The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has incorporated specialized sections on personal finance and entrepreneurship into the economics portion of the new 9th-grade social studies textbook. These new chapters introduce topics such as mutual funds, income tax, loan repayment, and business planning into the school curriculum to equip students with practical financial and entrepreneurial skills.
Two new sections, titled 'Managing Personal Finance' and 'From Ideas to Startups,' familiarize students with practical money management and the fundamentals of starting a business.
The personal finance chapter covers five main areas: income, budgeting, savings, investing, and risk protection. It introduces students to investment instruments like bonds, stocks, government savings schemes, deposits, and mutual funds, while explaining concepts such as inflation, compound interest, and the relationship between risk and return.
Furthermore, this chapter addresses insurance, borrowing, and loans, as well as Equated Monthly Installments (EMI). The taxation section clarifies the difference between direct and indirect taxes and presents the system of tax rates within the new tax regime, including examples of calculating tax liability.
The entrepreneurship section uses examples from Indian businesses to demonstrate the company development process. It covers business plans, various functions required to run a business, and the basics of profit and loss accounting. It also features the Indian startup ecosystem and the role of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in job creation and economic growth.
These additions come amid efforts to encourage Indians to invest in instruments like mutual funds through Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs), despite the growing participation of retail investors in the stock market. Although digital platforms have simplified the investment process, financial influencers and social media have brought money and investment issues into daily life.
SIP contributions to Mutual Funds (MFs) reached ₹32,490 crore in September 2026, and even with negative trends in major indices like Nifty and Sensex since September 2024, the inflow through SIP remained unaffected.
These changes are part of a broader reorganization of NCERT school textbooks and curricula in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023. The revision aims to integrate new areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computational Thinking (CT), as well as to strengthen the focus on vocational education and practical skills.
A dedicated course on CT and AI was introduced for classes 3–8 starting from the 2026–27 academic year, but the planned implementation of modules for Class 9 was subsequently postponed by CBSE.
Sanjiv Sanyal, a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, noted these additions in a post on X on Wednesday. He stated that the economics segment of the recently released NCERT social studies textbooks (Class 9, Part 2) now includes a chapter on personal finance, where students are taught the basics of deposits, mutual funds, EMI, taxes, and the risk-return ratio to provide them with useful life skills.
He also emphasized that the entrepreneurship chapter introduces students to business plans and profit and loss statements, presenting risk-taking, innovation, and business in a positive light. Sanyal added that this is significantly different from previous textbooks, which focused on 'saving' and 'black markets.'
