In a student-friendly move, the Central government has launched a portal, where students can apply for education loan to multiple banks by filling just one form. So far, 13 banks have registered 22 educational loan schemes on www.vidyalakshmi.co.in.

Moreover, five PSU banks – SBI, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India – have integrated their system with the portal.

The portal was launched on 15 August with an aim to ensure that no student misses out on higher education due to lack of funds, PTI reports. It offers information about educational loan schemes of different banks, common educational loan application forms for students, facility to apply to multiple banks for educational loans and facility for banks to download students' loan applications.

The portal also provides facility for banks to upload loan processing status and dashboard for students to check the status. Students can also email their grievances/queries relating to educational loans. Besides, the portal also offers a platform to seek information and application for government scholarships under National Scholarship Portal.

"Vidya Lakshmi Portal is the first-of-its-kind portal providing a single window for students to access information and make applications for educational loans provided by banks as well as government scholarships," PTI quoted a Finance Ministry release.

"This initiative aims to bring on board all banks providing educational loans. It is expected that students throughout the country will be benefited by the initiative by making available a single window for access to various educational loan schemes of all banks," it said.

The portal was designed, developed and maintained by NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov) under the guidance of Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Indian Banks' Association (IBA).