Uttar Pradesh gives free devices to students in higher, technical, medical and skill education under the Swami Vivekananda Yuva Sashaktikaran Yojana (स्वामी विवेकानन्द युवा सशक्तीकरण योजना). It began in 2021-22 as a pilot handing out both tablets and smartphones. Since 25 July 2025, it’s been tablets only. Everything runs through the DigiShakti portal, and what we’ve written here comes from the government orders and FAQ published on digishakti.up.gov.in.
Note: digishakti.info is not a government website.
The scheme at a glance
| Official name | Swami Vivekananda Yuva Sashaktikaran Yojana |
|---|---|
| Run by | Infrastructure and Industrial Development Department, Uttar Pradesh |
| Nodal agency | UPDESCO, Lucknow (runs the portal and buys the devices through GeM) |
| Device now | Tablet only (GO 463/77-1-2025, 25 July 2025) |
| Fee | None charged by the UP government |
| How to apply | No application. Your institute uploads your data; you complete Aadhaar e-KYC. |
| Official websites | digishakti.up.gov.in (information and e-KYC) and digishaktiup.in/app (portal for institutes and officials) |
Who is eligible
The scheme covers students at government and private universities, colleges and institutes in Uttar Pradesh. That means graduation, post-graduation, diplomas, skill development, ITI, and technical, medical, paramedical, nursing, MSME and other courses the scheme includes.
Two things worth knowing: there’s no age limit, and there’s no income limit. Where you come from doesn’t matter either, only where you study. Students from other states, and even from other countries, qualify as long as they study in UP. A UP resident who studies outside the state, on the other hand, doesn’t. The government can also widen the scheme to other groups of young people later on.
Who is not covered
If you’ve already received a smartphone or tablet through another UP government scheme, you’re left out of this one. The exception is school education schemes. It’s also one device per student for good: anyone who got a device during one course won’t get another in a later course (GO 680, 22 August 2024).
Order of priority
Not everyone gets a device at once. The order of 3 January 2024 (GO 1862/77-1-2024) sets out who goes first:
- Final-year students, plus students on courses of a year or less.
- Next, the pre-final year of an institute, but only once that institute’s first-priority students are fully covered on the portal, and only after the district has checked that every institute has its first-priority devices.
- Only in special cases can the district skip ahead, and even then it needs the District Magistrate’s approval.
- After that, it carries on year by year down to first-year students.
How a student gets the tablet
You don’t fill out any form. Your institute uploads your data to the DigiShakti portal and checks it. Your university approves it, and the department locks it. Then it’s your turn to complete the Aadhaar e-KYC through MeriPehchaan, which our e-KYC guide explains.
Once you’re Verified, your institute forwards your name to the district nodal officer for selection. The devices are given out at the institute itself. According to the order of 18 July 2022, that should happen with the district’s in-charge minister, MP or MLA present. You’ll get SMS updates, and your institute will share news by email, notice or on its website. You can always look up your own record on the status check page.
Why tablets only now
For the pilot and the first few years after it, each group of students got either a tablet or a smartphone. That changed on 25 July 2025. GO 463/77-1-2025 switched every beneficiary to a tablet, following a suggestion from UPDESCO, and the same order cancelled an earlier one, dated 24 January 2025, that would have bought 25 lakh smartphones.
Timeline from the official orders
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 6 Oct 2021 | Government order and office memo start the pilot tablet/smartphone scheme. |
| 2021-22 | About 12.32 lakh tablets and smartphones bought in around four months and distributed in districts. |
| 18 Jul 2022 | GO 975: scheme set for the next five years, with a pledge of 2 crore tablets or smartphones. Remaining 5,38,017 pilot devices to be supplied. |
| 20 Oct 2023 | GO 1758 on distributing the remaining 2021-22 devices and the 2022-23 supply. |
| 3 Jan 2024 | GO 1862 sets the priority order. |
| 22 Aug 2024 | GO 680: one device per student across courses. |
| 27 Aug 2024 | GO 667: Aadhaar e-KYC compulsory before any device. |
| 25 Jul 2025 | GO 463: tablets only; 25 lakh smartphone purchase cancelled. |
Every order, with a link to its PDF, is on our tablet list and government orders page.
Courses and content for students
The 2022 order makes the point that the devices are also meant to help students finish their courses and get work. It also says Infosys was offering its Springboard platform free as a CSR activity, roughly 12,000 courses, and had signed an MoU with UPDESCO to run it. That began as a pilot in selected institutes across ten districts: Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Meerut, Bareilly, Lucknow, Agra, Aligarh, Gonda and Mirzapur. On top of that, the devices receive educational and career content through the DigiShakti Adhyayan App.
Is there a laptop under this scheme?
No. The scheme gives tablets now, and gave smartphones too in earlier years, but never laptops. Our page on the UP free laptop yojana explains more.
Sources: About the Scheme, FAQ and Government Orders pages on digishakti.up.gov.in; GO 975 (18 Jul 2022), GO 1862 (3 Jan 2024), GO 680 (22 Aug 2024), GO 667 (27 Aug 2024), GO 463 (25 Jul 2025). Checked 3 November 2026.