NEW DELHI: India’s new government announced $16.7 million in funding to modernize traditional Islamic schools in its maiden budget on Thursday which also included projects targeting its core Hindu nationalist base. Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced one billion rupees ($16.7 million) “for the modernization of madrasas”.

India is home to an estimated 140 million Muslims, a group that has fallen behind in education, employment and economic status, according to a 2006 landmark government report. Indian madrasas are mostly funded by Islamic charities.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was voted to power in May on a promise to improve India’s flagging economy and clean up corruption.

A rehabilitation fund for Hindus driven out of Muslim-majority Kashmir after the start of a militant campaign there in 1989 was allotted five billion rupees, while a statue of Hindu nationalist hero Sardar Patel got two billion rupees.