New Delhi: The education budget 2023 has risen by 8.27% to Rs 1,12,899.47 crore. The education budget crossed Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time last year. With the sudden shift to digital learning, academics, experts hoped for an expansion in digital infrastructure for the next financial year.
Highlights for the Education Sector
- Recruitment of over 38,000 teachers for Ekalavya Schools;
- Research program for pharmaceuticals;
- Research centres on artificial intelligence, IoT and similar new-age fields;
- Revised apprenticeship scheme;
- 157 new nursing colleges
- School education has been allocated Rs 68,804.85 crore
- Higher education has got Rs 44,094.62 crore.
- Scholarship scheme for minority students reduced
- Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) face massive cuts.
- Allocations of major schemes such as the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and mid-day meal program (PM POSHAN) have increased
Higher Education Endorses Budget
Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sudhir Kumar Jain said that the Union Budget 2023 will help realize the objectives defined in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The professor also lauded the announcement of setting up of the National Digital Library for children and adolescents to facilitate availability of quality books across geographies. This is going to be a game-changer as availability of quality content for a large population continues to be a challenge before institutions and educational organizations, he added.
Prof. Rudra Pratap, Founding Vice- Chancellor of Plaksha University said, “The Union Budget, 2023 deserves a sure thumbs up given its foresight in addressing the existing skill deficit and thereby empowering the youth through a two pronged approach of employment generation and simultaneous upskilling. The emphasis on aligning courses with industry expectations and demand is a sure-footed step towards preparing future and industry ready students, something we at Plaksha remain committed to and share in terms of our purpose and academic orientation. The introduction of labs in engineering institutions shall surely catalyse more research centricity and help strengthen innovation. In a nutshell, the budget addresses a host of extremely relevant and carefully considered initiatives that are collectively poised to channelise the education system towards improved quality and career readiness.”
Prof. Madhushree Sekher, Dean, School of Vocational Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, said, “The nationwide apprenticeship program and the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 will empower and inspire countless young people to sharpen their abilities for more promising career prospects. Meanwhile, this budget brings cheer to the teaching community as they will undergo training through innovative teaching methods, curriculum transformation, continuous professional development, and the implementation of ICT. The establishment of an additional 30 Skill India International Centers, offering cutting-edge programs in fields such as coding, AI, IOT, mechatronics, drones, and the enhancement of various soft skills, as announced in this budget, is a phenomenal initiative. The budget as a whole is a positive step towards the growth and advancement of the vocational education within the education sector.”
Piyush Kumar, Regional Director- South Asia and Mauritius, IDP Education says that it would have been ideal if the government could reduce the interest rates on education loans as Indians are the largest population who studies abroad. “With India becoming the fifth largest economy in the world, it lays a robust foundation for future growth, allowing bright and deserving students to dream big and pursue international education. In my opinion, the budget for 2023 is focused on making wise digital investments across all sectors, not just education, and we wholeheartedly welcome this initiative. Indians are also the highest-earning diaspora with the largest remittances in the world, and many of these people went abroad for studies. It is expected that in 2024 the number of Indian students studying abroad will go up to 1.8 million.” says Kumar.
Dr Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University said, “The budget provides a much-needed impetus towards empowering the education sector and youth towards helping them realize their true potential. The setting up of 100 5G enabled labs to develop apps in engineering institutions and 3 centers of excellence in Artificial Intelligence is a major step towards ‘Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India’ and helps in shaping the new engineer of today. The 30-skill India international centres across states will further promote interdisciplinary research for developing cutting-edge applications to transform critical sectors and provide solutions for sustainable cities. In order to bridge the skill gap in India, the budget is in line with Mahindra University’s focus on integrating critical thinking and problem-solving through a dynamic and diverse curriculum.”
Aman Mittal, Vice- President, LPU, said, “In today’s announcement, Sitaraman ji has mentioned various new initiatives, especially setting up the artificial intelligence labs in the institution and opening of 100 labs on the 5G services across the country which is a primary necessity…The new initiative named “Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0” is going to not only provide the basic skills required by the youth of India, but also to the entire Industry.Adding on to the announcement regarding the online training platform, which is also another remarkable move as it will help train a number of youth in a unique and faster way.”
Prof. Srivardhini K Jha, Chairperson, IIM Bangalore, NSRCEL, said, “I applaud the government for taking a comprehensive view of what is needed to support innovation and entrepreneurship, the key growth drivers of our economy. The budget allocates significant resources to nurture entrepreneurship using a three-pronged approach – laying a strong foundation with new digital public infrastructure (e.g. Agriculture) and expansion of existing infrastructure such as Digi Locker; Building innovation capacity in the ecosystem by investing in centers of excellence for agriculture, AI and others; lubricating the start-up ecosystem by embracing trust-based governance and allocating funds to accelerate ventures in priority sectors. Overall, it promises to seed and nurture entrepreneurship across the board, but much depends on the pace of implementation.”
Prof. Dr. B. Sendilkumar, Dean & Director -Allied Health Sciences, Vinayaka Missions Research Foundation-Deemed to be University, Salem claims this is an attractive budget that has encompassed all important sector that requires immediate attention for a sustainable future. “The allotment of 20L crore towards Agriculture credit is sure to boost the morale of our farmers and to support them with the digital platform is a great venture. Another highlight in the agriculture sector is the Accelerator fund that would motivate the younger generation to take up farming . Focus towards tier 2 and tier 3 cities for Urban Infrastructure through Urban Infrastructure Development Fund is a welcome move that would also ensure employability of many youth in these cities. PMKVY4.0, Unity Malls, Tourism will pave way for betterment and improvisation of livelihood of Youngsters in even small districts. The allocated Rs.112898.97crore towards education sector would help in implementing Central sector scheme and projects of School education and will also drive Implementation of NEP 2020 in a faster and effective pace. Overall the budget does look like being futuristic for the growth and sustainability.”
Radhika Shrivastava, Executive Director, FIIB (Fortune institute of International Business) said, The decision to transform the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) into vibrant institutes of excellence and establish a National Digital Library for children and adolescents will serve as a stepping stone for improving foundational literacy and numeracy among children. Facilitating states to establish physical libraries at the panchayat levels and offer access to national digital library resources will further create a conducive learning environment and nurture communication and creative skills among students. Overall, the Union Budget 2023 unveils some key actions to overcome the learning losses of the Covid-19 pandemic, fueling the digitization of education and driving uniform delivery of education in the country. These announcements are expected to fast-track the implementation of NEP 2020 and achieve its end objectives.
IIMs React to Budget Cut
According to IIM Udaipur Director Ashok Banerjee speaking about the budget cuts for IIMs, the government might be sending signals to IIMs to be more innovative in funding their growth plans. “The cut in budget allocation for the IIMs may hurt the newer IIMs, the latest IIM is about seven years old though,” Banerjee said. “However, through this cut, the government perhaps is sending signals to the leadership of individual IIMs to be more innovative in funding their growth plans like promoting use of PPP model and also to the industry to support academic institutions of national importance through CSR initiatives and other donations,” he said.
“IIM Rohtak has never hung on to any government grant. We generate our total revenue from various training programmes remote and on campus and tuition fees. Though we are a second generation IIM, this halving of funds will not affect us. New generation IIMs might have to depend on government grants,” said Dheeraj Sharma, Director, IIM Rohtak.
Ajit Parulekar, Director of Goa Institute of Management (GIM), said there might not be anything specific for B-school education in India, but the finance minister talking about a National Data Governance framework was one of the highlights of the budget. “This framework will allow us to get access to a lot of non-personal, anonymous data. Research-intensive institutions will benefit greatly from this because one of the biggest hurdles one needs to overcome during the conducting of research is the lack of data,” he said.
Ashutosh Dash, Associate Professor, Accounting and Finance, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurugram said, “Though the provisions made in the budget will improve the education infrastructure in the country as a whole, the reduction of gross budgetary support from 323.5 crores in 2022-23 to 15.17 crores in 2023-24 might have a huge impact on the growth and development of newly established IIMs.”
EdTechs Look Forward to a Digital Future
Girish Singhania, CEO, EduBridge is happy with the budget. “AI has been a topical subject in recent times. The emergence of three AI Excellence Centres has been set up in prominent universities to enhance the educational experience and research of other areas of development. The government has made a future-forward move by inducting AI into the academic environment. By relaxing the norms on educational loans and revoking the importance of skilling, the Pradhan Mantri Kushal Yoga Fund 0.4, comes with a renewed policy encouraging learners to fulfill their skilling ambition. International Central Unified Skill India Program gives the skilling impetus an international flavor that will encourage quality skilling initiatives across sectors.”
Nishant Patel, Founder & CTO, Contentstack, said, It is heartening to note that entrepreneurship is getting continued attention at the policy level. Among other announcements, I will call out the expansion of scope DigiLocker, which is an excellent initiative toward paperless governance. The expansion in scope will facilitate greater record-keeping and quicker exchange of information with various authorities, regulators, banks, and enterprises as necessary. The objective of eliminating or minimizing the use of physical documents in itself will greatly enhance the effectiveness of service delivery wherever individuals and companies need document-based decision-making and authentication. Esp. for entrepreneurs and startups, it will be a very important initiative so that they could meet compliances and find quick access to financial services.”
Dharmil Bavishi, Co-founder at Bullspree, a Financial literacy and stock market investing app, said, “The Union Budget takes a much needed step in the process of achieving equitable distribution of wealth. Financial literacy is the foundation of a sound financial future, and it is the need of the hour. The more individuals understand money and the investment instruments to manage and grow their incomes, the better equipped they will be to take informed decisions and secure their financial future. I’m glad that the finance minister talked about financial literacy. Such fiscal incentives are bound to help narrow the income gap among genders in our country. In addition, having a fully functional KYC system to meet the needs of digital India is a fantastic step because it simplifies life. It removes the need for physical document submission and verification, making the process more efficient and comfortable for businesses by reducing the time and effort required to make changes. The simpler process will help more individuals come into the digital transactions fold.”
Gaurav Tyagi, Founder of Career Xpert, said, The Finance Minister in her presentation stated that 157 new nursing colleges would be set up across 4 major locations in India. This will open up new opportunities for students across the country. The government has also proposed a plan to increase health expenditure by 2.5% of the total gross GDP. Moreover, emphasis will be laid to develop research facilities across various ICMR labs throughout the country. Various new projects have been devised to promote pharmaceutical research. The new budget has also focussed on various multi-dispensary courses which would enable better medical facilities across the rural areas. Compared to the previous year this year’s budget is overall student-centric as it will provide maximum benefit to thousands of medical aspirants across the nation. Moreover, the budget will also benefit the teachers and mentors as more and more emphasis will be given to providing quality training sessions to them.
Roopali Mehra, Founder of Mytransform said, “Education allocation in Union Budgets have conventionally steered towards brick-and-mortar set-ups designed to impact classroom learning and teaching. In the NEP year, given the strong focus of digital to drive both reach and equity, Govt. must focus on career awareness to drive employability. About 50% of India’s population is below 25 years and for this segment to make India a talent powerhouse, it must have the right tools for informed career decision-making and engagement. Provisioning for such tools, albeit with a public private partnership model, within an institution will enable informed decision-making skills in youth.”
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