BUDGET 2015-16: KEY HIGHLIGHTS & OVERVIEW FOR THE EDUCATION & TRAINING SECTOR

India’s Union Budget 2015-16 was presented by the Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri. Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha on February 28.  This was the first full year budget presented by the Centre since it came to power in 2014.

The Government proposed to set aside Rs. 69,074.76 crore for the education sector, out of which there was an increase in the Higher Education Budget from Rs. 23,700 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 26,855.26 crore in 2015-16, indicating a shift in focus from school to higher education in the national budget presented in Parliament.

While the spending on School Education & Literacy has been marginally reduced to Rs. 42,219.5 crore, the Government is stressing on Skill Development with an allocation of Rs. 1,543.46 crore to the newly formed Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Additionally, the total spending for Ministry of Labour & Employement has been proposed for Rs. 5,315.22 crore in 2015-16.

Key Highlights for Education, Employment and Skill Development:

1. The Government  has proposed to set aside Rs. 69,074.76 crore for education in 2015-16, with Rs. 42,219.5 crore allocated to Department of School Education & Literacy and Rs. 26,855.26 crore to Department of Higher Education.
2. An integrated education and livelihood scheme called ‘Nai Manzil’ will be launched this year for which Rs. 3,738 crore has been allocated.
3. Government to create a Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank,  with a corpus of Rs. 20,000 crore, and credit guarantee corpus of Rs. 3,000 crore, which will greatly increase the confidence of young, educated or skilled workers.
4. Rs.  1,500 crore has been set apart for ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojana’ scheme, which will enhance the employability of rural youth.
5. (SETU) Self-Employment and Talent Utilization) to be established as Techno-financial, incubation and facilitation programme to support all aspects of start-up business. Rs. 1000 crore to be set aside as initial amount in NITI.
6. An initial allocation of Rs. 34,699 crore to be made for supporting employment through MGNREGA.

Additional Highlights of Budget 2015-16 for Education, Employment and Skill Development

• Ensure a Senior Secondary School within 5 km reach of every child, while improving quality of education and learning outcomes.
• A student Financial Aid Authority to administer, monitor and front-end all scholarship as well Educational Loan Schemes, through the Pradhan Mantri Vidya Lakshmi Karyakram.
• A post graduate institute of Horticulture Research & Education is to be set up in Amritsar.
• 3 new National Institute of Pharmaceuticals Education and Research in Maharashtra, Rajasthan & Chattisgarh and 2 Institute of Science and Education Research is to be set up in Nagaland & Orissa.
• Girl Child Education: Started a drive for constructing toilets in the remaining elementary schools and also Launched the Beti Bachao-Beti padhao campaign;
• Creation of Employment for the Youth: Launched the ‘Make in India’ campaign and combined it with a detailed process and policy re-engineering to make India a Global Manufacturing Hub for creation of job opportunities for millions of youth;
• To make India the manufacturing hub of the World through Skill India and the Make in India Programmes.
• Less than 5% of our potential work force gets formal skill training to be employable. A National Skill Mission to consolidate skill initiatives spread accross several ministries to be launched.
• An IIT to be set up in Karnataka and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad to be upgraded in to a full-fledged IIT.
• 5 new All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) to be set up in J&K, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Assam. Another AIIMS like institutions to be set up in Bihar.

Source: Indiabudget.nic.in, Livemint, Business Standard, with additional inputs from India Didactics Association