Budget 2020: Government Allocates Rs 99,300 Crore To Education

Presenting the Budget 2020-2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government has allocated Rs 99,300 crore for education sector in the next fiscal. For education, Ms Sitharaman said, the government has allocated Rs 99,300 crore, an increase of over 5% from the budget allocated in the last budget, an interim budget, presented in February 2019.

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She also said, the Centre will soon announce a new education policy and the government has received over 2 lakh suggestions on it. The draft of the new education policy was released in May, 2019 after Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank took over the charge.

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In her budget speech, the Finance Minister also said Rs 3,000 crore has been allocated for skill development.

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Finance Minister said the government plans to start a programme in which urban local bodies will provide opportunities for internship to young engineers. The internship will be for a period for 1 year.

Ms Sitharaman also said National Police University and National Forensic University would also be set up.

To strengthen the objective of 'Study in India' programme, the Finance Minister said the government will introduce INDSAT. "IND-SAT exam will be held for Asian and African students for scholarships to ''Study in India''," said Ms Sitharaman during the presentation of the Budget. 

To enhance employability in students studying in general stream, the government plans to start apprenticeship embedded degree/ diploma courses by March 2021 in about 150 higher educational institutions.

The government proposes to start a programme whereby urban local bodies across the country would provide internship opportunities to fresh engineers for a period up to one year.

In order to provide quality education to students of deprived section of the society as well as those who do not have access to higher education, it is proposed to start degree level full-fledged online education programme. This shall be offered only by institutions who are ranked within top 100 in the National Institutional Ranking framework (NIRF). Initially, only a few such institutions would be asked to offer such programmes.

To deal with medical staff shortage, the Finance Minister said the government has proposed to attach medical colleges with district hospitals on PPP model.

In order to upskill nurses, paramedical staffs and caregivers to work abroad, Ms Sitharaman said special bridge courses will be designed for them.

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