Budget 2023: 'Increase budget allocations to infra for effective implementation of NEP'

India's edtech industry is growing enormously and is projected to reach $10.4 billion by 2025 with 37 million users. With a market size of over $800 million in 2021-22, the edtech industry is expected to become a $30 billion industry by 2030 due to its raise in demand and new-age emerging business models to cater students and professionals.

Technology and digitalization have brought a paradigm shift across major industries, including the educational sector. In 2019, when the pandemic impacted the classrooms became virtual - a learning approach using a blend of traditional methods and technological intervention.

Edtech is playing a vital role in the Indian education system and growing at an annual growth rate of approximately 30% to reach a market size of USD 10.4 billion by 2025. Market Research and strategy consulting firm Global Market Insights has also predicted that the e-learning market by 2028 will exceed $1 trillion.

There are over 4,450 edtech startups in India that are assisting over 300 million school students. Of these, 40 million are students pursuing higher education whose studies were disrupted by covid. This brought edtech, which uses IT tools for inclusive, engaging and personalized learning, to the fore.

India’s edtech industry is making education affordable with quality offerings. It provides students and professionals from all backgrounds more equitable chances of success. The edtech boom stems the prevalence of enthusiastic entrepreneurs adopting a multicultural approach to fulfil diverse needs by developing innovative products and approaches, and with access to a huge pool of skilled educators in the country. Learners from abroad also enrol with Indian edtech firms not just for affordability but also because they deliver world-class content.

Mayank Verma, Co-Founder, Leadup Universe, said, "Imperative for the Union budget 2023 to look at investment in the learning tech infrastructure ensuring multimodal learning to boost quality education and training. The use of digital technology in the learning process will make quality resources accessible to students till the last mile, irrespective of their demographic and geographic locations. The reduction of GST on learning tech solutions can help make it affordable across the country, further boosting smart classroom deployment & usage. In sum, the budget allocation should look at subsidizing the use of tools and technologies to help digital penetration for advanced learning solutions in 2023."

“The year 2022 had a significant impact on the education sector, from increased technology adoption too easily accessible online education and adaptable degree programs. Next year, the industry is anticipated to grow more due to the use of technology. In that context, technological upskilling has become one of the key trends in education for 2023. Workflow automation is becoming more and more common across industries. The sharp transition from subject-based, rote learning to more skill-oriented learning methods will be a significant trend in 2023. Education experts emphasize the value of developing cognitive thinking, problem-solving, and management skills. The application-based syllabus, which steers clear of merely facts and figures and instead encourages students to apply what they have learned to real-life scenarios, is becoming more and more common,” Dr. Rajesh Verma, Dean of Strategy & Marketing at Mittal School of Business, Lovely Professional University said.

“In the modern world, detailing is also crucial. In line with that, a significant trend in education for 2023 will be the variety of subjects being taught in traditional college and university curricula. The course and subject options available today are, in fact, unconventional and revolutionary in many ways, ranging from applied linguistics to artificial intelligence, from food anthropology to ethical hacking, and from culture studies to abacus science,” Verma added.

Dr. G.Pardha Saradhi Varma, Vice Chancellor of KL Deemed to be University, said, “In the upcoming budget, we are expecting due consideration by means of higher budget allocations to infrastructure development for the effective implementation of the national education policy.  Separate budget allocation is appreciated for technological enhancement, knowledge upgradation, advanced laboratories, and software, which can bring transformation in learning systems, and changes in pedagogy. The expansion of digital infrastructure to promote online education is also the need of the hour. Policies encouraging research and innovation, intellectual property, accelerated programs in the education industry, and provision for lesser taxation are desired. Also, there should be more focus on schemes and policies that encourage skill development and entrepreneurship, seed fundings, capital funds amongst the aspiring future leaders."

"The upcoming Union Budget is being presented at a tumultuous time in world history. While there have been a number of welcome economic reforms announced by the government in the past three years, Budget 2023 needs to be more strategic considering the global recession and inflation. From the EdTech perspective, there are a few key expectations for the Budget 2023 in India. One expectation is increased government funding and support for online initiatives. Support from the government on subsidized rates and incentives for all, similar to Singapore would encourage innovation and growth in this sector. Tax incentives and financial benefits for EdTech players will boost the ecosystem substantially. Additionally, there may be expectations for measures to improve digital literacy using technology. Overall, the EdTech community in India is likely hoping for a budget that recognizes the importance of education technology and takes steps to support its development and adoption,” John Kallelil, Founder & CEO, XED said.

Prof (Dr.) Sandeep Sancheti, Provost at the Marwadi University said, "India is edging towards being a nuanced nation offering quality education, research, innovation, and networking. This is a result of enhanced policies that the previous budget reflects as being in alignment with NEP’s initiative to promote skill education, indigenous technologies, and digital universities. The same should be the flavour of this budget as well. It is well-known that higher education is more suitable for long-term R&D projects of futuristic nature and can lead India towards being reckoned as a force in every possible domain. The current spending of 3.1% of the budget on education is more towards school education and less for higher education which needs a relook for enhancing R&D initiatives of nationally coordinated projects, funding both government and private sector institutions. An increase of allocation to 4% would lead us to much better outcomes. This progression would be in sync with the expected gradual increase of the educational budget to 6% as envisaged by the NEP."