Tall claims of India’s position as a Knowledge Economy has actually dipped when compared to China, thanks to budgetary reduction and unspent balances in education.
While China’s Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) progressed from 2.86 in 1995 to 3.80 at present, India’s KEI dipped from 2.75 to 2.72.
The KEI, the World Bank says, is the average of the performance scores of a country in all the knowledge economy pillars including education, innovation and information infrastructure.
While the UPA government has declined to ensure Right to Education by asking the states to formulate their own laws, Central support for education has gone down by around 6 percentage points to Rs 16,026 crore, from Rs 17,128 crore in the current financial year.
Besides reduced allocation, unspent balances have also caused concern.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development said that out of a total Rs 78329.17 lakh as General Development Plan Grant to the University Grants Commission, only Rs 68205.41 lakh was released to the Central universities during the 10th Plan period. Only Rs 43992.62 lakh could be spent, leaving a balance of Rs 24212.79 lakh.
Performance of other universities or colleges in the states was equally poor.
The position in respect of the deemed universities was also not very encouraging. Out of Rs 8655.02 lakh for 26 universities, only Rs 4800.17 lakh was utilised.
At the moment, public spending on higher education per student in India stands at US $400 (Rs 18,000).
Figures released by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation show thatIndia has the lowest public expenditure on higher education per student among developing and developed countries.
Even among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, India is at the bottom. While China, Russia and Brazil spend $2,728, $1,024 and $3,986 respectively on higher education per student, another developing country Malayasia’s expenditure under the same head is quite high at US$ 11,790.
In primary education too, India is at the bottom of public spending per student at $7.2 per student.
