In order to provide qualitative education for all total Budget allocation for the HRD Ministry in interim Budget 2019-20 is Rs. 93,847.64 crore which is more than 10,000 crore from previous year budget allocation.

The total budget allocation proposed in the BE 2019-20 for Higher Education is Rs.37,461 Cr. This is 7% compared to allocation of Rs.35,010 Cr  for this sector in BE 2018-19.  The Government has therefore enhanced allocation to the Higher Education by Rs.2,450 Cr.

Apart from this, Government has made available more than Rs.17,000 Cr using the HEFA funding mechanism. It is anticipated that another Rs. 14,000 Cr will be made available in the coming year through this window. The overall fund availability for the Higher Education Sector for 2019-20 would therefore be Rs. 69,193.68 Cr (Rs. 37,461.01 + Rs. 17,732.67 Cr  HEFA sanctioned projects + Rs. 14,000 Cr anticipated new sanctions through HEFA) in the year 2019-20. Therefore the fund availability for 2019-20 is almost double as compared to the last year.

2.         Government has provided an additional equity of Rs.2,100 Cr to HEFA to enable it to mobilise the required funds for building high quality infrastructure in higher educational institutions. Details of the funds made available through HEFA is enclosed.  

3.         The following are the major features of the budget allocation for the higher education sector:

The IITs have been allocated Rs. 6,223 Cr. Apart from this, projects valued at Rs.12,028 Cr have been sanctioned from HEFA for the IITs. It is expected that there will be more projects that would come under HEFA in the coming year. Taking these into account, the fund availability for the IITs has more than doubled for 2019-20 as compared to the previous year.

The Central Universities have been provided Rs. 6,484 Cr.  UGC has been allocated another Rs.4900 Cr.  

There has been major increase in the flagship programmes such as RUSA where budget allocation has been increased by 50% from Rs.1400 Cr to Rs.2,100 Cr. 

There has been 245% increase in the allocation for quality improvement programme in Technical Education (TEQIP-III). 

The fund allocation for setting up new IIMs and new Schools of Planning & Architecture, World class institutions have been given very high increases in the budget allocations.

For research programmes such as IMPRESS, Rs.130 Cr has been allotted marking an increase of 37% compared to last year. 

In accordance with the commitments for improving skill levels among the students, the allocation for skill based programmes has been increased from Rs.40 Cr to Rs.125 Cr. 

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, under which 10,000 villages have been adopted by the Higher Educational Institutions, has got 70% increase in budget allocation, reiterating the faith of Govt in linking educational institutions with Society.