The Harvard-educated Finance Minister P Chidambaram has taken a liking to the country's premier educational and research institutions.

If he gave Rs 100 crore to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore last year, he allocated Rs 50 crore each to the University of Calcutta, University of Mumbai and University of Madras as research grant this year.

All the three universities are celebrating their 150th anniversary.

''Three great universities have entered their 150th year... I propose to mark the beginning of the 150th year celebrations with a grant of Rs 50 crore to each university for a specified research department or a research programme,'' he said.

The universities will get an additional Rs 50 crore each at the end of the year as well.

IISc, he said, is implementing an ambitious programme of modernisation with the help of the Rs 100 crore allocated in the previous Budget.

Chidambaram also announced a special grant of Rs 100 crore to the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana in acknowledgement of its pioneering contribution to the green revolution.

The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram will be accorded the status of an autonomous national institute to promote research and development in biotechnology.

''If agriculture is an ancient Indian skill, biotechnology is the new frontier that India will conquer,'' he said.

The ITI upgradation programme will get Rs 97 crore from the government in 2006-07. The programme, which is spread over five years, is aimed at upgrading 500 ITIs in the country. The allocation will help 400 ITIs. The remaining 100 are being upgraded with the help of the private sector.

The government will launch the National Agricultural Innovation Project for research in frontiers of agricultural science in July this year. The project is expected to get multilateral assistance shortly, Chidambaram said.

The government will provide concessions to entrepreneurs who are availing the facility of the Technology Business Incubators set up by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Board with seed funding from the Technology Development Board.

''Our outstanding human resources have the capacity to make India a knowledge society,'' he said.