Higher education to get a leg-up with 18 new institutions

The NDA government on Saturday proposed establishing 18 new higher-education institutions to fulfil its electoral promise of having at least one central institute in a state.

On the other side of the skill development spectrum, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a national mission named Skill India, which seeks to impart the necessary skills among the youth that will make them employable.

“Less than 5 per cent of our potential workforce gets formal skill training to become and stay employable,” said Jaitley, insisting that the Skill India programme had to be dovetailed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India campaign.“India is one of the youngest nations in the world, with more than 54 per cent of the total population below 25 years of age. Our youngsters have to be both educated and employable for the jobs of the 21st century,” said Jaitley.

He also announced two new apprenticeship training institute for women in Haryana and Uttarakhand. On the higher-education front, Jaitley said six new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMSes) would be set up in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Assam. This would be the second AIIMS in Bihar, as one AIIMS is at an advanced stage of completion in Patna. These are in addition to the six AIIMSes under construction at the moment.

Jaitley announced a new Indian Institute of Technology in Karnataka, though the 13 new IITs announced earlier are yet to be fully functional. Eight were started by the UPA government in 2008, whereas the remaining five were announced by Jaitley last year.

On Saturday, the finance minister also announced creation of three new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, and two Indian Institutes of Science and Education Research, in Nagaland and Odisha. Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh would get two new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). These are in addition to the five new IIMs announced last year.

Arunachal Pradesh, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently flagged off an express train to connect the state to Delhi, will have a new Centre for Film Production, Animation and Gaming, which was envisaged during the UPA regime.

Jaitley also announced upgrade of the Indian School Of Mines, Dhanbad, to a full-fledged IIT, and transforming the National Institute of Speech and Hearing, Thiruvananthapuram, to a University of Disability Studies and Rehabilitation.