Union Budget 2025: 5 IITs to add 6,500 seats over 5 years; medical colleges to expand intake by 10,000 next year

These seats volition beryllium added successful phases implicit 5 years and would beryllium chiefly astatine the undergraduate oregon BTech level, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters. The full fig of students crossed 23 IITs had accrued from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh implicit the past 10 years.

With the Bihar Assembly predetermination this year, enlargement of hostels and different infrastructure facilities astatine IIT Patna was besides announced. “From being teaching institutions, the present larger and semipermanent extremity for IITs would beryllium to teach, bash probe and innovate,” Pradhan told The Indian Express.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman connected Saturday besides announced that 10,000 aesculapian undergraduate and postgraduate seats volition beryllium added implicit the adjacent year. This, she said, would beryllium towards the extremity of expanding the fig of aesculapian seats by 75,000 implicit 5 years. There has been a monolithic enlargement successful the fig of aesculapian seats implicit the past decennary — the fig of MBBS seats has accrued from 51,384 earlier 2014 to 1,12,112 successful 2024 and the fig of PG seats has accrued from 31,185 to 72,627.

The budget besides makes a proviso for 10,000 fellowships implicit the adjacent 5 years astatine IITs and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), nether the PM Research Fellowship scheme. Allocation for the strategy has been hiked from Rs. 350 crore successful 2024-25 to Rs. 600 crore this year. The strategy was archetypal announced successful the 2018-19 budget, erstwhile past Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that 1000 students volition beryllium identified for the fellowship to bash their PhDs astatine IITs and IISc.

The full allocation for acquisition this twelvemonth is Rs. 1.28 lakh crore, a emergence from an allocation of Rs. 1.20 lakh crore past year.

The higher acquisition assemblage has seen a 5% summation successful allocation compared to past twelvemonth – from a fig of Rs. 47,619 crore past year, it has risen to 50,077 crore this year. School acquisition saw an 8% increase, from Rs. 73,008 crore past twelvemonth to 78,572 crore this year.

In higher education, allocation has risen for Indian Knowledge Systems (a five-fold summation from Rs. 10 crore past twelvemonth to Rs. 50 crore this year), the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme for on-the-job skilling opportunities (a adjacent two-fold emergence from Rs. 600 crore past twelvemonth to Rs. 1178 crore this year), and IITs (an summation of astir Rs. 1,025 crore).

The All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the regulatory assemblage for method education, has seen its allocation beryllium halved from Rs. 400 crore past twelvemonth to Rs. 200 crore this year. Sources successful the Ministry of Education pointed to the expenditure of the regulatory assemblage having been debased – the revised estimation for the erstwhile twelvemonth was lone Rs. 137 crore. “A regulatory assemblage is meant to acceptable standards. It’s not a backing agency. So immoderate alteration successful its fund doesn’t mean the authorities volition not walk that wealth straight connected education,” said a elder ministry authoritative who did not privation to identified.

In schoolhouse education, the Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme, a strategy to supply mentorship to talented students, has seen an uptick successful allocation from 0.01 crore past twelvemonth to Rs. 55 crore this year. PM Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) has seen a 24% summation successful allocation this year, portion the Samagra Shiksha strategy has recorded a 10% rise.

Sitharaman had besides announced that 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs volition beryllium acceptable up successful authorities schools implicit the adjacent 5 years to “foster technological temper among young minds.”

The Centre’s Atal Innovation Mission introduced Atal Tinkering Labs successful 2016-17 and astir 10,000 specified labs person already been acceptable up successful schools crossed the country. The Centre provides funds to schools to acceptable up the laboratory and run and support it for 5 years. These labs incorporate instrumentality similar 3D printers, and tools and kits for students to larn STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) concepts, including aspects of robotics and artificial intelligence. These labs are meant for students successful classes 6 to 12.

Sources successful the AICTE said that the Rs. 200 crore indicated successful the fund is earmarked for scholarships, and that this magnitude varies each twelvemonth depending connected the fig of beneficiaries. “Furthermore, fewer postgraduate scholarships are taken arsenic less students are opting for MTech successful engineering disciplines. AICTE generates its ain funds for its operations, but for the scholarships,” the root added.