Less money for IITs, IIMs

Higher allocation for school and higher education.

In keeping with the United Progressive Alliance’s promise of inclusive growth, the finance minister today proposed 15 per cent higher allocation for school and higher education in 2010-11. But, key institutes run by the government saw their budgets cut for the coming financial year.

Outlay for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology has come down from Rs 1,665 crore in 2009-10 (revised estimates) to Rs 1,600 crore in 2010-11. For the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the allocation has been cut from Rs 245 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 221 crore in 2010-11. The budget for the Indian Institutes of Management has also been cut, from Rs 120 crore to Rs 108 crore. So, too, for the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, from Rs 128 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 122 crore in 2010-11.

Mukherjee, however, allocated Rs 400 crore for setting up new IITs, 33 per cent higher than the Rs 300 crore in 2009-10. The money set aside for new IIMs has been raised from Rs 3 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 25 crore in 2010-11. Total expenditure on technical expenditure was Rs 5,361 crore in 2009-10; it is estimated to rise 12 per cent to Rs 6,011 crore in 2010-11.

The plan outlay for school education in 2010-11 is Rs 31,036 crore, up 36.5 per cent from Rs 22,729 in 2009-10. So, too, with higher education, where Rs 10,996 crore (central plan) was allocated for 2010-11, up 38.2 per cent from Rs 7,952 crore in 2009-10.

The Right to Education Act will be implemented from April 1, 2010, and states will get Rs 3,675 crore for elementary education, as recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, which aims to complete the implementation of the government’s universal education programme, was commenced in 2009-10. To improve female literacy, the government recast the earlier National Literacy Mission as ‘Saakshar Bharat’ in September 2009, with a target of 70 million non-literate adults, including 60 million women.

To encourage research across all sectors, Mukherjee proposed to enhance the weighted deduction on payments made to national laboratories, research associations, colleges, universities for scientific research from 125 per cent to 175 per cent.