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Budget 2024: Record allocation of Rs 1.48 lakh crore for education, employment and skilling!

Budget 2024: Record allocation of Rs 1.48 lakh crore for education, employment and skilling!

Ashmita Gupta

Each year, the Indian Union Budget holds the nation's economic pulse. In 2024, the focus was razor-sharp: catalysing the job market and bridging the ever-widening skill gap, as the unemployment figures kept upward trajectory and dissatisfaction over government’s measures grew among the younger demographic. As a response, budget 2024 unveiled a meticulously crafted strategy, a multi-pronged attack to empower India's youth.

The Union Budget 2024-2025 intends on focussing on youth and employment, prompting Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to allocate Rs. 1.48 lakh crore for education, employment and skilling. Further, Modi 3.0’S budget includes 5 schemes to provide opportunities to 4.1 crore youth with a central outlay of Rs. 2 lakh crore over a period of the 5 years.

Nirmala Sitharaman announces 3 schemes for employment linked incentives:

Scheme A (First-timers): This will benefit first-time employees, providing one month’s wages to new entrants in all formal sectors. As per Sitharaman, Direct Benefit Transfer of one month salary in 3 instalments to first-time employees as registered in the EPFO will be up to ₹15,000. The eligibility limit will be a salary of ₹1 lakh per month. The scheme will benefit 210 lakh youth.
Scheme B (Job creation in manufacturing): This will provide incentives to both employees and employers for the first 4 years of employment under EPFO guidelines. It is expected to benefit 30 lakh youth and will cover additional employment across all sectors.
Scheme C (Support to employers): This will support employees with additional employment in all sectors by reimbursing employers up to ₹3,000 per month for two years for each additional employee's EPFO contributions. The scheme aims to incentivise the employment of 50 lakh additional people.

Improving participation of women in workforce

As a part of Budget 2024-2025, Nirmala Sithraman announced that Modi 3.0 will focus on improving women participation in the workforce. The Government will focus on increasing women participation in the workforce. Some measures that will be taken include setting up hostels and creating partnerships to organise women-specific skilling programs and women self-help groups.

Additional incentives for employment

Sitharaman announced the launch of a scheme where 500 top companies will provide internship opportunities to one crore youth in five years. Internship allowance of Rs. 5000 per month along with one-time assistance of Rs. 6000 to be provided, the Finance Minister also said that the companies will be expected to earn the training cost and 10% of the internship cost from their CSR funds.

According to Mr. Ramesh Alluri Reddy, CEO at TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, this “significant investment in skill development programs and the incentivization of industries to adopt comprehensive apprenticeships lays a solid foundation for a future-ready workforce. Integrating on-the-job training (OJT) as a mandated component of degrees, in collaboration with industry partners, allows students to gain invaluable practical experience, even if the training is not necessarily on-site.”

“This initiative is a welcome move towards formal job creation, bridging the gap between theoretical education and real-world application, making graduates more job-ready.”

Focus on skilling

The Finance Minister said that the model skilling loan scheme will be revised to facilitate loans up to Rs 7.5 lakh. Further, a new scheme focussing on skilling will benefit 20 lakh individuals and ensure the set up of 1,000 training institutes and newly designed courses.

Education loans

The Union Budget 2024-25 proposes a revision of the Model Skill Loan Scheme to help 25,000 students every year. E-vouchers for loans up to Rs. 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions will be given directly to 1 lakh students every year with interest subvention of 3% of loan amount, said FM Sitharaman.

Meanwhile, in the Interim Budget detailed in February 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted a notable increase in higher educational institutes and women enrolling in STEM courses over the past decade, attributing these improvements to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Further, contrary to expectations, funding for the University Grants Commission (UGC) was reduced by 60.99%, dropping to Rs. 2,500 crore from the previous year's revised estimate of Rs. 6,409 crore. Meanwhile, grants for central universities were increased by over Rs 4,000 crore, with a total allocation of Rs 15,928 crore for the financial year 2024-25.