Educomp Shantanu Prakash to Gaurav Munjal’s Unacademy, edtech is on a roll

From Educomp Shantanu Prakash immensely successful project to Gaurav Munjal’s Unacademy, edtech has been fairing incredibly well in India’s budding education market. Computers were introduced in Indian schools during the early 90s, sans a blueprint for technology-aided learning in place. The evolution of edtech has been a slow one; nonetheless, the impact is visible as schools around the country are switching to electronic teaching tools. Education technology is serving one-piece solutions to bridge personal and digital education. The distance between educational content and students has been shortened, thanks to smartphones and computers. Cheap internet has also made edtech viable and easily accessible.Edtech’s introduction in India can be traced back to the establishment of Educomp Solutions in 1994, Shantanu Prakash’s effort to impart computer education to Indian students. The machines were quite new in India’s education domain. The company started by establishing their services in major Indian cities ̶ Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. At the moment, they are breaking geographical barriers by connecting remote villages to their network.

Instead of focusing on K12, Unacademy targeted a richer and needier group. The only support competitive exam preparers received had been from coaching institutes. The cost of enrolling into one can go up to Rs 40,000 for a few classes, generic study material included. The Unacademy website greets you with Unacademy Bytes, which are troves of random, but useful knowledge.

Unacademy was found by entrepreneur Gaurav Munjal in 2010. When you Sign Up with Unacademy, you’ll receive a form where you can choose the content pertaining to popular competitive and entrance exams. UPSC CSE, IIT-JEE, SSC CGL, NEET, CAT, GATE, and NDA are some of the popular choices available. The website also provides content for job interviews, CBSE curriculum, and different engineering streams.

Educomp, Shantanu Prakash’s company, Gaurav Munjal’s Unacademy, and Byju Raveendran’s BYJU’s have a strong majority in the edtech market. Their aim is to completely transform the Indian education sector by 2021 – which considering the reception of their services by the massses is quite possible. The only hurdle in the way stems from regressive government policies that are pushing innovation out of the door. Prof S Sadagopan, the IIIT head, explains, “India should take an ‘invest and benefit’ approach for e-learning than mere cost justification.”

For the transformation to happen, the edtech community needs all the support it can get from the Indian government.