Educational toys the next big thing in India

The knack Indian parents have for teaching their children is acting as a game-changer for educational toys, raising their demand by 15 percent year-on-year.

"In the coming days demand for educational toys will be more as the parents want more cerebral games for their children," Shyam Makhija, director, business development, Pegasus ToyKraft, told IANS.

"Educational toys have the potential to grow at around 15 percent year-on-year in the next five years."

As education is foremost on the Indian parents' mind, they look out for toys which provide educational value through play. Industry stakeholders are of the opinion that most toys provide educational value in some way or the other.

"From a purist's point of view we can look at an edutainment toy as one which provides direct and immediate educational learning through play. The categories which fit the bill most appropriately are educational jigsaw puzzles, tile puzzles, memory-based games, do-it-yourself art and craft kits, builder blocks and construction sets," he said.

"The scope of the educational toy industry is growing among the literate class of society. There had always been a relationship between learning and playing and it is very important to understand that," Sunil Nanda, president of the Toy Association of India told IANS.

The estimated size of the retail toy industry is approximately Rs.10,000 crore (US$16 billion) he said.

Paresh Chawla, director, Welby Impex, said toys play a major role to make a child learn various things while playing. "That is the sole reason why Indian parents are spending more on educational toys nowadays."

The industry has also held many seminars and talks with parents, teachers, psychologists and social scientists to understand what type of toys will help educate children of which age, he said.

"An educational toy should be able to add some cognitive value to the child. The presentation has to be very good so that a child doesn't get bored and it can arouse some curiosity in the child. Learning should happening subtly," Nanda added.

He said it is important for the educational toys to be age and gender appropriate. "Lots of research are needed towards it."

Kapil Tripathi, scientist at Vigyan Prasar, which makes activity-based learning materials, said they prepare these kits to make children understand the facts and the reasons behind various natural developments like earthquake or biodiversity.

Vigyan Prasar does not sell its products through any shop. The educational kits are highly subsidised and are directly procured from its offices.

"The future looks bright considering that the current average amount spent for the child by the middle class and the rich in urban markets is as low as Rs.600-700 per child per annum," said Makhija.

At present, approximately 300 professional toy manufacturers exist in India.

http://newindianexpress.com/business/news/Educational-toys-the-next-big-thing-in-India/2013/11/11/article1884537.ece

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Biocon sets up education arm

BANGALORE: Biopharmaceutical major Biocon has set up an educational arm Biocon Academy with the objective of training and developing industryready talent for India's $11-billion biotech industry.

Projected to cross revenues of $100 billion over the next decade, the Indian biotech industry receives 40,000 graduates annually from over 725 biotech institutes in the country, of which only 2,000, or 5%, is employable.

"There is a very large gap that exists between the quality of human capital available and the need of the industry. If this sector aims for $100 billion in revenues, then it calls for a very large talent pool to enable us to achieve this goal," said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw , CMD of Biocon.

The Biocon Academy has tied up with Keck Graduate Institute , Calif., to offer the Biocon KGI Certificate Program in Biosciences, for which the enrollment process has begun . While the 16-week program would cost Rs 6 lakh per graduate, Biocon will bring down the cost to Rs 1.5 lakh by offering scholarships. "We will offer a merit scholarship of 75% of the course fee for all students selected through an intensive selection process," said Shaw. Initially, Biocon Academy will have 25 students per batch, and have four batches in a year.

Sheldon M Schuster, president , Keck Graduate Institute, said, "Through our collaboration with the scientists and subject matter experts at Biocon , KGI has developed an applied , graduate level curriculum that will be focused on teamwork and will reflect current industry dynamics."

Biocon, with revenues of close to $500 million, has spent Rs 10 crore in setting up the Academy , and will incur expenditure of close to Rs 10 cr per annum by way of administration costs and scholarships.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Biocon-sets-up-education-arm/articleshow/25618534.cms

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Now, scheme to curb default on educational loans

NEW DELHI: Faced with growing education loan default, Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Educational Loans has been finalized and is likely to come before the Cabinet in the next few weeks.

The scheme, devised by the ministry of finance, HRD ministry and Indian Banks' Association, proposes to set up a Credit Guarantee Fund with a corpus of Rs 2,500 crore. The fund will provide guarantee to educational loans up to Rs 7.5 lakh. It is proposed that loans — ranging from Rs 4 to Rs 7.5 lakh — will be guaranteed up to 75% of the amount outstanding with interest as on the date the account is declared non- performing asset (NPA). A HRD official said, "Earlier, it was proposed that loan up to Rs 4 lakh may be guaranteed up to 90% of the outstanding amount and loans up to Rs 7.5 lakh may be guaranteed up to 80%. But a uniform guarantee percentage was devised later. It is up to the Cabinet to revise the amount that can be guaranteed."

The fund will not apply to educational loan amount above Rs 7.5 lakh as they are given through appropriate collateral.

A HRD official said, "The new scheme helps banks with guarantee. It will encourage them to lend more and bring down the interest rate because of guarantee." It has also been specified that eligibility for guarantee be only for those loans in which interest does not exceed more than 2% of the base lending rate. Banks giving out education loans will have to pay a one-time guarantee at a specified rate upfront to the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust within 30 days from the date of first disbursement of education loan or 30 days from the date of demand advice of guarantee fee whichever is later or such date as specified by the Trust.

Once the guaranteed amount is paid to the bank, the borrower becomes a debtor of the government. While the banks will continue to follow up for repayment of the loan and share with the government recoveries proportionally, the government will also track the students and recover their own dues. Loan amounts will be reported to the Credit Information Company. The total outstanding education loan amount at the end of March, 2013, was Rs 53,520 crore. In total, there are more than 25 lakh education loan accounts.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Now-scheme-to-curb-default-on-educational-loans/articleshow/25665584.cms

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India poised to become the largest provider of global talent

MUMBAI: India is poised to become the largest provider of global talent with one in four graduates in the world a product of the Indian system, says a Ficci-EY Report on Higher Education in India: Vision 2030.

The report further outlines that by 2030, the emergence of a robust higher education system would enable India to augment its gross enrollment ratio (GER) to 50%, with a student enrollment of more than 70 million across the higher education system; reduce disparity in GER to 5 percentage points across states, gender and various social groups and emerge as a better informed and evolved society, leading to improved social indicators including better health and sanitation, life expectancy, and law and order.

India would also emerge among the top 5 countries in the world in terms of research output, with an annual R&D spend of US$140 billion; have more than 20 universities among the global top 200 and become a global destination for higher education, the report goes on to add.

" By 2030, India is expected to be a dominant economy of $10 trillion. Hence, there is an urgent need for developing a coherent co-relation between our vision, planning and implementation for education with the economic planning, to make significant strides over the next 15-20 years," said Ficci secretary general A Didar Singh in a release.

According to Amitabh Jhingan, partner and national leader - education practice, EY : "In order to realise the goals we envision for 2030, adopting a transformative and innovative approach is critical across all the levels of higher education: from curricula and pedagogy to the use of technology to partnerships, governance and funding. Making rapid progress over the next two decades would require a committed and concerted effort from all stakeholders involved, that is academia, industry and government."

The report has also identified important interventions required for realising the envisioned state of the Indian higher education system over the next two decades. These include adopting a learner-centered paradigm of education and new pedagogical techniques; easing faculty recruitment norms and implementing tenure-based and rewards-based systems to retain quality faculty; attracting and incentivising best-in-class faculty to conduct research; strengthening industry academia linkages and incentivising high-quality private and foreign participation in higher education.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/india-poised-to-become-the-largest-provider-of-global-talent-ficci-ey-report/articleshow/25708604.cms

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Technology can help solve CAD problem, says Ambani

Painting an optimistic picture of India, Chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani said India can solve its current account deficit problem by increased use of technology across all spheres of industries and especially in the energy sector.

Addressing a gathering of Asia Society in Mumbai on the launch of a collection of essay called “Reimagining India” on Tuesday evening, Ambani said delivery of education, means of livelihood and health care services can be expedited if the country embraces technology. “India is not behind in innovation. By embracing technology, education can be provided to all Indians across the country,” Ambani said.

On CAD, Ambani said today India has a current account deficit problem mainly due to import of energy products like oil & gas. “For a country like India, there is no other option but to rely on technology, even to solve our energy problems” said he. The United States, one of world’s biggest energy consumer, has now become an exporter of gas - thanks to improved technology to generate gas from shale deposits. The gas prices also tanked in the US to just $2 a unit due to shale gas production. This model can be replicated in India.

"But a pre-requisite to solve CAD problem is education and to make 250 million young Indians acquire skills and make most of available technology," he said. Ambani is one  of the contributor to the book alongwith CNN’s Fareed Zakaria; Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates; Google chairman Eric Schmidt; Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria; Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal and Nandan Nilekani, cofounder of Infosys and chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India.

Ambani said broadband technology is providing access to opportunities irrespective of geographies. “So, you can access them in all the 5,432 small towns and cities, and 6,00,000

villages in a matter of a couple of years and then scale up. That is what gives me optimism and positivity," Ambani said. Reliance is investing close to $5 billion in the launch of broadband services in India.

Ambani said it is important to bring close to 700 to 800 million Indians - who remained excluded from India’s success story in the last 20 years - to the economic mainstream.  “If we manage to bring this segment into the economic mainstream, it will result in enormous enhancement of India’s economic and non-economic power as we will generate equality in access despite inequality income,” said he.

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said India has a chance to create a completely new template.   He said smaller states are better to manage. "I have no problem about more states coming up. If size is the issue, make it (states) more manageable," Mahindra said.

Reimagining India: Unlocking the Potential of Asia’s Next Superpower is published by McKinsey and it brings together leading thinkers from around the world to explore and debate the challenges and opportunities facing the country.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/technology-can-help-solve-cad-problem-says-ambani-113111300196_1.html

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