window system for education loan applications operating under Indian Banks' Association norms that envisage 15-30 day disposal of completed applications; NSDL data shows rising application volumes and, as of 29 July 2018, a notable backlog with many applications pending beyond six months due mainly to non-compliance and incomplete documentation, and banks address pendency by contacting students and taking actions suited to the specific reasons for delay.