₹99,300 crore allocated for education sector for 2020-21

A sum of Rs 99,300 crores for education for the year 2020-21 will be provided, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday while presenting the second union budget of Modi's re-elected government.

"We propose Rs 99,300 crores for the education sector in 2020-21 and Rs 3000 crores for skill development," Sitharaman said in the Parliament.

She also said that a New Education Policy will be announced soon, adding that "external commercial borrowings and FDI to be leveraged to improve the education system." In a major development, she said that full-fledged degree level online courses will soon be offered by the top educational institutions in the country.

"Degree-level full-fledged online education programme to be offered by institutes in top 100 in National Institutional Ranking Framework," Sitharaman added.

The Finance Minister also proposed to start an SAT exam for students of Asia and Africa to promote “study in India” programme.

In the speech, Nirmala Sitharaman said that aspirational India, economic development and a caring society for all are the three prominent themes of the Union Budget 2020-21.

"This budget is woven around three prominent themes, aspirational India, in which all sections of society seek better standards of living, economic development for all, indicated in Prime Minister's exhortation 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas', and lastly, ours shall be a caring society," Sitharaman said during the presentation of the Budget.

She further said that the digital revolution will play a big role in delivering services to the people in India in the coming days.

"The digital revolution, which has placed India in a unique leadership position, globally will see the next wave. We shall aim to achieve seamless delivery of services through digital governance," Sitharaman said.