FM Announces 5 National Centres of Excellence for Youth skilling, IITs Infra Expansion

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2025 presentation announced the set up of 5 National centers of excellence for skilling the youth and enabling them to utilise global employment opportunities. This move will further support the skilling and employment initiatives announced in the previous year’s budget.

The Finance Minister also announced the expansion of infrastructure in IITs to accommodate more students in these premier technological institutions. Over the past decade, the total student population across the 23 IITs has doubled from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh.

“Global skilling partnerships will enable India to become a key player in global manufacturing. Infrastructure in IITs established after 2015 will be expanded, creating space for an additional 6,500 students across five IITs. Additionally, a Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence in education will be set up with an allocation of ₹500 crore,” said Nirmala Sitharaman.

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This announcement follows the 2024 Budget, which introduced several schemes and investments to enhance skilling and employment opportunities for young people. Notably, the Prime Minister’s Internship (PMI) scheme was launched to provide internship opportunities to one crore youth over five years in India's top 500 companies.

The Budget 2024 also introduced the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) Scheme, which offered Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) benefits to employers and first-time employees enrolled in the program. Under this scheme, the government will reimburse employers’ EPFO contributions of up to ₹3,000 per month for two years for all new hires.