Education budget: Centre of excellence in artificial intelligence; capacity of 5 IITs to be expanded, says Sitharaman

Education budget: Nirmala Sitharaman announced five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling in Budget 2025. IITs will expand to accommodate more students.

Updated on: Feb 1, 2025, 16:17:27 IST

By HT News Desk

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Education budget 2025: The Centre will establish five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling to equip the youth with the necessary skills for global opportunities, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget 2025 on Saturday, February 1.

IIT Kharagpur (Ambuj Saxena / Wikimedia Commons)

Nirmala Sitharaman also announced an outlay of ₹500 crore for setting up a centre of excellence in artificial intelligence for education.

“Global skilling partnerships will enable India to become a key player in global manufacturing. Infrastructure will be expanded in IITs set up after 2015, allowing for 6,500 more students across five IITs. A Centre of Excellence for artificial intelligence in education will be established with an outlay of ₹500 crore,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.

"The capacity of IITs will be expanded. The total number of students in the 23 IITs has increased by 100%, from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh in the past 10 years. Additional infrastructure will be created in the five IITs established after 2014 to accommodate 6,500 more students. The hostel and other infrastructure capacity at IIT Patna will also be expanded," Sitharaman said.

“The extension of PM Research fellowship to 10,000 fellowships for technological research in IITs and IISc should boost institutional research,” said Sohrab Bararia, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat.

She also said ₹1.5 lakh crore will be provided for 50-year interest-free loans to states for infrastructure development.

Also, an asset monetisation plan will be launched for 2025-30 period to infuse ₹10 lakh crore capital in new projects.

Further, the Budget outlay for Jal Jeevan Mission is being enhanced to achieve 100 per cent coverage, she added. Sitharaman also said urban sector reforms relating to governance, urban land and planning will be incentivised.

Atal Tinkering Laboratory

Atal Tinkering Lab scheme was launched in January 2021, and currently, there are 10,000 ATL spanning over 722 districts across the country. The finance minister has announced the establishment of 50,000 additional Atal Tinkering Labs (5 times of the current numbers) to be set up in government schools in the next five years.

The budget outlay in the previous year ₹96.83 crore has been increased to ₹400 crore over 300% increase in the current budget. The greater outlay is in line with the increased focus on STEM education being promoted in schools.

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