Odisha Budget: New Scholarship Schemes For Education Sector, Students to be Taught New Technologies

The Odisha government proposed several new initiatives for the education sector in the annual budget for the fiscal year 2023-24, which was presented in the state assembly on Friday by Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari. The state administration has suggested financial rewards and scholarships for pupils. As part of the Mukhya Mantri Medhabi Chhatrabruti Yojana,’ the state government will be providing Rs 10,000 annually to meritorious undergraduate students in the state.

Under the scheme, 5000 eligible PG students would receive an annual scholarship of Rs 15,000. An additional, 10,000 eligible students from the technical streams will get a scholarship of Rs 20,000 per annum.

Further, a budget of Rs 811 crore has been allocated under the Mukhyamantri Medhabi Chatra Protsahan Yojana to provide scholarships to over 23 lakh students, 60 per cent of whom would be female. Students in pre- and post-matric grades are covered by the residential facilities and scholarship programmes.

The state government has also decided to provide free coaching for the civil services examination along with free lodging and boarding facilities to 200 meritorious students selected through the entrance exam. Another element included in the yearly budget is the three-phase high school transformation project, which has a total project cost of Rs 1092 crore.

The Mukhya Mantri Shikhya Puraskar announced by the Odisha government promotes healthy competition and recognises performance in the state’s transformed schools and other schools. Another programme proposed to reduce dropout rates and motivate participants to finish secondary education is the Gangadhar Meher Shiksa Manakbrudhi Yojana, which provides free bicycling to all students enrolled in class 9 at public schools. A sum of Rs 155 crore has been suggested for the years 2023–2024 to cover this.

The govt further announced that during the next five years, with a total investment of Rs. 1,500 crore, Odisha University of Technology and Research (previously CET) would be transformed into a university of excellence. The establishment of technical universities, engineering colleges, polytechnics, and ITIs is proposed at Rs 241 crore.

Future technologies including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, data science, 3D printing, etc. will be taught to one lakh young people. The Nutana Unnata Abhilasha programme has been allocated Rs 100 crore to be used in a timely way.

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