Budget 2022: Digital University to be established to provide access to students across the country

Feb. 1: Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget in Parliament today for the financial year 2022-23.

Dwelling on the subject of Skill development and Quality Education, the Finance Minister said that Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ through varied applications and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS). In select ITIs, in all states, the required courses for skilling will be started. In vocational courses, to promote crucial critical thinking skills, to give space for creativity, 750 virtual labs in science and mathematics, and 75 skilling e-labs for simulated learning environment, will be set-up in 2022-23.

She said that due to the pandemic-induced closure of schools, children, particularly in the rural areas, and those from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and other weaker sections, have lost almost 2 years of formal education and mostly, these are children in government schools. Thus to impart supplementary teaching and to build a resilient mechanism for education delivery, the Finance Minister informed that ‘one class-one TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels and this will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1-12.

A Digital University will be established to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats. The University will be built on a networked hub-spoke model, with the hub building cutting edge ICT expertise. The best public universities and institutions in the country will collaborate as a network of hub-spokes.