Budget 2023 | Grant for lab-grown diamonds to digital library, here is what FM offered students

Three Centres of Excellence (CoE) for artificial intelligence (AI) will be set up in top educational institutions.

The education industry has hailed announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2023-24 to boost learning, especially among children and adolescents.

The minister set aside a record Rs 1,12,899 crore for education in the Budget 2023, which is Rs 8,621 crore more than the budget estimate for 2022-23 and translates to nearly 8.26 growth when compared to the previous budget estimate (BE) of Rs 1,04,278 crore.

A research grant will be provided to one of the IITs for five years to encourage the indigenous production of lab-grown diamonds, the minister said. As per CRISIL, the segment has seen a steep 54 percent growth in exports on-year and accounted for 5 percent of total diamond exports YTD23.

Further, the government will launch the PM Kaushal Vikaas Yoajna 4.0 to skill the Indian youth in new-age courses for Industry 4.0 in the next three years, Sitharama said.

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Skills in focus will include coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, 3D, printing, drones, IoT and soft skills.

“The government's focus on the skill development of India's potential youth talent through initiatives like NEP, PMKVY 4.0 for skilling in niche new-age technologies like 5G, AI, 3D printing, drones, coding, mechatronics, robotics, and IoT draws further impetus to the ongoing efforts. Blue and grey-collar job demand in India grew by up to four-fold in 2022," said Arvind Bali, CEO of Telecom Sector Skill Council.

"Apart from skill development, the government has focused a lot on training and research by opening a centre for the excellence of AI and labs for 5G. I am certain this will help a lot with entrepreneurship and many youngsters will come with their startups," said Dr Hari Shankar Shyam, Professor of Management at Sharda University.Follow our live blog for the latest Budget 2023 updates 

National Digital Library

The minister announced that a National Digital Library for children and adolescents will be set up to ensure the availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels, which would be device agnostic.

"States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries at panchayat and ward level and provide infrastructure and accessing the National Digital Library resources," the FM said.

The National Digital Library for children and adolescents will give a boost to the edtech sector, said Aarul Malviya, Founder, of edtech startup Zamit. "..it will create a digital ecosystem in the education sector and encourage digital education. It will largely benefit the students who are lagging due to the pandemic," Malviya said.

Focus on new-age skills

Three Centres of Excellence (CoE) for artificial intelligence (AI) will be set up in top educational institutions. Industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, and develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health, and sustainable cities.

The announcement of opening three AI centres in some of the top educational institutions is very timely, said Vivek Kathpalia, Managing Director & CEO – Singapore, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. "The government needs to urgently supplement and support the work the private sector is doing in the AI space. China is leading us and most of the world in the AI race and we need to catch up fast.”

The Centre will also recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for 748 Eklavya Model Residential Schools in the next three years.