AUSG holds Budget Public Hearing for AY 2025-26

On Thursday, October 30th, 2025 the Ashoka University Student Government (AUSG) held its annual open meeting discussing the budget for the year 2025-2026. The meeting, which generally takes place in the second half of the semester, this time took place in the second half. Vedant Malhotra (UG '26), the newly elected AUSG treasurer, attributed the delay in holding the meeting to “an internal lapse” and said “the comprehensive budget sheet was made a while ago, but there was an error in the attachment”. Furthermore, a scheduling lag was stated as a reason for the delay, along with the workers strike that took place  at the beginning of the semester. The meeting began with a discussion about the overall budget being cut down from last year. The current AUSG budget is 2.5 lakhs.

Environment Ministry 

The first ministry to present its budget was the Environment Ministry whose budget is at INR 12,500, a 22 percent decrease from last year’s INR 16,079. This year they have allocated INR 2000 to Green Operations, INR 2000 to Events and Stalls, INR 3000 to Dustbins relabelling, INR 1500 to Sustainable Sanitation, INR 1000 to Talks and Discussions, INR 1000 to E-waste collection drives and INR 2000 to thrift stores. 

Campus Life Ministry (CLM)

This year Campus Life Ministry’s budget is INR 8000 in comparison to INR 15,200 last year. The ministry spoke about a sensory mapping project centred around gauging people’s honest feelings about campus. INR 2000 has been allocated for general marketing to spread awareness about their projects. 

Ministry of Academic Affairs (MAA)

This year’s Ministry of Academic Affairs (MAA) is at INR 14,000, while they had initially proposed a budget of INR 31,000. Last year, their budget was INR 11,951. The money allocated for materials for events is INR 5,500 as compared to INR 898 last year. For offline marketing, INR 1000 has been put aside, while last year it was INR 1,785. To offer support for events with academic societies, there is INR 2000, compared to INR 1,167 last year. Additionally, they have INR 2500 and INR 3000 allocated for their Project Fund Reserve and the revival of their website.

Ministry of Community Well-being

The Ministry of Community Well-being (MCWB) have been allocated a budget of INR 26,000, although they initially asked for INR 30,000. They have set aside INR 8000 for subsidised health camps and campus services like on-site testing. The costs for a doctor for these services will be covered by the administration.  

"When asked why the administration doesn’t cover such initiatives, the Minister of Community Well-being, Ajitesh Vishwanath (UG ‘27) said that MCWB, “like any other ministry, [has] to show the importance of such events first and see the impact, and then the administration hosts these initiatives themselves. The VP Operations and the admin has taken up a large chunk of hosting the upcoming health camp, and we’re using the Ministry funds to oversee minor logistical costs."

The Ministry has further set aside INR 3000 for a well-being grant launching next semester that will ask students to pitch their well-being ideas. They have allocated INR 8000 for workshops and expert sessions, mainly focused on substance abuse, self-harm, and related topics, and INR 4000 for offline well-being event materials. Lastly, INR 3000 has been allotted for a staff well-being project and miscellaneous work. 

Sports Ministry 

The Sports Ministry has been assigned INR 22,000 for the academic year. They had originally asked for INR 32,000. INR 10,000 has been set aside for sporting events and another INR 10,000 for in-house programs conducted by the ministry (like SOBAC (Samaras)) which involves purchasing inclusive sports equipment, along with an athlete mentorship program. Lastly they have allotted INR 2000 to miscellaneous work. 

The ministry was questioned about initiatives being taken to ensure the inclusivity of trans students into sports. In response, they mentioned a committee’s formation to ensure that sports on campus are more inclusive. They were also asked about integrating children from Asawarpur into sports at Ashoka, to which the cabinet said there were efforts for collaborations with clubs like Neev for such events. 

Ministry of Technology (Tech-Min)

The Ministry of Technology has been given INR 40,425 for the academic year. Vansh Bothra (UG ‘26), Minister of Technology, said estimated costs came to about INR 50,675. The minister mentioned that a major chunk of their funds is spent on server infrastructure, and that INR 18,396 of the budget has already been exhausted, which Bothra attributed to Amazon Web Services (AWS) charges increasing by nearly Rs. 400/month since the proposed budget data. The ministry is currently seeking external funding as well.

They have put aside INR 9,779 for Uni Chatbot Development, they also have plans for an app which have been stalled due to a reduced budget. The ministry plans to develop a Washing Machine Status Tracker, in collaboration with IEEE, and have delegated INR 7000 for the same. INR 2250 has been allocated for Marketing and Outreach which involves printing material and upskillment workshops for workers such as those conducted during the transition to the new mail room system. Furthermore, they plan on expanding an existing tech support inventory for students and have assigned INR 3000 for it. The current inventory involves phones and phone chargers, and also relies on students donating extra chargers and other equipment. 

Bothra further mentioned that the ministry revamped the SG course review system developed last year to make course reviews even easier to fill out by students. This development followed the ministry's refused requests for the administration to make course reviews on AMS public, which has since led the ministry to pursue this independently. 

Cultural Ministry (Jazbaa) 

Last in the meeting was the Cultural Ministry which has 7 internal departments and has been allocated  INR 11,3071 this year. INR 2000 was spent on Sopaan, INR 2944 on Modak Making, and INR 383 on Onam. While the Onam celebration initially had INR 2000 set aside, the material procurement was done collaboratively which led to a reduction in expenditure.

They have also held an inclusivity mixer for which INR 1744 was spent. Their presentation did not display the amount allocated for events like Sham-e-Jazbaa and Eid-e-Milaad and when questioned on the same, the Minister and their Financial Head replied that profits from other events would be spent on such events and they do not require funding for the same from the Student Life Office. 

The ministry said that INR 15,000 was spent on organising Freshers, INR  5000 on World Dyslexia Day, INR 20,000 on Navratri and Garba Night and INR 2000 on Noor-e-Jazbaa. When questioned about their plans for Trans Day of Remembrance since they had set aside money for Pride, they stated that they would be reaching out to collectives regarding the same as they had done last year. 

Towards the end of the meeting, questions were raised regarding the money raised during the Workers Protest. To this, Malhotra and Naisha Kamboj (UG ‘26), member of the House of Representatives (HoR), answered that the fund had nothing to do with the AUSG and that it was completely unrelated. They stated that the money was collected by students in their private capacities; Kamboj further added that the money was not collected under the AUSG, but there was still an account being kept of the money collected. 

[Edited by Fatema Tambawalla and Somansh Sarangi]