The Union Budget 2015, presented on Saturday, Feb 28th, by Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley includes an allocation of 13 percent hike for higher education compared to last year to give boost to higher learning in India and he intended to offer one major central institute in every state.
The government allocated Rs 26,855 crore to the department of higher education for the year 2015-2016 under the human resource development (HRD) ministry where the government earmarked Rs 23,700 crore during 2014-2015, it results an increase of 13.31 percent in allocation compared to last year.
Arun Jaitley, while presenting the union budget 2015-2016 said that “In the financial year 2015-16, I intended to set up a postgraduate Institute of Horticulture Research and Education in Amritsar, three new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, IIT in Karnataka, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and an institutes of Science and Education Research in Odisha and Nagaland.
“I also plan to upgrade existing Dhanbad into one developed IIT and Indian School of Mines”, he added.
As per the proposals, the government has allocated Rs 68,968 crore to the education sector including mid day meals. But, the allocation for the department of school education and literacy saw a decline of 9.79 percent compared to last year. Last year, the government has allocated Rs 46,805 crore for the department where as Rs 42,219.5 for 2015-16.
For giving importance to girls, Smriti Irani, Human resource development minister praised Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The minister also noted that “we need to upgrade more than 80,000 secondary schools and 75000 junior colleges for secondary level students; this will ensure that every child is within reach to their senior secondary education.
In addition, for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a flagship programme to attain universalization of elementary education in a time bound manner, the government has been allocated Rs 100 crore where as Rs 93.14 last year.
Jaitley also said that I am planning to set up an Information technology based Student Financial Aid Authority to supervise educational loan schemes and scholarships, through Pradana Mantri Vidhya Lakshmi Karyakram.
“This year an integrated education and livelihood scheme named Nai Manzil would be launched:, he added.
Prashant Bhalla, manav Rachna Educational Insititutions said that it was a hail budget for education sector.
