The eligibility criteria for students seeking education loans have been modified. According to the revised norms, the students who could not clear the plus two exams in their first attempts can also avail these loans.

Manicka Tagore, Virudhnagar MP, said that the condition that a student should score a minimum of seventy percent marks in the qualifying examination has also been scrapped . He said that the banks were prohibited from granting these loans outside their area.

Tagore has organised an educational loan Mela at the V.V.V College for Women in Virudhnagar on 19th of October for students of the district.

He said that all nationalised banks were participating in the mela and they were expecting at least 5000 eligible candidates to avail loans.

Students who want to acquire professional degrees are eligible for loans and Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram would distribute the loan orders, he added. The Overseas bank (Virudhnagar district) and Canara bank (Madurai District) are sponsoring the mela.

The maximum loan limit for studies within India is Rs 10 lakh and abroad is Rs. 20 lakh. Tagore said that the students need not give any surety for amount up to 4 lakh. A personal guarantee is needed for loan amounts above Rs. 4 lakh and 7.5 lakh.

Bank of Rajasthan has also slashed education loan rates by 100 basis points under Shiksha Sarathi scheme. The cut aims at aims at providing useful and elementary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 by the year 2010.