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The Union Budget for this fiscal year was announced on 1^st February 2018. Here is a look at all the aspects concerning the student varsity of India.

Economists and critics have had their opinions about the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s last budget before the 2019 elections. Let us look at how education fared in Arun Jaitley’s last budget which mainly focuses on the agricultural sector.

1 lakh Crore will be invested in RISE (Revitalisating of Infrastructure and System of Education) till 2022 aiming to improve the state of quality education and infrastructure of such institutions. Similarly, Eklavya schools will be opened in areas of more than 50% tribal citizens. The real question is whether this money will be fully utilized in these missions or will the future generation of India still grapple with low standards of education in its government schools. According to studies, the quality of education in the already established government schools is abysmal and students often drop out.

18 autonomous Schools of Planning and Architecture will be made in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institute of Technology (NIT) across the country. In the latest Prime Minister Fellows Scheme, 1000 B.Tech students of premier institutions will be selected to pursue their PhDs from IITs and IISs. They would be provided with handsome fellowships and be expected to teach in high schools for a couple of hours every week. This scheme would help scholars having limited means improve their job and future prospects. A Railway University will also be set up at Vadodara, Gujarat.

12.56 Crore rupees have been allocated for scholarships for students with disability. Government teacher training will also be provided to improve the quality of education in government. schools. The focus and benefits for startups are likely to create more jobs in the economy.

The government’s decision to reduce Employees’ Provident Fund from 12% to 8% is not an intelligent move as it decreases the employee’s retirement money as well as interest that could have been earned. No focus has been paid to construction of more medical colleges and availability of easy student loans.

The budget is not inclusive of all students and does not benefit them equally. The students’ votes would depend on how well the government performed during these past four years overall and how well it helped boost our economy. The economy is a vital tool in the functioning of any country, considering the fact that approximately 50% of the population is below the age of 25, the economy must cater to students due to abundance in numbers.

Feature Image Credits: The Financial Express

Prachi Mehra

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Let’s face it; the world is a complete mess. Whereas 2015 may have brought some you individual joy and accomplishment it really wasn’t a good year for humanity in general. In addition to natural disasters, the rise of the Islamic State and the Syrian refugee crisis, (and then there’s Donald Trump of course) 2015 ended on a pretty horrid note for the global economy as well. One doesn’t necessarily need to be a student of economics to understand just how many factors across the world are playing a role in worsening economic conditions and financial markets. While many economists are talking of the “next financial crisis” some relatively more optimistic ones claim that the situation “could be worse”.

So what exactly happened? For starters after the 2008-09 financial crisis, economists expected emerging-market countries often called developing countries to start growing and uplift the global economy, which is what was happening until many of these economies started slowing down and suffering set backs. Whereas this isn’t true for all developing countries at the moment (India being an obvious exception), Brazil and Russia falling into recession, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey plagued with high levels of short term debt and China’s worst slowdown in decades as a result of its transition from manufacturing and investment to services and consumption (among other things) are factors that are cause for concern to say the least.

Simultaneously Europe continues to try and tackle the Syrian refugee crisis and fight its economic woes at the same time. Whereas the EU managed to avoid a meltdown over Greece last July, it continues to face the risk of debt crisis, turbulent political conditions, aging populations and slow productivity growth. The only seemingly saving grace for the continent at the moment is that oil prices continue to remain low and currencies weak keeping the economy on a positive (although not exactly strong) growth trajectory. The situation in the US may be better than what is was eight years ago but the US cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the events taking place around the globe. The weakening global economy may not have been as significant to them had the US economy been booming but till date it remains quite average with American citizens and firms still recovering in some ways from the financial crisis. However as the nation gradually emerges from recession and the Federal Reserve Bank plans on raising its rates of interest after nearly ten years emerging markets will take an additional hit as investment will start flowing away from them and towards the US once again.

Thus it is nearly impossible to give a concrete picture of the global economic situation at any one point in time because of its volatile and unpredictable nature. With commodity prices collapsing, political conditions changing, economies slowing and investment fluctuating the only thing that can be said with any certainty is that 2016 does not show any indications of being a quiet year .

Featured Image Credits: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

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