Union Finances FY26: What India’s youth need is their proper to schooling (and jobs)
India’s gross expenditure on analysis and growth (GERD) can be low, at round 0.7 per cent of the GDP, lagging behind different BRICS international locations and much beneath the worldwide common of 1.8 per cent.
This power underinvestment interprets to dilapidated labs, minimal fellowships and a scarcity of cutting-edge analysis amenities. No Indian college seems within the high 100 of any international rating, underscoring the long-term penalties of budgetary neglect.
With no vital enhance in analysis funding, the mind drain will persist, and our nation will proceed to lose its brightest minds to international locations that provide higher infrastructure, pay and alternatives for innovation.
The rhetorical emphasis in final yr’s finances speech on cutting-edge areas— corresponding to AI, robotics or digital skilling — might have sounded visionary, however the floor actuality has been grim. In lots of state-run universities, even core science laboratories lack fundamental gear.
Guarantees had been made, however the precise launch of funds remained sluggish, forcing establishments to function on shoestring budgets.
In the meantime, college students proceed to bear the brunt of underfunded programmes. Scholarships for marginalised communities, for instance, have scarcely stored tempo with tuition hikes, thereby exacerbating inequity inside increased schooling.
Unemployment: The most important elephant within the room
Final yr’s finances made grand claims of producing jobs, however official and personal estimates proceed to color a bleak image.
The CMIE information highlights a 9.2 per cent unemployment price, with youth being disproportionately affected. The frenzy of aggressive exams — the place hundreds of thousands apply for only a few thousand vacancies — demonstrates how dire the state of affairs is.
Whereas the final finances made the customary and token point out of ‘employment alternatives’, these had been largely aspirational. There have been no focused programmes to handle the acute joblessness amongst contemporary graduates, nor any actual incentives to bridge the hole between tutorial curricula and business calls for.
