With a view to imparting skill development, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is proposing changes to the Indian arts education system. This study does two things; it first looks at how NEP 2020 as a policy will impact arts education, specifically on varying the equilibrium between the arts of the past and modern approaches of teaching the arts for Indians. Secondary data of 2015–2018 from the years of government spending, enrolment rates, and program completion rates in both traditional and contemporary arts are used to examine. Through statistical techniques (regression, correlation, ANOVA, t test), this research analyses the link between government investments in arts education and financing and completion rates. Although the expansion is more marked in traditional programs than in contemporary ones, the data also demonstrate an increase in enrollment and completion rates in both traditional and contemporary arts programs. We find a positive bias in terms of student completion rates, with a statistically significant difference between traditional and modern arts. Moreover, government spending has been steadily increasing, and completion rates for the traditional arts have a greater positive correlation (r = 0.88) than the completion rates in the modern arts (r = 0.75). Regression analysis also reveals that academic performance in these fields is strongly influenced by financial investment, and government spending accounts for 77 percent of the variation in completion rates for traditional arts programs and 56 percent for contemporary ones. In conclusion, the skill development thrust in NEP 2020 may incentivize ancient and modern art together into a holistic system of arts education. Though the data implies a need for both equally funded and curricular changes that make both disciplines similarly important. Results underscore the significance of continuing to maintain funding for arts education to increase the completion rate and ensure that students wishing to pursue careers in conventional and modern streams have opportunities to develop their skills in the NEP framework.