Budget 2025: Govt to add 6500 more IIT seats, 10000 more medical seats next year
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced that a centre of excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education and five national centres of excellence for skilling will be established in the country
NEW DELHI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2025-26 on Saturday announced that the government will add 6,500 more IIT seats and 10,000 more medical seats next year to facilitate education for more students.
The additional IIT seats will be added in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) that started functioning after 2014.
She also announced that a centre of excellence in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for education and five national centres of excellence for skilling will be established in the country.
“Total number of students in IITs in 2023 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 started after 2014 to facilitate education for 6,500 more students. Hostel and other infrastructure capacity at IIT Patna will also be expanded,” the minister said.
She also said that in the next five years, 10,000 fellowships for technology research in IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will be provided.
Sitharaman said that the central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added 1.1 lakh undergraduate and postgraduate medical education seats in 10 years which is an increase of 130%.
“In the next year, 10,000 additional seats will be added in medical colleges and hospitals towards the goal of adding 75,000 seats in the next 5 years,” she added.
On the center of excellence in AI for education, she said, “I announced three centers of excellence in Artificial Intelligence for agriculture, health, and sustainable cities in 2023. Now, a center of excellence in AI for education will be set up with an outlay of ₹500 crore.”
On the national centers of excellence for skilling, she said, “Building on the initiative announced in the July 2024 budget, five national centres of excellence for skilling will be set up with global expertise and partnership to equip our youth with skills required for make for India make for the world. The partnership will cover curriculum design, training of trainers and a skill certification program and periodic reviews.”
She also announced that a total of 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs will be set up in government schools in the next five years to “cultivate the spirit of curiosity and innovation and foster scientific temperament in young minds.”
Sitharaman also announced that broadband connectivity will be provided to all government secondary schools and primary health centres in rural areas under the BharatNet project, a rural telecom project launched in 2011.
She also proposed to implement the Bharatiya Bhasa Pustak Scheme to provide digital forms to Indian language books for schools and higher education. “This scheme helps students to understand their subject better and, in their language,” she added.
Sitharaman said that the government is focusing on the ‘Saksham Anganwadi’ and ‘Poshan 2.0’ programs, which provide nutritional support to over 8 crore children, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and around 20 lakh adolescent girls in aspirational districts and the Northeast region.