Union Budget Enhances Focus On Education To Make India A Knowledge-Based Economy

Union Budget enhances focus on education to make India a knowledge-based economy 

One of the key objectives highlighted by the Hon’ble Finance Minister during her 2023-24 Union Budget speech (“the Budget”) was focused on building a technology-driven knowledge-based economy. Education sector is, therefore, going to play an important role in aiding this objective and in making India a global knowledge superpower as envisaged in the NEP 2020. The Budget has, in one way or another, accounting for skill development, access to education, digital learning and rural development.

Some of the key announcements in this sector include:

• plans to recruit 38,800 teachers for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, for development of tribal students and providing them access to education;
• focus on teacher training by developing District Institutes of Education and Training; 
• launch of a unified Skill India Digital Platform for the development of demand-based formal skilling, launch of online training platform for upgrading skills of government employees, launch of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 to help the youth develop skills on new age courses that are aligned with the needs of the industry, implementation of 30 Skill India International Centres across various States to skill the youth for numerous international opportunities; 
• tech-focused efforts envisaging establishment of centres of excellence for artificial intelligence in top educational institutions providing opportunities for industry players to partner with such educational institutions for R&D; 
• on the higher education front, the Budget proposes establishment of 157 new nursing colleges together with development of multidisciplinary courses for medical devices, focus on capacity building of professionals in the securities market by empowering SEBI to develop, regulate and enforce standards for education in the National Institute of Securities Markets and to recognise award of degrees, diplomas and certificates by such institute.

Overall, a total of INR 1.12 lakh crore (bifurcated into INR 68,804 crore and INR 44,094 crore for the Department of School Education and Department of Higher Education, respectively) has been allocated to the education sector, which is said to be approximately 8% higher compared to the previous year^[1]. 

These announcements, coupled with the introduction of regulations allowing collaboration between Indian and foreign universities, permit top foreign universities to set up campuses in the GIFT IFSC. In addition, plans to introduce regulations permitting top foreign universities to also set up campuses in India and steps to implement the NEP 2020 provide a new ray of hope for the growth and development of the sector during this ‘first Budget in the Amrit Kaal’.

[1] The statistics as available at: Union Budget 2023 Live Updates: Education Ministry’s budget increased by a marginal 8% | Education News, The Indian Express