Education is a state subject and the central government has nothing to do with it. If Centre is to play an active role, we will have to change the Constitution, former chief consultant to ministry of finance, Ashok Desai told DNA when asked why there was no significant allocation for education sector in the Union Budget 2012-2013. 

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Desai was in Pune as the key speaker at the 11th session of ‘Yes finance minister’, an in-depth analysis of the Union Finance Budget 2012, organised by Pune-based IBS Business School along with IBS Alumni Federation (IBSAF), on March 17 at Hotel Le Meridien. Professor Vijay Khanna (NIBM, Pune) was also present on the occasion as a key speaker. 

A writer and columnist, Desai has worked as the chief consultant for ministry of finance (1991-1993) and advised the then finance minister, Manmohan Singh, to design and implement a radical reform for economic governance.    

“The Constitution lays down that education should be a state subject but since the last decade, the Centre has shown a significant interest in basic education at school-level and has allocated money for primary education. As for higher education, the government is only concerned with the set-up of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM),” said Desai. Saying that the present state of education in the country is miserable, Desai said, “Any role played by the central government in the field of education is seen as an interference by the state government. I feel we should allow foreign institutes to set their base in the country; it would bring a change for better. A good idea will also be to allow industry and employers to start universities.”The present government, Desai said, is unconcerned regarding the number of bills pending before the Parliament, including the Foreign Institute Bill.

“Kapil Sibal is learning his lessons. He is aggressive as he is a lawyer but he has to persuade the matters,” he said. About the present budget, Desai said that it is influenced by vote bank politics.”