Feb 21^st 2022:  Addressing a webinar on the impact of the Budget on the education sector, PM Modi said 'internationalization' of education has been facilitated through the GIFT city mode.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Union Budget has laid down the path for arrival of world class foreign universities in India.

The Union budget has announced that World-class foreign universities and institutions will be allowed to operate in the GIFT City 'free from domestic regulations'. They will be permitted to offer courses in Financial Management, FinTech, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and only regulations applicable will be those by IFSCA - to facilitate availability of high-end human resources.

The PM said that there were five broad education-related interventions made in this year's budget: One, expansion of education with improved quality; two, a skill development ecosystem and due industry linkages. Three, the inclusion of India's ancient experience and knowledge of urban plan and design into education; four, internationalization and five, the promised Animation Visual Effects Gaming Comic (AVGV) will help generate employment.

He emphasised on the strong digital underpinnings of the 2022 budget and termed the announcement of the Digital University as a key step in the direction.

He further called upon the education ministry and stakeholder agencies to ensure that this develops as a global-level institute that ensures high quality educational access to all and does away with the problem of shortage of seats in institutes.

He also noted that it was strong digital connectivity that kept the country's education system going during the pandemic and measures like e-Vidya, One Class One Channel, digital labs, digital universities would further help develop an equitable and accessible educational infrastructure for the youth of the country.

"This is an attempt to provide better education solutions to villages, poor, Dalits, backwards and tribal people in the country's socio-economic set up," he said.

At the same time, said the PM, it was important to integrate digital learning tools and framework with Indian languages so that all students are on equal footing and can access quality learning material in their mother tongue.

He reminded that there was clear link between education in the medium of mother language and the mental development of children.

He added that the digital ecosystem for skilling and Livelihood and e-Skilling labs - announced in the budget- would also go a long way in harnessing India's 'demographic dividend' as per the demands of the changing job roles. The PM pointed out that this budget is crucial as it lays the path ahead for the 'amrit kaal'- leading to 100 years of Independence.

"In the context of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav and National Education, this is the first budget, which we want to implement quickly for laying down the foundation of the Amrit Kaal," said the PM.