Union Budget 2025: Education Sector Receives ₹1.28 Lakh Crore Boost with Focus on IIT Expansion, Medical Seats, and Digital Learning
Union Budget 2025: Education Sector Receives ₹1.28 Lakh Crore Boost with Focus on IIT Expansion, Medical Seats, and Digital Learning
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2025-26, allocating ₹1,28,650.05 crore to the education sector, marking a 6.65% increase from last year’s ₹1.12 lakh crore. This budget focuses on strengthening higher education infrastructure, expanding medical education, and promoting digital learning initiatives.
The Union Budget 2025-26 presents a forward-thinking vision for higher education, skill development, innovation, and inclusivity. The increase for higher education, from ₹46,482.35 crore in 2024-25 to ₹50,077.95 crore in 2025-26, represents a significant 7.74% rise. pic.twitter.com/hD00VBn32L
— Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar (@mamidala90) February 1, 2025
The Ministry of Education will receive over ₹1.28 lakh crore, with ₹50,067 crore allocated to higher education and ₹78,572 crore to school education. IIT infrastructure, especially at IIT Patna, will be expanded, along with the creation of additional infrastructure in five other IITs. This comes ahead of the Bihar elections. Additionally, 75,000 new seats will be added to medical colleges over the next five years.
The government will also launch the ‘Bharatiya Bhasha Pushtak’ scheme to provide Indian language books in digital format for schools and higher education. While premier institutions like IIMs saw an increased allocation of ₹251 crore, funding for IISERs and World Class Institutions was reduced.
Education, skilling, research and innovation are the cornerstone of harnessing the full potential of India’s Yuva Shakti, championing development, realising aspirations and actualising the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047.
— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) February 1, 2025
Grateful to PM @narendramodi ji and FM @nsitharaman for… pic.twitter.com/2nDlQUVSAc
Despite calls for 6% of GDP allocation to education, the budget reflects a continued emphasis on outcome-driven reforms, AI-driven education, and global skilling partnerships, aligning with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 goals.
“Indian Knowledge System (IKS) is an integral part of the National Education Policy (NEP). Thus, an announcement made by the FM in today’s budget regarding setting up a National Digital Repository of Indian Knowledge Systems is a significant one. This will facilitate faster knowledge sharing and will help the research work which is focused on integrating India’s ancient wisdom with modern education and technology. Moreover, an announcement to survey and undertake documentation and conservation of India’s manuscript heritage in collaboration with academic institutions, museums, libraries, and private collectors is an important step in this regard, ” said Dr Preeti Joshi, Principal, School of Liberal Arts, Sri Balaji University, Pune.
