Edu-leaders

Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, has allocated a sum of Rs 52,057 crore for the education sector in 2011-12, an increase of 24 percent compared to the current year. “This is aimed at universalising access to secondary education, increasing the number of scholars in higher education and imparting training of skills,” he said. A sum of Rs 21,000 crore has also been allocated for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which is 40 percent higher than the Rs 15,000 crore allocated in the Budget for 2010-11.

Amitabh Jhingan, Partner and Industry Leader, Education Practice, Ernst & Young commenting on the budget said, “The Budget 2011-12 has promised double-digit fund increases over last year’s outflows and the allocation to primary and higher education is promising.”

This year, the thrust of funding has been on existing institutions. IIT Kharagpur will get a grant of Rs 200 crore, while IIM Kolkata will get Rs 20 crore to set up its Financial Research and Trading Laboratory. Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University at Pookode, Kerala, has been given Rs 100 crore. The Centre for Development Economics, Ratan Tata Library, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, and Madras School of Economics, have got Rs 10 crore each.
According to Jhingan, the one-time grants to universities would help such institutions to modernize and concentrate on specific initiatives.

The upcoming centres of Aligarh Muslim University at Murshidabad in West Bengal and Malappuram in Kerala will get Rs 50 crore each.  Rs 10 crore will be given to set up Kolkata and Allahabad Centres of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha.

The Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu will get Rs 20 crore and Maulana Azad Education Foundation 200 crore.
Mukherjee also mentioned that the National Knowledge Network (NKN), approved last year in March, will link 1,500 institutes of higher learning and research through an optical fibre backbone. In the current year, 190 institutes will be connected to the NKN. The core shall be ready by March 2011, and connectivity to all the 1,500 institutions shall be provided by next year.

National Innovation Council has been set up under Sam Pitroda that will prepare a roadmap for innovations in the country and to move ahead of the formal R&D pattern.

Setting up State Innovation Councils in each state and Sectoral Innovation Councils aligned to Central Ministries is also underway.

A revised Centrally sponsored Scheme “Vocationalisation of Secondary Education” will be implemented from 2011-12 to improve employability.

According to Jhingan, “The Budget provides fiscal stimulus to corporate – academia collaborations and improving research competitiveness of Indian universities by increasing the weighted deduction expense limits from 175 to 200 percent. While the Budget seems to have tinkered with the scope of taxation of education services for service tax purposes, recognized courses continue to be outside the purview of taxation. While there have been many positives, some of the areas we would have liked to see was a road map on the passage of pending education Bills, tax exemption on faculty salaries and dilution of FDI conditions prescribed for construction development of education institutions.”