Budget 2023 is inclusive and people-centric: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI): Union Minister for Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan has lauded the Union Budget 2023-24 as being inclusive, people-centric and growth-stimulating Budget.
He said that this Amrit Kaal Budget includes everyone, empowers the poor and middle class, reaches the last mile and brings cheer to all.
Expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan said that the budget boosts education, skill development, entrepreneurship, R&D, digital infrastructure, green growth and job creation.
He said that the Budget draws a meticulous blueprint for India @100 and lays a solid foundation for transforming India into a technology-driven knowledge-based economy.
Pradhan highlighted that the Ministry of Education has been allocated Rs. 1,12,899.47 crore. This is the highest allocation ever to the Education Ministry. The budgetary allocation witnessed a jump of 13% (over revised estimates) which is 13,018.34 cr from FY 2022-23, he added.
"The Department of School Education has been allocated Rs 68,804.85 crore and the Department of Higher Education gets Rs 44,094.62 crore," Pradhan said.
During the budget 2023-24 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made the following announcements.
"To empower our youth and help the 'Amrit Peedhi' realize their dreams, we have formulated the National Education Policy, focused on skilling, adopted economic policies that facilitate job creation at scale, and have supported business opportunities," said the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her budget speech.
"Teachers' Training will be re-envisioned through innovative pedagogy, curriculum transaction, continuous professional development, dipstick surveys, and ICT implementation. The District Institutes of Education and Training will be developed as vibrant institutes of excellence for this purpose," she added.
She announced a National Digital Library for Children and Adolescents set up to facilitate the availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels, and device-agnostic accessibility. States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries at Panchayat and ward levels.
To build a culture of reading and to make up for pandemic-time learning loss, the National Book Trust, Children's Book Trust and other sources will be encouraged to provide and replenish non-curricular titles in regional languages and English to these physical libraries, she announced.
Collaboration with NGOs that work in literacy will also be a part of this initiative. To inculcate financial literacy, financial sector regulators and organizations will be encouraged to provide age-appropriate reading material to these libraries.
Education Ministry said that There has been an overall increase of Rs. 9752.07 cr (16.51%) in the Budget Allocation of the Department of School Education & Literacy in the FY 2023-24 from FY 2022-23.
"The overall Budget Allocation in FY 2023-24 is Rs. 68804.85 cr out of which Scheme allocation is Rs. 54374.48 cr and Non- Scheme allocation is Rs. 14430.37 cr," Ministry added.
Education Ministry further said that Budget Allocation for FY 2023-24 in the Flagship Scheme of PM Poshan has increased by Rs. 1366.25 cr (13.35%) from Rs. 10233.75 cr in 2022-23 to Rs. 11600.00 cr in BE 2023-24.
"Budget Allocation for FY 2023-24 in the Scheme of PM SHRI has increased by Rs. 2200.00 cr (122.22%) from Rs. 1800.00 cr in BE 2022-23 to Rs. 4000.00 cr in BE 2023-24. Under the scheme, there is the provision for setting up More than 14500 PM SHRI Schools (PM Schools for Rising India) by strengthening the existing schools from amongst schools managed by Central Government/ State/ UT Government/ local bodies. The duration of the scheme is proposed to be from 2022-23 to 2026-27. More than 20 lakh students are expected to be direct beneficiaries of the scheme.
Schools under PM SHRI will showcase the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 and emerge as exemplary schools over a period of time, and also offer leadership to other schools in the neighbourhood by providing high-quality education in an equitable, inclusive and joyful school environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs, and different academic abilities of children and makes them active participants in their own learning process as per the vision of NEP 2020" Ministry added.
Union Budget 2023 allocates Rs 44,094.62 crores for higher education which is 7.9% higher than the previous year's allocation, to overcome the learning losses of the Covid-19 pandemic and inject more digital technology into higher education for more access and equity. Increased fund allocation will accelerate the implementation of NEP 2020, bringing further dividends to the students to make them employable and strengthen our efforts in making India a knowledge-based economy, said Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, UGC. (ANI)