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Special Report

(formerly Punjab Haryana & Delhi) Union Budget 2024-25: Major education allocations — II
Chamber of Commerce which has (Rs. crore)
150,000 business enterprises (mainly Higher education department 2024-25 2023-24 (RE*)
MSMEs) as members, suggests that
rather than rely on Top 500 compa- Total allocation: Rs.47,619.77 crore
nies to hire apprentices, local industry 1. Establishment expenditure 251.51 269.88
leaders need to be encouraged to serve
on college and university boards. • Secretariat 162.50 170.90
“There’s too much focus on Top • Directorate of Hindi 16.54 20.00
500 companies. Instead greater in- • Commission for Scientific
volvement and cooperation between & Technical Terminology 15.05 13.00
state government colleges and local • CIL, Mysore & Regional
industry leaders will eliminate mis- language centres 46.07 53.50
alignment between the academy and • Educational Institutions Abroad 11.35 12.48
industry and boost apprenticeship 2. National Research Professors 0.27 0.27
programmes,” says Sharma.
According to Dr. A.S. Seethar- 3. World-class institutions 1,800 13,000
amu, the knowledgeable former pro- 4. Indian Knowledge Systems 10.00 17.00
fessor of education at the Bengaluru-
based think-tank Institute for Social 5. Students financial aid 1,908.00 1,384.00
and Economic Change (estb. 1974), 6. Research & Innovation 355.00 193.39
finance minister Sitharaman’s ambi- 7. Malaviya Mission Teacher Training 100.00 Nil
tious initiative for skilling 41 million
youth in five years while welcome, is 8. National Apprentice Training Scheme 600.00 460
likely to have limited impact because 9. Study in India 20.00 20.00
skilling of adequate quality and stan-
dards, is the “superstructure in the 10. Centres of Excellence in
educational ladder”. Artificial Intelligence 255.00 35.00
“Children require strong founda- 11. Internationalisation of Higher Education 104.00 100.00
tional literacy and numeracy, and
good language and basic digital learn- 12. University Grants Commission 2,500.00 6,409.00
ing in primary-secondary school from 13. AICTE 400.00 400.00
class IV up to class X. This learning is
essential for the success of the ambi- 14. Grants to Central universities 15,928.00 12,394.00
tious plan of skilling youth for produc- 15. IITs 10,324.50 10,384.21
tive employment as promised in Bud-
16. NITs & IIEST 4,839.40 4,678.60
Seetharamu: limited impact
17. Indian Institutes of Info Technology 515.91 486.55
18. National Institutes of Teacher Training 110.00 95.00
19. IGNOU 140.00 130.00
Source: www.indiabudget.gov.in * Revised expenditure

get 2024-25. Therefore, there is no years, it is difficult to believe that the
alternative to scaling up the national lukewarm schemes announced in her
annual outlay for public education to latest budget will upskill so many in-
at least 6 percent of GDP as recom- dividuals, let alone generate anywhere
mended by the Kothari Commission near the number of jobs forecast.
half a century ago,” opines Seethar- Writing in the Economic Times (July
amu. 24), the daily’s éminence grise econo-
Moreover although the Union fi- mist Swaminathan Anklesaria Ai-
nance minister calculates that the yar dismisses these job and skilling
skilling programmes announced will numbers as “pies in the sky”.
“benefit” 41 million youth over five “India is full of graduates from

74 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2024