Union Budget 2020: Rs 99,300 crore for education, focus on medical and online courses

The reason for announcing an apprenticeship-oriented approach to education is presumably in line with the government’s focus to ensure that Indian students are more skilled and employable.

"By 2030, India will have the largest working-age population in the world," Sitharaman said in her budget speech before making the announcements, "This population needs more job and life skills."

The finance minister also announced that a new education policy would be formulated and announced soon. "So far, two lakh suggestions have been received on the new education policy," she said.

The minister also announced that her government would launch a degree-level online education programme offered by top-100 ranked institutes listed in the HRD ministry’s National Institute Ranking Framework.

In keeping with budget 2019's big-bang announcements on the government's novel 'Study In India' programme, Sitharaman announced that Ind-SAT examinations would be held in Asian and African countries, so as to enable overseas students to apply to Indian institutions for academic programmes.

The finance minister also took cognizance of the human resource shortage in healthcare, before announcing some measures in the healthcare-academic space.

"There is a shortage of medical doctors — both general practitioners and specialists,” she said, “In keeping with this, a viability gap funding will be extended to attach a medical college to every hospital through a PPP model."

"The Skill Development ministry will begin bridge courses including language-requirement courses to address overseas demand for nurses, paramedics and caregivers," Sitharaman added.

In keeping with her government’s employability-first approach, Sitharaman said that skill-development would receive specific focus, in budgetary allocations. The minister added that urban local bodies would provide internship opportunities for graduate engineers for a year.

"A project preparation facility for infrastructure projects involving young engineers and management graduates will be set up," she said.