Union Budget 2025-26: Key Announcements For Education Sector

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2025-26 on February 1, 2025 today in the Lower House of the Parliament. Ms Sithraman mentioned the commitments of the current government under the budget 2025-26.

Key Announcements

• 50000 Atal Tinkering Labs will be set up in government schools in the next 5 years to cultivate curiosity and foster scientific temper among students.
• Broadband connectivity to government secondary schools and Primary Health Centres in Rural Areas under the BharatNet Project.
• ‘Bhartiya Bhasha Pustak Scheme’ has been proposed to provide digital books in Indian languages for schools and higher educational institutes aim to understand the subject better in their languages.
• Expansion of IITs – The total number of students in 23 IITs has increased 100% from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh in the past 10 years. Additional infrastructure will be provided in 5 IITs started after 2014 to facilitate the education for 6,500 more students. Hostle facility and other capacity at IIT Patna will also expend.
• Centre of Excellence for AI in Education – 3 CoC in Agriculture and Health were set up in 2023. Now another CoC will be set in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education will be set up with a total outlay of 500 crores.
• Expansion of Medical Education has covered an additional 1.1 lakh undergraduate and postgraduate medical students in 10 years an increase in 130 percent. 10000 more seats will be added in this year and 75,000 seats will be added in the next 5 years. Day care cancer centres in all the district hospitals will be set up in the next 3 years. 200 centres will be set up in next one year.
• A National Knowledge Repository will be set up to accumulate knowledge.
• ‘National Centre of Excellence for Skilling’ – 5 national centres of skills will be set up with global partnership for youth to make India a hub of skilled workers. The scheme will involve a certification clause, curriculum for training and skilling and periodic reviews.
• The National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management will be set up in Bihar.