Educomp CMD comment on expectations from Union Budget 2015
"We hope that the first full-fledged-budget from the new government will address the urgent need for reforms in education sector. We already have a positive indication on that with the announcement of the new education policy that is currently being developed.
However, radical steps need to be undertaken to change the face of Indian education and provide us the "big leap" to make up for decades of underinvestment in education. Some of our expectations revolve around:
1. Allowing infusion of private capital in education that will facilitate capacity enhancement, setting up of quality educational institutes commensurate with demand
2. Progressive regulatory regime to regulate the quality of education and enhance the value of teaching, improve industry-academia relationship, curriculum enhancement, innovation and research. The education sector is inundated by various conflicting and superfluous regulations. Therefore, the present regulations should be altered and all the stakeholders should be encouraged to participate in the education opportunity
3. Allowing foreign education institutes to open in India, since it will definitely boost the education sector in India. The Government should certainly remove the barriers of allowing foreign institutes and recognize the importance of foreign degrees. We could perhaps create a gradual door opening strategy to allow Indian institutions a transition period to compete so that the fears of a flight of students to foreign universities are quelled
4. Promote digital education in a big way under our PM's Digital India initiative and for which we are looking forward to some specific forward steps and budgetary allocations in the forthcoming budget."
Chairman and Managing Director
Educomp Solutions Limited
Mr. Shantanu Prakash founded Educomp Solutions Limited in 1994, a few years after acquiring an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad. Educomp is the largest education company in India and the only company spread across the entire education ecosystem.
His vision has been to transform the teaching-learning process through the use of technology and best practices and he is today widely acknowledged for his pioneering contribution in education sector, especially in digitizing/ e-enabling Indian classrooms.
Some of the recent awards/honour, conferred on Shantanu Prakash include The DataQuest Path Breaker Award 2010, Dare Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 -Jury's Choice, The ET Now Leap of Faith award for Education in 2011, 'Entrepreneur of the Year' at Indian Education Awards 2011, the National Awards on Excellence in Education as well as the Wisitex Foundation Educationist of the Decade Award 2011.
Shantanu's journey has been chronicled in a book titled 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish' by Rashmi Bansal published in May 2008 which has been a best seller ever since.
Shantanu is also the founder and Managing Trustee of the Learning Leadership Foundation (LLF), an organization dedicated to bringing best practices in education to under-resourced schools. He is also on the board trustees of over 30 educational institutions including, Modern School Delhi, Sri Sri University and the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai. He is on the international advisory board of Fundacao Dom Cabral, Brazil and a member of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals with the World Economic Forum.
As an investor, Shantanu has made several investments in innovative early stage and mid stage companies focusing on the internet, education, media, gaming, finance and infrastructure.
Shantanu is a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) an organization that connects entrepreneurs. He is a frequent speaker in education and business conferences worldwide.
About Educomp Solutions Limited (http://www.educomp.com/)
Educomp Solutions Limited is the largest education company in India and the only company spread across the entire education ecosystem. From schools to skills; Educomp group empowers over 22.8 million learners and educators across ~34,500 schools to imagine, think and create a better future.
Educomp's presence in each of the education verticals is marked with technology-enabled products, high quality people, structured processes and entrepreneurial leadership, that come together to deliver unmatched value. From pre-school toddlers to post graduate students, from core curriculum subjects at the school & college level to vocational & employability skills for young, about-to-enter-the-job-market adults; Educomp reaches out to the entire education life cycle.
Founded in 1994 by first generation entrepreneur Shantanu Prakash, the company today has 27 offices worldwide including an office in Canada, two in Singapore, three in the United States, and 21 in India. Currently, Educomp employs 16,000 employees across India. Educomp also runs over 209 pre-schools, 51 Brick and Mortar K12 schools, six colleges, one higher education campus, 94 Test Prep Centers, and over 5.5 million students use Educomp's online learning properties.
Educomp is credited with ushering in digital revolution in classrooms of India with the launch of its pioneering SmartClass program. SmartClass, India's largest K-12 library of rich, 3D multimedia educational content modules reaches out to over 7 million learners across over 15,000 private schools.
The company also partners with state governments and reaches over 6 million learners across 11,000 government schools. Educomp is featured in Forbes Asia's 'Best under a Billion' list among 35 Indian companies which have made the mark and many other accolades have come its way in course of its journey. The backbone of the company is its strong Research & Development team dedicated to creating quality content and serving the entire educational ecosystem.