With 1.4 billion learners, India emerges as an education giant to watch.
India is expected to overtake China as the largest country on earth by 2022 and grow to a population of about 1.5 billion by 2030. Education is set to become a powerful engine of the country’s economic growth and development.
With more than 260m students at 1.5m schools, 50,000 higher education institutions and 13,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), India is the quiet giant of global education markets. However, this is set to change with technology, policy and economic development traction.
India is one of the worlds largest, most dynamic and fastest growing education markets. The country has a massive youth bulge – the largest in the world – with 600 million young people under the age of 25. Nearly 30% of the population is under 14 years of age, more than 30 babies are born every minute and the UN projects that Delhi will become the largest city in the world with 37 million people by 2028.
While India might be currently overshadowed by other education giants, the drivers for change are building to deliver India as one of the most important education markets globally within the next five years. Key drivers such as technology connectivity, mobile first learning, capital flows and education innovation deliver clear signals of things to come.
India maintains a long-term demographic advantage with more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. This translates into a huge opportunity as the target market for education and upskilling.
Indian parents, teachers, children and institutions are changing their approach to education to be more accepting of digital learning as a legitimate alternative to more traditional models.
India’s developing economy includes a growing proportion of middle class with increased disposable income, awareness of the importance of quality education and access to a growing number of private schools.
Connectivity
The smartphone user base in India has increased dramatically in both urban and rural India over the past few years, with nearly 400 million smartphone users. 2018 witnessed users accessing most of their educational content through internet-powered smartphones in a massive way. Most educational content, including online courses, have now been optimized entirely for mobile devices.
Video-based learning allows students to learn syllabi at their own pace with classroom time dedicated towards interactions. The increase in VBL on mobile devices account for 70% of all internet traffic in this massive and growing market.
Mobile First Learning
With almost 400m users, India is the world’s second largest smartphone market. Education apps feature highly in this education conscious market and generally reflect the diversity of learning across the spectrum. STEM related apps dominate the paid category with 7 out of the top 10 paid apps being science, programming and maths content.
The Upskilling category dominates the top grossing category, including apps aimed at adults keeping their professional skills up to date and lifestyle learning apps such as braintraining.
Capital Flows
India represents 10% of global VC funding in education, behind China and the US. Venture Capital funding in India supports solutions to solve significant challenges in formal education, as well as delivering on new models. In 2018 USD $0.7B of VC funding flowed to Indian EdTech, with India’s only EdTech Unicorn raising $540m being the standout transaction.
Other notable recent VC funding include $35m funding for Test Prep start up, Toppr, $11m for tutoring company, Vedantu and $33m for MOOC provider Eruditus. Favorable investment regulations support capital flows, with 100% foreign direct investment permissible in the Indian education sector.
Where is this data coming from?
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Technology-led innovation in Indian education occurs across the entire Learning Landscape, however is concentrated in areas such as language learning, STEM, tutoring and test preparation.
There is also increasing activity in adult upskilling innovations and models along with new approaches to content through adaptive content and personalized learning.
India Executive Immersion Program
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