Union Minister for Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan hailed the 2024-25 Budget as a pivotal milestone on India’s path to becoming a developed nation by 2047.

Expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman for their relentless focus and concrete measures for the well-being and empowerment of “Garib, Mahila, Yuva and Annadata”, he mentioned that the Budget for Viksit Bharat is truly a people-oriented, growth-inducing, inclusive, and progressive budget.

He said that by prioritizing education, skilling, employment generation, research, and innovation like never before, the Budget for Viksit Bharat paves the way for strengthening Bharat’s credentials as the talent basket, skill hub, and solution provider for the world.

He mentioned that this budget would further facilitate ease of living, boost socio-economic conditions, fuel green growth, strengthen social justice, improve the business climate, realize dreams, bring prosperity to every home, and accelerate the groundwork to achieve the next phase of economic growth.

He emphasized that empowering the youth and fulfilling their dreams is at the heart of the government. The Budget for Viksit Bharat continues the Government’s trend of keeping the youth’s aspirations at the centre of policy-making, he added.

Shri Pradhan also highlighted out the ₹1.48 lakh crore allocation to education, employment, and skilling. He elaborated on the Prime Minister’s Package, which includes:

– Strengthening the skilling and apprenticeship ecosystem;

– Skill development and internship opportunities for 1 crore youth by India’s top companies;

– Providing employment-linked incentives to first-time employees across sectors;

– Providing incentives to both employees and employers for EPFO contributions; and

– Providing Model Skill Loans up to ₹7.5 lakh to 25,000 students annually and education loans up to ₹10 lakh for pursuing education in domestic HEIs to 1 lakh students every year with an annual interest subvention of 3%.

He noted that these are comprehensive and concrete measures by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman that will be a win-win for all stakeholders—students, academia, and industry. This is going to fulfil the aspirations of our youth, empower people with more livelihood opportunities, increase accessibility to quality education and skills, and create over 4.1 crore new jobs in the next five years.

Highlights of Budget 2024-25

D/o School Education & Literacy

• The Budget Allocation for the FY 2024-25 of ₹ 73,498 cr is the highest ever for the Department of School Education & Literacy.

• There has been an overall increase of ₹ 12,024 cr (19.56%) in the Budget Allocation of the Department of School Education and Literacy in the FY 2024-25 from RE 2023-24.

• The highest ever Budget Allocation may be seen in the Autonomous Bodies of KVS & NVS at Rs. 9,302 cr. and Rs. 5,800 cr respectively.

• Budget Allocations in Flagship Schemes have increased i.e Samagra Shiksha (by ₹ 4,500 cr), PM-POSHAN (by ₹ 2,467 cr) and PM-SHRI (by ₹ 3,250 cr) as compared to RE 2023-24.

• Out of the overall Budget Allocation in FY 2024-25 of ₹ 73,498 cr, the  Scheme allocation is ₹ 57,804 cr and Non-Scheme Allocation is ₹ 15,693 cr.

• Increase in Scheme Allocation is by ₹10,846 cr and Non-Scheme Allocation has been increased by ₹ 1,177 cr as compared to RE 2023-24.

• Allocation in KVS has increased by ₹ 802 cr while allocation in NVS has increased by ₹ 330 cr w.r.t RE 2023-24.

Department of Higher Education

•     The overall Budget Allocation in FY 2024-25 is Rs. 47619.77 Cr out of which Scheme allocation is Rs. 7487.87 cr and Non- Scheme allocation is Rs. 40131.90 cr.

•     There has been an overall increase of Rs. 3525.15 Cr (7.99%) in the Budget Allocation of the Department of Higher Education in the FY 2024-25 with respect to FY 2023-24.

•     There has been an increase of Rs. 1139.99 Cr in the budget allocation of the Schemes in FY 2024-25.

Allocation to Major Autonomous Bodies

• • Allocation in Central Universitieshas been kept at Rs. 15928.00 Cr, i.e., Rs 4314.03 Cr more than the allocation in BE 2023-24.

• • Deemed Universitieshave been allocated Rs.596 Cr in 2024-25, which is Rs.96 Cr more than BE 2023-24

• • IITshave been allocated Rs. 10202.5 Cr in 2024-25, which is Rs. 841.00 cr more than the allocation in BE 2023-24.

• • For NITs, Rs.5040 Cr has been allocated in FY 2024-25, increasing the allocation by Rs. 219.40 cr. in r/o BE 2023-24.

• In Indian Institutes of Science for Education & Research (IISERs)the allocation has been kept at Rs. 1540 Cr, increasing the allocation by Rs.78 Cr in r/o BE 2023-24.

• • Support to Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have been allocated Rs. 875.77 Cr in 2024-25, which is Rs. 60.37 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24.

Allocation to Major Schemes

• For Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) [erstwhile known as Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)], the budget has been kept at Rs.1814.94 Cr for FY 2024-25, which is Rs. 314.94 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24

• • An allocation of Rs.1800 Cr has been kept for Institutions of Eminence(IOE), which is Rs. 300.00 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24

• • For the scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Uchhatar Shiksha Protsahan Yojna’(PM-USP), the budget allocation has been kept at Rs.1558 Cr in FY 2024-25, which is Rs. 4.00 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24

• • In the scheme ‘National Apprenticeship Training Scheme(NATS)’, an allocation of

Rs.600 Cr has been made in FY 2024-25, which is Rs. 160.00 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24

• • In the scheme ‘National Mission in Education through ICT’, an allocation of Rs.480

Cr has been made in FY 2024-25, which is Rs. 80.00 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24

• • In the scheme ‘Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement inTechnical Education-EAP (MERITE)’, an allocation of Rs. 200 Cr has been made in FY 2024-25, a 100% increase over the allocation in 2023-24.

• • The scheme ‘Establishment of 3 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in ArtificialIntelligence (AI)’ was a budget announcement in FY 2023-24, an allocation of Rs.255 Cr has been made in FY 2024-25.

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SS/AK