Maharashtra Budget: Key scholarship scheme loses 82% funds; cuts across schemes for poor students in higher ed

The Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Tuition Fee Scholarship Scheme, Maharashtra's flagship programme to provide financial aid to poor students pursuing higher education, has had its funds cut by almost 82% in the state's budget for the financial year 2026-27.

Even as the state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the finance department, announced a few new programmes, including developing eight to 10 'educational cities', the state's higher and technical education budget has been docked by around 6%. While a leaner scholarship programme accounts for the bulk of the reduced outlay, the state has also trimmed grants for universities and colleges. The school budget, however, has grown by 3.5% over fiscal year 2025-26, while the revised estimates for the school and higher and technical education departments have been brought down by around 6.7% and 10.4%, respectively.

Devendra Fadnavis presented the annual budget in the state legislature on Friday.

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Maharashtra: Schools get more, higher ed faces cuts

The state has earmarked Rs 89,240 crore for the school education department, up from Rs 86,220 crore and Rs 80,408 crore proposed in the budget estimate and revised estimate, respectively, for the current year. The higher and technical education department, on the other hand, got Rs 15,604 crore, almost Rs 1,000 crore less than the current year's Rs 16,678 crore. The revised estimate for 2025-26 has further been reduced to Rs 14,943 crore.

While the state's revenue expenditure -- which covers the recurring expenses -- on the broad 'Education, Sports, Art and Culture' head has slightly increased in absolute terms from Rs 1.05 lakh crore to Rs 1.07 lakh crore, its share in the overall revenue expenditure has dipped by a percentage point from 17.4% to 16.4%.

The capital expenditure -- which funds the new developmental projects -- on the head has been cut from Rs 865 crore to Rs 764 crore. The 'general education' component of the broad head has gained around Rs 2,784 crore, even as the 'technical education' component has lost around Rs 919 crore.

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MahaDBT Scholarships: Tuition fee, law, teacher training

The Tuition Fee Scholarship, disbursed through the MahaDBT portal, mahadbt.maharashtra. gov.in, has witnessed the biggest cut, with its outlay reduced from Rs 1,821 crore to a mere Rs 322 crore. The dip comes despite the state increasing the revised estimate for the programme in the current year to Rs 1,877 crore, and actually spending Rs 1,539 crore in 2024-25, indicating a strong demand for the programme.

While the proposed spending on the students pursuing technical courses, such as engineering, management, architecture and pharmacy, has been slashed from Rs 1,681 crore to Rs 322 crore, the Rs 140 crore existing budget for higher education programmes, including law and teacher training courses, has been entirely wiped out.

Under the scheme, the state waives either half or full tuition and examination fees -- depending on the course, college management type, gender and income level -- of students with family income less than Rs 8 lakh.

While the existing scholarship programme has been decimated, the state has allocated Rs 464 crore towards a new financial aid programme meant for the poor female students pursuing professional courses, which was announced during the run-up to the state assembly elections in 2024. The scheme provides for 100% fee waiver to girls who have a family income less than Rs 8 lakh and are pursuing professional courses.

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Hostel scheme, government colleges face cuts

Other programmes facing the prospects of underfunding include Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Hostel Subsistence Allowance Scheme, which pays for maintenance allowance given to economically weak hostellers. While the budgetary allocation for the scheme has increased from this year's Rs 145 crore to Rs 266 crore, it's significantly less than Rs 465 spent in 2024-25, and the Rs 345 crore expected to be spent in the current year under the revised estimates. The scholarship amount for studying abroad has been more than halved from Rs 40 crore to a mere Rs 15 crore.

The state also plans to spend less on the government-run colleges and higher education institutes, with the expenditure under this head brought down from Rs 500 crore to Rs 348 crore. While the budgeted financial support for non-government institutes has been reduced marginally from Rs 10,137 crore to Rs 10,128 crore, the revised estimate for these grants have been slashed to Rs 8,326 crore. The assistance to universities, too, has been trimmed from Rs 1,213 crore to Rs 1,193 crore. The budget cuts come despite the state’s plans to resume the long-awaited teacher recruitment for colleges and universities.

Maharashtra Budget: Public health institute, foreign campuses

The cuts in higher education budget stand in contrast to the government's ambitious plan of creating educational hubs around the state to attract national and international students. In his budget speech, Fadnavis informed that the state has signed agreements with six international universities, which will set up their campuses in a 'Educity' planned in the vicinity of the Navi Mumbai International Airport. These varsities will start their educational programmes this year, he said.

He also announced the plans to create a "Maharashtra Public Health Institution" in Nagpur which will be a premier institution like AIIMS and IIM Nagpur, with the aim of "comprehensive upliftment of public health" and "high-quality training and research". CM also informed that 'Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Incubation Centers' are being established in all four agricultural universities in the state to give a "big boost" to agri-startups.

The budget speech also included the plan to create 36 "Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Development Centres" to provide quality vocational skill training to the differently-abled persons to make them employable and increase self-reliance.The financial assistance to disabled beneficiaries under various schemes has been increased from Rs 1,500 to Rs. 2,500 per month, the chief minister informed.