Giving an impetus to education, the government today proposed a full interest subsidy scheme on education loans for poor students pursuing technical and professional courses in approved institutes, and allocated Rs 2,113 crore (Rs 21.13 billion) for IITs and NITs across the country.
Presenting the Union Budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the interest subsidy scheme is expected to benefit nearly 5 lakh (500,000) students.
"To enable students from economically weaker sections to access higher education, it is proposed to introduce a scheme to provide them full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium," he said.
The scheme will cover loans taken by such students from scheduled banks to pursue any approved course in technical and professional streams at recognised institutes in the country.
However, only those students whose family income is less than Rs 4.5 lakh (Rs 450,000) per annum will be eligible under the scheme. These students will avail the benefit for a moratorium period which is one year from completion of the course or six months from joining a job, whichever is earlier.
Mukherjee said the government would allocate Rs 2,113 crore (Rs 21.13 billion) for IITs and NITs. This would include a provision of Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) for the new eight IITs and 10 NITs. The overall plan budget for higher education is proposed to be increased by Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) over the interim budget estimate, he said.
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