new business ideas in education sector in india

Top 13 Profitable Education Business Ideas in India 2022

Education plays a pivotal role for people living in this world as it is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes - be it employment, income, social status, better health and well-being.

People understand the importance of education that's the reason they send their kids to schools or colleges. Education is not just limited to academic achievement but it serves other purposes as well. It develops human personality, their thought process and provides knowledge that makes the long-term survival of society possible.

Covid-19 brought a boost in the education sector by letting everyone go digital. So, if someone is looking for a business idea in the field of same, then it is high time to work on it. Moreover, the education business is an evergreen business idea that doesn’t get affected by any recession or pandemic and thus increases the capability of long-term profit-making.

Here is a curated list of the best education business ideas that you can look for based on your passion and expertise.

You can also have a look at the top Edtech startups in India for some inspiration.

List of top education business ideas in India for promising future

1. Online Tutoring 2. Computer Training 3. PlaySchool Franchise 4. Thesis Making 5. Music Teacher 6. Xerox Shop Business 7. Stationery Shop 8. Uniform Making 9. Educational App 10. Printing Books 11. Bookstore 12. Teacher Training Institute 13. YouTube Channel as an Educational Instructor

1. Online Tutoring

Being a tutor is a job that can earn so much money in the field of the education business. Usually, the only requirement is that the person must have rich knowledge and prioritize education. Tutoring is a good business idea for someone with low investment.

To become a tutor requires special expertise in the field of the desired choice of education stream. If you have mastered the subjects, you will be trusted by your client to guide their children in learning. You can also decide the fees according to your need.

2. Computer Training

Everybody is learning to code . From kids to adults, everyone wants to make apps of their own. They want to learn to code and this is a good opportunity for you if you want to start an education business. Nowadays, everything has become computerized. Because of the internet, the banking process or billing process in all shops has become computerized. So, it is necessary for today's world to have basic knowledge of computers.

Computer training centers are gaining significant importance these days. It is a good and profitable business idea. You need to have a place to start this business. There is an initial investment involved but returns are high.

3. PlaySchool Franchise

Nowadays, parents are keener to send their kids to playschools. So a lot of people are entering into the playschool franchise business . Taking a franchise of some reputed schools is a good option. You need to have a proper colourful setup that small children will love. It needs investment but ROIs are good. This can be a good education business idea to start with.

4. Thesis Making

Thesis writing is a troublesome assignment for students. It becomes a tedious task for them to complete in a given time period. They look for ways to get it done. So if you can be creative in this field this can be a lucrative business idea in the education sector.

If you have expertise in academic writing , you can also open paper manufacturing services. Enough to market your services and to charge for these services, many students will come to take the service. Thus, you can earn a decent income, especially if you are making a thesis-making services store that would attract students easily.

5. Music Teacher

Music is one thing that is liked by many people. Moreover, many people look for a music teacher to teach them or their children. As a music teacher, you have to know the art & science of music and have expertise in the field of the same such as playing a musical instrument, singing and more.

Furthermore, you can take this education business idea to next level by building a  music school, if you have a lot of students or customers. This will greatly benefit you and make your success sound in the field.

Many of the educational institutions provide music as co-curricular activities in their academic curriculum which benefits the students as they are getting educated with the basics of music education that can make a potential music lover to a famous singer or musician.

6. Xerox Shop Business

The amount of school work requires students to get a printer to print the results of their work. In addition, they also need to copy materials that do not exist in their books.

For that, it would be very appropriate if you open a store doubling the paper. There are many students, every day, who need the service and this service would be very suitable if you combine it with a stationery store. Both the business provide fruitful profit in the education business sector. The best thing about this business is that it can be easily set up with low investment.

7. Stationery Shop

The stationery need is a forever thing - be it a student, office goer, or unemployed. It is a need for everyone. Nowadays, people have a variety of stationery items to choose from. You can open a stationery shop in close proximity to the market where you can target your audience.

8. Uniform Making

The uniforms are the identity of each school. Looking at the uniform one can tell which school does a student goes to. Schools keep changing their school uniforms in accordance with the provisions of the school and guidelines to the board affiliated with. Therefore, you can open uniform convection by employing many tailors that are skilled in the art.

There will be a lot of customers, especially students and their parents who need your services. Uniform making is one the best education business ideas which can be easily set up at low cost and gives you a chunk of customers every day. Moreover, you can approach small and medium schools with your design collection to revamp their retro-type uniform into a standard-looking uniform.

9. Educational App

The sophisticated technology had become the need of the hour. If you are a programmer, you can create an application like video learning education, language learning, e-dictionary, or any other educational-related app that caters to the need of your target audience.

BYJU which guides students in preparing for competitive exams such as CAT, IIT-JEE, NEET, IAS, GRE and GMAT is running successfully. BYJU is one of the best startups in the education business sector which got good funding from potential investors.

10. Printing Books

Learning cannot be separated from books that support educational content. Also, students learn better from books than screens which gives an edge to meet the demand of book lovers by offering your services.

You can open your printing press for printing books and other printing materials. Moreover, you can even collaborate with schools to supply them the yearly books for the students which gives you constant growth every year.

11. Bookstore

The book is a repository of knowledge. Books also become advocates for student learning. Many students are advised to purchase additional books themselves so that they can learn independently at home.

Looking at it, opening a bookstore is another lucrative business idea. You can open a complete bookstore so that many students visit your store. Monthly, half-yearly & yearly based subscription offers would attract a large number of potential readers to your bookstore.

12. Teacher Training Institute

Since Covid-19, every educational platform has shifted to digital media. This sudden shift became difficult to adapt to by every teacher and parent. They were unable to engage themselves with their students/children in tutoring, helping with homework, discussing school events and much more as they're not aware of these technologies.

Though the situation is not the same but digital media has become a future now. So opening a teacher training institute would be a good option where you can train teachers on how to make their teaching more effective and efficient. You can train parents too as they also help their children in their studies.

A training institute would allow them to come out of a stereotype learning method to self-motivating and assessment-based experience to enhance their children's education and knowledge for a better professional or entrepreneurial life. This could be a good business idea with low investment.

13. YouTube Channel as an Educational Instructor

More and more people are using digital media to learn new skills . It has become easier to explain and visualize concepts with the help of graphics. If you are good at some subjects and explaining things to other people you can earn money by teaching on YouTube.

With your expertise in the field, you can make videos that help students to understand concepts better. This is one of the growing education business ideas in India. To gain popularity you can apply for a channel partner program for showing advertisements on your videos .

Hope you have liked the list of education business ideas mentioned above. Let us know in the comment section if anything needs to be included in this list of education business ideas. We would be highly grateful to add them to this article.

Which type of business education sector does?

Some of the top businesses ideas in the education sector are Online tutoring, Teacher training institute, Educational app, and Playschool franchise.

How to start an education business?

Create a business plan, find funding for your business, hire teachers, choose a location and promote your business.

How to grow the education business?

Create amazing landing pages, promote your business on social media platforms, and promote your business on YouTube by uploading free content.

Is the education business profitable?

Yes, the education business is one of the most profitable and lucrative businesses in India.

Which business is best for students?

The best business ideas for students are as follows:

• Online coaching service
• Content creation
• Social media management
• Web design and development
• Animation and video creation

Must have tools for startups - Recommended by StartupTalky

• Convert Visitors into Leads- SeizeLead
• Payment Gateway- Razorpay
• Spy on your Competitors- Adspyder
• Manage your business smoothly- Google Workspace

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35 Best Education Business Ideas In India | Top 35 Teaching Business Ideas In India

India’s education system is one of the biggest education systems in the world. There are more than 15 lakh schools in India. There are more than 97 lakh teachers and more than 26 crore students in India

It is estimated that India’s education sector is worth more than 115 Billion US Dollars.

There are many businesses in this sector, whose numbers are still unknown. If we include those numbers, you cannot imagine how big this industry is.

The bigger the industry, the more opportunities you get to earn money and do business, so in this post, I will give you some top Education Business Ideas for India.

In this list of education business ideas in India, I have given many teaching business ideas and also some other education business ideas for India

Teaching Related Education Business Ideas In India

1. start a tuition class.

Starting a tuition class is the easiest education business idea for India. As I said the Indian education system is very huge and millions of students study in India every single year. 

There are at least 2 to 3 schools in almost every city in India. If we consider only 500 to 1000 students in a single school then there are 2000 to 3000 students in every city.

If you just get 100 students every year, you can easily earn Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 per month. 

If you want to become a good teacher then you can learn teaching skills online on youtube. You can start this business with almost zero investment and earn lots of money.

2.  English Speaking Classes

English is one of the most important languages in the world. Everyone should be good at English whether he or she wants to do a job or business.

English of Indian people is still very bad and this is where you have an opportunity to start a business.

You can start English-speaking classes in your city and you didn’t need to make a big investment to start this business. You can do this business even from your home.

3. Yoga Classes

Health is the biggest problem in the world. There are a huge number of diseases and problems that you cannot even count.

Yoga is not just good for your physical health but it is also extremely useful for your mental health.

You can start a yoga centre in your city and teach yoga asanas to the people. You can start this business with zero investment and earn good money.

You can learn yoga from another yoga centre and then you can start your yoga centre.

4. Cooking Classes

Cooking is one of the most important and useful skills for our survival. If you are good at cooking then you can start your cooking classes in your city. 

You can start your cooking classes at zero investment because all the things required for cooking are already available at our homes.

You can teach people everyday meals or you can even teach them how to make specific food dishes.

 You can start this business from your home and earn good money per month.

You can start the business of Cooking Classes from your home also. You can teach people how to cook everyday meals, or you can even start classes on making special items.

In the future, you can also sell online cooking courses and make crores.

5.  Acting Classes

If you have an interest in acting then you can start your acting classes and earn good money by teaching people acting skills. 

Nowadays. Lakhs of people make videos for youtube, Instagram, and other social media platforms. There are many video categories such as comedy, and short films for which they need acting skills.

You will teach acting to children and teenagers in your class. You can create your short films and videos and upload them on youtube by creating your youtube channel. The big benefit of this is that you will get actors & actresses for free. 

You can earn huge money from your YouTube channel.

6. Dance Classes

Dancing is one of the most popular skills. If you have an interest and passion for dancing then you can start your dance classes.

You can teach different dance styles to other people and earn good money from it.

Nowadays people are consuming video content more than any other. You must have seen many dance videos on platforms like YouTube and Instagram. These videos are getting millions of views. 

Many people make such dance videos, upload them on these platforms, and earn their income from these videos. Their life is dependent on this income but to make such videos, dancing skills are needed. 

Many peoples want to become actors and they are also your future customer. Hence, If you start a dance class then you will get a lot of customers and you can earn good money from this business.

7. Singing & Music Classes

Singing and music are other extremely popular skills that many people want to learn.

Like dance, many people upload singing and music videos on platforms like Youtube and Instagram. Many people learn these skills even as a hobby.

You can start Singing and music classes in your city where you can teach these skills to people and children. You can also teach people to play different musical instruments.

You can also teach these skills to people by creating your own YouTube channel where you can upload your singing and music videos. You can also upload some entertaining videos to attract people so you will get a good number of students.

8. Self-Defense Classes

Self Defense skill is an extremely necessary skill for everyone. These skills will be helpful for women and girls to protect themselves. 

Also learning Self Defence is a good exercise so it is another benefit that people will get.

You can learn these skills from any good institute and after a few days, you can start your Self Defense Classes in your city and earn good money.

9. Sports Coaching

Sport is an important part of our life. Sports are very useful for our physical as well as mental health. Many people make their careers in sports and some of these play a sport as exercise. 

You can start a Sports Coaching Center where you can teach people to play different sports. You can take a special batch only for children.

You can also hold sports competitions so people will enjoy it and your business will grow.

10. Competitive Exam Classes

The market for Competitive Exams Coaching is huge and many people are earning good money from this business

The biggest problem in this industry is that coaching centres are misleading their students and looting money from them by showing them false dreams.

You can create your own YouTube channel and you can teach them for free. You can earn money from youtube without charging students.

11. Start A Pre School

You can start a preschool where you can earn a lot of money by teaching children. 

There are many popular Pre-School franchises that you can take. The biggest advantage of taking a Pre-school Franchise is that you get a readymade business and guidance from the company.

Nowadays, preschool fees for a single child range from Rs 30,000 to Rs 1,50,000. So you can imagine how much money you can earn from this business.

12. Start a Day Care Center

Starting a Daycare centre is another good education business idea in India. You can make good money from this education business idea. Many people consider preschool and Day Care centres to be the same but they are not.

Preschool focuses primarily on the education of the children, where academic education is given to children, on the other hand, the focus of the daycare centre is mostly on taking care of the children, where the children play different games and live freely.

In both places, children are given education.

13. Start Your School

You can start your school. The population of India is very huge. India has the largest number of children and youth in its population.

There are thousands of students studying in every city but the quality of education is not good.

You can start a school where you can give the best quality education and you can also give them practical education so they can become successful in their life.

You can also give free education to children who cannot afford education.

Many people started with a tuition class, and today they have their school.

14. Start Your College

Similar to school, you can also start a college. Nowadays, college fees are in lakhs, and they are making multiple crores every single year. 

Many people started their colleges and made good money. You can start as a coaching centre, and eventually, you can also start your college

To make your college stand out, you can give different skill development courses to the students of your college, which will help them to get a good job.

Along with this, you can also give business-related courses to them, so if anyone wants to start a business, then it will become helpful for them

15. Chartered Accountant’s Classes (CA Classes)

The exam for chartered accountants is one of the toughest exams in India. Many students want to become Chartered Accountants (CA) but they are unable to do it.

To crack this exam they need a lot of guidance and coaching so you can start a CA coaching class and earn good money from it. 

16. Law Classes

You can start law classes because the law exams are also very tough, and students need guidance and good teaching.

Many law classes are earning good money by teaching different subjects of law. You can start this business from your home so this is one of the zero investment education business ideas in India. 

17. Science Classes

After 10th ( SSC ), many students take Science Faculty for further education. The study of science is very hard. Although teachers teach in colleges, the quality of education is not that good.

You can start tuition classes of Science Faculty and earn good money by teaching subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Biology to 11th and 12th students.

People are earning crores of rupees from these types of tuition classes in many cities.

18. Commerce Classes

You can start commerce classes and teach subjects like Account, Taxation, Costing, Economics. You can earn good money from commerce classes in India.

To make your class stand out, you can give practical education to the students along with academic studies such as you can teach them different accounting software, you can also give them practical business education and much more

19. Educational YouTube Channel

You can start an educational youtube channel and teach online. You can teach on any topic and earn good money.

You can teach academic studies or you can teach other things to people online through YouTube. 

Nowadays, people are learning different things online from platforms like YouTube. With a YouTube Channel, you can reach crores of people very easily.

Many people are earning crores of rupees by teaching on YouTube and you too can take advantage of this platform.

You do not need a big financial investment to start a YouTube Channel. You can do this business just by using your smartphone and internet connection.

20. Online Course Selling

You can create different online courses and sell them online. People are earning crores of rupees by selling online courses.

You must have seen many ads for such courses on the internet. You can create and sell courses on many topics such as Fitness, Academic Education, Business, Dance, Acting, Music, Time management, and much more

Creating and selling an online course is very easy and you can easily do that by using your smartphone and internet connection.

21. Computer Training Institute

Nowadays, the computer is used for work in almost every place, whether it is a private company, government office, or organization.

There is a huge demand for computer courses in the Indian market. You can start a computer training institute and earn good money.

You can give many courses in your centre like MS-CIT, Basic Computer, Tally, Programming Languages, Coding, and much more.

22. Typing Classes

You can start a Typing Institute and earn good money. You can teach people the typing skill and how to type faster.

The computer-related skills are needed in all places, whether it is a private job, government job, or business. Typing is one of the most important computer skills and many people want to learn it.

You can start a computer training institute and typing classes together. 

23. Start A Educational Blog

Blogging is becoming extremely popular in India. People are earning crores from their blogs.

If people are interested in reading or watching videos on a specific topic then you can start a blog on that topic.

Education is a very popular topic and many people are interested in this topic. Education does not mean only academic education but any type of education like farming, business, digital marketing, singing, music, and much more

You can start your blog with very little or almost no investment.

24. Make Your Own Learning App ( Online Learning App )

You can create an Educational App and start your Startup. You can make billions of dollars from this education business idea in India.

Nowadays it has become very easy to create an app and if you find it difficult then you can give some money to the app developer and he will create an app for you.

On that app, you can give academic and other skill-based courses to children and people.

You can also create a YouTube channel or blog and promote your app from it.

25. Start Skill Development Center

Everyone is understanding that skills are more important than a college degree. The government is also running many schemes to make people skilful. 

You can start Skill Development Center, where you can teach people different skills. It will become extremely beneficial to our country, and you can earn good money from it.

26. Foreign languages Coaching Centre ​​( Foreign Language Classes )

Nowadays, people want to learn different foreign languages like Japanese, German, French, and Chinese. 

After learning foreign languages, people are getting good jobs and they are also getting a chance to go abroad and work in big companies. 

Along with English-speaking classes, you can also teach foreign languages to people and earn good money from this educational business idea in India.

27. Software Courses Institute

Software courses are becoming extremely popular in India. Many people are doing these courses and getting high-salary jobs.

Nowadays, good skills are required to get a good job, and software skills have higher demand in the market.

Many software courses are popular in the market such as Data Testing, Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence.

You can start a software training institute where you can teach these software courses and earn good money from them.

28. Drawing Classes

You can start a drawing class in your city where you teach drawing to children and earn good money from it.

You can also start a youtube channel where you can upload your drawing videos and earn money from that channel. Many YouTube channels are uploading such videos and getting millions of views.

29. Mehndi & Rangoli Classes

Mehndi and Rangoli are very famous in India. There are many festivals, weddings, birthdays, and events in India. On such occasions, women and girls like to apply mehndi on their hands. 

In Indian culture, rangoli has huge importance and every woman draws rangoli in front of their home. Both skills are extremely popular in India and women and girls want to learn these skills.

You can start a class where you can teach mehndi and rangoli skills and earn good money from it. You can do it as a side business. You can also create videos and upload them on your youtube channel.

30. Public Speaking & Communication Skills Classes

Everyone should have communication skills because it is extremely useful in career and personal as well as social life.

People do not know how to communicate properly and because of this, they suffer a lot.

Many people do not get jobs due to poor communication skills, Poor communication also affects your relationships.

You can start a coaching centre where you can teach communication skills and public speaking skills and earn good money.

31. Personality Development Classes

Whether you are doing a job or a business, a good personality is always useful. A good personality is not only useful for a career but also very useful for personal and social life.

You can start a personality development coaching centre. You can also start a YouTube channel where you can upload your teaching videos. You can get benefits from both your coaching centre and YouTube channel.

Before starting this business, you first have to work on your personality because it is very important to grow your business and attract new customers. You can do a course for it or you can also learn online.

Other Education Business Ideas

32. publish your books and e-books.

Publishing books is a very profitable business and many people are earning crores of rupees from it. If you are thinking that publishing a book is a very hard and costly thing then you are wrong.

Nowadays, anyone can self-publish their book for free. 

You can publish your book free on Amazon Kindle. You just have to upload your book content and amazon will do the rest of the work. Amazon kindle will create e-books and paperback books and also deliver them to your customer.

33. Stationary Items & Books Selling

You can also sell stationary Items and books. You can do this as a side business and earn good money.

The world is changing, and online education is getting more and more popular but this change is not going to happen so soon. It will take time, and until then you can earn good money from this business.

You will find many stationary and book wholesalers in the market. You can buy these things from them and you can sell them at retail price.

34. School & College Bags Selling

You can sell school and college bags in your shop. There are thousands of students in every city in India. If only some of them bought bags from you, you will earn a lot of money.

Online education is the future but this change will take a lot of time, till then you can earn good money from this business. 

You can also sell travel bags along with school bags.

35. School Uniform Making Business

In every city, there are thousands of students. Uniform is very important for school and colleges. You can start a school uniform-making business and earn good money.

You can take bulk uniform-making contracts from schools and colleges and make lakhs of rupees.

There are at least 3 to 4 thousand students in the small city of India and even if only 1000 students bought uniforms from you, you can make huge money.

Conclusion –

Many of these education business ideas are zero investment business Ideas. These education business ideas are perfect to start in India. 

If you have any suggestions or other education business ideas in your mind you can tell me in the comment section.

101 New Small Business Ideas In India

Swapnil Shinde

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7 Innovative Education Business Ideas You Should Launch In 2022

Do you enjoy teaching others? Are you interested in starting a business in the education sector? With the top 7 education business ideas shared below, you could make this a full-time career and be your own boss.�

Education is a part and parcel of our being. Nowadays, with a constant emphasis on the need for students and adults to improve their education, a need for innovative ideas for education system has also surfaced. This demand for education and training creates massive opportunities in the education industry and an interested entrepreneur can encash on the opportunities to earn big profits. Also, a sudden spike in queries around business ideas for students can be seen as well.��

So if you think you are creative and highly imaginative, you can take the following education business ideas as inspiration to develop your business concept that can be marketable in the industry of education.�

Here are 7 online and offline education business ideas to pursue:�

1) tutor finder.

A web-based or mobile app that makes it simpler for students to find private tutors in their local area is a great idea. You need to onboard local tutors, get them to create a profile with all the information about their professional background and rates, and then promote them.

When they get business through your platform, you keep a percentage as commission. Students can search for specific subject tutors and leave reviews for the tutors they have interacted with. This way you can help students connect with the best tutors.�

Some examples of tutor finding services in India are Superprof, LearnPick, TeacherOn, TutorCity, and more.�

2) Online Tutoring

However, for a lot of students, travelling to the tutor�s coaching centre or scheduling a time for the tutor to visit at home becomes challenging.�

If you are fond of teaching and have the required experience and knowledge for a particular subject, you can start providing online tutoring sessions. You can take classes via video calls, share lesson plans, and also conduct online tests. You can fix a monthly rate or a per hour rate depending on the requirements of the student.�

Some examples of online tutoring platforms in India are Vedantu, Chegg Tutors, Byju�s, Doubtnut, etc.

3) Online Hobby Classes

An online hobby class allows students to learn on-the-go, at their convenience. They can download the videos and learn from within the comfort zone of their home.

As a teacher, you can teach students a new skill without spending on infrastructure and other fixed costs. To set up, all you need is a computer, a camera/smartphone to record your videos, and an internet connection to upload all the required material.�

Some of the known platforms offering online hobby classes include Udemy, SuperProf, LearnPick, and ipassio.�

4) Educational Toys

You can manufacture or source educational toys. These toys are in the form of books, games, machines, electronic gadgets, etc.

They help the child develop motor, sensory, and speech skills. But before you start a business for educational toys, make sure you investigate what the existing players are doing and avoid entrepreneurial failure . Moreover, remember to create customized toys with experts and not sell traditional toys already available at online and offline stores.

Some businesses currently selling educational toys for children are Flintobox, FirstCry, Toy Cart, and Raise Smart Kid.�

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5) Teacher�s Resources Online

Some teachers have been teaching for decades and find it difficult to adapt to newer technologies. They cannot prepare lesson plans on the computer and don�t know how to prepare additional teaching aids.�

A teacher�s resources platform online can provide lesson planning help along with tips and tricks to improve teaching practices. The platform can offer readymade resources and teaching aids for free or a little fee.

It can guide teachers on how to upgrade their teaching methodologies as per today�s technology and education system. Teachers can communicate with one another and other educationists to develop solutions for common student problems.

Teachers Help Teachers is an interesting online community aimed at finding solutions to the problems in education.�

6) Online Library

The online library is another profitable education business ideas that can help to restore people�s habit of reading. The platform can offer books from different genres and let people learn different subjects from anywhere and at any time.

With the help of the internet, people from various parts of the world can register in the online library. They can also choose to share their collection of books online in PDF format for other readers to enjoy.�

Users will need to register and pay an affordable fee to make use of the online library. A well-equipped digital library is something you can look at starting if you want to enter the business of education.�

Amazon Kindle and Good Reads are examples of online libraries and book publishing platforms.�

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7) Entrepreneurial College

This resulted in the closure of many businesses, even before they reached their third year of operations.

According to statistics, the majority of the startup businesses that survived are owned and operated by individuals who have undertaken some form of formal or informal business training.�

If you want to enter the education industry with one of the most thriving and profitable education business ideas, you can start an entrepreneurial college. At an entrepreneurial college, aspiring entrepreneurs enrol to learn the strategies and fundamentals of starting and growing a business. You need to guide entrepreneurs on the common problems faced in the country and how each one needs to be tackled. You need to give them the right information to secure funding, advertise, and lead their business venture.�

However, before you start, make sure you have obtained the required license and accreditations from the education department in India.�

So, if you think you have a highly profitable and unique education business ideas, it is time for you to start and let the world know about it.�

Q. What are the most innovative business ideas for students?

A. There are a host of options for the young guns around. Students can work in a number of domains including Bloggers, Tutors, Social Media Influencers and many more.

Q. Which startups are working on business ideas in the education sector?

A. The most flourishing startups in education sector these days include Byju’s, Meritnation, Vedantu, Toppr.

Q. Which is the best education business idea in India?

A. There are a number of verticals that you can work at, it depends on the compatibility with your skillset. To state one of them, online learning (app-based) is one of the emerging concepts in the education sector.

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Best 50 Most Profitable Education Business Ideas in 2024

Do you want to start a business in the education industry? If YES, find here 50 innovative education business ideas and opportunities that you can start with little money.

From the very beginning of civilization, human beings are in learning mode. And still, the hunger to know the unknown things has made the education industry so lucrative for entrepreneurs.

India holds an important place in the global education industry. The country has more than 1.4 million schools with over 227 million students enrolled and more than 36,000 higher education institutes. The industry is changing rapidly with more private players entering the field.

Is Education Business Profitable in India?

The education industry has undergone several changes over the past few years and continues to invite significant spending by the public in India. And there are several reasons for this driving growth.

Some of the major reasons are the responsiveness of people toward the benefits of early education, raising awareness of the advantages of higher education, and the growing demand for online teaching methods. So, we can conclude, that starting a business in the education industry is highly lucrative these days.

List of 50 Education Business Ideas

#1. animation institute.

Nowadays, starting an animation institute or animation school is a highly profitable business. Additionally, you can start the business with moderate capital investment. The demand for animation and graphics is increasing very fast. So, you will get enough students for your animation school. Also, you can consider starting a franchise.

2. Book Store

If you want to start a retail business in the education industry, you can open a bookstore. However, it is important to conduct thorough market research before commencing this business. Additionally, you must have a promotion and marketing strategy for your bookstore.

#3. Art & Craft Lessons

If you are already an artist or craftsman, you can start teaching the tricks to other people. And there are several options you can explore for starting this business. You can start the classes at your home or you can have a specific space for rent.

#4. Art School

Definitely, starting an art school is a self-rewarding opportunity for artists who want to start a business in the education industry. Generally, art school provides different types of lessons including drawing, painting, sculpturing, etc.

#5. Baking Instructions

Do you enjoy baking delicious cakes and cookies? You can teach the lessons to others who are interested in it. You can start the business on a low-cost and part-time basis also. Even, you can start the business in your kitchen also. As part of it, you can publish recipe books for your students.

#6. Ballroom Dancing

Generally, a ballroom dance business provides ballroom dance lessons in a well-appointed studio. It can train teams that participate in national or regional competitions. Additionally, it also provides dance lessons for those who simply want to learn how to dance.

#7. Bicycle Safety Courses

For starting this business, you will need to have specific knowledge and skill about bicycle safety. Generally, children who are learning bicycles are the potential customers of your business. You can operate the business on a home-based and part-time basis.

#8. Envelope Making

The demand for envelopes has not shown any decrease in recent times. Though the competition is high, one with proper and innovative planning can be successful in this business.

#9. Business School

Starting a business school is definitely a big business. Additionally, it demands strategic planning and substantial capital investment. Generally, business schools offer different business management courses. Additionally, you will need to have an affiliation with the recognized universities too.

#10. Business Startup Instruction

If you don’t want to get into a large business, you can start offering business startup instruction to new entrepreneurs. You can set up an institute for it otherwise you can consider taking the classes at the client’s destination too.

#11. Career Counseling

Career counseling is definitely a self-rewarding business. Basically, every student after the 10th class looks for this type of service. You can start the business both offline and online. Basically, the success of this type of business depends on the number of successful students you counsel. However, you must have a marketing strategy. There is a big demand for career counseling in India at present and without any doubt is among the most profitable education business ideas with low investment.

#12. Chalk Making

Chalk crayons are the most important item for writing on the blackboards. If you live in an area where blackboards are used in educational institutions, you can start this business. You can initiate a small-scale chalk-making business with small startup capital even at home also. Making chalk is still one of the most lucrative education-related business ideas in the country at present.

#13. Computer Institute

Do you have specific knowledge of different types of computer applications? If yes, you can open a computer institute to teach others about different programming and software. You can start the business with a small investment. Even, if you have sufficient space, you can start this business at home. There is a big demand for professional computer training at present and is indeed among the most profitable education business ideas in the country.

#14. Content Writing

Content writing is one of the most trending businesses nowadays. One can earn a lot of money from writing content from the comfort of his or her home. There are several magazines, websites, and blogs that look for expert writers. However, you must have a keen interest in writing and knowledge of at least a specific subject.

#15. Cooking Classes

Do you enjoy cooking? You can teach others about different types of cooking techniques and recipes. Broadly, you can start the business in two ways. Either as home-based or by establishing a specific institute. This type of niche business has enough potential of generating good revenue.

#16. Dance Academy

Basically, a dance academy is a perfect business for professional dancers. Starting a dance academy is definitely a lucrative small business. However, you must conduct market research before commencing the business. You must identify the demand in the local market for the specific type of dance.

#17. Daycare Center

Basically, the increasing number of working parents is creating a huge demand for this type of business. And you can start child-care services ranging from small home-based operations to large commercial centers with small startup funds. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 61% of married-couple families, both husband and wife work outside the home. Hence, it creates an immense opportunity for entrepreneurs for starting a daycare center business.

#18. Driving School

This is another lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs. If you are a good driver, you can start this business with moderate capital investment. Basically, driving schools provide help and guidance to clients on how to drive a car. Additionally, they also help in getting a driving license from the motor vehicle authority.

#19. eBook Writing

Do you know how to write an eBook and publish them? If yes, you can develop your own eBook writing business from home. Additionally, there are self-publishing platforms that help writers to publish their eBooks. You can write and sell eBooks of your own or you can do these jobs for others. Generally, Fever and Upwork are the most popular platforms for this type of online job.

#20. Editing and Proofreading

This is another lucrative business, you can consider starting from home. If you have good grammar and language knowledge, you can offer these services from your home also. Generally, several agencies and companies look for this type of service.

#21. Educational Day Camps

Educational day camps are sometimes known as summer camps. You can offer this type of service in a day-long format on weekends during school months and throughout the week in summer. However, check the local laws before commencing this business.

#22. Employee Training

Basically, employee training is traditional HR activity throughout the globe. It is an effective way of enhancing the productivity of the employees of an organization. So, the demand for this type of service is still very high. If you are an expert in this area, you can start this business even from home.

#23. Exercise Book Manufacturing

Actually, exercise books or notebooks are mandatory items for school-going children. Additionally, there are some other areas where still notebooks are used. The exercise book-making process is simple. And with some small machines and equipment, you can start the business even from home.

#24. Fashion Designing Institute

Are you a fashion designer? And do you want to start a business with your expertise? So, you must consider starting a fashion designing institute of your own. You can start the business with moderate startup capital. However, check the specific market demand before commencing the business.

#25. First-Aid Training

If you have professional expertise in first aid, you can offer first aid training to the people who want to learn it. Apart from the individuals, there are several institutions and clubs that conduct training sessions for their members. Additionally, this type of business allows your home-based operation too.

#26. Flower Arranging Courses

Do you know flower arrangements? If yes, you can teach others how to arrange flowers for creating beautiful bouquets and wreaths. Additionally, you can offer different lessons on creating interior and outdoor flower arrangements. Start the business from home and then expand.

#27. Gem Clip Manufacturing

gem clip is an important item for organizing a bunch of papers. Additionally, different types of decorative gem clips are also popular these days. You can start a gem clip-making business from home with a single machine and some hand tools.

#28. Home Tutoring

If you enjoy teaching, you can start this business at any moment in time. This is one of the most profitable zero-investment businesses in the education industry. Additionally, students, home-staying parents, and seniors can earn good money out of home tutoring.

#29. Interior Decoration Training Institute

The interior design industry is growing very fast. That is why the demand for designers is also in high demand. There are several students who look for technical and professional training in interior design courses. The business is highly profitable. However, it demands substantial capital investment.

#30. Jewelry Making Courses

If you know how to make beautiful pieces of jewelry, you can teach others. Basically, jewelry making is a profitable home-based business that ensures good revenue returns. Therefore, there are many people who look for such courses. You can start the business from home or you can establish an institute.

Related Read:   How to Start a Jewellery Designing Institute

#31. Language School

Language schools are popular since ancient times. Therefore, there are always some students who look for this type of school. You can open the school with moderate capital investment. However, you must have adequate knowledge about different types of languages that have demand in the local market.

#32. Magazine Publishing House

Initiating magazines is big business. The business demands strategic planning and substantial capital investment in the long run. However, the business is highly profitable. You will need to check the licensing issues before commencing the business.

#33. Manners Training

Starting a child’s manners instruction service is a terrific way to get into the business for yourself. The market for manners training is large. However, you’ll need to learn everything about manners that you can. Also, you can gather information by reading books on manners and proper etiquette.

#34. Martial Art School

If you are a martial art specialist, then you can consider starting this business. Basically, different types of martial arts are popular among children and young adults. Additionally, with a small space and some interior, you can open a martial art school anywhere on this globe.

#35. Music School

Broadly, you can categorize music in two ways. One is vocal and another is instrumental. Depending on your own expertise, you can open a music school with a small startup capital investment. However, you must conduct market research prior to getting the actual demand and potential competition at your location.

#36. Nursing Training School

The nursing training school is another lucrative business for entrepreneurs who want to start a business in the education industry. However, opening this type of institute demands specific permission and affiliation. Additionally, the business demands substantial capital investment too.

#37. Online Library

Online book libraries or online book renting or eLibrary is a profitable business in today’s digital era. However, like any other eCommerce business, an online library business demands technical knowledge of eCommerce, strategic planning, and moderate capital investment.

#38. Online Tutoring

If you enjoy tutoring, you can start online tutoring also. This is an emerging business in developing countries. There are several companies that offer an online platform for both teachers and students. They also take care of the payments for teachers. It is one of the most lucrative education business ideas with almost no money.

#39. Photography Academy

If you are a professional photographer and have adequate knowledge about photography, you can start this business. If you have a studio setup, you can start the academy there. Otherwise, you can also set up an academy with a small commercial location.

#40. Play School

Playschool or kindergarten is an evergreen business in the education industry. The business demands small startup capital in starting. Additionally, there are several reputed brands can find that offer franchise opportunities too. However, if you have got the confidence, then starting your own brand is always a better proposition. Preschool is among the most profitable eduction-related business ideas in India presently.

Read:   How to Start a Preschool Business in India

#41. Digital Printing Press

Generally, the printing press is a traditional business. However, printing technology is upgrading every day. Additionally, there are several printing processes for different applications. You can start a digital printing press business with moderate startup capital investment.

#42. Resume Writing Service

A resume-writing service business can be initiated on a home-based basis. Additionally, it is almost a zero-investment business one can start only with a computer and internet connection. However, the business demands adequate knowledge and tremendous skill in writing killer resumes.

#43. River Rescue Instruction

Did you know that more than 4,000 people in the United States drown each year? And most of the people are fishermen. Basically, this type, of course, offers instruction on how to rescue from revers. The business demands capital investment in purchasing equipment. However, you can operate the business on a part-time basis also.

#44. Sailing School

Do you enjoy sailing ships? And do you have adequate knowledge about how to sail ships? Then you can consider starting a sailing school of your own. The business is highly lucrative for new entrepreneurs. And you can start the business as a part-time venture also.

#45. Sales Training

Do you have sales and marketing knowledge? You can consider offering sales training services to both product and service-based companies. Basically, sales are the most important aspect of every organization. And companies pay a huge amount for training employees for increasing sales.

#46. Scuba Diving Instruction

Basically, scuba diving is underwater diving. However, here the diver uses a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) which is completely independent of surface supply, to breathe underwater. And it demands specific skills and techniques. If you are a scuba diver and have a keen interest in teaching others, you can start this business.

#47. Self Defense Training

It is another profitable business in the education industry. There are several techniques that you can use for self-defense. Generally, men, women, and children may become your students for self-defense training classes.

#48. Sewing Classes

Initiating a sewing class business is definitely self-rewarding. The business doesn’t demand large startup capital investment. If you have adequate knowledge about sewing you can teach others. This is one of the best education-related business ideas for women or housewives also.

#49. Stress Management Courses

Nowadays, stress is a potential factor that affects productivity and overall performance. If you are a stress management expert, then you can consider starting the business from home also. Generally, several companies arrange stress management courses for their employees. And in that case, you can conduct the classes at their premises.

#50. Survival Training

This business demands adequate knowledge and a keen interest in teaching others. If you are a subject matter expert, you can consider starting this business of your own. The business is among the highly profitable education business ideas for adventurous entrepreneurs. However, it demands strategic planning and moderate capital investment.

Basically, starting a business in the education and training industry demands specific knowledge and skill. We hope, this list of profitable education business ideas will help you in making an informed decision.

Rupak Chakrabarty

Rupak is the founder of MUVSI. He is a small business consultant by profession. His mission is to make people know how to make money and understand personal finance for a better living.

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6 Upcoming Business Models In Edtech Opportunities in booming edtech have opened doors for innovative services and offerings

By S Shanthi • Aug 6, 2021

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

India's edtech startups are surely having their last laugh. A few years ago, we would find experts often talking about the challenges in the sector and the difficulty in scaling up. Many edtech startups also shut shop and only some raised funds.

Today, tables have turned and according to KPMG's Online education in India: 2021 report, the industry could be worth $1.96 billion by 2021. Be it BYJU'S acquiring companies such as Aakash Educational Services, Great Learning, Toppr or upGrad acquiring KnowledgeHut, edtech is in the news every day and opportunities galore for all players in the space.

Besides coding, we now see various innovative services and offerings in the space.

Here is the list of six business models in the space besides coding:

Celebrities Turn Mentors

Startups in the space including FrontRow, Mento, CelebritySchool, Unlu, others rope in celebrities to be instructors. For instance, actor Deepika Padukone backed FrontRow has reportedly partnered with many celebrities including Suresh Raina, Yuzvendra Chahal, Neha Kakkar, and comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath, among others, as some of its instructors.

Unlu has also got a few legendary celebrities to take classes in various categories, such as Manoj Bajpayee who teaches acting, Ruskin Bond who teaches writing, Sania Mirza who teaches Tennis, etc. According to Unlu, it has over 1 million users and has been doubling its revenues since unluclasses launched out of Beta in March this year.

"Teaching is the purest job, everyone has the right to learn from best teachers across the globe and people like to know stories that can inspire them, they want more active learning instead of passive. So we bring those who made it to the top and have an experience and journey to inspire billions," Vipul Agrawal, co-founder, Unluclass told Entrepreneur India.

Edutainment For Pre-schoolers

ClassMonitor, Kutuki, OckyPocky, Kiddopia, PlayShify are some of the key startups in the space. This sub-sector involves using proprietary stories and a songs-based curriculum. This brings in the combination of voice, vernacular, video and teachers. These are mostly edutainment apps that offer education in the form of fun. Maths, general knowledge, language skills and social-emotional learning are some of the features offered by these startups.

Offering Industry-Relevant Skills

The mismatch between education and the skills that are valued in the job market is largely felt today. Cashing in on this are some skilling platforms such as SkillLync, AttainU, Udacity and SOAL. "The ever-increasing gap between what industries expect and what students learn during their engineering education has caused a global shortage of high-quality engineering talent. The rapid adoption of new technologies by industries has also created a need for the constant upskilling of engineering professionals. Hence, the need of the hour is to have engineers who have knowledge of both engineering fundamentals and how they can be applied to solve real-world engineering problems through engineering design and simulation tools," said Suryanarayanan P , co-founder, and chief executive officer, Skill-Lync.

Saas giant Zoho's "Zoho Schools Of Learning' offers an alternative to a conventional college education. Here students are taught hands-on software engineering, relevant English communication skills, and helpful mathematical concepts. "If you are raring to achieve your career goals and would rather not let a conventional college education stand in the way, Zoho Schools is where you should be," it says.

Teaching The Teachers

Many startups today are empowering the teachers with digital tools such as student activity management platforms and some others are imparting them the technical know-how to make them future-ready.

For instance, from technology to business support, Classplus claims to provide everything a teacher needs in order to become a good digital educator. Bengaluru-based Teachmint, founded in 2020, enables teachers to create their own virtual classrooms using their smartphones. It helps teachers take lasses, engage with students, assign them tasks, collect fees, all virtually.

Dance, Music And Other Extracurricular Coaching

While schools and colleges moved online quickly after the pandemic, extra-curricular activities came to a stop for children. This opened up doors for many startups.

For instance, Kyt was launched in June 2020 by former Uber Eats India head Bhavish Rathod and Tripti Ahuja to offer classes in dance, music, reading, yoga, musical instruments, chess and others. KidEx is another startup launched in the same year to offer a data-driven platform for extracurricular activities and life skills. Bengaluru-based Bambinos offers many co-curricular courses such as creative writing.

B2B Edtech Startups

The pandemic posed immense challenges to schools, colleges, coaching institutions and other traditional institutions. They had to quickly take their entire work online to ensure business and learning continuity.

Business-to-business (B2B) startups saw huge potential here and started offering Saas tools to make the shift seamless. These tools, offered by the likes of Classpro, mPowerO Upswing Learning, among others, include exam assessments, real-time tracking of student's performance, instant feedback, assignment management, among others.

Former Senior Assistant Editor

Shanthi specializes in writing sector-specific trends, interviews and startup profiles. She has worked as a feature writer for over a decade in several print and digital media companies. 

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Investing in India’s Education Market: New Growth Drivers

India is the second most populated country in the world, and has the world's largest population in the age cohort 5-24 years at 580 million. This represents a huge market for the education sector - India has over 250 million school going students. As per industry analysis by IBEF, India’s education market could be worth US$225 billion by FY 2024-25.

India was ranked 48th out of 112 countries on the English Proficiency Index in 2021. Its English-speaking population also enables the smooth delivery of educational products, including online programs. The government allows 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the education sector. Regulatory reforms in the works include plans to establish an overarching regulatory body for higher education - the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) - which was proposed in the National Education Policy 2020.

Now the Indian government wants to "invite capital from everywhere" to support the country's need for quality education infrastructure and skilling resources for over 255 million youth in the 15-25 age group. Only 110 million youth out of that cohort are currently in educational institutions.

India also wants to improve its gross enrolment ration (GER) from 27 percent to 50 percent by 2030. Speaking to the media in August, the Union Education & Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the government will be releasing new guidelines to facilitate the entry of foreign players in the education sector. 

...we need to augment the existing strength, capacity and infrastructure in the education system. How do we do that? We must invite capital from everywhere. We must also ensure that market forces don't overpower the institutions and there is no commercialisation. So, anyone is welcome to our system with one expectation - that it should not be exploited. - Union Education & Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Growth drivers for India's education market

Increased telecom penetration coupled with internet accessibility at very low prices has resulted in a massive surge of online business opportunities.

With 451 million monthly active Internet users as on March 31, 2019, India is only second to China in the number of internet users. Internet penetration stood at 36 percent in early 2019, and is expected to increase to 829 million users by 2021. Further internet penetration in rural and urban areas will provide increased opportunities for expansion and growth even to traditional brick and mortar sectors of the economy.

Smartphone users are expected to reach the 859 million mark by 2022 from 468 million in 2017, an increase of 84 percent. Good quality affordable smartphones and the expansion of mobile / data connectivity services are driving mobile penetration in India.

These developments present a huge opportunity to take education online in India. Some of the reasons why, include:

• The deteriorating quality of school education in all but the top rung, expensive private schools. Local online education start-ups like BYJU’s and Unacademy have mushroomed across India to fill this void by offering innovative, interesting, interactive, and fun-based learning modules to school-going children to supplement and reinforce their learning. BYJU’s and Unacademy are both headquartered in Bengaluru and include prominent investors such as Sequoia and General Atlantic.

Many online programs are often taught by professionals and industry veterans. Such programs have greater acceptability due to the practical insights offered, and the ability to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

• Acute shortage of seats in universities for undergraduate courses . India has long established the concept of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and includes universities such as Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Delhi, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University (BRAOU), Hyderabad, Nalanda Open University (NOU), Patna, among others. This model was dependent upon the guidance and supervision of teachers in brick and mortar colleges although teachers and students were not required to be present at the same place or time. One peculiar downside of the model thus was that students taking ODL courses were never considered to be on par with those who actually attended regular classes. Today, instruction through online classes have raised the quality of education provided in these spaces by promoting a level of engagement similar to that found in traditional classrooms.
• Very few students in India can afford to go abroad for higher education . International universities, seeing the huge demand and acknowledging the resource gap, have begun collaborating with Indian universities to offer courses at affordable prices. With the liberalization of India’s foreign investment policy, it won’t be long before foreign universities independently set up presence in the country and offer both physical and online courses.  

How India is making investment opportunities more accessible

India is now the second largest market for e-learning after the US, and was forecast to hit the US$1.96 billion mark in market value with 9.5 million users by 2021. As e-learning continues to grow more popular, India’s own education technology (Edtech) sector is expected by industry analysts to become a US$30 billion industry over the next decade.

Investment Opportunities in India’s Digital Infrastructure Worth US$23 Billion

Recently, in June 2022, Noida-based Edtech platform PhysicsWallah, also known as PW, became the seventh Edtech to enter the unicorn club, having raised US$100 million in a Series A funding round from Westbridge and GSV Ventures. Other unicorns in the Edtech sector are Byju’s, Eruditus, Unacademy, Lead, Upgrad, and Vedantu.

The Indian government has undertaken several measures to improve the quality of education in the country and make secondary and higher education accessible to a larger proportion of its population. The steps taken are:

• Encouraging public private partnership (PPP): In August 2019, the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) signed a collaboration agreement with Google to advance EdTech vision in India. This includes utilizing Google tools and technologies like Google Classroom and G Suite for Education to facilitate online learning for students and teachers.
• Allowing 100 percent FDI under automatic route: From April 2000 to December 2019, India’s education sector received FDI worth US$3 billion. 
• New Education Policy 2020: Drafted in 2019, it aims to increase the focus on early childhood care, reforming examination system, improving teacher training, and restructuring the education regulatory framework.
• External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs): Proposal to allow ECBs to fund projects being set up to promote education in India.

Other notable government steps to promote online education in India are as follows:

• Usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education curriculum to improve the effectiveness and delivery of education. 805 master trainers/ key resource personnel across India were oriented on ICT curriculum for students and teachers by 2018.
• e-pathshala has been developed by the NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training) to promote and disseminate educational e-resources. Till December 2018, 3,444 audios and videos, 698 e-books (e-pubs) and 504 flip books were made available on the online portal and mobile app.
• National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) initiative to collate comprehensive resources across all stages of teacher and student education. Till December 2018, 13,635 files – including 401 collections, 2,722 documents, 565 interactive, 1,664 audios, 2,581 images and 6,105 videos were made available on the portal.
• The ‘Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds’ (SWAYAM) is a portal for online courses with classes ranging from high school (grades 9 to 12), to undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is providing 44 online courses at the SWAYAM portal to promote education through e-learning methods.
• National Digital Library of India (NDL) is an online repository of learning resources with more than 15.3 million digital books available online.

Rise of online education businesses

The above factors show that India is an ideal destination to invest in the online education business. India has a huge market and has a well-established and cost-effective software industry that can support the implementation of EdTech business ideas, from the novel to traditional learning segments.

Profiling India’s EdTech Industry: A US$10 Billion Opportunity

According to Statista estimates, the Indian Edtech industry is valued at US$2.8 billion and expected to reach US$10.4 billion by 2025. There are about 9,043 EdTech startups in India.

The digital learning market in India is categorized into following segments: K-12, test preparation, online certification, skill development, and enterprise solution. The major growth drivers of these segments include a large addressable market, convenience, price advantage, as well as pandemic-led disruptions, aided with ever evolving technology capabilities.

More platforms are now innovating to provide tailored products for their target audience, by offering value-added courses like group discussions, live projects, career counselling sessions, and internships etc. besides regular courses. Additionally, more advanced features like personalized dashboards, accurate performance tracking, and skill mapping are also offered to users by premium institutions in order to gain traction.

Technology is being leveraged to provide an immersive learning experience to users through improved interfaces to ensure better knowledge acquisition. Trends like simulation of concepts, level advancement badges, and incentive-based learning are driving user engagement on Edtech platforms like BYJU's and Cuemath.

During the pandemic, India was among the leading markets for global venture capital funding in education, following China and the United States. According to data from analytics firm Tracxn, between January and August 2021, Edtech players attracted a whopping US$3.81 billion in funding.

Growth opportunities and challenges in India's education market in the post-pandemic period

As per a UNESCO report, over 91 percent of the world’s student population was affected by the pandemic. Educational institutions across India temporarily closed to contain the spread of the pandemic, impacting more than 320 million learners in India. Such unexpected and prolonged closures over the last three years compelled schools, colleges, and coaching (tutorial) centers to explore alternative methods of keeping the learning going and completing courses on time, despite the challenges and disruptions.

Institutions now use online platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, WhatsApp, etc. to provide live and recorded classes to the students.

However, infrastructure challenges remain due to variations in internet connectivity and availability of devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops, and computers – in many parts of the country. In such cases, teachers put in extra efforts during the lockdown period, such as sending scanned copies of texts over email or sending short recorded videos over WhatsApp to address specific doubts. This ensured smaller sized files were sent to students saving on data pack costs and addressing connectivity concerns. Yet, educators knew they had to supplement these sessions, if possible, with additional classes and tutorial sessions once schools reopened. 

Consequently, it is not surprising that in the post-pandemic period, the online learning model is increasingly being supported by offline centers with the emergence of a hybrid model - now wholeheartedly embraced by Edtech firms. Byju's Aakash, UpGrad, Vedantu, PhysicsWalla, 99+mytuitions app, Utkarsh Classes are among several Edtech players that are setting up brick-and-mortar centers.

This trend towards a hybrid proposition comes as students no longer feel constrained by mobility restrictions to stick to e-learning and seek in-person teaching and a classroom atmosphere.

Funding for the Edtech sector has also declined - reducing by 50 percent in Q2 2022 calendar year, necessitating fresh business strategies by Edtech players.

Regulatory regime

Foreign companies and universities intending to explore the Indian market have multiple options if they wish to set up here –  as an unincorporated entity (branch office or liaison office) or an incorporated entity (wholly owned subsidiary or limited liability partnership). The federal regulatory body All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has no regulatory framework for online degree and diploma courses.

While certifications are not recognized by the government, degree and diploma courses are recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), which is a statutory body under the federal Ministry of Human Resource Development, and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher education.

A foreign entity willing to offer UGC-recognized degree or diploma courses online must be a Higher Education Institution (HEI). An HEI is an institution deemed to be a university covered under the UGC Act, 1956, which imparts higher education or research by means of conducting regular classes or through open and distance learning systems or through an online education system.

The following criteria must be met by HEIs to gain approval to offer online education:

• The online portal must be verified and approved by the expert committee of the UGC.
• The online content should have a minimum four quadrant 'approach' – video lectures, e-content, self-assessment, and a discussion forum.
• Only non-technical courses can be offered online, that is, courses in the fields of engineering, law, medicine, dental, pharmacy, nursing, architecture, physiotherapy, applied arts cannot be offered through online medium.

Higher Educational Institutions offering online education must :

• Be at least five years old;
• Have a minimum score of 3.26 on a 4-point scale by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council; and
• Be in the Top-100 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework for at least two years.

Some takeaways

Since the COVID-19 crisis, education instruction and study patterns have drastically changed in the country. The lockdowns accelerated the adoption of the online learning model, which was already on its way to becoming a booming market in India.

More users - educators and students - are getting familiar with online platforms and digital format education resources. In the post-pandemic world, online tools will enhance key gaps in imparting classroom instruction, facilitate personalized tutorial services, besides all manner of upskilling programs.

The sudden transition to e-learning between 2020-2021, however, exposed various pain points in the internet and education infrastructure – which offer scope for business opportunities in the sector.

What now appears par for the course is that more and more users will turn to digital alternatives to supplement or meet their education needs. And, India, with its vast consumer base and technology capital is well poised to become a global education investment hub. What remains is for regulators to catch up with market needs - and present signaling from the government indicates that this might soon come to be.

This article was originally published in May 2020. It was last updated August 3, 2022.

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Reinventing education with AI: 5 EdTech startups in India

Thanks to artificial intelligence, Education Technology is booming in India. Listed here are some startups that have created maximum impact with their innovative solutions.

• Jungroo Learning : Jungroo Learning is a B2B SAAS based EdTech start-up that helps educators and organizations understand and chart their student’s journey at a microscopic level through an AI-powered adaptive engine. Jungroo is like a GPS for educators: it locates the learner precisely and creates the shortest learning path to mastery for them. Their adaptive platform lets organisations create adaptive content or make their existing contents adaptive.

Read also: India’s AI journey: The story so far

• Embibe : Embibe is a learning platform which runs a website and a mobile app and is being used by thousands of students. It is working on disrupting the education space because the personalised attention that the average student receives at even the best educational institutions is far from satisfactory. It collects data from students, charging only for advanced analysis and personalised learning recommendations. Students can actually improve test scores by fixing basic mistakes using its AI platform.

Read also: Understanding AI’s role in online education

• Taghive : It is a Samsung-funded education technology company with headquarters in South Korea and an office in India. The company’s offerings include clicker-based classroom response systems and AI-powered self-assessment solutions. The company offers its clicker solution under the “Class Saathi” brand in India and under the “Class Key” brand elsewhere.

Read also: Using AI for giving a level playing field to India’s government school students

• Learning Matters : There are two main challenges in education that Learning Matters is solving - poor quality of education leading to dismal student learning outcomes and a huge shortage of qualified, trained teachers. Learning Matters provides comprehensive, scalable, and sustainable solutions to overcome both these challenges. 

Read also: How government school students are learning English with AI

• Smartail : It builds solutions to leverage AI for learning and grading for solving some of the pain points in education segment. DeepGrade is an AI-powered platform that helps in identifying learning gaps and improving learning efficiency. DeepGrade can evaluate both handwritten and digital content.

Read also: #WebinarWindUp: How AI can unlock a child’s true learning potential

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7 Education Business Ideas in India

• 7 Education Business Ideas in…

Education Business Ideas in India: Going Farther Through Education

However, India would only be able to do it by offering economic perks that would lure in private entities into engaging in the business embarking on education.

Why not? The country has a population of about 1.35 billion people. Furthermore, 33 percent of people are in their schooling years, covering primary, secondary, tertiary and skills training. Thus, the education business is very lucrative, especially with a state supporting education of their younger citizens.

Facts and Figures in India’s Education Sector

The government’s idea is basically anchored on helping local folks to garner more knowledge through education and skills via training. As such, the government has enacted laws giving economic perks and opening opportunities for individuals and entrepreneurs.

The approach has been very effective. In fact, a 2018 report saw India’s higher education sub-sector related businesses grow by US$ 30 billion.

The same report likewise attributed the phenomenal increase in the number of Indian nationals landing jobs in the Business Process Outsourcing Sector. Many got work as call centre agents where they further trained to speak fluent English.

This development alone saw India notch the 34th spot in a list of 100 countries in the 2019 English Proficiency Index.

On top of English proficiency, Indian nationals also got to learn the modern-day technology embarking on the internet.

Start-Up Education Business in India

To date, there are over 41,000 colleges and universities in India. Adding on to this impressive number, there are about 35 million students in higher education alone.

Unfortunately, even if the number huge, it still is lower than the target of the government.

What India actually wanted is a preferential focus on skills development initiative. The country considers the initiative to be an essential aspect of moulding its huge workforce.

News articles earlier hinted at India’s Central Government embarking on a US$ 1 billion disbursement incentive to topnotch individuals and entities with the capability of bringing in an effective skill development program. The initiative targets some 400 million young Indian nationals to enroll in Industrial Training Institutes.

Amid an open invitation plus perks for individuals and investors to ponder on education business ideas in India, the government is allocating US$ 57.23 billion for top-notch learning institutions to teach some 10 million Indian nationals every year.

But what exactly are the education business ideas that best fit and are profitable in India?

We list the are seven top choices that are fit and profitable. Unsurprisingly, most of these education business ideas use the internet as a medium.

Among these education business ideas embark on web-based locator service. There are already existing websites and mobile apps offering to help one find the perfect tutor for regular online sessions complementing formal education. This particular business earns via the locator’s fee. Online tutors are deemed effective because of its one-on-one approach. However, the government still finds it short of its target of educating 400 million of their young nationals. Hence, there is a need for more tutor locators.

Online Tutoring

This particular education business idea may, or may not require locators. A teacher on their own may in fact make use of social media as a platform to promote his or her teaching services. Given the magnitude and extent of the social media, these online tutoring services can even do the actual tutorial on Facebook, Skype, Viber, Google Meet, among many other web-based apps offering video calls, video chats, teleconference, virtual meetings, etc. Online tutors may earn from an hourly rate or based on a modular package.

Online Hobby Classes

Hobby classes can also be useful and profitable. Mentors may teach how to cook, sing and dance, DIY assembly-repair or anything of one’s personal interest through flexible, short-term online classes anywhere, anytime. This educational business idea allows online mentors to run a school without actually putting up one. A small kiosk with an internet-connected computer will do. An online business of this type may earn from the minimal fees or through the pay-per-click option.

Online Lesson Exchange For Teachers

Being a teacher doesn’t necessarily mean having a database of lessons for their classes. And that is exactly why there is a need for a databank just for the teachers. This is where teachers, tutors, mentors and may get the updated educational materials related to the subject they’re teaching. This modern-day innovation eliminates the tedious process of preparing lesson plans, day in and day out. It can also teach the teachers stuff they don’t know. Each module has corresponding rates.

Online Library for Students and Researchers

If teachers, mentors, tutors and coaches have an online database for their lessons and topics, so do the students and researchers.  An online library is just like the typical library where one could find encyclopedias, reference books, almanacs, atlas, journals, novels, images, comic books, etc. It is basically going to the national library without even leaving the comfort of one’s home, at one’s palm. Earnings come from downloaded information, hourly reading rate and modules.

Entrepreneurial School

In a country which is one of the world’s top choices for startups, local entrepreneurs would have to learn too, that is if they want to compete with foreign entrepreneurs. Availing knowledge from entrepreneurial school gives one the leverage over those who didn’t take up formal business classes or training at the very least. This education business idea earns the conventional way. Earnings come from tuition fees, miscellaneous fees, among usual charges from other typical schools.

Educational Toys

Of the seven education business ideas in this article, production of educational toys is the only one that doesn’t embark on the internet. As the name “toy” suggests, this educational business form exclusively targets learning children. It is through educational toys that children are made to study while playing. Educational Toys for Children isn’t a new idea. It has been in existence since who knows when and has remained profitable to date. Educational toys may be in the form of puzzles, shapes, colors, games, illustrated books —  or even electronic gadgets. There is one glitch though, it is best to come up with new toy ideas amid the proliferation of educational toys in the market.

Learn More from Us

Understandably, people in the education business won’t be where they are if they don’t know the ins and outs of the education sector. However, it is equally important to know other stuff outside the academic circle.

However, academic knowledge alone may not be enough to get one of these seven education business ideas going. Those yearning to get into any of these are advised to consider tapping business setup experts.

Consider 3E Accounting in India’s three pillars — excellence, efficiency and economy. We deliver results or your money back

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5 Best Education Business Ideas to Start in India 2024

Written By: Yukta Palekar

This article provides top 5 profitable education business ideas for individuals who want to quit their 9-5 jobs and start a small business in the educational field. These ideas may include online classes, notebook manufacturing, textbook printing, or innovative business ideas in the educational field.

The article is designed for those seeking to start a profitable education business with relevant investment.

Education is crucial for growth and success, with increased income levels and awareness leading to a stable industry. There are numerous business opportunities in the education sector, offering potential for significant financial gains.

However, many people believe that education-related businesses are capital-intensive. This article presents several low-investment education business ideas, urging readers to review and shortlist options based on their interests before investing in the education sector.

5 Profitable Education Business Ideas with relevant investment

Opening a play school business:

Opening a play school is a lucrative business idea that requires moderate to little high investment. With hard work and dedication, you can achieve success in this line with low investment. Play schools, like Montessori schools, play a crucial role in the education sector of the country. There are various play school franchises available, including kidzee play school franchises and Bachpan play school franchises.

For investment-conscious business seekers, there are a few cheapest play school franchises available across the country. The demand for play school franchises in Hyderabad is trending, and franchise portals receive numerous queries about taking up a Bachpan play school franchise or a kidzee play school franchise for their location.

FranchiseBazar can help entrepreneurs with low investment options in India, including some of the cheapest play school franchises and top brands like Bachpan paly school franchise and kidzee play school franchise.

The investment range for play school franchises is 2 lakhs and above.

Spoken English classes Business:

Spoken English classes are a lucrative business opportunity for those fluent in the language. These classes can be initiated from home without any investment, and the success depends on expertise and marketing skills. With the rise of multinational corporations, English is a major communication tool. Franchise opportunities for spoken English classes include French language franchises and language translators.

Foreign language institutes and schools offer these services, and investors can explore these options at Franchise Bazar.

The minimum investment required is 1 lakh and above.

Coaching classes Business:

Coaching classes are a lucrative education business with investment requirements based on project scale. Top education franchises, such as paramount coaching franchise, are gaining a presence in online education centres across India. This growth is due to increased importance of education in rural and urban areas.

Franchise opportunities, e-learning companies, and coaching classes can be explored at Franchise Bazar, with investment requirements of 5 lakhs and above.

D aycare centres Business:

The demand for daycare centres and creches has increased due to working parents leaving their children at daycare facilities or looking for creche services.

This trend has led to the growth of creche franchise opportunities and other child care franchises in India. There is great demand for these services in top cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, and other metro and non-metro cities.

To explore creche franchise opportunities or child care franchises in India, entrepreneurs can visit companies like Franchise Bazar. They offer some of the top most cheche franchise opportunities for locations like Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and many other locations in the country.

The investment range for these franchises is between 5 lakhs and above.

FranchiseBazar is one of the top companies providing franchise opportunities in India, offering various locations and opportunities for entrepreneurs to explore.

Software Training institute Business:

Software training institutes can help fill the skill gap between engineering graduates and jobs in developing countries like India. By offering courses for hot skills, these institutes can become profitable education business ideas. With the increasing IT sectors in cities, software franchise opportunities and IT service franchises are growing.

Franchise management software is a new business in this segment. FranchiseBazar offers opportunities for IT franchises in India, including top tech franchises in 2017 and 2016.

Investments of 2 lakhs and above are recommended.

Why choose to go for an education business franchise in India?

The rapidly expanding Indian education market is a profitable prospect for those seeking to make commercial investments. India's education franchises provide a readymade business model complete with training, assistance from the franchisor, and a thorough business plan.

Franchisees may swiftly grow their businesses by tapping into a large client base in a market valued at over $100 billion. Education franchisees provide a broad range of services, such as career counselling, college admissions help, test preparation, and tutoring.

The low-risk business model lowers the chance of failure by offering a thorough strategy and support from the franchisor. Because the education industry is resilient to recessions, franchisees may continue to generate a profit even when the economy is down.

Having an education franchise in India is a terrific opportunity to take advantage of a developing market, offer families and kids high-quality educational services, and make a consistent living.

Owning an education franchise in India in 2024 offers several advantages

• Firstly, the high demand for quality education is a significant factor, as parents are willing to invest in their children's education due to the rising standard of living and awareness of its importance.
• Secondly, starting a franchise is cost-effective, as franchisees benefit from existing infrastructure, brand recognition, and support from the franchisor. This reduces the initial investment required for the business.
• Next, the education franchise business model is proven and has a track record of success, reducing the risk associated with starting a new business.Franchisees receive comprehensive support and staff training from the franchisor, including training on best practices, marketing strategies, and operational procedures. Access to quality curriculum and teaching techniques is another advantage, as franchisees benefit from the franchisor's investment in research and development.
• Finally, the franchise provides marketing and advertising support, promoting the franchise to attract students and increase enrolments. Franchisees have access to resources such as training materials, curriculum, lesson plans, technology, and equipment.

Therefore, owning a franchise in the education industry offers a better chance of success compared to starting a business from scratch.

Knowing What It Takes to Manage an Education Franchise in India

Running an education franchise in India is a challenging task due to the country's diverse culture, languages, and educational systems.

• The first challenge is finding the right location with a good reputation for educational excellence.
• The second challenge is creating a curriculum that meets the needs of students, as standards and expectations vary across regions.
• The third challenge is finding qualified teachers, as India's large population makes it difficult to find qualified teachers willing to work in the franchise.
• The fourth challenge is finding the right marketing strategy, as marketing strategies vary across regions.
• The fifth challenge is creating a business plan that outlines the franchise's goals and objectives.
• The sixth challenge is understanding the legal and regulatory framework in India, as laws and regulations vary across regions.

Understanding these challenges is crucial for ensuring the franchise's success.

Market size of education franchise in India

Franchise businesses are crucial in the escalating education sector due to economic, social, and geographical reasons. With 26.31% of India's population aged 0-14 years, the Indian education market is expected to grow up to USD 225 million by 2025.

The government of India has allocated over 54,000 crores (USD 7.53 Billion) for the Department of School Education and literacy in the Union Budget, 2021-22, which is expected to boost confidence and strengthen the National Education Policy. Private schools account for 25% of the total number of K-12 schools in India, and 40% of students go to private schools.

Parents prefer private K-12 schools over government or public schools, and franchising models become instrumental in meeting these demands. The franchise business is profitable as the world operates on basic economic principles of demand and supply.

The franchise education business offers numerous benefits, including constant guidance and direction from a franchisor, including academics, hiring faculties and staff members, infrastructural support, planning yearly calendars, IT support, curriculum design, marketing, and publicity assistance, and more.

Premium education schools are always ready to diversify with 360-degree support, and the franchise model alleviates risk for both parties.As the Indian Education Market is projected to reach USD 225 million by 2025, the growth potential of this sector is huge, and franchise partners can capture the market better with an established brand name.

The franchise education model ensures recurring income as students become familiar with the curriculum and its flow, making them unlikely to switch. Sticking to one education model also comes with the emotional value of a strong brand name.

The educational sector is emerging as a valuable business opportunity in the global market, with top education brands franchising for expansion. This presents numerous education franchise opportunities for budding entrepreneurs in India, as the sector is the fastest and most growing worldwide.

Ideal candidates include those interested in the educational sector, those already working in the industry, and business and management professionals with strong business acumen. To find the best education franchise opportunities in India, register your entrepreneur profile at FranchiseBazar, and you can access the best franchise opportunities matching your profile, investments, and skill sets in no time.

Disclaimer: The brands mentioned in this blog are the recommendations provided by the author. FranchiseBAZAR does not claim to work with these brands / represent them / or are associated with them in any manner. Investors and prospective franchisees are to do their own due diligence before investing in any franchise business at their own risk and discretion. FranchiseBAZAR or its Directors disclaim any liability or risks arising out of any transactions that may take place due to the information provided in this blog.

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Back to the future

New learnings

Talk to anybody in education circles, and they will tell you that churn is the norm for every stakeholder in the fray – ranging from KG classes to post-graduate, corporate training and vocational courses

H ad the new education policy (announced around the end of July) been unveiled at a usual time (in the non-Covid era), it would have surprised many due to its dominant focus on online education. Among other things, it proposes setting up virtual labs in schools, encourages students to extensively use e-platforms like SWAYAM and DIKSHA, and talks of bringing in an online training regime for teachers. It also facilitates the creation of a dedicated National Education Technology Forum where ideas would be exchanged to use to the hilt advanced technological components like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain or Internet of Things (IoT), for education modules in the not-too-distant future. However, the online leanings of the new education policy (released after over three decades) had hardly any surprise elements for anyone when it was finally made public. With the Indian education system switching over to online mode since the beginning of the first round of lockdown in March, there is a larger consensus now that online learning will be a critical pillar of the larger blended learning in the future. Talk to anybody in education circles, and they will tell you that this is the moment of critical churning for every stakeholder in the fray – ranging from KG classes to post-graduate, corporate training and vocational courses. While it is forcing the well-established brick and mortar institutions to add an effective technology component to their services, for those who have been quietly taking a position as online education specialists in the market, tomorrow has arrived sooner than expected. And, therefore, unprecedented activity has been witnessed at the stage vis-à-vis strategic investments, buyouts, etc, in the marketplace. “More than 35 crore students and 1.08 crore teachers across 15 lakh schools, 1,028 universities, 41,901 colleges and 10,726 standalone institutes are unable to attend classes due to the nationwide closure of education institutes,” Union education minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal, explains the impact of Covid-19 on regular education in these words.

“Blended learning is the future of education”

According to the Union Minister of Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal, while responding to the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian education sector, the government has chosen to push the envelope by incorporating new elements in the delivery system. Click to read.

Those in the education circle will vouch for the fact that the government has also acted promptly as a facilitator in giving the go-ahead to top universities in the country to float new online courses, apart from launching new programmes like eVidya. And there seems to be a presumption that even if the world returns to pre-Covid days, online teaching will not only stay but grow further and find a distinctive space for itself on the larger educational platform.   Surviving the tide But there is another, serious, dimension to the issue. While in a quantitative sense, online education could well mean a major leap (imagine a preparatory test institute teacher simultaneously reaching out to hundreds of students in an online setup as against a select group of 40-50 in a typical classroom environment), the quality it can impart vis-à-vis the traditional mode is being questioned by some analysts. “This is the first growth wave for the online education segment in the country. And it hasn’t readily evolved but has rather been thrust upon most stakeholders who are looking at it as the proverbial straw which will help them survive the tide. But soon you will hear questioning voices on the kind of prominence it should be given, considering its serious limitations on direct interface between teachers and students,” says a noted educationist who is presently attached to a private university in Delhi-NCR in a consulting capacity.

Puri: practical problem

Apart from a handful of dedicated tech-enabled players across various categories who have cropped up in recent years imagining a windfall arriving somewhere around the middle of the next decade, the majority of players in the fray (primarily brick and mortar campuses with little supplementary online offerings added to their portfolio) have been forced to quickly build strength in the remote connectivity vertical. “If we had not started Zoom classrooms in April (just at the beginning of the new session), I don’t think the majority of parents would have paid the first semester fee. That would have meant the management facing problems with paying the staff on roll,” says the principal of a renowned Delhi school on assurance of anonymity. The statement subtly underlines how critical the online offering has become to regular schools for their own survival during this unprecedented crisis. In all fairness, even as online education has been on the radar of most institutes and service providers aligned to the larger education space, till recently it has not been too big a dot on the national ‘promising businesses’ chart. Observers will tell you that what is commonly recognised as online education is actually an evolved form of distance education which has been in existence since the 1980s in the country, spearheaded by IGNOU and later by other public and private institutes.

Kumar: it has some limitations

With the Internet and, later, smartphones increasingly becoming the most prominent connecting tools since the advent of the new century, online education found new expressions, with private entrepreneurship gradually making it more contemporary and adding significantly to its core identity of distance education. In 2017-18, noted consultancy and research firm KPMG, in association with Google, published a dedicated report on online education in the country which apart from projecting future numbers, also subtly indicated broader, emerging trends. Looking at 2016 as the base year, the report maintained that online education was in a nascent stage and its market size was valued at $247 million. Quite a small piece of the cumulative Indian education business worth a staggering $100 billion in 2016 (with 260 million students in 1.5 million schools and 27.5 million undergraduates and four million post-graduate students covered by 39,000 colleges), it was nevertheless projected to be one of the fastest growing segments, registering a hefty 50 per cent annual growth to become a nearly $2 billion business by the end of 2021. And within the online education space, the report earmarked distinctive verticals – primary and secondary supplemental education, test preparation, reskilling and online preparations, higher education, language and casual learning – as the key drivers. In a cumulative sense, the total volume of paid users for these verticals in 2016 stood at 1.57 million, and were led by online certifications and primary and secondary supplemental education segments. This number was projected to cross 9 million by the end of 2021. The projection chart further underlined primary and secondary supplemental education and test preparation services becoming the dominant verticals, with shares of 39 and 28 per cent respectively. And in the process, each of these verticals was projected to become an over $500-million business opportunity ($773 million for primary and secondary supplemental education and $515 million for the test preparation domain).   Action-filled stage The report presented by KPMG & Google earlier, seems to be a gross under-statement today with the kind of volume jump which has been seen post Covid-19. Narayanan Ramaswamy, national leader, education and skill development. KPMG in India admits the report falls short of what is going to evolve at the end of the milestone period. “That report was based on a regular growth pattern and our assessment was a hefty jump in the online education business. However, post Covid-19, things are unfolding at a pace nobody could have imagined. I would not hazard a guess on the possible worth of the online education business by the end of 2021 now, but I could tell you, the projected number of users by this date will be higher by at least two to three times,” he says. The research firm is now working on a new report expected to be released before the year-end. Ironically, a pandemic which has destabilised normal life and economies across the planet is turning out to be quite the ticket booster for online education, as players in the fray confirm. According to Mrinal Mohit, COO, Byju’s (the country’s leading learning app for school-going children), the popular brand made all the content on its learning app completely free for students across all grades and introduced live classes as well.

Kompalli, Screwvala and Kumar: blending online and offline education

“We have received an overwhelming response with an almost three-fold increase in the number of students accessing our app. Earlier, students used to spend two-three days per week on our platform. As a result of the lockdown, they are using the platform on a daily basis and spending an average of 100 minutes per day. We saw over 15 million new students access our free app during the lockdown period,” he says. For leading players in the test preparation segment like Aakash Institute, which had added a digital wing to its portfolio much earlier, the growth in traction has been equally amazing. “We have already seen a four-fold increase in daily active users of Aakash Digital as compared to the previous year. There is a three-fold increase in daily enrolments in April 2020 as compared to the pre-lockdown period in March 2020. Paid, high-ticket Aakash Live Class users have also gone up three times from 6,800 in April 2019 to approximately 17,000 in April 2020,” says Aakash Chaudhary, director & CEO, Aakash Educational Services. With the traction growth of popular commercial educational platforms unfolding in the metrics of time and not just high percentage, the popular theory doing the rounds in the marketplace is: what demonetisation had meant to Paytm and other digital payment entities, Covid-19 means to Edtech firms. “We had seen a parallel case in India’s demonetisation moment, where the growth of digital payments apps soared. We were on top of the pandemic situation and were one of the first to take a positive step in offering free access to our live, online classes for students across the country,” adds Vamsi Krishna, CEO & cofounder, Vedantu, which is a popular interactive, online tutoring platform. Krishna explains the windfall for the platform in terms of an addition of 20,000 monthly paid users now as against 50,000 annually till last year. The company has just managed to raise $100 million in Series D funding which has elevated its valuation to $600 million. According to Vidyamandir CEO Vishnu Dutt Sharma (another major name in the test preparation business), the institute has gained big time with its live classes, video lectures and compact courses in recent months and it is now banking big on digital marketing expertise to further penetrate its targeted constituency. KVS Seshasai, CEO, Kangaroo Kids Education (a Mumbai-headquartered institute, especially for pre-schoolers which has also spread its wings to other countries like Nepal, Maldives, Qatar, Dubai, etc, during the past three decades of its journey) speaks no differently in terms of how the virtual schooling programme of the institute has fared post Covid. “Our virtual schooling programme for both pre-schoolers and high schools was met with great encouragement and positivity from the parent and student fraternity.” There is clear evidence to suggest that some of the players have, in fact, made significant, aggressive moves in this hour of crisis and have upped the ante in terms of new offerings and alignments. Take the case of Coursera, the world’s leading online learning platform, which offers over 4,200 courses in collaboration with 200 leading universities across the world. “On 12 March, we announced free access to 3,800 courses and 400 specialisations for all impacted universities and colleges through the ‘Coursera for Campus’ platform.

Gupta: aggressive moves

Over the past few months, the initiative has helped thousands of universities and colleges go online to maintain academic continuity. From India, we have received over 10,600 requests, out of which 3,652 programs have been activated across hundreds of campuses,” says Raghav Gupta, managing director, India and APAC, Coursera. With over 8 million registered learners on its platform, India is the second-largest market for Coursera, after the US. For its popular ‘Coursera for Campus’ offering in India, it has partnered with 17 institutes, including the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), and Shiv Nadar University (SNU). The Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad is another entity which has initiated a series of new courses in recent months, surprising everyone in the market with its quick moves. Founded in early 2015, upGrad provides online programs in the areas of data science, technology, management and law, to college students, working professionals and enterprises in collaboration with top-notch universities like IIT-Madras, IIIT-Bangalore, MICA, NMIMS Global Access, Jindal Global Law School, etc. “The ongoing global crisis calls for evolution on a recurring basis, especially amid the online education space, which seems to be the only way forward, owing to its robustness and accessibility,” Screwvala had earlier commented.   Government help The rare buoyant mood witnessed in private education circles, has been boosted by immense support from the government which has given the green signal to 100 universities, allowing them to offer online courses. This was announced by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 17 May during the last of her five press conferences on the government’s relief measures for the economy. This comes as part of the government’s new initiative to push a multi-layered digital education programme called ‘eVidya’. “This programme includes: DIKSHA (one nation-one digital platform) which will now become the nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content in school education for all the states/UTs; and TV (one class-one channel) where one dedicated channel per grade for grades one to 12 will provide access to quality educational material, etc,” explains Ramesh Pokhriyal. And some experts are ready to vouch that in terms of intention, this programme could well take online education to a new level. “This truly marks the arrival of multi-modal modules (including television and community radio) in imparting education, which is even bigger than the computer or smartphones which define online education,” opines Narayanan of KPMG. Around the middle of June, the University Grant Commission (UGC) gave its nod to 100 top notch universities (as per the National Institutional Ranking Framework or NIRF rankings) to kick-start online courses and this is expected to result in more action. For instance, IIT-Madras has launched India’s first online BSc degree in Programming and Data Science. And on 6 July, IIT-Roorkee, in collaboration with WileyNXT, announced the launch of its ‘AI in Banking Programme’. The four-month course is India’s first-of-its-kind online programme made for existing as well as recently graduated technology and finance professionals, who aspire to build a career in AI and analytics in the banking domain.

Mohit: an overwhelming response

A similar drive has also been witnessed in top-notch universities (part of the top 100 list) which now have the backing of the UGC, validating their online programmes. This simply means the addition of more magnetism to their drawing power and the resultant initiatives are expected to soon become visible. “Considering the technological churnings all around, the explosive growth pattern of online business was waiting to happen. Covid-19 may have just put it in top gear,” observes Anil Swarup, former secretary, HRD ministry. Though the unprecedented surge triggered by what is probably the crisis of the century is likely to change the Indian education delivery system forever, the addition of new elements has certainly been far from smooth for a majority of stakeholders in the value chain, including those who are entrusted with the actual delivery responsibilities. The education circle today is full of stories where teachers, especially at the primary and secondary levels, have been asked to learn the technology at a breakneck speed. Sunetra Pathak, a secondary level teacher with Mamasaheb Khandge English Medium School, Pune presents this tale of woe for teachers in detail saying that they have been forced to learn the basics of the virtual classroom, including understanding the technology of the Zoom application, Google Duo, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc. And even after having painstakingly surmounted these odds, the teachers, attuned to offline models, have to worry about the quality front. “We are unable to interact with our students the way we do in a classroom. We do not know whether the child is completing his classwork and homework,” she points out, while adding that conducting tests and practical exams, co-scholastic activities, team projects, sports, music, dance, etc, are also missing at the moment. Pathak may be representing a larger emerging voice, maintaining that online education can’t match the quality deliverables of the traditional classroom model, especially at the school level. When it comes to vocational online courses, it could again lack punch, with lack of effective practical lessons. “Our experience over the last three months has allowed us to deliver over 80 per cent of our regular academic curriculum online. The only gaps are really in the practical hours students spend in the culinary courses which require our kitchen infrastructure,” explains Dilip Puri, director, Indian School of Hospitality and a hotel industry veteran. “Online education, like any other form of education, has some limitations. In the case of skill training, the importance of classroom training cannot be negated,” says Dr Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), an agency closely aligned with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. It had launched a major e-learning aggregator portal last year called eSkillIndia, which has now tied up with 25 knowledge partners and associates, including Saylor Academy, Simplilearn, IBM, TCS, UpGrad, etc.   Making it happen But even with the limitations there are strong contrarian views within the education sector. First, there is the issue of adjustment to tech-driven teaching modalities. “Since the middle of March, we conducted around 6,000 hours of online teaching till the end of June and have executed parents’ meets and students’ town hall sessions – all online. Our own technology-savvy faculty has made it happen without any outside support, making use of popular available platforms like Zoom or Google Meet. It is quite doable and I think, private institutes have shown more agility in adopting it,” says Dr Indu Shahani, noted educationist and president & chair of ISDI (School of Design & Innovation).

Krishna: a windfall moment

And when it comes to quality of education, Narayanan of KPMG makes his point bluntly. “How many Indian offline institutes can really boast of providing education on par with the best in the world? Imagine what could this lead to – international institutes opening up their courses for Indian students at significantly lower rates vis-à-vis what they charge for the traditional campus classroom and Indian institutes too providing this kind of service for foreign students,” he says. A senior faculty member of a leading private university based in Greater Noida, however, says established private institutes are somewhat perplexed at this stage in terms of how to harness this emerging hybrid model. “For private institutes, courses delivered in a campus environment are a high-margin proposition. If the same course is delivered online, the pricing advantage can’t be sustained. So, for them, it would mean moving from value to volume,” he points out. But there are those who strongly believe that the future normal educational regime (minus corona and the restrictions imposed by it) would mostly comprise of a hybrid formula where the online constituent would play a robust role. “The future lies in the blended learning approach where the candidate undergoes a mix of online and offline training. In such cases, theory sessions may be taken up online and the candidates may come to classrooms only for practical sessions or assessments,” says Kumar of NSDC. And this is a point which even some of the most popular online brands are not refuting. “The current scenario is proving to be an inflection point in the field of education and on the other side of the crisis we can expect the rise of a blended model of education. The proliferation of smart devices coupled with the democratisation of the Internet will quicken this process,” says Mohit of Byju’s. And with this understanding, different online players across the educational value chain are mooting their future expansion plans, promising this space will be extremely lively for quite a long time.

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Start an Overseas Education Business in India-2023

Likitha s - monday 24th july 2023 | articles.

What is driving the buzz in the career counseling business in India?

Why is the career counseling industry witnessing significant growth and attention in India?

What are the key reasons to consider starting an overseas education business in India in 2023?

How can the growing demand for global education create lucrative opportunities for entrepreneurs in India?

This blog explores the driving forces behind the surging demand for career counseling and illuminates the key motivations for embarking on an exhilarating journey of establishing an overseas education business in India in 2023.

The Indian overseas education market is poised for remarkable growth, expected to scale new heights by 2025. Projections indicate a robust compound annual growth rate of 15-20% over the next four years, propelling the market to a substantial value of around $35 billion. This forecast reflects the burgeoning demand and opportunities in the sector, signifying a significant potential for expansion and development to start an overseas education business in India in the coming years. India is the 2nd largest market globally to send students for an overseas education.

"From India to the World: The Growing Opportunities to Start an Overseas Education Business in India”

Opportunities to start an overseas education business in India are abundant and diverse, presenting a promising landscape for growth and success. Some key opportunities include:

1)Increasing Demand for International Education: There is a rising demand among Indian students to pursue higher education abroad due to the desire for global exposure, access to top-quality institutions, and enhanced career prospects opening opportunity to start an overseas education business in India.

2)Diverse Student Segments: The overseas education market caters to a wide range of student segments, including undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, and vocational courses, offering opportunities to serve diverse educational needs.

3)Partnership with Global Institutions:  When one wants to start an overseas education business in India collaboration with prestigious international universities and colleges enables the business to offer a broader range of study options to students and enhances the credibility of the services provided.

4)Specialized Educational Services: Offering specialized services such as scholarship assistance, language proficiency training, and pre-departure support can create a competitive edge and attract more students.

5)Emerging Study Destinations: Besides traditional study destinations, there is an emerging interest in lesser-explored countries as study destinations, opening up new markets and opportunities for overseas education businesses.

6)Online Learning and Hybrid Models: The increasing adoption of online learning and hybrid study models allows businesses to tap into a broader audience and provide flexible study options to students. So, when one wants to start an overseas education business in India, they should adapt both the models.

7)Technological Advancements: Embracing technology can streamline processes, enhance communication, and deliver personalized services, offering a more efficient and innovative educational experience.

8)Government Initiatives and Policies: Favourable government policies and initiatives supporting international education can further boost the growth of the overseas education business.

9)Career Counselling and Skill Development: Integrating career counselling and skill development services can add value to students educational journeys and foster long-term relationships with clients.

10)Alumni Networking and Support: Creating strong alumni networks and support systems can contribute to positive word-of-mouth referrals and enhance the businesss reputation.

11)Niche Market Opportunities: Identifying and serving niche markets, such as specialized courses or student demographics, can lead to a loyal customer base and sustained growth.

By leveraging these opportunities and providing quality services, an overseas education business can establish itself as a trusted partner in guiding students toward achieving their academic and career aspirations on an international stage.

Who can start an Overseas Education Business in India?

To start an overseas education business in India is an entrepreneurial endeavour that can be pursued by individuals with a passion for education, global exposure, and helping students achieve their academic and career aspirations. Several types of individuals can consider to start an overseas education business in India:

1)Education Enthusiasts: Individuals who are passionate about education and believe in the transformative power of international exposure can venture into the overseas education business to empower students with global learning opportunities.

2)Experienced Educators: Teachers, professors, or educational consultants with experience in the education sector have valuable insights into the academic landscape, making them well-equipped to guide students in choosing the right overseas education programs.

3)Former Study Abroad Students: Individuals who have studied abroad themselves may have firsthand experience of the challenges and benefits of international education, which can fuel their desire to assist other students on a similar journey.

4)Career Counsellors: Professionals with a background in career counselling can leverage their expertise to help students align their academic choices with their career goals when exploring overseas education business options.

5)International Education Consultants: Consultants with knowledge of international education systems, study visa procedures, and cultural adaptation can offer comprehensive support to students seeking to study overseas.

6)Business Professionals: Entrepreneurs from diverse business backgrounds who see a market opportunity in the study abroad industry can leverage their skills in marketing, networking, and business development to establish a successful overseas education business.

7)International Relations Experts: Individuals well-versed in international relations and cross-cultural communication can play a pivotal role in connecting students with universities and institutions worldwide.

8)Educational Technology Specialists: Professionals with expertise in educational technology can utilize digital tools and platforms to offer online study abroad counselling and support services.

9)Individuals with a Global Network: Those who have a wide network of connections within the education and international communities can leverage these relationships to create strategic partnerships and collaborations.

It is important to note that while individuals from various backgrounds can start an overseas education business in India, a deep understanding of the international education landscape, immigration laws, and cultural nuances is essential. Additionally, passion for student welfare, commitment to ethical practices, and dedication to providing quality services are crucial for long-term success in an overseas education business.

Leveraging Certified Career Counsellor International Studies with Overseas Education Business:

1)Understanding Student Needs: A counselling course equips you with the expertise to understand students academic goals, career aspirations, and personal preferences. This understanding enables you to provide personalized guidance and recommend suitable study abroad options.

2)Career Counselling Expertise: Career counselling is an integral part of the study abroad process. A counselling course equips you with the knowledge to help students align their academic choices with their career goals, ensuring they make informed decisions about their future.

3)Navigating Cultural Differences: Studying abroad often involves adapting to new cultures and environments. A counselling course prepares you to assist students in navigating cultural differences, promoting successful integration into foreign societies.

4)Study Visa Assistance: Understanding study visa procedures is essential in an overseas education business. A counselling course familiarizes you with visa application processes, documentation requirements, and immigration laws, ensuring you can guide students through the visa application process.

5)Ethical Practices: Ethics are paramount in counselling. A counselling course emphasizes ethical considerations, ensuring you conduct your overseas education business with integrity and transparency.

6)Building Relationships with Institutions: Counselling courses may offer networking opportunities, enabling you to establish connections with international educational institutions. These connections can facilitate partnerships and collaborations, enhancing the study abroad options you can offer to students.

7)Continuous Learning: The education landscape is ever-evolving. A counselling course encourages continuous learning, ensuring you stay updated with changes in the international education industry and offer up-to-date advice to students.

Earning potential of an Overseas Education Business in India

• Payouts: Overseas education consultants receive remuneration from universities for each successful candidate enrollment. Typically ranging from INR 1 lakh to INR 2 lakhs per student.
• IELTS Preparation: In English-speaking countries, the IELTS exam is a mandatory requirement for international students. Study abroad consultants collaborate with IELTS trainers to provide comprehensive preparation. On average, these consultants charge a fee ranging from INR 15,000 to INR 20,000 for IELTS training services.
• Education Loan: Financial institutions like banks provide commissions to study abroad consultants for each successfully approved education loan, serving as a remuneration for their assistance in facilitating the loan application process.
• Career Counselling: Study abroad consultants offer services such as college shortlisting, recommendations, and career counselling, typically charging a professional fee ranging from INR 5,000 to INR 10,000 for these comprehensive advisory services.

There are 10 More ways study abroad consultants earn. Connect to us and explore the opportunity

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India Needs Greater Innovation in Education

Technology-backed innovations are key to redesigning the education environment in which schools and institutes are operating..

• Print Edition: Feb 20, 2022

The education ecosystem currently is at the intersection of the offline and online modes compelled by external factors. This has greatly accelerated digital adoption in education delivery. With such changes, comes the need for creativity and faster improvements to ensure there is no gap in the skilling process for both learners and learning providers.

Just like any other sector, innovation is essential to introduce and improvise the qualitative changes in educational content, teaching methods, and practices. Technology-backed innovations are key to redesigning the education environment in which schools/institutes operate. The government has adopted various initiatives towards educational support for children who lost their parents to Covid-19, children with special needs, integrated teacher training programmes, and so on. It is the responsibility of private edtech players to join the bandwagon and innovate together, forming better public-private partnerships.

Online education has the advantage

According to recent industry reports, India’s online education market is poised to grow by $2.28 billion during 2021-2025, at a CAGR of 20 per cent. This growth is driven by macroeconomic factors including government initiatives, disposable income, internet penetration, increasing importance of skill development and employment, and rapid digitalisation in education. According to KPMG, India has also become the second largest market for e-learning after the US. The edtech space has seen strong growth globally, including in India, with the Covid-19 pandemic serving as an inflexion point.

The four growth drivers

Today, with online education being the core medium for learning across elementary, medium, and higher education, there are four focal points for continuous innovation and growth of the sector.

1. Accessibility: Data released by the Unified District Information System for Education for the academic session 2019-20 shows that 78 per cent of schools in India don’t have internet facilities and more than 61 per cent do not even have computers. While online education platforms can make learning accessible to learners beyond the barriers of geography, it is also imperative to ensure access to the supporting infrastructure that enables them to pursue education.

2. Quality of faculty: In e-learning, there is always a bunch of challenges that learners may face such as not being able to focus and maintain self discipline throughout the training modules. And this is exactly why it is critical to have regular mentorship/ feedback sessions, and discussion forums by industry leaders who understand the market conditions and can handhold learners to overcome the challenges. The other aspect is the quality of education in terms of content and services. With the rise of virtual learning, more experienced and qualified faculties can be onboarded to produce quality content.

3. Affordability: The National Education Policy 2020 launched by the government is in line with the 2030 Agenda for UN SDG which outlines affordability as one of the core tenets. Among the sectors that bore the brunt of Covid-19, the plight of private and other offline institutions is perhaps one of the least recognised. The pandemic has brought significant shifts in the job market and pushed professionals to accept digitisation as the only means to operate. Professionals are rethinking their careers and upskilling choices. To address the rising demand for quality affordable education, edtech players in India are working constantly to make global learning possible for millions.

4. The 3L model: Life Long Learning is the concept that essentially rests on the online education model and will evolve the continuous learning process for individuals as well as corporate firms. The adoption of learning for life cuts across all age groups driven by three needs: employability, social learning and entrepreneurship. The concept of 3L has been deployed by most firms partially, with a focus on individual learning but there is ample opportunity for it to mature by exploring newer avenues of delivery relevant to a consumer segment and online education channel.

Changing perception pushes need for innovation

While individuals from Tier I cities were aware of educational trends, those from Tier II and Tier III cities weren’t. Now, there is significant demand coming from smaller towns. Working professionals , too, are exploring career development programmes. ‘Reskilling and online certifications’ is the largest category today at $93 million, largely backed by employers’ preference for certain experts and the changes in employment trends. Another shift is the changing mindset of India’s students who perceive convenience, flexibility with commencement dates and variety of study material as key motivational factors to adapt to the online channel. Another trend is personalisation.

Innovation calls for investments

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of technology in India’s education sector, a traditionally slow-moving space. Investors started pouring funds into a sector with the country becoming home to five edtech unicorns in just 12 months; about $42 billion in 2021 has been raised by the Indian startups, up from $11.5 billion in the previous year.

We are witnessing an era where the rising tech-tonic shifts have accelerated growth avenues for businesses. Rapid innovations have invited investments from foreign bodies, government, public and private firms. Technology-based developments will require regular R&D innovations backed with data analysis to keep the growth curve moving and bring equilibrium in the education system across the four pillars mentioned above.

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Five significant changes in India's education sector in 2022

From digitalisation of education to the implementation of nep 2020, these are the five significant changes the education sector witnessed in 2022..

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The education sector is inherently dynamic owing to the influence of new-age pedagogy, advancement in technology, and the rapidly evolving profiles of learners and teachers. This change has only been accelerated by the onset of the Covid pandemic and the education sector’s resilience in recovering from the disruption caused by the closure of institutions. In the year 2022, the sector not just returned to relative normalcy but also made some notable strides toward what may be described as the new paradigm in education.

Major innovations and changes in the education sector were inspired by the precious lessons taken from the pandemic. There was a heightened emphasis on technology integration, collaboration, skill generation, risk mitigation, forecasting, and the development of several soft skills, such as creative thinking, critical thinking, and conflict resolution.

• Digitalisation of Education

The thrust for greater digitalization of education has been made by the government through several initiatives, such as DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), online MOOC courses related to NIOS, e-Pathshala web portal, and the National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) which provides e-content for students, teachers, educators, and parents.

The year 2022 saw the stress on innovations in education delivery through television, radio, and online platforms. Beyond government initiatives, private institutions strengthened their digital infrastructure, trained teachers in ICT, and incorporated blended learning and hybrid learning programmes within the curricula.

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What’s the Future of Business Education in India?

• In a virtual roundtable hosted by AACSB, representatives of Indian business schools considered the future of management education and the role of accrediting bodies.
• Participants agreed that, to solve today’s business problems, managers must have the multidisciplinary skills they can only gain from exposure to the sciences, the arts, and the humanities.
• Participants also had suggestions for improving undergraduate programs at Indian business schools.

  Where does the university-based business school fit into the landscape of business education in India? Where is it today, and where is it heading?

These vital questions were addressed in a recent invitation-only virtual roundtable organized by AACSB as part of a continuing conversation about critical issues in management education. The discussion was facilitated by Amy Memon, AACSB’s Regional Head in South Asia, and led by Pankaj Chandra, vice chancellor and chairman of the Board of Management of Ahmedabad University.

Additional academics from the region shared their perspectives during the discussion. Participants also debated other pertinent topics, including the state of undergraduate business education in India today. Their comments, presented here, have been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Current Picture

Chandra led off the discussion by providing background on the history of higher education in India. The first phase of its history started in 1857 with the founding of the University of Calcutta and lasted about 100 years as additional universities across the country were established.

The second phase, which ran from the 1950s to 2000, encompassed the rise of national institutions in every discipline, including technology, medicine, and management. The third phase started in 2000 and has seen the creation of private universities that are driven by the liberal arts and have their own distinct models.

Early business schools focused on the three fundamentals of math and statistics, economics, and industrial psychology. “Over time, as we came to understand the functions of a firm, schools added marketing, finance, and operations,” said Chandra. “This is the most exciting part of the story in India.”

But over the past 25 years, he said, society has witnessed the emergence of complex global problems stemming from poverty, war, and climate change. These societal issues have been accompanied by economic volatility caused by events such as the financial crisis of 2008 and the economic aftermath of the pandemic. None of these problems can be solved by a single discipline.

“In my mind, there’s no such thing as a ‘marketing problem.’ Any marketing problem is often just as much a supply chain problem or a manufacturing problem or a clever financing problem,” said Chandra. “Hence, the old format of business schools is not capable of delivering the sustained solutions that society requires.”

Tomorrow’s leaders must think very differently if they are to achieve the “deep innovation” they will need to address global challenges. To help managers develop this capacity, business schools need to move away from teaching “end-of-the-book Mickey Mouse problems to really discussing the problems facing business firms and society in all their goriness and complexity,” Chandra said.

Tomorrow’s leaders must think very differently if they are to achieve the “deep innovation” they will need to address global challenges.

He recently toured large Swedish manufacturing firms in a number of different industries, and every firm he visited was more than 100 years old. “The only question I heard from any of these places was, ‘How do we innovate to make our operations and our products more sustainable?’ The answer to this requires interdisciplinarity. It requires practice orientation. It requires deep research thinking.”

Chandra pointed to Northvolt , a Swedish firm that recycles lithium-ion batteries from around the world. Since its founding less than 10 years ago, Northvolt has raised about 6.5 billion USD and achieved a market cap of 12 billion USD. Said Chandra, “We need to ask ourselves, do our existing business schools have a curriculum that would enable our students to develop a Northvolt in India? Are we training kids in our program to be able to work and innovate in a company like Northvolt? Because that’s really where the future is.”

A Plan for Solving Tomorrow’s Problems

Chandra believes that, for Indian business schools, future opportunities lie along four axes:

• Data, materials, biology, and behavior.
• Health, transport, energy, and food.
• Air, water, land, and forest.
• The individual and the community.

Not only do many disciplines revolve around these axes, he said, new opportunities lie at their intersections. For instance, he described his time on the board of an IT company that had built software to determine the best way to route planes to European airports. But the software, which approached the challenge as an operations problem, was not successful—because the challenge was also a business problem.

“Most airports make more money through the sale of food and beverages than through landing fees for planes,” Chandra said. Airports would be more profitable if the biggest planes landed near the gates where food outlets were located, but the engineers had failed to take that business reality into account.

To solve today’s problems, he said, managers must have input from science, engineering, the social sciences, and the humanities to understand “what is feasible, what is desirable, and how to integrate it all together.”

Chandra contended that only university-based business schools can build such multidisciplinary environments and curricula. “I don’t think standalone business schools have the understanding or the proximity to do it.” He observed that the world’s best business schools all have symbiotic relationships among learning, teaching, and research functions, which allows them to create programs that are deep, broad, and integrated. “And I believe that’s an opportunity for us.”

An Interdisciplinary Emphasis

Others at the roundtable echoed Chandra’s comments about the need for synergies between business programs and programs within the wider university, and they agreed that it is more difficult for standalone schools to create such synergies.

One participant noted that students at university-based business schools have access to courses delivered by experts in their fields, such as computer classes taught by computer science professors and business law courses taught by law professors. Standalone schools that want to provide their students with similar opportunities would need “to build linkages with institutions that can provide them with content and expertise in complementary areas.”

It can be difficult for standalone business schools to create synergies between business programs and programs within the wider university.

Even universities that promote interdisciplinarity must take steps to ensure their efforts work for their programs, according to another participant. He suggested that universities create faculty development programs to ensure that professors understand the requirements of the other schools where they are teaching.

Universities also need to give some thought to how they put together intercollegiate collaborations. For instance, Memon described the Master of Integrated Innovation for Products and Services at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The joint program was founded by the schools of business, engineering, and design, who were all partners with equal input into its creation.

According to Chandra, business schools can implement multidisciplinarity in a number of ways. At the lowest level, they might allow their students to take a few courses in subjects such as computer science. At the next level, they might encourage students to develop broader mindsets by enabling them to take as many as 30 percent of their courses outside of the business school. At the highest level—“which is where I think we need to be”—schools will recognize that business is about making decisions. Therefore, they will ensure that students develop the interdisciplinary skills they need to become thoughtful decision-makers.

Chandra provided an example from his own school, which offers a global executive MBA for the pharmaceutical industry. For a class that covers pricing, Chandra will request appearances by professors of marketing, economics, and operations. For a class on transformative innovation in the industry, he will bring in biologists. When he discusses plant efficiency, he’ll invite professors from the fields of operations, productions, and chemical engineering. He added, “All of them are available to me at the university.”

The Challenge of Undergraduate Education

Another topic participants discussed was the state of undergraduate business education in India, where graduates often are considered unemployable unless they go on to earn higher degrees.

Chandra had three suggestions for how business schools can improve undergraduate education. First, they should offer students a broad base of learning in nonbusiness subjects. Second, they should provide students with appropriate industry training through opportunities such as co-ops. Third, they should train undergraduates in general skills such as critical thinking, analytical thinking, communication, and technical competence. Undergraduate programs need to be restructured, he said, and “universities can pull together the resources to make it happen.”

Several participants noted that many universities in India offer undergraduate business degrees simply to generate revenue. Others pointed out that in the U.S. and Europe, many leading business schools do not offer undergraduate education at all—in part because the perception is that younger students might not be prepared to master the intricacies of business.

To improve undergraduate business education in India, schools should offer nonbusiness courses, provide students with industry training, and help students gain soft skills.

“There’s no point in teaching 18-year-olds business subjects if they don’t have the baseline ability to critically approach problem-solving in a structured way,” said one. He did, however, feel that undergraduates benefit from studying economics, which teaches an analytical way of thinking.

Another participant had surveyed recruiters at Big Four accounting firms to discover what they were looking for in new hires. She learned that these companies are seeking students who have the type of critical thinking skills that can only evolve within a diverse curriculum. These employers also want students with a strong ability to communicate—an essential skill in India, where people speak in many regional dialects as well as English. Believing that it is worth the effort to help “young and enthusiastic” BBA students develop such skills, she has been introducing elements of theater, the humanities, and other liberal arts into her business courses.

She also emphasized that undergraduate business programs are here to stay. “We can’t run away from the fact that, in India, education is an emotional issue,” she said. “Parents will sell their land to pay for higher education.”

The Role of Accreditation

Whatever happens next with business education in India, roundtable participants expressed the opinion that accrediting organizations have important roles to play. For instance, said one, if more schools embed business courses in law and business programs, AACSB could have a part in certifying or accrediting such courses.

In addition, Memon noted that accreditation can act as a powerful framework for helping business school leaders articulate and achieve their goals. As an example, she pointed out that the 2020 standards focus on the values of diversity, technological agility, and multidisciplinarity, while they also encourage school leaders to consider how their programs could have an impact on society.

Members of the association also have access to a community of peers who can help them achieve their goals, she added. Through the AACSB Exchange, AACSB Insights, conferences, and other services, the association brings together business school leaders to share ideas and improve their programs—in India and around the world.

• accreditation
• future of business education
• undergraduate

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India’s Broken Education System Threatens Its Superpower Dreams

I ndia kicked off the world’s biggest election in human history on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is favored, but whoever wins has a big challenge ahead: India urgently needs jobs for its millions of young people, but its education system often produces the wrong kind of graduates.

If that can’t be remedied, India’s ambition to become a second “world’s factory floor” to rival China could unravel before it properly begins.

There are some lessons to be learned from India’s software and outsourcing boom of the 2000s. India’s famed information technology sector did a stellar job training students in software engineering and allied fields by working with universities to craft courses. It currently employs more than 5 million workers, according to government estimates.

But that is a woefully small number compared with the size of the labor force: India churns out around 10 million postsecondary graduates a year, according to Morgan Stanley.

Moreover, as India increasingly reorients its economy toward manufacturing—with investments from Apple suppliers such as Foxconn and, potentially, from Tesla—those grads won’t necessarily be the kind of workers it needs. Only 3.8% of India’s total workforce had undergone formal vocational training as of mid-2023, according to government data.

India scores decently well on basic metrics such as literacy: Around 96% of young people can read and write, according to figures from data provider CEIC, and around three-quarters of the labor force has had some high school education, according to Morgan Stanley.

But digging deeper into the figures, especially for postsecondary education, raises concerns. The 2023 India Skills Report, compiled by online testing firm Wheebox in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry and others, showed only a modest improvement in “employability” among young graduates—increasing to 50.3% in 2022 from 46.2% in the previous year. Wheebox’s test measures basic skill-sets such as numeracy and English competency, among others. Only 28% and 34% of polytechnic and industrial institute grads, respectively, were employable in 2023, according to Morgan Stanley. That bodes ill for India’s ambitions to become a manufacturing heavyweight, unless it changes quickly.

Generous agricultural subsidies also artificially inflate demand for farm laborers. In other words, many educated graduates don’t have the skills they need, while many young workers with less education have strong incentives to stay in the countryside. Nearly 83% of jobless Indians are youth, according to the India Employment Report 2024 by the International Labour Organisation.

Improving paltry budgetary allocations to education and skill development and creating better tie-ups with industry to impart up-to-date vocational training would help. India’s central government currently spends below 3% of gross domestic product on education.

And while the Indian government has taken steps to rope in the private sector, skills training remains largely government-driven. That dependence adversely affects the number and quality of trained candidates, according to the National Skill Development Corp set up by the Ministry of Finance.

India doesn’t have forever to solve these problems: Factory automation is becoming ever more sophisticated, and India’s own fertility rate is already heading down, which will eventually start chipping away at its demographic dividend.

China is already getting old before many of its people are rich, even after one of the most spectacular economic booms in history. India still has plenty of work to do to avoid the same fate.

Write to Megha Mandavia at [email protected]