Andhra Pradesh Allocates More Than 20,000 Crore For Education In Annual Budget

The Andhra Pradesh government in its annual budget presented today announced that it will increase the share of funds for education in the state. The government also announced that it will make special provisions for assistance to unemployed youth in the state. Presenting the budget State Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said that Rs. 500 crore has been allocated for assistance to unemployed youth. However, it remained unclear if the said fund was the proposed unemployment allowance.According to reports in Press Trust of India, in the budget Rs. 20,384 crore has been allocated for general education and Rs. 765 crore for technical education. The Andhra Pradesh government also allocated Rs. 398 crore for Skill Development schemes.In comparison to the fiscal year 2016-17, when the AP government had allocated Rs. 17,503 crore to School Education, the total allocation to education sector has increased by more than 20%. It is also noteworthy that the AP government has set aside a separate fund for technical education.In this budget session, the government has allocated a "gender budget". Elaborating on the idea behind this Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said, "Gender budgeting is a process of incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process, assessing the needs of target groups and allocating resources. The government will undertake a comprehensive set of actions to improve the lives of women across all human development indicators."Andhra Pradesh is not the first state to focus on education in the fiscal year 2017-18. Earlier, the Delhi Government had also announced special focus on education in its annual budget presentation.(With Inputs from Press Trust of India)Click here for more Education News