India’s education sector has several expectations from the Modi government’s Budget 2024, to be tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1st. Key hopes include increased funding for AI-based edtech, tax cuts on educational products/services, ramping up school infrastructure especially in rural areas, and boosting space programs plus existing institutes.
Experts advocate higher budgetary allocations for building robust digital infrastructure to improve e-learning access across India, including remote regions. Reduced GST rates would ease parents’ monetary burden. Public-private partnerships are suggested to drive large-scale transformation. Additionally, targeted investments in AI and emerging technologies are required for future-readiness, besides initiating upskilling programs and democratized tech access.
Other recommendations include special schemes to resurrect the pandemic-hit startup ecosystem, incentives for edtech product development, and mechanisms enabling better industry-academia collaboration. Overall, Budget 2024 must strategically channelize funds to embed AI across school to higher education, aligning with NEP 2020’s roadmap.
