New Delhi: Visionary Modi's Aspirational Budget

New Delhi: Amidst the economy struggling with a six-year low GDP growth, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget 2020 on Saturday that focused on raising the purchasing power by cutting income tax rates and boosting rural income.

This was the longest Budget speech by any finance minister, going beyond 2 hour 30 minutes. Sitharaman, 60, broke her own record of a 2-hour-17-minute-long maiden Budget speech in July 2019.

The Finance Minister announced a Rs 99,300 crore allocation for education, tagging it as one of the key points of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of "Aspirational India". Rs 3,000 crore was earmarked for skill development.

The outlay marked a big hike over the revised Rs 94,853.64-crore earmarked for the education sector in the 2019-20 fiscal. "The Third point under Aspirational India is Education and Skills. Education needs greater inflow of finance," the minister said, while presenting the Union budget for 2020-2021 in Parliament.

She proposed a number of projects -- including a forensic science university, degree-level online programmes by top 100 institutions, and what she called a "bridge course by the Health Ministry to meet the huge demand abroad for teachers, nurses, paramedical staff and caregivers. The urban local bodies across the country will provide one-year internships to engineering students.

'Under Study in India' programme, an INDSAT exam is proposed for Asian and African students, the Finance Minister said. It would be used to benchmark foreign students who wish to pursue higher education in India, she added.

Last year, the Finance Minister had announced a 'Study in India' programme aimed at attracting foreign students to the country, pitching it as a key model to attract revenue.