New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the 2024-25 Union Budget Tuesday, announced financial support for higher education in domestic institutions, with loans of up to Rs 10 lakh for youths not eligible for benefits under other government schemes and policies.
The government, Sitharaman said, will give e-vouchers directly to 1 lakh students for annual interest subvention of 3 percent of the loan amount.
The 2024-25 Union Budget allocated Rs 1,20,627.87 crore for the education ministry — an increase of 6.8 percent from the revised budget estimates of Rs 1,20,627.87 crore in the previous fiscal.
The budget allocation for the school education and literacy department is up from Rs 72,473.8 crore to Rs 73,008.1 crore. However, the allocation for the higher education department is down from Rs 57,244.48 crore to Rs 47,000 crore.
A new centrally sponsored scheme will aim to enhance skills through collaborations with state governments and industries, targeting 20 lakh youths over five years. Besides loans of up to Rs 10 lakh for students in domestic higher education institutions, 1,000 ITIs will get upgraded with course content and design aligned to industry skill requirements.
Another scheme under the prime minister’s package will offer internships to one crore youth in 500 top companies over the next five years. Interns will receive a Rs 5,000 monthly allowance and a one-time Rs 6,000 assistance, with companies expected to cover training and 10% of the internship cost through corporate social responsibility funds.
The budget increased grants to central universities by 27%, with Rs 15,472 crore allocated. However, the University Grants Commission (UGC) allocation is down to just Rs 2,500 crore from Rs 5,360 crore in the previous fiscal. The revised estimate for the last fiscal year was also much higher — Rs 6,409 crore.
Launched in 2008, the national means-cum-merit scholarship scheme offers one lakh scholarships of Rs 6,000 per annum, at Rs 500 per month, starting from Class 9 and continuing till Class 12, contingent upon the eligibility criteria.
The scheme aims to provide all meritorious students from economically weaker sections with financial support to prevent dropouts after Class 8 and encourage the completion of secondary education up to Class 12.
The corpus for this scheme in the 2023-24 revised estimates was Rs 250 crore. The 2024-25 budget estimates it at Rs 377 crore.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)