Government Cuts Funding To AICTE By 61% In Two Years, Student Scholarships Also Hit: Education Minister In Rajya Sabha
Student scholarships, a core part of AICTE's quality improvement efforts, have also been affected. Expenditure on scholarships fell from Rs 387.13 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 284.32 crore in 2023-24, an almost 18 per cent dip in a year. While there has been a minor recovery to Rs 309.47 crore in 2024-25, allocation remains below earlier levels.
The data, provided in response to a parliamentary question by MP Dr. M. Thambidurai, raises concerns over shrinking direct support for students and technical institutions, even as the government pushes ahead with large-scale educational reforms in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. These include the Rs 50,000 crore Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) to boost research and innovation, and the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) scheme with an estimated budget of Rs 6,000 crore to provide access to journals for over 6,300 institutions between 2025 and 2027.
The minister further mentions the 'World Class Institutions scheme' launched in 2017, which has so far declared 12 universities as Institutes of Eminence (IoEs). These include IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IISc Bengaluru, Banaras Hindu University, University of Delhi and University of Hyderabad in the public category, along with private universities such as BITS Pilani, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, O.P. Jindal Global University and Shiv Nadar University. Public institutions have been allocated nearly Rs 6,200 crore under this scheme.
A new MERITE scheme with a financial outlay of Rs 4,200 crore will be implemented in 275 technical institutions, covering 175 engineering colleges and 100 polytechnics, between 2025-26 and 2029-30 to improve governance, quality, and equity in technical education.
The government has also approved Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence in health, sustainable cities, and agriculture with an allocation of Rs 990 crore till 2027-28. Budget 2025-26 further announced a Rs 500 crore AI centre for education.
Since 2014, the government has established 16 Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), 8 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), 8 Central Universities, 7 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 2 Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and 1 National Institute of Technology (NIT).
While the expansion of institutions and launch of new schemes reflect a push for global competitiveness, the cuts in AICTE funding and scholarships risk undermining student-level support and the functioning of technical colleges on the ground.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
7 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Letters to The Editor — August 21, 2025
Vice-President, the contest The Vice-President is expected to embody neutrality, remain above partisan politics, and uphold an unbiased stance that is free from any rigid political ideology. Traditionally, these posts have been held by eminent individuals whose contributions to society and the nation have been exemplary. By these standards, Justice B. Sudershan Reddy is a good choice. His is a distinguished judicial career. In contrast, C.P. Radhakrishnan, the NDA's nominee, is a seasoned political figure with a long record in public office, and, therefore, may not be perceived as a non-partisan choice for this esteemed role. One hopes that Members of Parliament exercise a 'conscience vote'. May wisdom guide this decision. Varghese George, Secunderabad While the Vice-President of India is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and, therefore, has the duty to conduct proceedings in the House of Elders impartially, it was expected that a scholar with sound knowledge in the tenets of the Constitution would be elected as the next Vice-President in consultation with all the stakeholders, particularly the Opposition. Alas, it is not to be. With the ruling BJP dispensation announcing the candidature of C.P. Radhakrishnan, a hard-core member of the RSS and the BJP, and bypassed going in for a consensus candidate, we now have a situation of a contest. It is unfortunate that some in the BJP in Tamil Nadu have invoked the son of the soil line. The people of Tamil Nadu are well aware that the Union government has always been acting against their interests. One can expect Mr. Radhakrishnan to be another spokesperson of the saffron party. Tharcius S. Fernando, Chennai India-China de-escalation We do need de-escalation at the Line of Actual Control. We also need the display of strong political will at the Centre and robust diplomacy to negotiate peace with China. We must not lose sight of the economic front. We need to settle a trade deal, bypassing American sanctions and also Chinese moves. Manas Agarwal, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh Urban parks Rapid urbanisation in India has only highlighted a key issue — an insufficient number of public parks. Parks serve an important purpose of bringing people from all walks of life together and creating harmony ('Open Page, 'For urban lung space', August 17). Parks improve the aesthetic value of the area and are a major source of green cover in the urban pockets, keeping the temperature under control. According to a study conducted by Pennsylvania State University, the amount of time spent in parks and green common spaces has a direct correlation with the well-being of an individual. R. Sivakumar, Chennai
The Hindu
7 minutes ago
- The Hindu
STEM education should be inclusive of students with disabilities
Increased access, equity, and inclusion for disadvantaged and underprivileged students in the education sector are envisioned in the current National Education Policy, 2020. This is a welcome step towards making society truly inclusive, but while this is an ideal that one can aspire to, the fact is that most higher education institutions (HEIs) have a long way to go to make it possible. When it comes to education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, the reality is depressingly different, in even the most well-funded institutions. The estimate from the National Family Health Survey 5 (in a publication of the Indian Council of Medical Research) is that there are 63 million people with disabilities in India. This is less than 5% of the population and below the World Health Organization data which suggest that about 15% of the world population lives with with some form of disability. There is no dearth of well-meaning legislation: the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009 guarantees access to free education up to the age of 14, including for children with disabilities. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 provides a comprehensive set of guidelines with considerable thought gone into them. It spells out the duties of educational institutions and the responsibility of the Union and the State governments to promote inclusive education. Unfortunately, though, the reality is very different across the country. At the primary and secondary levels, students with disabilities are frequently segregated in special-needs schools, an unintended consequence of which is that their access to higher education and their exposure to different areas of study is selective and limited. Reservation norms Under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, all government and government-aided higher educational institutions are required to reserve 4% of seats for students with disabilities. Since most higher education and research institutions in India fall in this group, it is important that the Act be implemented in practice as well as in spirit. Disabilities that are covered include blindness and low vision, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, cerebral palsy and related disabilities, specific learning disabilities, and autism spectrum disorder. At present, there are few institutions where this requirement is met, and wherever it is met institutionally, it is not done on a more fine-grained level, namely across departments. Indeed, most students with disabilities get admission through a so-called horizontal quota: seats are not specifically reserved for students with disabilities, and often they are discouraged from science subjects since that will decrease the number of seats for other students. In short, they continue to face ableism, the various practices and prejudices that disadvantage disabled students and researchers. Ableism effectively is discrimination in favour of non-disabled people. The lack of tangible inclusivity measures in higher education institutions means that students with diverse abilities, with a keen interest in STEM subjects, and perhaps having been encouraged up to the high-school level, find the doors of tertiary education closed to them. The institutions face many hurdles on the road to inclusivity. Campuses require a significant investment in order to become accessible: Most classrooms, laboratories, and hostels cannot accommodate students with disabilities. Administrators have many complex choices to make on where their (usually meagre) funds are to be deployed, and something that impacts less than 5% of the students may not seem cost-effective, but these are considerations that one needs to rise above. Measures that have been implemented in countries in the developing world as well as in developed nations, in addition to strengthening national legal frameworks (UNESCO guidelines), include devising policies and strategies inclusive of persons with disabilities; making education accessible; adapting the form and substance of education; monitoring the implementation of the right to education for persons with disabilities; and promoting the right to education of persons with disabilities. Accessibility audit Reservation in education addresses only a small part of these rights. A far more urgent need is for sensitisation and training. Campuses constructed after 2016 should adhere to the National Building Code but this is rarely enforced. Older campuses require an accessibility audit, to learn what needs to be done in terms of reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. Campuses are typically large in extent. Older buildings have no lifts or ramps. Toilets are inaccessible. The list is long. Conventional classrooms and laboratories are ableist: chairs, tables, and benches are of fixed heights, and access to laboratory equipment such as fume-hoods and furnaces is poor. Teaching and learning spaces in STEM do not easily adapt for students with disabilities who are then naturally discouraged from pursuing such disciplines. Making laboratory experiments in science accessible requires both dedication and sensitivity. Physical access for students with impaired mobility is daunting, but the bias in the design of almost all laboratory experiments and much of pedagogy in general poses a major challenge for students with impaired vision. Since other than in pure mathematics, there is a component of laboratory instruction in all science courses, the physical environment of most existing teaching (or research) laboratories exclude students with disabilities. There is enough empirical evidence to suggest that when given the same opportunities and access, students with disabilities perform equally well as other students. There is also evidence to suggest that awareness of special needs facilitates the science that has to be developed to mitigate them. The science of optometry started from a need to correct poor vision, and telephony traces its motivation to Alexander Graham Bell's need to communicate with his wife and mother (both of whom had difficulty hearing) but there are many other examples, with more wide-ranging benefits. With today's technology it requires little additional effort to make laboratory experiments accessible to students with disabilities, be it through the use of speech-activated equipment, AI and electronics-based interfaces to convert signals from one form to the other (say visual to audio for the visually challenged and audio to visual for hearing challenged) In this age, there is increased awareness of human rights and an increased awareness of diversity and of the various identities. Doing science is a privilege, and this privilege needs to be shared by all those who wish to be scientists. More to the point, this is a privilege that should not be denied to anybody, least of all because of the imagined limitations of mind or body. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy is a Honorary Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Berhampur, Odisha; views are personal
Time of India
12 minutes ago
- Time of India
Parliament watch: Delay in land acquisition, capping apprentices and more
Delay in land acquisition Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that 163 road projects-about 28% of the total-are delayed due to land acquisition hurdles. Over the past two years, acquisitions have taken one to three years to complete, he said, citing disputes over alignment, land type and ownership, compensation, unrevised circle rates, assessment of structures, project length, land quantum, and geographical location. MPLADS: Govt Flags Delays, Low Utilisation The statistics ministry holds quarterly and monthly meetings with states, Union Territories, and districts to review implementation of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh told Lok Sabha on Wednesday. For objective monitoring, regular pendency reports are shared with states and Union Territories, flagging works left unsanctioned for over 45 days, incomplete beyond one year of sanction, or unpaid for more than three months, he added. Of 538 constituencies across states and UTs, 61.5% had utilised less than 60% of their allocation, according to data shared by the minister. Utilisation largely depends on recommendations made by MPs and is also impacted by the model code of conduct during central, state, UT, and local body elections. Capping Apprentices The 38th meeting of the Central Apprenticeship Council (CAC) discussed a proposal to cap apprenticeship engagement at 25% of an establishment's workforce, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship Jayant Chaudhary told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. He said the issue needs further deliberation and was not put up for a decision. PANEL TO REFORM AIIMS NITI Aayog member VK Paul-led committee has been formed to create a roadmap to transform AIIMS, New Delhi, into a premier institution for medical research and practice, Rao Inderjit Singh, minister of state (independent charge), for ministry of planning, said on Wednesday in response to a question in Lok Sabha. This committee's mandate involves thoroughly examining the existing systems and processes at AIIMS and proposing significant reforms, he said.
