The Hindu : Karnataka News : Interest subsidy will help poor students Karnataka budget

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Friday, Jul 18, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Interest subsidy will help poor students Karnataka budget

Deepa Kurup

Academics feel it should have been extended to non-professional courses also

Rs.17 crore earmarked for setting up ITIs
RS. 120 crore for development of six medical colleges

BANGALORE: Good news for students who seek admission into professional colleges in Karnataka through the Common Entrance Test.

The State Budget announces an interest subsidy during the course duration by which the interest burden will reduce to 6 per cent.

Until now students had to cough up simple interest amounts as high as 11 to 14 per cent during the moratorium period.

Welcomed

Though students, parents and academics welcome this proposal, many point out that it should have been extended to general education and not limited to Common Entrance Test seats alone. Even non-professional courses such as communication, bio-technology and management studies at the State universities cost as much as government quota seats in professional colleges.

With the budget categorically stating that private colleges will be encouraged, academics feel that the subsidy should have been across the board.

“The enrolment rates for universities are abysmal and a subsidy along these lines would have encouraged the poor to come forward and take loans,” said M.S. Thimmappa, former Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University.

Allocation

Academics also welcomed the substantial allocation of Rs. 38 crore, compared with Rs. 17 crore last year, as plan support for various universities.

Polytechnics and engineering colleges started last year have been allocated Rs. 100 crore for infrastructural development, as have 37 ITIs.

Funds worth Rs. 17 crore have been earmarked to set up ITIs in nine taluks.

With several industries facing massive skill-shortage, this focus on polytechnics and ITIs addresses a crucial need.

Medical education

The budget outlay for the development of the six medical colleges which were started in 2007 has nearly doubled this year with an allocation of Rs. 120 crore.

Last month, the Medical Council of India denied clearance to all six citing infrastructural and faculty deficiencies.

The funds will go towards the construction of new hospitals, hostels and other clinical facilities, according to sources in the Department of Medical Education.

The Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences in Hubli has got Rs. 36.5 crores.

The expansion plans for this institute include an increase in intake by 50 in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The budget also proposes an ayurveda college and 100-bed ayurveda hospital in Shimoga, which will only be the fourth such institute in the State.

Knowledge Commission

Karnataka Knowledge and Higher Education Commission will be set up for improving the standard of higher education and “attracting the youth for knowledge-based societies.”

It will assess the existing situation and recommend measures and form study teams to reform the existing examination system.

Karnataka Sanskrit University will be established at Bangalore with an initial allocation of Rs. 2 crore.

Focus on horticulture

An agricultural university at Bagalkot, focussing on horticulture, and another one at Raichur, with an allocation of Rs. 5 crore, will be set up. Other institutes which have been allocated funds are: Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore (Rs. 2 crore), Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs, Bangalore (Rs. 1 crore).

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