Education Industry Analysis

India’s education sector offers a great opportunity with approximately 29 per cent of India’s population being between the age group of 0-14 years. India’s higher education segment is expected to increase to Rs 2,44,824 crore (US$ 35.03 billion) by 2025. India was ranked 34 out of 100 countries in English Proficiency Index 2019. The education sector in India is estimated at Rs 6,40,891.3 crore (US$ 91.7 billion) in FY18 and is expected to reach Rs 7,06,587.9 crore (US$ 101.1 billion) in FY19. Increasing internet penetration is expected to help in education delivery. As of December 2018, internet penetration in India reached 46.13 per cent. As of March 2019, there are 66 million internet subscribers in India in age bracket of 5 to 11 years.

India has over 250 million school going students, more than any other country. It also has one of the largest networks of higher education institutions in the world. Number of colleges and universities in India reached 39,931 and 993, respectively in 2018-19. India had 37.4 million students enrolled in higher education in 2018-19. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education reached 26.3 per cent in 2018-19.

The Central Government plans to disburse US$ 1 billion to states for introducing skill development initiatives. In November 2016, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship launched Pradhan Mantri YUVA Yojana, at a cost of Rs 521.93 crore (US$ 74.68 million) for providing entrepreneurship education and training to students in the country. Skill India Mission 2015 aims at skilling 400 million Indian youths by 2022. As of December 2018, there were 15,044 Industrial Training Institutes in the India. In October 2017, in order to boost the Skill India mission, two new schemes, SANKALP and STRIVE were launched with an outlay of Rs 6,655 crore (US$ 1.02 billion). Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022 was announced in union budget 2018-19 with an outlay of Rs 1 lakh crore (US$ 15.44 billion) for four years. Skill India program has benefitted more than one crore (10 million) youth annually. Under the Union Budget 2019-20, government provided Rs 400 crore (US$ 57.23 billion) for ‘World Class Institutions.’ According to the Union Budget 2019-20, government has proposed a 12.8 per cent year-on-year increase in FY20 allocation of Rs 56,536.36 crore (US$ 8.09 billion) for school education.

Education sector in India remains to be a strategic priority of the government. The Government of India has allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the education sector through the automatic route since 2002. The sector has received cumulative FDI worth US$ 2.7 billion up to September 2019. Indian education sector witnessed 18 merger and acquisition deals worth Rs 342.4 crore (US$ 49 million) in 2017. In private equity and venture capital funding, education industries companies are expected to attract US$ 500 million by end of 2019. In May 2018, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India launched Samagra Siksha scheme with the aim of achieving holistic development of school education in the country. As per Government of India, New National Education Policy to transform India’s higher education system to one of the global best education systems very soon.

The Government of India is working on the draft of the New Education Policy to address the changing dynamics in the education industry of the country as per the requirement of the population. According to Mr Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New National Education Policy draft is ready and would be given to the central government. Institutions of national importance', NIDs will have rights that they will be able to establish public-private partnerships and collaborate with research labs across the country. As per the Union Budget 2019-20, under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA), over 2 crore rural Indians have been made digitally literate.