Rs 93,847.64 crore allocated for education sector in interim Budget

The Centre Friday earmarked Rs 93,847.64 crore for the education sector for 2019-20, an increase of over 10 per cent from the last budgetary allocation.

Last year, then finance minister Arun Jaitley had allocated Rs 85,010 crore for the education sector.

While Rs 37,461.01 crore has been allocated for higher education, Rs 56,386.63 crore has been earmarked for school education.

The government has made available more than Rs 17,000 crore using the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) funding mechanism, the HRD ministry said. It is anticipated that another Rs 14,000 crore 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 crore. Hence, the fund availability for 2019-20 is almost double as compared to the previous year, the ministry added.

The government has provided an additional equity of Rs 2,100 crore to HEFA to enable it to mobilise the required funds for ...