Education is the only tool in the hands of the poor and middle class Indians to change their fortunes in the capital starved nation. India has managed to improve literacy rates from 52% in 1991-92 to 67% in 2005. Even the government has now identified education as a focus area to maintain sustainable economic growth and the private sector is coming up with new structures to increase participation. It is believed that India’s education sector could see long-term secular growth with rewards for early movers.
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Organized private initiatives are gaining momentum in India’s lucrative education market. Despite regulatory ambiguity in some areas, exciting prospects lie ahead for firms that have already boarded the bus. The annual private expenditure in the education & training industry is estimated at US$ 40 bn and a five-year CAGR of 16%.
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The time for stronger private-sector participation in education has come, and large publicly listed companies are inevitable. The largest part of the revenues from the education industry is in the K-12 segment (i.e. Kindergarten to Class XII) and its adjacent markets (tutoring, preschools etc.), and private professional-course colleges (engineering, medical and business). Other upcoming avenues such as test preparation, preschools and vocational training are also gaining momentum.
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Opportunities in public-private partnerships 
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Turning education into a profitable, high-growth business is a long-term investment theme. Corporate initiatives have already began to address the needs of India’s youth by tapping into the propensity of the middle class to spend more on education.
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New initiatives are rising across the gamut of public/private partnerships (or PPP), with ICT (Information & Communications Technology), a Government of India initiative for imparting of computer education in the Government Schools across the country. Policy planners are beginning to emphasize PPP and it is expected that this would create revenue-generating models for the private sector. Numerous opportunities are expected to arise, including:
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• Relocation or building of new schools, colleges, universities or job centre and providing facilities management for the new buildings/campuses.
• Building of facilities for education institutions with the potential for third-party income generation, such as sports or academic/conference facilities.
• Refurbishing of existing assets and/or providing facilities management.