Legrand Scholarship 2026-27: Eligibility & Award

Legrand Empowering Scholarship 2026–27: Fee Support for First-Year Girls, Done Properly

The Legrand Empowering Scholarship Program is one of the few private scholarships in India aimed precisely at the moment students drop out: the jump from Class 12 into the first year of a degree, when the first fee bill arrives. Run by Group Legrand India since 2018, it supports meritorious girl students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds through their entire undergraduate course — not just one year — and since 2022 it has formally extended support to differently-abled students and LGBTQ+ students through a separate special-category track.

Applications for the 2026–27 cycle are open on the official portal. Here is exactly who qualifies, what the money covers, and how the application actually works — because the two tracks have different marks thresholds, and applying under the wrong track is the single most common error with this scholarship.

The two tracks, and what each pays

Both tracks pay 80% of your annual course fee, but the caps differ:

• General Category: 80% of course fees, up to ₹80,000 per year, until the course is completed.
• Special Category: 80% of course fees, up to ₹1,00,000 per year, until the course is completed.

The special category covers: differently-abled girl students; students with a parent affected by Covid; LGBTQ+ students; students with a single parent; orphans; students with physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities or neurodivergent conditions; and girl students with differently-abled parents.

The money is disbursed to the student's own Indian bank account each year, after submission of that year's documents — fee receipts, a college bonafide certificate, the previous year's marksheet and bank proof — through the programme's implementation partner, Scholarlify, per the payment cycle communicated to scholars.

Eligibility: read your track carefully

General Category

• Girl students, across India only.
• Pursuing the first year of a graduation degree in India (eligible courses include B.Tech, B.E., B.Arch, B.B.A., B.Com and B.Sc).
• Passed Class 12 in 2025–26.
• Minimum 80% marks in both Class 10 and Class 12.
• Annual family income from all sources less than ₹5,00,000.

Special Category

• Open across India to the categories listed above.
• Pursuing the first year of a graduation degree in India.
• Passed Class 12 in 2025–26.
• Minimum 70% marks in Class 10 and Class 12 — with exceptions that may be considered case-by-case.
• Annual family income from all sources less than ₹5,00,000.

Three details students routinely miss. First, this is a first-year-only entry: if you are in your second year, you cannot enter now — scholars are selected once, at the start of the degree, and then renewed. Second, the Class 12 year matters — the 2026–27 cycle is built for students who passed Class 12 in 2025–26 and have taken admission accordingly. Third, the income ceiling is the same ₹5 lakh for both tracks; the special track relaxes marks, not income.

What selected scholars get beyond the money

Legrand treats this as more than a cheque. Scholars get access to the Legrand Mentorship Program (running since 2021): structured virtual mentoring over about four months, one session a month, delivered by roughly 25–30 mentors drawn from Group Legrand India's senior leaders and subject-matter experts — covering career strategy, resume building, interviews and leadership. The bi-annual Scholar Connect program brings scholars together to network and share experience. There is also a dedicated scholar helpline reachable by call, email and WhatsApp. About 150 mentees have completed the mentorship journey so far.

How to apply

• Open the official site, legrandscholarship.co.in, and click Apply Now in the header.
• Register or log in with your email, mobile number or Gmail account.
• Choose your category — General or Special — before you start filling; the form branches on this choice.
• Complete the 6-step application form, entering personal, academic and admission details exactly as they appear on your marksheets and admission documents.
• Upload the supporting documents: a recent photograph, Aadhaar, Class 10 and Class 12 marksheets, admission letter, fee documents and the fee bonafide certificate from your college, income certificate, your bank passbook (the account must be in India and in your name for disbursement), and PAN card if applicable. Special-category applicants should also keep the documents that establish their category — disability certification, single-parent or orphan documentation — ready.
• Review everything, accept the declaration, and Submit.

You do not re-apply from scratch each year: continuation is through the renewal process on the portal, submitting the current year's documents for verification.

The last-date question, honestly

The official portal currently shows "Applications Open" for 2026–27 without a prominently published closing date in the material available at the time of checking — but the implementation partner's programme page (Scholarlify) lists 30 September 2026 as the General Category deadline, so if that date was not extended, the window may already have closed; the live portal's status on the day you read this is the only reliable answer. Rather than trust any third-party "last date" (last year's cycle closed in early September, which tells you this programme does not linger), treat the window as short: if you are a first-year student who passed Class 12 in 2025–26 and meet your track's marks and income bars, complete the application now and confirm the closing date on the live portal while you are there.

Common mistakes

• Applying under the general track with 70-something percent marks when you actually qualify for the special track's 70% bar — or the reverse, claiming the special track without the category documents.
• Entering in the wrong year — this intake is for students who passed Class 12 in 2025–26 and are in their first year now.
• Assuming the scholarship is 100% of fees — it is 80%, capped, so a high-fee course will still leave a gap to fund.
• Giving a parent's bank details — disbursement goes to the student's own Indian account.

Flags

• UNVERIFIED: the exact closing date for the 2026–27 cycle — the official portal says only "Applications Open" with no closing date published, while the implementation partner Scholarlify lists 30 September 2026 as the General Category deadline; the two sources conflict and no extension notice was found in the deep check of 2026-10-20. Confirm on the live portal before relying on either.

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