Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed setting up content labs in 15,000 secondary schools to support the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies during her Budget 2026 speech.
During her 9th consecutive budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman said, “I propose to support the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, Mumbai, in setting up ABCG (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics) content creator labs in 1,500 secondary schools all over the country and 500 colleges.”
In May last year, IICT had also onboarded Google, YouTube, Meta, Adobe, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Wacom and JioStar as industry partners for co-developing curricula, offering internships and scholarships, and supporting creative tech startups through incubation and mentorship.
Globally, South Korea has also announced a K-Content and Media Strategy Fund as part of a broader national “Media and Content Industry Convergence Development Plan”. The fund is aimed at boosting South Korean production houses into global IP powerhouses.
Other education initiatives announced in the budget:
The institution had also announced a WaveX Media-Tech Startup Incubator programme in August last year to ‘nurture creative entrepreneurship’. It announced that the first cohort of the programme included 15 startups that received mentorship, infrastructure and access to global partners.
Sitharaman also proposed the establishment of a new National Institute of Design to boost ‘design education and development’.
“The Indian design industry is expanding rapidly, and yet there is a shortage of Indian designers. I propose to establish, through the Challenge Route, a new National Institute of Design to boost design education and development in the eastern region of India…,” she added.
The government also announced that it will support states in setting up five University Townships in the vicinity of major industrial and logistic corridors. The planned academic zones will host multiple universities, colleges, research institutions, skill centres and residential complexes, Sitharaman said during the budget speech.
The finance minister also proposed setting up one girls’ hostel in every district through VGF/capital support. The initiative is aimed at reducing dropout rates among female students in higher education.
To promote astrophysics and astronomy, the government has proposed setting up or upgrading four telescope infrastructure facilities: the National Large Solar Telescope, the National Large Optical Infrared Telescope, the Himalayan Chandra Telescope and the COSMOS-2 Planetarium.
The 2026 Budget also proposes to set up a High-Powered ‘Education to Employment and Enterprise’ Standing Committee for recommending measures that focus on Services Sector as a core driver of growth.
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