India's Education Ministry has received its highest-ever allocation of of INR 1.12 lakh crore in the latest Union Budget.
The 2023-24 budget outlines INR 44,094.62 crore for the Higher Education Department and INR 68,804.85 crore for the Department of School Education and Literacy.
According to the Ministry of Education, budget highlights for Higher Education include:
- An additional INR 4235.74 crore (an additional increase of 12.8% of last year's allocation) for the best institutions and universities, under the central government, to 'implement the NEP 2020 in true spirit'.
- An increase in grants to Chandigarh University, Deemed University, the Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology compared to budget estimates for 2022-23.
- Three Centres of Excellence to be set up in education institutes focused on Artificial Intelligence.
- Centres of Entrepreneurship to implement the NEP 2020 vision of multidisciplinary research in agriculture, health and sustainable cities.
Union Minister for Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said that by "giving a boost to education, skill development, entrepreneurship, R&D, digital infrastructure, green growth and job creation, the Budget draws a meticulous blueprint for India at 100 and lays a solid foundation for transforming India into a technology-driven knowledge-based economy."
Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman also announced a new program to promote research in pharmaceuticals, which will be taken up through Centres of Excellence in India.
