New Delhi: On Friday i.e. February 26, 2010, a sum of Rs 11,000 crore has been allocated for the higher education sector, which is around seven percent more than the fiscal year 2009-10. As per the union budget 2010-11, the central government has given more than Rs 1400 crore to higher education in the coming fiscal compared to the current financial year.
Of the total plan outlay, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has fixed an amount of Rs 500 crore for subsidizing student’s loans. During his budget speech Mr Mukherjee said that certain amount is being pegged to enable students from economically weaker sections to access higher education, a scheme to provide full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium has been introduced to cover loans taken from scheduled banks to pursue any of the approved courses of study in technical and professional streams from recognized institutions in India.
As per sources, the budget has kept aside a sum of Rs 400 crore for new Indian Institutes of Technology that have recently came into operation. This amount is Rs 100 crore more than what was pegged during fiscal 2009-10. Of the Rs 11,000 crore, the budget has pegged Rs 5,562 crore for general education, Rs 4,266 crore for technical education, and Rs.1,078 crore for education improvement in north-eastern areas.
