🏏📚 IPL vs Education: When Cricket Outscores Classrooms in India's Budget Priorities

Uttam Sharma
May 18
2 min read

Imagine a world where our brightest students and researchers are given the same financial backing as cricketers in the IPL auction room.

While India celebrates the roar of stadiums and the glitter of IPL contracts, a quieter but critical concern emerges: Are we funding our future scientists, engineers, artists, and educators enough?

Recent data reveals a startling reality — the education R&D budgets of several Indian states lag behind the annual budget of a single IPL team.

📉 The Stark Data Gap: States vs IPL Teams

Let’s compare the education R&D budgets of seven major Indian states with the average IPL team spending:

State	Education R&D (Cr ₹)	% of Total R&D	Less Than IPL Budget?
Andhra Pradesh	₹4.8 Cr	11%	✅ Yes
Haryana	₹7.6 Cr	2%	✅ Yes
Karnataka	₹57.3 Cr	3%	✅ Yes
Tamil Nadu	₹76.5 Cr	22%	✅ Yes
Rajasthan	₹83.0 Cr	1%	✅ Yes
Meghalaya	₹65.0 Cr	53%	✅ Yes
Punjab	₹425.1 Cr	48%	❌ No

Meanwhile, the average IPL team spends around ₹119 Cr annually to build their squad — and some teams go up to ₹119.95 Cr.

🎯 What’s the Real Concern?

Karnataka, a national tech and innovation hub, spends just ₹57.3 Cr on education R&D — less than half of an IPL team’s budget.
Rajasthan, with a whopping ₹7488.2 Cr total R&D budget, allocates only ₹83 Cr to education — just 1%, and again less than a single IPL franchise.
Andhra Pradesh's education R&D is a mere ₹4.8 Cr — not even 5% of an IPL team's purse.

🚨 Why This Hurts STEAM

STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics — is the mission of a nation’s long-term economic and technological progress. Underfunding this sector means:

Fewer grants for research projects.
Lack of quality infrastructure in public universities.
Brain drain, as talent seeks opportunities abroad.
Missed opportunities in emerging fields like AI, robotics, clean energy, and creative technologies.

📌 Let's Be Clear

We’re not saying IPL is bad — it generates jobs, tourism, and excitement. But the question is:

⚖️ Why can't our classrooms, labs, and research centers get the same level of excitement (and funding) as our cricket teams?

🧠 Final Thought

India dreams of being a global knowledge leader. But dreams need fuel — not just passion, but shift in mindset and a complete generation training.

Let’s ensure our next generation of scientists, educators, and innovators don’t get benched while the spotlight shines solely on stadiums.

⚙️ After all, the future belongs to those who can code, create, experiment, and imagine — not just to those who can bat and bowl.

📚 References:

RBI Study of State Budgets (2024-25) – Reserve Bank of India(Used for data on Total and Education R&D expenditure by Indian states)https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=21490 (or latest relevant RBI budget study)
IPL Auction Team Budget 2024 – MyKhel(Used for data on IPL team spending and remaining funds)https://www.mykhel.com/ipl-auction-team-budget/

Arts is the new Sport!