The Centre will provide financial support for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Tuesday as she presented the Union Budget for 2024-25.
“For helping our youth who have not been eligible for any benefit under government schemes and policies, the central government will provide financial support for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions. E-vouchers for this purpose will be given directly to 1 lakh students every year with interest subvention of 3% of the loan amount,” she said while presenting the education budget.
The FM announced that the Centre will overall allocate Rs 1.48 lakh crore in education, employment and skill development. A new centrally funded scheme will be launched in partnership with state governments and companies to train around 20 lakh youth over a five-year period.
The finance minister also said that the government will provide internships to 1 crore youths, with each intern getting a stipend of Rs 5,000 and a one-time aid of Rs 6, 000. “Companies will use their CSR funds for the government’s internship scheme,” said Sitharaman.
The move for paid internships in top companies comes at a time when career placements and even summer internships have gone down, including top institutions such as IITs and IIMs. Industry experts have hailed this move.
Also, Sitharaman said a total of 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) will be updated, with training content and design linked to industry skill requirements. The ITIs will be upgraded in a hub and spoke model, aligning course content with skill needs of industry. Besides, the model skill loan scheme will also be revised. These are among some of the significant measures announced for skill development sector in this year’s budget.
“1,000 ITIs will be upgraded in hub and spoke model, course content and design will be aligned to the skill needs of industry and new courses will be introduced for emerging needs. I am happy to announce a new centrally sponsored scheme for skill development in which 20 lakh youth will be skilled over period of 5 years,” she said.
The model skill loan scheme will be revised to facilitate loans up to RS 7.5 lakh with a guarantee from government promoted fund, this measure is expected to help 25,000 students every year, she added.
On February 1, the finance minister in her speech while presenting the Interim Budget 2024 had stated that more medical colleges will be set up and a committee will be formed to examine this purpose.
She had then announced that there has been an increase in higher educational institutes and women in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) courses over the last 10 years, which she said were the visible effects of the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
At the same time, however, earlier this year the funding for the University Grants Commission (UGC), which is the higher education regulator, was also brought down by a major 60.99%. The funding was cut down to Rs 2,500 crore from the previous year’s estimate of Rs 6,409 crore.
Meanwhile, the grants for central universities saw an increase of over Rs 4,000 crore with Rs 15,928 crore allocated for the financial year 2024-25.
The FM further said the Anusandhan National Research Fund will be operational for basic research and prototype development. Further, a mechanism will be set up for spurring private sector-driven research and innovation at commercial scale with a financing pool of Rs 1 lakh crore in line with the announcement in the interim budget.
Pankaj Priya, Deputy Director and Dean-Academics at BIMTECH, said, “Since 2014, the central government’s focus on skilling has remained consistent, as highlighted in the present budget. The Prime Minister’s package for skilling envisages a collaboration with all state governments as well as industry. This new centrally sponsored scheme for skilling will support our 20 lakh youth in upskilling over the next five years. It will translate into more jobs for our youth in rural as well as urban areas. The above investment, along with newly announced scheme targeting 4.1 crore youth will propel India towards its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.”
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan praised the budget for ‘Viksit Bharat’ and said empowering the youth and fulfilling dreams is at the heart of PM Narendra Modi-led government.
“The budget keeps the youth’s aspirations at the centre of policy-making. A series of comprehensive and concrete measures by FM @nsitharaman will be a win-win for all stakeholders— students, academia and industry. This is going to fulfil aspirations of our youth, empower people with more livelihood opportunities, increase accessibility to quality education and skills and is also going to create over 4.1 crore new jobs in the next five years,” Pradhan posted on X.
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