New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced to set up 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs in government schools in the next five years.
This initiative has been taken to cultivate the spirit of curiosity and innovation and foster a scientific temper among young minds.
The Union Budget also proposes to provide broadband connectivity to all government secondary schools and primary health centres in rural areas under the BharatNet project.
In the higher education sector, the Union Budget 2025-26 says that the total number of students in 23 IITs has increased 100 per cent from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh in the past 10 years.
While presenting the Union Budget 2025-26 in Parliament on Saturday, Finance Minister Sitharaman said that additional infrastructure will be created in the five IITs started after 2014 to facilitate education for 6,500 more students.
Hostel and other infrastructure capacity at IIT, Patna will also be expanded.
To help students understand their subjects better, FM Sitharaman has proposed to implement a Bharatiya Bhasha Pustak Scheme to provide digital-form Indian language books for school and higher education.
The Union Finance Minister also announced to setting up of five National Centres of Excellence for skilling with global expertise and partnerships to equip youth with the skills required for "Make for India, Make for the World" manufacturing.
The partnerships will cover curriculum design, training of trainers, a skills certification framework, and periodic reviews.
The Union Budget also announced setting up a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education with a total outlay of Rs 500 crore.
While presenting the Union Budget, FM Sitharaman announced the allocation of Rs 20,000 crore to implement private sector-driven research, development and innovation.
In the next five years, under the PM Research Fellowship scheme, the provision of 10,000 fellowships for technological research in IITs and IISc with enhanced financial support is also proposed in the Budget.
Finance Minister Sitharaman has also proposed various development measures for nurturing innovation.