Union Cabinet Approves Budgetary Support for MERITE Scheme with an outlay of Rs.4200 Crores

On August 8, 2025, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, approved the proposal for implementation of the Central Sector Scheme (CSS), Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education (MERITE) Scheme, in 275 technical institutions comprising 175 engineering institutions and 100 polytechnics.

• The scheme, aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, aims to enhance quality, equity, and governance, for a period from 2025-26 to 2029-30, with total financial outlay of Rs.4,200 crores, including Rs. 2,100 crore loan from the World Bank.

MERITE Scheme:

Support: Under the scheme, 275 Government and Government-aided technical institutions such as National Institute of Technology (NIT), State Engineering Institutions, Polytechnics and Affiliating Technical Universities (ATUs) will be selected, benefiting about 7.5 lakh students.

• The departments of state or Union Territory (UT), handling the technical education sector will also be supported under the scheme.

Outputs: The scheme envisages outcomes such as digitalization strategies in participating states or UTs, development of guidelines for multidisciplinary programs among technical courses, increase in learning and employability skills of students, increase in transition rate of students across student groups, strengthened research and innovation environment.

• It also aims to provide the outputs, including better quality assurance and governance mechanisms resulting in long term benefits, increase in Accreditation and better-quality assurance, launch of courses with relevant curriculum aligned with labour market, and development of future academic administrators especially women.

Implementation: The CSS scheme will have the facility of transferring funds from the Government of India (GOI) to participating entities through a Central Nodal Agency.

• The prominent educational institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and the regulatory bodies in the education sector such as All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Board of Accreditation (NBA) will play a vital role in implementation.

Employment: The scheme includes interventions such as offering internship opportunities, updating curricula to align with industry requirements, organizing faculty development programs, and setting up of research hubs.

• Under the scheme, incubation and innovation centres, skill and maker labs, and language workshops will also be supported.

About the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020:
It was launched on 29 July 2020 by the Ministry of Education, GOI, replacing the National Policy on Education, 1986. It was launched with the aim of providing equitable, inclusive, and holistic education and promoting critical thinking among students.