Tamil Nadu Agriculture Budget 2025 Live Updates: Rs 42 crore allocated to set up 1,000 CM farmers service centres

Chess will be included in school education programs in the state, which has produced two world champions and over 30 grandmasters.

Rs 46,767 crore allocated for the School Education Department.

To elevate Anna University into the world's top 150 universities, the government will implement various initiatives, including the establishment of research centers. A total of Rs 500 crore will be allocated over the next five years for this purpose.

The Union government has not released Rs 2,152 crore under the Samagra Shiksha scheme for Tamil Nadu due to the state's refusal to adopt the three-language formula under PM SHRI schools. The state government allocated funds from its own resources and ensured the release of teachers' salaries.

"We will not give up the two-language policy despite the Union government withholding funds under the Samagra Shiksha scheme," the state government asserted.

The Tamil Nadu government will extend the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme to government-aided schools in urban areas, ensuring more students receive nutritious morning meals. s part of this, Rs 600 crore has been earmarked to benefit 3 lakh students.

The Tamil Nadu government has allocated Rs 8,597 crore for the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department.

• Two new bridges to be constructed in Chennai to ease traffic congestion.
• Waste-to-energy plant to be set up near Tambaram for electricity generation from solid waste.
• Rs 2 crore allocated for development projects along riverbanks.

• Rs 26,678 crore allocated for the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, says FM.
• To enhance infrastructure, the government is raising funds through municipal bonds.
• A new satellite city spanning 2,000 acres will be developed near Chennai to decongest urban areas.

Rs 29,465 crore allocated for the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.
The Union government has not released Rs 3,796 crore under MGNREGA wages and expenses. The state government is continuously urging the Centre to release the funds, says FM.

Excavations will be conducted at eight sites in Tamil Nadu, including Keeladi, Telunganur, Vellalur, Adhichanur, Manikollai, Karivalamvanthannallur, Pattanamarudhur, and Nagapattinam.
Tamil Nadu will also undertake excavations in Palur (Odisha), Venki (Andhra Pradesh), and Maski (Karnataka).

Tamil book fairs will be organized in major metropolitan cities across India and internationally, with an allocation of ?2 crore, says FM.
The World Tamil Olympiad will be held annually, featuring a cash prize of ?1 crore, announces FM.

• 500 selected Tamil books will be translated into other languages through the State Textbook Corporation. Twenty resource persons have been identified for the project.
• Funds will be allocated to preserve palm leaf manuscripts.
• Book fairs will be organized in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur.
• The World Tamil Olympiad will be held annually.
• 'Agaram' – a language museum – will be established in Madurai.

Tamil Nadu finance minister Thangam Thennarasu lists skill development of youth in the age of AI adoption, creating diversified industrial growth across districts, farm mechanisation as some of the focus areas. He says economic challenges should be tackled with science and technological solutions. The budget will focus on policy measures to boost long-term growth of the state.

Former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan also criticized the DMK government’s move, saying, “Let Stalin change his name to a Tamil name. To hide all the failures of his govt, this drama continues ... DMK always talks of separatism and with an anti-national mindset, they are against national integrity.”

Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam, the designer of the Indian rupee symbol, has responded to the controversy surrounding the Tamil Nadu government's decision to replace the symbol with the Tamil letter "Ru" in promotional material for the state budget.

"I don't have complete information behind the reasons of this change, probably the state government has their own ways, views, and reasons to make the changes. I designed this 15 years ago when the then Central government floated a competition and I won it, after which they implemented it and it's being widely used.I am really happy about being the designer of this symbol, but I never expected such a debate to ever occur. It just somehow took this turn and now there are a lot of concerns going on about the symbol itself."

The DMK has accused the Centre of attempting to "impose" a north Indian language on Tamil Nadu through the three-language formula in the NEP. The party reaffirmed that its state government will continue following the long-standing two-language policy of Tamil and English instead of adopting the NEP’s approach.

The NEP 2020 recommends that students learn three languages, with at least two being native to India, but does not explicitly mandate Hindi. The policy applies to both government and private schools, allowing states the flexibility to decide without any language imposition.

As per a government portal, the Indian rupee symbol combines the Devanagari "Ra" and the Roman capital "R," featuring two parallel horizontal stripes that symbolize the national flag and the "equal to" sign. The government officially adopted the symbol on July 15, 2010.

Meanwhile, IIT Guwahati Professor D Udaya Kumar, who designed the rupee symbol, declined to comment on the language debate. He noted that it was purely coincidental that his father had been a DMK MLA.

The Chennai Corporation has arranged to broadcast the 2025-26 state budget session live at 100 locations across the city today. As per TV reports, major locations including Chennai Central Railway Station, Murasoli Maran Park, Anna Nagar Tower Park, Koyambedu Bus Terminus, Marina Beach, Pondy Bazaar, and Kathipara Park have been identified as key locations.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday strongly criticized the DMK government for replacing the official rupee symbol (₹) with the Tamil letter ‘Ru’ in the Tamil Nadu Budget 2025-26 documents. She questioned why the DMK had not raised objections back in 2010 when the symbol was officially adopted under the Congress-led UPA government, of which the DMK was a part.

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu will present the 2025-26 state Budget today at 9:30 am. This marks the DMK government’s fifth Budget and Thennarasu’s second since assuming office.

Former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan accused the DMK of promoting separatism. She suggested that CM Stalin should change his name to a Tamil one if he is so concerned about Tamil identity.

Nirmala Sitharaman questioned why the DMK did not oppose the symbol’s adoption in 2010 when it was part of the UPA government. Annamalai shared an old photo of Karunanidhi appreciating the rupee symbol’s designer.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman called it “regional chauvinism” that threatens national unity. Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai mocked CM Stalin, accusing him of rejecting a symbol his father had endorsed.

The Tamil Nadu government introduced a new Budget logo replacing the rupee symbol (₹⟩) with the Tamil letter ‘roo’. State Planning Commission Vice-Chairman J Jeyaranjan justified the change, citing the need for Tamil representation.