Ronnie Screwvala: Union Budget's upskilling focus signals growth opportunity for edtech

UpGrad co-founder Ronnie Screwvala, in an exclusive interview with YourStory, pointed to the recent Union Budget as a clear signal of the vast opportunities ahead for India's edtech sector.

“If you look at it, the Union Budget, for example, is screaming across the rooftops about this sector because they're saying skilling is the most important, internship is the most important,” Screwvala, whose Swades Foundation successfully listed a project on the NSE’s Social Stock Exchange, told YourStory’s Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma.

Screwvala said the ambitious goals of the Union Budget cannot be met without online help. "We cannot actually learn, educate and skill people who are in jobs by asking them to go back into a training centre or learning centre in that sense," said Screwvala. "So online is tremendous and there's a huge opportunity."

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In her Union Budget 2024 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled five schemes and initiatives to facilitate employment, skilling, and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth over five years, with an allocation of Rs 2 lakh crore. The government will launch a scheme to offer internships to 1 crore youths in the top 500 companies to give them exposure to real-life business environments, varied professions, and employment opportunities.

Screwvala expressed disappointment that instead of focusing on such opprtunities, "unnecessary" attention was being given to struggling companies, especially those in the K-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) segment .

“We cannot label them (struggling edtechs) as the future or the past or the present of edtech,” he said.

Once the favourite of the edtech ecosystem, BYJU’S is now staring at insolvency concerning unpaid dues to its lenders. Other edtech companies, too, have been struggling and have had to resort to layoffs as part of their restructuring measures. Earlier this year, Unacademy laid off 250 employees while Scaler had to downsize by 150.

While the Indian edtech segment has been struggling with funding drying up—only $710 million was raised in 2023—upGrad recently raised Rs 287.5 crore in debt from EvolutionX Debt Capital. It also bolstered its HR leadership earlier this year to enhance operational efficiency.

The company also doubled down on its hybrid strategy and, in February, had announced plans to open 100 offline connect and counselling touchpoints and learning centres across India.