Budget 2020 Earmarks Rs. 99,300 Cr for Education

UnionFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced allocation of Rs.99,300 crore for education, which she tagged as one of the key points of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's vision of "Aspirational India". The finance ministeralso earmarked Rs. 3,000 crore for skill development.

Thebudget has emphasized more on education, health, women empowerment.

Theoutlay marked a big hike over the revised Rs. 94,853.64 crore earmarked for theeducation sector in the 2019-20 fiscal.

Presenting the union budget for 2020-21, Sitharaman said that the third point under Aspirational India is Education and Skills adding that education needs a greater inflow of finance.

Sheproposed a number of projects including a Forensic science university,degree-level online programmes by top 100 institutions, and what she called abridge course by the Health Ministry to meet the huge demand abroad forteachers, nurses, paramedical staff and caregivers.

Theminister also announced that the urban local bodies across the country willprovide one-year internships to engineering students. She said, under Study inIndia programme, an INDSAT exam is proposed for Asian and African studentssaying it would be used to benchmark foreign students who wish to pursue highereducation in India.