India Budget: Skill India Mission trained 1.4 crore youth, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Budget: FM announces plans to increase milk, dairy production

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman  on February 1 said that the  Central government's Skill India Mission has trained 1.4 crore youth and upskilled 54 lakh youth.

Yuva or youth is one of the four key pillars of the government's 2024 Union Budget focus. The other focus areas will be gareeb (poor), mahilayein (women) and annadata (farmers), Sitharaman said during her Union Budget 2024 speech.

See the Budget LIVE blog here

"Skill India Mission has trained 1.4 crore youth, upskilled and reskilled 54 lakh youth," she added.

Sitharaman also mentioned that the government has "established 3,000 ITIs and large institutions of higher learning including 7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs and 15 AIIMs and 390 universities have been set up."

The government also increased the budget allocation for PM Shri Schools for 2025 to Rs 6,050 crore, up from Rs 4,000 crore in 2024.

As compared to 2014, the number of  Indian Institute Of Technology (IITs) grew from 16 to 23 in 2023. The number of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) went up to 22 as of 2022 from  just 7 in 2014. Overall, other universities grew to 1,113 in 2023, from 723 in 2014.

The government has also been launching several initiatives and programmes focussed on upskilling youth and  improving job opportunities. In September 2023, the government also unveiled the Skill India Digital Platform to bring all skilling initiatives under a single umbrella and provide skill development and entrepreneurial support to people.

More than 264 skilling courses from 42,623 centres from across the country will be available under the platform, which will also provide opportunities for job exchange, apprenticeship, and entrepreneurship.