The training industry in India is a sunrise industry with a lot of potential.
IndiaCan Education Private Limited, a 50:50 joint venture with Educomp Solutions Limited and US-based Pearson Education, plans to open 250 centres across India by the end of this financial year. It aims at training over 500,000 persons annually and to make them 'ready-to-deploy' in the industry by 2012.
"Currently with 50 centres, we plan a pan-India network of more than 600 vocational training centres in the next 12-18 months. Each centre can realistically enroll about 1,000 students," as per Srinath Venkatesh, Vice-President (sales, marketing and operations), IndiaCan
Recently, Sharekhan and California-based Online Trading Academy have entered into a joint venture to provide trading and investing education in India.
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) is opening its first learning and development centre for its campus trainees. The new centre is equipped to train 6,000 professionals in a year.
HCL Technologies Ltd has announced a tie-up with the business process outsourcing (BPO) training institute, Orion Edutech. As per the agreement, Orion will customise its Diploma in BPO Management (DIBM) to suit HCL's industry specific talent requirement.
Foreign Institutes in India
Many overseas business schools have come to India seeking a big revenue boost, and a chance to understand the concerns of a developing economy. In order to regulate the operation and entry of foreign educational institutions in India, the government has introduced the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill, 2010, in the lower house of the Parliament on May 3, 2010. Earlier, the Bill was cleared by the Union Cabinet, which proposes to allow foreign education providers to establish campuses in the country and offer degrees as well.
The Indian School of Business (ISB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, US, to support the setting up of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy at the upcoming ISB campus in Mohali, Punjab.
INSEAD, the business school headquartered in Fontainebleau, Paris, plans to offer a dedicated, 12 month programme in business management for mid to senior-level Indian executives, with about 10-15 years of work experience.
University of the West of Scotland (UWS) has tied up with Punjab-based GGS Group of Colleges as its India partner, besides Hyderabad-based Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU).
Yale University has signed an agreement with two of India’s leading institutions, the Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K) and the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K), to develop training programmes that will create academic leadership in the country.
Maastricht University (UM), based in The Netherlands, inaugurated the Maastricht Education and Research Centre (MERC), in Bangalore. A subsidiary of the Maastricht University, the MERC will foster academic collaboration with Indian institutions and conduct joint researches of social relevance in India.
Ahmedabad-based Indus Institute of Technology and Engineering (IITE) has collaborated with Georgian college, a leading college in Canada, to provide a unique Advanced Diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology — Automotive Manufacturing for Indian students
"India will import about US$ 320 billion in electronics goods by 2015, from the present US$ 32 billion, which means there is huge demand and production gap…" according to Srikanth Jadchela, Chief Executive Officer, Synopsys Electronics Education and Research (Seer) Akademi.
Infrastructure major GMR Group and Schulich School of Business of York University in Toronto, Canada, have entered into an understanding to develop a Schulich campus in Hyderabad.
The Shipping Ministry has allocated US$ 65.9 million to the Indian Maritime University to create infrastructure facilities including academic complex, administrative building, library, hostels and residential accommodation over the next five years.
Global Footprints
Indian institutes are now collaborating and establishing offshore campuses in order to increase their global footprints.
The Institute of Clinical Research India (ICRI), has entered into a strategic-cum-academic alliance with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to offer two new courses - Masters in Health Administration and Master of Science in Clinical Research will be offered through ICRI's six campuses in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dehradun and Bangalore, apart from its overseas campuses in Singapore and the UK.
Investments and Other Developments
The education sector is one of the thrust areas for investments as emphasis is being laid on revamping the systems through increasing investments.
According to the Kaizen Education Report released by Kaizen Mgmt Advisors, the pre-school segment is worth an estimated US$ 500 million currently and is expected to grow to US$ 1 billion in the next two years. Further, the segment is growing at a compounded annual rate (CAGR) of 30 per cent.
International university endowment funds have stepped up their presence in the Indian stock markets to cash in on the high returns. The number of such funds investing in India has increased from six in 2008 to around 20 in 2010, as per Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) data.
Sequoia Capital, the Indian arm of the US-based venture capital firm, has announced its second round of funding for US$ 5.54 million to K12 Techno Services Pvt Ltd, which runs 70 Gowtham Model School units in Andhra Pradesh.
Edutor Technologies plans to raise US$ 3 million to expand its rural customer base for the launch of new content through its handheld learning device. The company has decided to tie up with Government schools to tap the rural market.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced its contribution of US$ 1 million—to the newly set up Education Innovation Challenge Fund for India—to support innovative initiatives in science, math and technology education among students and teachers in India.
PE firm Mayfield India announced that it has invested US$ 8.73 million into Bharti's Centum Learning. According to Sanjeev Duggal, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Centum Learning, they would need to invest close to US$ 21.83 million in the next two to three years in various activities as he observed that there are a lot of opportunities in M&A's in the vocational training space.
Educomp Solutions Ltd, an integrated education company, has bought strategic stake in engineering test prep player Vidya Mandir Classes Pvt Ltd (VMC) for around US$ 7.34 million.
Everonn Business Education Limited (EBEL), a Chennai-based education services firm, plans to open 500 Indigrow Institute of Professional Studies (IIPS) centres by 2015. The company would invest US$ 216,679 in each centre.
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), a premium management education provider with centres in Mumbai, Shirpur and Bangalore, has begun operations from a new facility in Hyderabad and plans to set up an integrated campus with an outlay of US$ 22.59 million at Jedcherla.
The second campus of the Indian School of Business (ISB) is coming up in Mohali. Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab, laid the foundation stone for the campus, which would start the first academic session in the city for the post graduate programme in management in April 2012.
The Government plans to set up four new Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMCs) from the next academic year in Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Vidarbha in Maharashtra and Aizwal in Mizoram, as per Ms Ambika Soni, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting.
Regional planning body, North Eastern Council (NEC), will establish a para-medical institution for paramedical education in Nagaland.
The ninth Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Ranchi was inaugurated on July 6, 2010 with 45 students. The institute would initially offer two-year post-graduate programme in management (PGPM).
The Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) has developed the country's first ever communications technology based business incubator - innovatively named as the Com-cubator. The major objectives of the com-cubator would be to develop, nurture, promote and successfully commercialise ventures based on innovative ideas and business models in the area of communications by incubating start ups created by enterprising individuals.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Unique Identification Authority of India inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The MoU would be helpful in tracking student's mobility by creating an electronic registry of all students, right from primary and elementary level to secondary and higher education.
IBM's global university relations programme which initially aimed at acquiring talent for the company will now focus on fostering innovations as well. The company works with about 100 engineering colleges across the country.
Switzerland based Holcim Foundation has tied up with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT B). The tie-up will be valid for three years and help students of the IIT B share their thoughts on sustainable construction by participating in international forums.
The Road Ahead
India at present requires about 50,000 clinical research professionals and 1,500 personnel in allied services such as clinical data management, biostatistics and medical welfare.
Besides, the government has also introduced three bills in the Parliament:
The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2010 postulates that every higher educational institution and every programme conducted by it should require accreditation in the manner provided in the proposed legislation.
The Educational Tribunals Bill, 2010 provides for the establishment of the State Educational Tribunals and the National Education Tribunal. The National Education Tribunal would exercise power and authority over any dispute between a higher educational institution and any appropriate statutory regulatory body and all other matters pertaining to higher education.
In yet another foray, India has allowed private-sector healthcare companies such as Fortis Healthcare, Max Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals to start medical colleges. Furthermore, India's cabinet approved a proposal to allow foreign universities to set up local campuses, part of long-standing plan to reform the education sector.
The National Development Council has approved setting up of 14 world-class universities for innovation across the 11th and 12th plan periods on the public private partnership model. The innovation universities are part of the ministry of human resource development's (MHRD) "brain gain" policy to attract global talent and will be set up under the eleventh plan (2007-12).
Further, the Government has agreed to spend US$ 675.90 million during the 11th Plan period for setting up 13 new Central universities and converting three existing State universities into Central universities.
Mr Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource Development, plans to create a national vocational educational framework within one year.
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