Central expenditure on Pariksha Pe Charcha rose five times since launch in 2018: Govt
On August 4, PPC secured a Guinness World Record for ‘most people registered on a citizen engagement platform in one month’, with over 35.3 million registrations.
The central government’s spending on Pariksha Pe Charcha (PPC) has risen nearly fivefold since its launch in 2018, the education ministry informed the Lok Sabha on Monday. The expenditure grew from ₹3.67 crore in 2018 to ₹18.83 crore in 2025, with the highest spending in 2023 at ₹27.70 crore, before being scaled down in subsequent years.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during an interactive session-'Pariksha Par Charcha' with school and college students at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi, on Friday. PTI Photo by Manvender Vashist (PTI2_16_2018_000196B) (PTI)
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PPC, held annually ahead of board examinations, is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s marquee event where he interacts with students and guides them on exam stress and preparation strategies.
Responding to a question raised by Trinamool Congress MP Mala Roy in the Parliament, Union minister of state (MoS) for education Jayant Chaudhary said the government has no plan to discontinue the annual programme.
The data shared by Chaudhary shows that government spending on PPC rose steadily in its initial years, climbing from ₹3.67 crore in 2018 to ₹8.16 crore in 2022 — an increase of about 122% in four years. The 2023 edition marked a sharp escalation, with expenditure jumping to ₹27.70 crore, over three times higher than the previous year and the highest between 2018 and 2025. In contrast, costs were subsequently scaled back, falling to ₹16.83 crore in 2024 before edging up slightly to ₹18.83 crore in 2025. The government incurs expenditure on various components of PPC including hospitality for children travelling from all across the country and overall organisation of the event.
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The participation in PPC has also expanded dramatically since its inception, rising from just over 22,000 students, teachers and parents in 2018, to more than 5.11 crore in 2025. This surge has been accompanied by a steep fall in the per participant cost, which dropped from ₹1,649 in 2018 to just ₹3.68 in 2025, the data shows.
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The participation in PPC has also expanded dramatically since its inception, rising from just over 22,000 students, teachers and parents in 2018, to more than 5.11 crore in 2025. This surge has been accompanied by a steep fall in the per participant cost, which dropped from ₹1,649 in 2018 to just ₹3.68 in 2025, the data shows.
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On August 4, PPC secured a Guinness World Record for ‘most people registered on a citizen engagement platform in one month’, with over 35.3 million registrations.
Sanjay Maurya is a Principal Correspondent with Hindustan Times, where he covers education, with a focus on school and higher education, competitive examinations, education policy and governance. Working as part of the National Bureau, he is based in New Delhi and reports on the Ministry of Education and covers various statutory bodies like UGC, AICTE and NCTE and autonomous bodies like CBSE and NCERT. His reporting also tracks the implementation of key government reforms and policies from school education to higher education including in IITs, NITs, IIMs, central and state universities, and their impact on students and educational institutions. His reporting on the irregularities and rushed implementation of CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluation of Class 12 board exams 2026, triggered administrative action, leading to the transfer of the board's two senior-most officials and the constitution of a committee to probe alleged irregularities in procurement process of the system. He joined Hindustan Times in December 2024. Prior to that, he had a three-year stint at Careers360, where he reported on school and higher education, entrance examinations, admissions, rankings and various education policies involving universities and professional education bodies. Over the years, Maurya has reported extensively on major developments in India's education sector, including the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, reforms in the National Testing Agency (NTA) following the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, changes in school education, higher education regulation, and the evolution of entrance examinations such as NEET, JEE and CUET. He regularly produces data-driven and explanatory stories based on government documents, parliamentary proceedings, court records and official data. His focus remains on helping readers understand how education policies and institutional decisions affect millions of students, teachers and educational institutions across the country.
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