'There is scope for education tourism, there should be a roadmap': PM Modi in post-budget webinar

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday addressing a post-Budget webinar said that “there is scope for education tourism, there should be a roadmap”. PM Modi also said that “the vision of investing in people stands on three pillars: education, skill, and healthcare”.

The theme of the webinar was "Investing in People, Economy, and Innovation," which defines the roadmap for Viksit Bharat. Describing this year's budget as “a blueprint for India's future”, he urged all the stakeholders to come forward in the capacity building and talent nurturing foundation for the country's progress.

During his virtual address, he reiterated that 3 crore youths have received skills training since 2014. He also highlighted the government’s plans for expansion of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), integration of artificial intelligence in education, setting up of five centres of excellence, and upgrading 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs).

The government will also provide 10,000 research fellowships for students in IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, he added.

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Key initiatives for education

“Youth training should be such that they can fulfill the needs of industry. India will take help from global experts to ensure our youths can compete at the global level,” PM Modi said at the video conference. Indicating that the industry and academia have important roles in education, the prime minister said that both must understand each other's needs and fulfil them.

He also said that Rs 1 lakh crore corpus will be disbursed for research and innovation as part of the urban challenge fund. The government will also introduce a national large language model, he added.

The Prime Minister concluded his speech by expressing gratitude and said that India has become the world’s third largest startup ecosystem in the world. Touching upon the medical field, he mentioned the addition of 10,000 new medical seats in this budget and a target of adding 75,000 seats in the medical field over the next five years.

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on February 1 announced that the education sector will get a total outlay of Rs 1.28 lakh crore for the financial year 2025-26.