Amidst hope of a people friendly budget in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman in the Union budget speech 2021 announced a central university to be set up in Ladakh. This is in a bid to promote higher education in the high altitude, primarily tourist destination.
This announcement provides a boost for residents of Ladakh, to improve their chances of better education and not being left behind in a country that is looking to move ahead economically. The remote high altitude destination can look at better educational facilities and eventually match up to other parts of the country.
Ladakh became a Union Territory on October 31st 2019 after the Union government announced that Ladakh would no longer be part of Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370.
On January 26th this year, a cultural tableau was showcased for the first time at the Republic Day parade at Rajpath. Ladakh had struggled to get a separate UT status and after that aspiration was fulfilled in 2019, Ladakh as an independent UT is looking to boost it’s own identity. The Republic Day tableau depicted the iconic Thikse Monastery and its cultural heritage. The tableau highlighted the vision for Ladakh to be carbon neutral and exemplary for the world.
While this year’s union budget is an indication of which direction the country will move in amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the focus being on bigger states and cities, the scenic, remote locale of Ladakh was not forgotten.