New-Age, Cutting Edge: Education gets digital, AI push

Union Budget 2023-24 presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Futuristic plans for education, including teachers’ training, a National Digital Library for children and adolescents, three Centres of Excellence for artificial intelligence (AI), and an upskilling programme for the youth, were announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech yesterday. Along with this, there will also be a focus on new-age courses in coding, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, and drones.

With the New Education Policy (NEP) being implemented, Indian education has been undergoing a revamp for the past few years. The NEP includes matters like the introduction of foreign universities.

The budget has allocated a record Rs 1.12 lakh crore for education this year, up by about 8 percent from last year.

While school education has been allocated Rs 68,804.85 crore, higher education has received Rs 44,094.62 crore. Of this, an amount of Rs 1,500 crore has been kept aside for the setting up of ‘world-class institutions’ of higher education, and Rs 420 crore will be used to give a push to digital learning by setting up virtual classrooms and digital libraries.

Teachers’ training is set to be re-envisioned through innovative pedagogy, curriculum transaction, continuous professional development, dipstick surveys, and ICT implementation. “The District Institutes of Education and Training will be developed as vibrant institutes of excellence for this purpose,” announced Sitharaman during her speech.

The National Digital Library for children and adolescents will be set up to facilitate the availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres, and education levels. States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries for children and adolescents at panchayat and ward levels and provide the infrastructure for accessing the National Digital Library resources.

Additionally, to make up for pandemic-time learning loss, the National Book Trust, Children’s Book Trust, and others will be encouraged to provide non-curricular titles in regional languages and English to these physical libraries. “Collaboration with NGOs that work in literacy will also be a part of this initiative. To inculcate financial literacy, financial sector regulators and organisations will be encouraged to provide age-appropriate reading material to these libraries,” the FM said.

She also announced the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, which aims to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years.

“On-job training, industry partnership, and alignment of courses with the needs of the industry will be emphasised. The scheme will also cover new-age courses for Industry 4.0, like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, and drones, as also soft skills. To skill the youth for international opportunities, 30 Skill India International Centres will be set up across different states,” the Finance Minister has explained.

In order to realise the vision of ‘Make AI in India and Make AI work for India,’ three Centres of Excellence for AI will be set up in top educational institutions. Leading industry players will be asked to partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, and develop cutting-edge applications and scalable solutions in the areas of agriculture, health, and sustainable cities. “This will galvanise an effective AI ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in the field,” added Sitharaman.

The announcements have been welcomed by those working in the field.

“With its tech talent, India is well-placed to take the lead in developing AI solutions for the world. These centres can help catalyse the ecosystem, especially for developing AI solutions for socially relevant causes and public service use cases. The centres should also play a pivotal role in building a robust regulatory framework for India, as AI-led technologies will require a new look at our regulatory and policy outlook,” said Rohit Kumar, Founding Partner of The Quantum Hub, a public policy firm.

“The government's commitment to empowering the youth by introducing mandatory courses in areas such as AI, coding, drones, IoT, 3D printing, and establishing 30 Skill India international centres, will connect skilled youth with employers and leaders in the industry and encourage entrepreneurship,” said Nilesh Patel, Founder and CEO, LeadSquared, a software-as-a-service company.