Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an allocation of Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector and Rs 3000 crore for skill development in her 2020-2021 Union Budget speech on Saturday.
She said the government would introduce foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector. (Get all Budget 2020 updates here.)
Nirmala Sitharaman said the Centre would announce a new education policy soon, and announced a degree-level full-fledged online education programme to be offered by institutes ranked in the top 100 by the National Institutional Ranking Framework.
The Union Budget for 2020-21 is being presented amid an economic slowdown, high inflation, falling productivity in key labour industries and a 42-year-high unemployment rate.
The budget announcement follows a downgraded growth prediction from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gita Gopinath, chief economist at the IMF, said growth slowed sharply due to stress in the non-bank financial sector and weak rural income growth.
[“source=indiatoday”]
