By Nikhil Barshikar, Founder & CEO of Imarticus Learning and Chairman of the Advisory Council at Imarticus School of Finance & Business
“NEP 2020 is a well-designed and forward-looking policy that provides India with a clear, coherent framework across schools and higher education. It gets the fundamentals right, from foundational learning and teacher development to multidisciplinary universities, credit mobility, and global integration. The real opportunity in the next Union Budget is to translate this strong policy intent into execution at scale.
In schools, the challenge is capacity and delivery. India still faces an estimated 1 million-plus teacher vacancies, even as the system serves over 250 million students. Bridging this gap will require sustained funding for teacher recruitment, continuous professional training, and digital teaching infrastructure, particularly in early grades where learning outcomes have the highest long-term impact.
In higher education, the distance from NEP’s ambitions is visible in the numbers. Gross Enrolment remains around 28%, well below the 50% target, research spending continues to stay under 1% of GDP, and the number of truly multidisciplinary, globally benchmarked universities remains limited. The next Budget should therefore accelerate implementation,by enabling foreign universities to operate meaningfully in India, strengthening credit transfer and mobility, and supporting the emergence of new-age universities focused on research, technology, and employability. Policy clarity exists; outcomes will now depend on execution, funding, and institutional capacity.”