The much awaited Union Budget 2017 was presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on 1st February 2017. Education is one of the key components for driving economical growth and acts as impetus for government schemes such as Make in India, Digital India and Skill India. Government should devise schemes to boost other sectors such as Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Textile, Energy etc. apart from focusing on the IT and applied IT sectors.
It is extremely important to pay attention on improving the quality of educational institutes for creating skilled workforce, ready to join the industry. The key budget highlights of the Education sector are as following –
- In year 2017, citizens will gain access to SWAYAM, a massive open online courses (MOOC) platform. This education portal, will be introduced with 350 online courses and will be providing high quality e-content to all the colleges and universities free of cost.
- Job-creating packages for textile sector
- Good quality institutions which will possess better quality and education
- 100 international centres will be launched across the country for providing assistance to the youth seeking jobs outside India
- PM Kaushal KendrasPM Kaushal Kendras to be extended to 600 districts
- 5 crore youth to be trained under Sankalp programme launched by government
- Quality and market relevance will be noted in vocational training
- Special scheme for employment has been launched in the textile sector
- National Testing Agency will be conducting major entrance examinations
- CBSE will be freed from conducting examinations, and will focus majorly on academics
- Skill strengthening to be implemented from this year with a budget of Rs 2,200 crore
- Greater autonomy will be provided to major institutes
- UGC will be reformed for higher education, colleges and institutions will give more autonomy
- Two new AIIMS to be opened in Jharkhand and Gujarat
- Big employment opportunities to come up in tourism sector
- Government will provide education through digital platform and the country will be turned into an electronics hub
- Additional opportunities for employment of women to open up through model shops and establishment bill
- The BHIM app has been downloaded 17 million times, and special cash back scheme for BHIM users
The main highlight of the budget in education sector was the introduction of 350 online courses and big employment opportunities to be introduced in textile and tourism sectors.
By Manisha Bhatia
Media & Communications, Fiinovation
Fiinovation - Opportunity Solutions, Simplified. 