Budget 2026-27 focuses on skilling and upskilling across healthcare and tourism

New Delhi: In a slew of measures aimed at opening up job opportunities for millions of youth entering the workforce, the government on Sunday laid out a skilling and upskilling roadmap across multiple sectors to create a pool of healthcare professionals and those needed in the tourism and hospitality sector.

To cater to this, a significant 62% increase in budgetary allocation to the ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship has been made in the Union Budget 2026-27 at Rs 9885.80 crore as against Rs 6100 crore allocated in 2025-26.

As per the Budget 2026-26, laid in the Parliament on Sunday, the government will train 1.5 lakh caregivers combining core care and allied skills, such as, wellness, yoga and operation of medical and assistive devices through a variety of National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF-aligned) programmes to build as strong Care Ecosystem in the country.


Besides, it plans to upgrade the existing institutions for Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and set up new AHP Institutions in private and government sectors. “This will cover 10 selected disciplines, including optometry, radiology, anesthesia, OT Technology, Applied Psychology and Behavioural Health and add 100,000 AHPs over the next 5 years,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.

Further, Samarth 2.0 to modernize and upgrade the textile skilling ecosystem through collaboration with industry and academic institutions will be put in place to skill sector related workers.

A pilot scheme for upskilling 10,000 guides in 20 tourist sites through a standardized, high-quality 12-week training course in hybrid mode will be rolled out in collaboration with an Indian Institute of Management.

Anuj Chahal, founder and CEO, Maverick Simulation Solutions said focused skilling initiatives for caregivers and allied professionals will strengthen frontline healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes across urban and rural India.

“Overall, these measures will benefit the healthcare industry as a whole by improving talent availability, strengthening supply chains, accelerating innovation, and enabling wider adoption of technology,” Chahal added.