Union Budget 2022: Education And Creating Employment

Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India, Nirmala Sitharam announced an increase of 11.86 per cent in the education budget in 2022, along with initiatives to ensure education is accessible and affordable to everyone. The announcement also that ‘Make In India’ can provide millions of jobs, while emphasising the need to invest in skill development and building infrastructure. These initiatives, if executed Properly can create many blue collars and white-collar jobs. 

Six Million Jobs 

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme of the Centre has the potential to create 60 lakh or six million new jobs in the next five years. Viswanath PS, MD & CEO, Randstad India, commended the announcement for addressing the employment need of the nation. He states, “You always need an ambition, then gets your direction right and then you need to accelerate.” Commenting further that the budget announcement ensures that there is something for everyone, with the infrastructure projects, the blue-collar sector will see demand, along with the PLI Scheme; task force on AVCG to help serve global market demands and a strong focus on MSMEs. 

Sashi Kumar, Head Sales, Indeed.com comments that the budget focused on the right areas, “government enabling the creating of six million jobs, investment on infrastructure always spurs huge employment, and focus on skill development are all steps in the right direction.” Kumar adds that this has been a great start of the year for fresh graduates, citing that 86 per cent of companies are hiring freshers, a positive step towards reducing youth unemployment and skill-building for graduates beginning their careers. 

Focus on Skilling 

The launch of the DESH Stack e-portal was one of the most significant announcements in the skilling and education sector along with the digital university announcement to reach all households with personalised education in the regional language of India. Sidharrth Shankar, Equity Partner, JSA points out that while the announcement indicates that the portal alongside the PLI Scheme  “will definitely create jobs, there is a lot to be done on the education side.” Shankar elaborated that the implementation of NEP 2020 needs to be fast-tracked, for-profit education opened up, issues of device shortages across the country, availability and access to the internet needs to be addressed, and while the fine print remains to be seen, there was nothing spoken on EdTech, an important aspect of post-pandemic education. 

Execution is key 

Over the year many incentives have been taken by the government, ultimately it is the execution that will determine the success of schemes. Sekhar Garisa, CEO, of Monster.com, comments that from an investment perspective the budget announcement met expectations. Furthermore, while the government is in the right direction, the execution of the plans remains to be seen. However, “once the government starts putting this into the mainstream conversation, good things are bound are to happen, for example accepting that a digital currency exists is a step in the right direction, AVCG, DESH-Stack, etc. are all starting the right conversations.” 

The Union Budget 2022  announcement is only the first step to achieving quality and accessible education and employment across the board. While FM Nirmala Sitharam has addressed several pressing concerns regarding skilling and long term employment, the official document and moreover, the execution of these plans will ultimately determine the outcome and remains to be seen. 

Vasudha Mukherjee

BW Reporters The author works with BW Education