Union Budget 2020: Government to set up IIT-like university under the Ministry of Culture for archaeology students

The government is set to establish an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation under the Ministry of Culture soon and the institute will be a deemed university to start with, said the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget at the Lok Sabha on Saturday. "Acquisition of knowledge in disciplines like archaeology, museology is essential for collecting scientific evidence and then dissemination through museums is necessary," added the FM.

She also said that five archaeological sites will be developed as world-class sites — Rakhigarhi, Haryana; Hastinapur, UP; Sivasagar, Assam; Dholavira, Gujarat; Adichanallur, Tamil Nadu. A tribal museum was also proposed in Ranchi. Rs 3,150 crore has been allocated for the Ministry of Culture in 2020-21 and Rs 25,000 crore for tourism. The FM also stated that India's tourism sector grew at a rate from 7.8 per cent to 1.88 lakh crore from 1.75 lakh crore.

The FM kicked off the Union Budget on February 1, 2020, at 11 am. This budget is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second opportunity in seven months to refresh policy priorities to support an economy on a downward spiral. The Economic Survey that was released on January 31, a day before, projected India's economic growth at 6 per cent to 6.5 per cent in the next financial year starting April 1, saying growth has bottomed out. The growth in 2020-21 compares to a projected 5 per cent expansion in 2019-20.

Weak global growth impacting India, as well as investment slowdown due to financial sector issues, had led to growth dropping to a decade low in current fiscal, said the survey, adding 5 per cent growth projected for 2019-20 is the lowest it could fall for now.