Tata Steel Foundation’s Jyoti Fellowship Lighting the Path to Higher Education

Bhubaneswar, May 12, 2026: For 19-year-old Archita Sethy from Madua village in Ganjam district, higher education once felt like an unreachable dream. Her father, Chandramohan Sethy, a daily wage labourer, struggled to support the family on a modest income. Despite his determination to educate his daughter, limited means threatened to end Archita’s academic journey after school.

Yet Archita refused to give up. Armed with resolve and hope, she appeared for the merit test conducted by the Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) for its Jyoti Fellowship programme-and succeeded. The fellowship, awarded to meritorious students from economically underserved Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families, provides not just financial assistance but sustained guidance to help students pursue their educational and career aspirations.

“The fellowship helped me continue my studies and stay focused on my goals,” says Archita, who is now pursuing her undergraduate education. The support has enabled her to cover essential expenses such as books, fees and other academic needs-relief that has allowed her to concentrate fully on learning.

Archita’s journey mirrors that of thousands of students across Odisha. Over the last decade, more than 24,000 meritorious SC and ST students in the state have been supported through the Jyoti Fellowship. In FY 2025–26 alone, 5,857 students benefitted from the programme, with a total disbursement of ₹5.97 crore, ensuring that financial hardship does not become a barrier to education.

Another compelling example is Tanguru Pradhan, a Class X student from the remote village of Guhiasal in Jajpur district. Belonging to a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), Tanguru describes the fellowship as a lifeline. “It helps me continue my studies without worry. I want to become an engineer and improve villages like mine,” he says. His father, Badua Pradhan, who depends on daily wages, calls the support a source of both relief and hope.

What binds stories like Archita’s and Tanguru’s is the programme’s transparent, merit-based selection and its commitment to long-term support. With a strong focus on inclusion, remote regions and encouraging girls’ education, the Jyoti Fellowship is enabling young minds to look beyond immediate challenges.

Notably, Tata Steel Foundation selects meritorious SC/ST students ranging from class -8 to class 12 through a strictly transparent exam conducted across Tata Steel’s operational locations and 17 courses including the vocational courses are covered under this. The scholarship gets renewed for the meritorious students till standard 12. Currently, selected SC/ST students from 23 blocks across Keonjhar, Angul, Dhenkanal, Balasore, Jajpur, and Ganjam districts are benefiting from the scholarship.

As Odisha works toward expanding access to quality education, TSF’s Jyoti Fellowship stands out as a powerful example of how sustained, targeted interventions can create lasting change—one student, one story and one dream at a time.