Education and skill development have received much attention in this Budget, making ?empowerment through knowledge? a true value. The education sector has got 20% more funds this time, from Rs 28,674 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 34, 400 crore in 2008-09.

Says Atul Chauhan, Chancellor, Amity University, ?The focus on education in this Budget has been very positive. A 20% hike is very good. It was expected to be a populist Budget.? Chauhan, however, has one grouse: ?Education loans for students should have figured in the Budget.?

The allocation for education has gone up from 0.61% of the GDP (last Budget) to 0.65%.

A shortage of skilled human resource will be the biggest deterrent to the country?s speedy development, says a recent McKinsey report.

The sectors expected to drive jobs are manufacturing, IT&ITeS, retail, communication and transport. The manufacturing sector accounts for about 15% of GDP, while the share of the services in the GDP has increased to 56% in 2006-07.

The need to vocationalise education is higher than before.

Says Jagdish Khattar, former managing director, Maruti Udyog Ltd, ?The government has finally realised the need for skilling its population. The skill gap in the corporate sector is so high that it will have to come forward and help. It is a win-win situation. Maruti Udyog has been working with four industrial training institutes across the country to upgrade skills for the auto sector.?

According to reports of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Ministry of Labour & Employment, though India has over 65% of its population below the age of 26, only 5% of the labour force in the age group of 20-24 years has obtained vocational skills through the formal system. This percentage is between 60% and 96% in industrialised countries. Almost 63% of school students drop out at different stages before reaching Class X. While only about 25 lakh vocational training seats are available in India, about 1.28 crore people enter the labour market every year.

Most school dropouts do not have access to skill development; this reduces their chances of employability. In the last Budget speech, finance minister P Chidambaram had announced that the government had taken up a programme for upgrading 500 industrial training institues (ITIs) over five years, starting from 2005.

He had said: ?Revised courses in the first lot of 100 upgraded ITIs were started in August 2005 and in the second lot of 100 upgraded ITIs in August 2006. I expect that another 300 ITIs will be covered by August 2009. That would still leave out 1,396 government ITIs. I propose that the 1,396 ITIs be upgraded into centres of excellence in specific trades and skills under public-private partnership.?

Meanwhile, IT and BPO sector could employ 90 lakh people by 2010, according to a Nassscom-McKinsey Report 2006. Manufacturing is expected to create 2.5 crore jobs in the next decade.

According to a recent CII-ICRIER study on higher education in India, the global IT offshoring market is to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore, of which India may be able to garner Rs 60 crore by 2010. The report also mentions that India could achieve Rs 16, 500 crore in merchandise trade by 2009-10, creating an additional 2.1 crore jobs.

However, only 10% look to getting into research?a primary need for all industries for their future growth. Meanwhile, the additional 1% secondary education cess announced in last year?s Budget is reported to have generated an additional revenue of Rs 5,300 crore, according to government sources. The 2% education cess levied through the Finance Act 2004, yielded Rs 8, 748 crore in 2006-07, used primarily to finance the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (Education for All) scheme.

Last year, a Ma Foi survey (Global Search Services) predicted that over 10 lakh jobs would be created across sectors in India. Despite its 100-crore population, imparting the right skills for an emerging market will test the country?s institutions of learning.

As for higher education, the government aims to increase the enrolment rate, from10% of the population at the end of the Tenth Plan (2007), to 15% by 2011-12 in the Eleventh Plan. India has come a long way from the 1950s, when the enrolment rate in higher education was a mere 0.7%.

The finance minister has announced the settting up of 16 central varsities in various parts of the country as also three IITs.

A special grant of Rs 100 crore has been announced for Delhi University, University of Mysore and the agricultural university in Pune. Says Hema Raghavan, former dean of students? welfare, Delhi University, ?This is a positive. Focus should be on implementation. It is also necessary to focus on quality rather than infrastructure.?

Even a 5% net increase in the number of enrolments will lead to an increase of about 84 lakh students during the period 2007-12.

Of this, about 50 lakh will be in general education and the remaining in technical and professional education.