India\u2019s latest budget has promised fresh investment in research infrastructure, but scholars warn this masks slower funding growth for universities and mounting financial pressures across the sector.<\/p>\n
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has confirmed The Ministry of Education budget will rise by 14.2 per cent in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
However, Narender Thakur, professor in the department of economics at the University of Delhi<\/a>, said that the real-terms increase was \u201ccloser to 12.5 per cent\u201d after accounting for inflation and \u201cmasks deeper problems\u201d in public funding.<\/p>\n He added that the actual education budget for 2025-26 was cut by 5.2 per cent, compared with the original estimate and so funding could be reduced further still.<\/p>\n Higher education, Thakur said, had benefited far less than the overall ministry allocation, rising by 8.5 per cent or 6.8 per cent in real terms.<\/p>\n He also highlighted pressure on public universities. Grants to central universities rose by just 1.5 per cent, which he said amounted to a real-terms decline and reflected \u201cno priority for public funded higher education<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Funding increases for central bodies<\/a>\u00a0were similarly modest, Thakur added, and allocations for the University Grants Commission rose only 5.2 per cent in real terms, while funding for the Indian Institutes of Technology increased by just 3.1 per cent in real terms.<\/p>\n Thakur was particularly critical of the government\u2019s continued reliance on student and institutional loans,\u00a0which he said would\u00a0lead to\u00a0higher costs for students and widening socio-economic inequality in higher education.<\/p>\n Alongside the funding allocations, Sitharaman announced the creation of five \u201cuniversity townships\u201d near major industrial and logistics corridors. Being seen as a new model of higher education, these are planned to host universities and research institutes near clusters of factories, ports and transport hubs.<\/p>\n The budget also pledged to establish one girls\u2019 hostel in every district to address challenges faced by female students, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields that require extended laboratory hours.<\/p>\n Additional measures included support for astronomy and astrophysics through the development or upgrading of four telescope facilities, including the National Large Solar Telescope and the Himalayan Chandra Telescope.<\/p>\n