The Centre on Tuesday announced financial support for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions even as it slashed the grant for the higher education regulator UGC by over 60 per cent. The allocation for prestigious B-schools — Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) — has also been reduced for the second consecutive year, according to the Union Budget.
The budget for school education has been increased by over Rs 535 crore but the grant for higher education reduced by over Rs 9,600 crore from the previous fiscal year’s revised estimate (RE).
The overall budget allocation for the education sector has gone down by over Rs 9,000 crore. The Centre has allocated over Rs 1.20 lakh crore to the Ministry of Education for 2024-25 as against revised estimate of over Rs 1.29 lakh crore in the previous financial year.
Presenting the budget for 2024-25 in Parliament, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that financial support will be provided for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions.
She said e-vouchers for this purpose will be given directly to one lakh students every year with interest subvention of 3 per cent of the loan amount.
“For helping our youth who have not been eligible for any benefit under govt schemes and policies, the government will provide financial support for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions. E-vouchers for this purpose will be given directly to one lakh students every year with interest subvention of 3 per cent of the loan amount,” Sitharaman said.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the series of comprehensive and concrete measures announced by the finance minister will be a “win-win for all stakeholders – students, academia and industry”.
“This is going to fulfil aspirations of our youth, empower people with more livelihood opportunities, increase accessibility to quality education and skills and is also going to create over 4.1 crore new jobs in the next five years,” Pradhan said.
The budget for research and innovation in educational institutions has gone up by Rs 161 crore. Similarly, the allocation for world class institutions has gone up from Rs 1,300 crore to Rs 1,800 crore.
The funding for the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been brought down to Rs 2,500 crore from the previous year’s RE of Rs 6,409 crore, a 60.99 per cent drop. The same was slashed in the interim budget presented by the government.
The IIMs, counted among the noted business schools in the country, have faced a cut in the budget for the second year in a row. Last year, the budget for IIMs was slashed from Rs 608.23 crore (RE) to Rs 300 crore. This year it has been further reduced to Rs 212 crore from the revised estimate of Rs 331 crore.
The budget for Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has also seen a marginal dip from the RE last year. The grant to the top technology institutions has dropped from RE of Rs 10,384.21 crore to Rs 10,324.50.
However, the support grant for central universities has increased by over 28 per cent. The budget for central universities has been increased to Rs 15,472 crore from RE of Rs 12,000.08 crore.
In school education, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas, NCERT, PM Shri schools and grants-in aid to state governments and governments of Union territories have seen a rise in the budget allocation.
Upgrading 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in hub and spoke model, aligning course content with skill needs of industry and revision of model skill loan scheme, are among the measures announced by the finance minister for the skill development sector.
The finance minister said, “One thousand ITIs will be upgraded in hub and spoke model, course content and design will be aligned to the skill needs of industry and new courses will be introduced for emerging needs. I am happy to announce a new centrally sponsored scheme for skill development in which 20 lakh youth will be skilled over a period of five years.”
“The model skill loan scheme will be revised to facilitate loans up to Rs 7.5 lakh with a guarantee from government promoted fund, this measure is expected to help 25,000 students every year,” Sitharaman added.
Union Minister for Education 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 Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for their focus and concrete measures for the well-being and empowerment of “Garib, Mahila, Yuva and Annadata”, he said 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.
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
Department of 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 ₹9,302 cr and ₹5,800 cr respectively.
Budget Allocations in flagship schemes have increased — 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 ₹7487.87 cr and non- scheme allocation is ₹40131.90 crore.
There has been an overall increase of ₹3,525.15 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 ₹1,139.99 crore in the budget allocation of the schemes in FY 2024-25.
Allocation to major autonomous bodies
Allocation in Central Universitieshas been kept at ₹15,928.00 crore — ₹4,314.03 crore more than the allocation in BE 2023-24.
Deemed universities have been allocated ₹596 crore in 2024-25, which is ₹96 Cr more than BE 2023-24.
IIT shave been allocated ₹10,202.5 crore in 2024-25, which is ₹841.00 cr more than the allocation in BE 2023-24.
For NITs, ₹5,040 cr has been allocated in FY 2024-25, increasing the allocation by ₹219.40 cr in r/o BE 2023-24.
In Indian Institutes of Science for Education & Research (IISERs)the allocation has been kept at ₹1,540 crore, increasing the allocation by ₹78 cr in r/o BE 2023-24.
Support to Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have been allocated ₹875.77 Cr in 2024-25, which is ₹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 ₹1,814.94 crore for FY 2024-25, which is ₹314.94 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24
An allocation of ₹1,800 crore has been kept for Institutions of Eminence(IOE), which is ₹300 crore 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 ₹1,558 cr in FY 2024-25, which is ₹4.00 cr more than allocation in BE 2023-24.
In the scheme ‘National Apprenticeship Training Scheme(NATS)’, an allocation of ₹600 crore has been made in FY 2024-25, which is ₹160 crore more than allocation in BE 2023-24.
For the scheme ‘National Mission in Education through ICT’, an allocation of ₹480 crore has been made in FY 2024-25, which is ₹80 crore more than allocation in BE 2023-24.
For ‘Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement inTechnical Education-EAP (MERITE)’, an allocation of ₹200 crore 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 Artificial Intelligence (AI)’ was a budget announcement in FY 2023-24, an allocation of ₹255 Cr has been made in FY 2024-25.
