The government of India will create a formal umbrella structure for higher education institutes in nine cities, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today while presenting the Union Budget 2021-22.
Read || Budget 2021: Key Announcements Made In Education
“Many of our cities have various institutions, universities, colleges, supported by the Government of India. Hyderabad, for example, has almost 40 major institutions. In nine cities, we will create a formal umbrella structure so that these institutions can have better synergy while also retaining their internal autonomy,” Ms Sitharaman said during her Budget speech.
The Finance Minister also said that the government will implement the legislation for setting up of the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020.
“In Budget 2019-20, I had mentioned about setting up a Higher Education Council in India. We would be implementing the legislation for the same this year. It would be an umbrella body having four separate bodies for standard-setting, accreditation, regulation, and funding,” the Finance Minister said.
During her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also proposed to set up a central university in Leh, to facilitate “accessible higher education in Ladakh.”
Furthermore, the finance minister allocated Rs 50,000 crore for the National Research Foundation for over five years.
The Finance Minister also announced the National Language Translation Mission to make policy and government documents available in Indian languages.
The Union Budget 2021-22 proposals rest on six pillars: Health and well-being, physical and financial capital and infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational India reinvigorating human capital, innovation and R&D, minimum government and maximum governance.
"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark" the Finance Minister quoted Rabindranath Tagore during her presentation, adding that this moment in history is the dawn of a new era, where India is “well-poised to be the land of promise and hope."
