IISERs get biggest budget boost; IITs, NITs get short end of the stick in Union Budget 2022

At a time when the National Education Policy is being promoted vigorously across the education sector, the Union Budget 2022 provided a considerable push to the higher education institutions funded by the Centre. While the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) got the highest hike in budgetary allocation of almost 46 per cent, the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) got a decent hike of about 37 per cent.

But the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), one of the top set of institutes in the country, only saw a 10.53 per cent increase in its budget allocation — from Rs 7686.02 crore allocated in Union Budget 2021 to Rs 8495 crore. The IIMs saw a rise of 37.38 per cent in budget allocation — Rs 653.92 crore from just Rs 476 crore in Budget 2021. Similarly, the IIITs saw a hike in allocation from Rs 393.35 crore to Rs 542.52 crore — 37.92 per cent. National Institute of Technology (NITs) along with the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur shared a similar fate as the IITs — a 10.9 per cent rise from last year's Rs 3935 crore to Rs 4364 crore this year. The IISERs' allocation obviously stands out at 45.83 per cent, a colossal jump from Rs 946 crore to Rs 1379.53 crore.

But this does not paint the entire picture. While a comparison with the previous location gives us an idea of how much these institutes will be able to invest in education, we also need to see whether they were able to spend the sum allotted last year properly and how that has affected their this year's allocation. All the institute chains have been able to spend more than what was allocated last year except for NITs who fall short by 5.99 per cent. The IITs and IIITs exceeded their budget by 8.57 per cent and 3.56 pent each, while IIMs went 36.76 per cent over what was allotted and IISERs stood in the middle of the table with their spending being 18.50 per cent higher than allocated.

Historically, the IITs have got a chunk of the allocations also because they are higher in number. But since 2020-21, the IIITs have got the most boost in terms of allocation — 59.95 per cent.

It is also important to note here that many of these centrally-funded institutions have a high number of vacancies and the Ministry of Education has asked them to fill up the seats in mission mode by September 2022. Now, we'd have to wait and watch to see if a major chunk of these allotments to towards fresh recruitments and whether this will smoothen the process.