Education Budget 2026: Leaders Demand Quality, Research, and Skilling Focus

• Education leaders expect Budget 2026 to prioritize quality, outcomes, and long-term capacity building, moving beyond just increased allocations.
• Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao of BITS Pilani advocates for strengthening higher education to retain talent, emphasizing world-class teaching, modern research infrastructure, and interdisciplinary programs.
• XLRI Delhi-NCR's Fr. Nelson A. D’Silva, S.J., stresses aligning higher education with the changing world of work through experiential learning and industry engagement.
• Shweta Sastri of Canadian International School, Bangalore, calls for sustained investment in school education, teacher training, modern infrastructure, and technology-enabled classrooms.
• UNext Learning's Ambrish Sinha and Scaler's Abhimanyu Saxena highlight the need to leverage India's demographic dividend through skilling, AI focus, and industry-academia collaboration.

Why It Matters: Education leaders seek Budget 226 to prioritize quality, research, and skilling for India's global talent hub ambition.