India, Nov. 11 -- Education shapes a nation's future. So, being the world's youngest nation with 65% of the population below the age of 35 years, it's imperative to empower our youth with quality education and skills. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has understood the importance of education to give the right direction to India's youth for making the country the human resource capital of the world. Transformative reforms have been taken up by the government in the past 11 years to revolutionise the education system for not just ensuring world-class learning opportunities but also turning the country's demographic dividend into its biggest strength. As the nation celebrates National Education Day on November 11 to honour India's first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Union government is working with a resolve to fulfil dreams of the new generation by creating opportunities and removing obstacles in their path. By providing AI-powered digital platforms, digital textbooks in Indian languages, and new curricula, the Centre is providing the youth access to a modern, technology-driven, skill-based education system which is making the nation a global hub of education and innovation. To achieve a gross enrolment ratio (GER) of 50% by 2035, the country has seen expansion of its educational infrastructure. In the past 11 years, the government has increased the education budget from Rs.79,451 crore in 2013-14 to Rs.1,28,650 crore in 2025-26, marking an increase of 62%. Over 18,484 new higher educational institutions (HEIs) have been added since 2014-15, an increase of 13.8%. This includes 578 new universities, 13,663 new colleges, seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), eight Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and 13 All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). As compared to 3.42 crore students in 2014-15, over 4.65 crore students are projected to be enrolled in colleges and universities nationwide in 2025, an increase of about 36% in the GER due to enhanced accessibility. As the government has taken steps to ensure gender equality in education and employment opportunities, female enrolment in HEIs has also gone up from 1.57 crore to 2.18 crore in 2022-23, an increase of 38.4%. Participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields has also risen from 35.14 lakh in 2014-15 to 43.03 lakh in 2022-23, an increase of 23% . A record number of Indian higher educational institutions (HEIs) have found a place in global rankings during the past decade. Putting up the best-ever performance in the recent QS Asia University Rankings 2026, the country's presence rose from 24 universities in 2016 to 294 in 2026, a record jump of 1125% in a decade. While seven Indian HEIs were ranked in the top 100, the number of such institutions in the top 200 is 20 and 66 in the top 500. Before this, 46 Indian HEIs had featured in the QS World University Rankings 2025, an impressive increase of 318% since 2015. As the government aligned the curricula with global standards, an increased number of foreign students are now coming to India for higher education. The Study in India (SII) portal received a record 72,218 students from 200 countries in 2024-25 as compared to 34,774 in 2014-15. After 34 years, the National Education Policy was introduced in 2020 for holistic development of students. Under it, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) introduced a multidisciplinary education to prepare students for practical problem-solving. The government has created an AI-based and digital education infrastructure platform, One Nation, One Digital Education Infrastructure, under PM e-Vidya and DIKSHA platforms to enable preparation of textbooks in over 30 Indian languages and seven foreign languages. Under the National Credit Framework, now students can simultaneously study diverse subjects for exploring new career paths. For realising the Viksit Bharat vision, the government has doubled the gross expenditure on research and development in 10 years from Rs.60,000 crore in 2010-11 to Rs.1.27 lakh crore. As compared to three research parks before 2014, the government has established six additional research parks in the past 10 years. The recent launch of Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore marks a landmark step in strengthening the R&D ecosystem for AI and deep-tech innovation. The One Nation, One Subscription initiative is helping 1.8 crore students and researchers in getting free access to global research journals and publications. India formulated a national strategy for AI and a dedicated IndiaAI Mission with a budget of Rs.10,371.92 crore. The government is integrating AI in classrooms and skill development frameworks for making learning engaging and future-ready. While the CBSE has introduced AI as a subject from Class 9, school students from Classes 6 to 12 are being provided AI literacy under the Skilling for AI Readiness (SOAR) Mission. Students from Classes 8 to 12 are also being provided a platform to learn and apply AI skills under the national programme, YUVAi (Youth for Unnati and Vikas with AI) for empowering them to develop AI-driven solutions for real-world challenges. The Centre for AI Excellence will also play a big role in adoption of AI in education. AI and digital learning programs are also being embedded under the Skill India Mission. The government has launched the Atal Innovation Mission and established over 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs to introduce over 1.1 crore students to emerging technologies like robotics and internet of things (IoT). As multi-disciplinary education will open new opportunities, the government has approved 35 multi-disciplinary education and research universities (MERU), which will be on a par with IITs and IIMs. While IITs and IIMs are becoming multi-disciplinary, the government has approved the multidisciplinary education and research improvement in technical education (MERITE) scheme to strengthen 275 technical institutions, including 175 engineering colleges and 100 polytechnics, with an outlay of Rs.4,200 crore from 2025-26 to 2029-30. The government has expanded the network of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) by 47% in the past 11 years with number of ITIs reaching over 14,615 since 2014. The government has launched the PM-SETU (Prime Minister's Skill and Employment Transformation through Advanced ITIs) scheme with an investment of Rs.60,000 crore to upgrade 1,000 government ITIs. India was once home of knowledge centres, where students from all over the world came to learn. The expansion of education infrastructure and transformative reforms in the past 11 years have set a foundation to transform India into a global education hub again....