Education

India’s education system is amongst the largest in the world and includes over 1.5 million schools, 700 universities and over 38,000 higher education institutes. The size of the education market in India is estimated to be USD 100 million in FY2015-16 with higher education accounting for almost 60% of the market. This however does not include the publishing, exam preparation and skilling markets. Accounting for ancillary activities, the education market in India is estimated to be USD 116 billion.

India’s demographic mix gives the country a unique opportunity to generate benefits from the global talent demand supply gap.

India is expected to become the most populous country by 2030. The country’s median age in 2030 will be 32 compared to 39 in US and 43 in China. India’s share of working age population is set to rise. By 2020, US, China, Russia, Japan and UK will have a combined skilled labor shortage of 44 million while India is expected to have a surplus of 47 million.

The success of India’s potential as world’s talent factory will depend on how the country manages to educate its young population to produce a skilled and employable workforce. According to Census figures, over 30% of Indian population is between the age group 0-14 while over 50% are under the age of 25. Hence the people needing primary and higher education in India are almost double the entire population of US. The demand for education is further magnified by the growth of middle class in India, which attaches great value to education and has the capacity to pay for it. The Indian middle class is expected to grow almost 10 times to over 500 million people in the next 10 years.