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Industry brief · Education

Education, where young founders start

Our education guest, Supriya Panchangam, runs The Future Founders Co., a Bengaluru-based programme helping young people make pro-planet choices and build climate ventures. This brief covers what is happening around her work in India: schools and universities, the edtech shake-out, AI in classrooms, and the gap between school and work.

India
Checked 16 Oct 2026 · every figure linked to its source · next review Jan 2027

01At a glance

24.72 crore

students enrolled in India's schools in 2025-26 (over 24.72 crore), in nearly 14.67 lakh schools with 1.03 crore teachers1.

A 2025-26 size snapshot, not a trend
4.50 crore

students (45 million) enrolled in Indian higher education in 2023-24, up from 3.42 crore in 2014-152.

30

higher-education Gross Enrolment Ratio (ages 18-23) in 2023-24, up from 23.7 in 2014-153. Female GER is higher, at 31.23.

9.9%

youth (15-29) unemployment in India in 2025, down from 10.3% in 20244. Among urban youth it was 13.6%4.

PLFS changed its sample design in January 2025; MoSPI says 2025 may not be strictly comparable with earlier years
0.97%

of Indians aged 14-18 have received formal institutional skilling, and nearly 92% have none, according to PLFS data cited in the Economic Survey 2025-265.

Formal vocational training, not entrepreneurship programmes
₹1,39,289 crore

allocated to the Ministry of Education in Budget 2026-27, 8.27% more than the 2025-26 Budget Estimate, or 14% more than the Revised Estimate by PRS's count6.

An allocation, not spending

02How AI is reshaping it

In schools

  • Curriculum. From the 2026-27 session, CBSE is rolling out a curriculum on Computational Thinking and Artificial Intelligence for Classes III to VIII7. CBSE schools are a minority of India's schools, and no implementation counts have been published.
  • Research. Budget 2025-26 announced a Centre of Excellence in AI for education with a ₹500 crore outlay8.
67.4%

of Indian schools had internet connectivity in 2025-26, and 69.9% had computers9.

UDISE+ reports these as improvements on earlier years. Any AI curriculum depends on this access.

Students, campuses and hiring

  • Students. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in February 2026 that India has 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users and the largest number of student users of ChatGPT in the world10.
  • Young users. OpenAI's education head, Leah Belsky, said in August 2025 that nearly half of ChatGPT users in India are under 24 and use it mainly for study11.
  • Licences. In August 2025 OpenAI announced it would distribute about half a million ChatGPT licences to Indian educators and students through the Ministry of Education, AICTE and ARISE schools, and fund $500,000 of research with IIT Madras12.
  • Campuses. In an EY-Parthenon and FICCI survey of 30 leading Indian higher-education institutions, 60% said they permit students to use AI tools and 53% use generative AI to develop learning materials13.
  • Hiring. The India Skills Report 2026, a test provider's report, says 70% of IT companies and 50% of BFSI firms have implemented AI in their recruitment14.
OpenAI's usage figures are the company's own statements, not audited data. The campus survey covers 30 hand-picked institutions, not the sector.

03Where the money is moving

Edtech funding, Inc42's count

Indian edtech startup funding, calendar years

2024
$572M
2025
$249M

By Inc42's count, Indian edtech startups raised $249 million in 2025, down 56% from $572 million in 2024, across 31 deals15.

Trackers count edtech funding differently, and Inc42 has revised its own 2024 base. Do not compare this with Tracxn's totals.

Edtech funding, Tracxn's count

$214M

of equity funding into Indian edtech in the first eight months of 2026, by Tracxn's count, against $4.3 billion in all of 202116. Funded rounds fell from 368 in 2021 to 36 so far in 202616.

A partial year set against a full year. Tracxn's method differs from Inc42's.
94

acquisitions and seven public listings in Indian edtech between 2021 and 2026, by Tracxn's count, five of the listings between July and November 202517.

Listings and deals

  1. PhysicsWallah raised ₹3,480.7 crore in its IPO and listed on the NSE on 18 Nov 2025 at ₹145, a 33% premium to its ₹109 issue price18.
  2. upGrad completed its all-stock acquisition of Unacademy at a reported value of a little over $200 million, more than 90% below Unacademy's 2021 peak valuation of about $3.4 billion19.
The parties did not disclose the Unacademy deal value, and outlets report different figures.

Offline as well as online

353

offline centres run by PhysicsWallah, one example of edtech moving offline, across India and the UAE by the end of FY26, up from 198 a year earlier, with about 470,000 offline students20.

One company's figures, not a measure of the whole sector.

04From school to work

Employability, by a test provider's measure

The India Skills Report 2026 rated 56.35% of the more than 100,000 young people who took its employability test as employable, up from 54.81% a year earlier21.

The report is run by Wheebox, a commercial test provider, with CII, AICTE and AIU. Its test-takers chose to sit the test, so they are not a random sample of graduates.

Green skills

A UNICEF YuWaah report (Oct 2025) estimates that of the nearly 12 million young people who join India's workforce each year, only about 10% receive any green skilling, while up to 35 million green jobs could be created by 204722.

In a 670-person survey of 18-29-year-olds for the same report, only 37% knew about green sectors or sustainability-related jobs23.

Estimates and a long-range projection, reported by PTI. The survey is small and not a national figure.

05Policy: targets, budgets and curricula

  1. Budget 2025-26. Announced 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs in government schools over five years, and a Centre of Excellence in AI for education with a ₹500 crore outlay8. A target, not a delivery count.
  2. Economic Survey. As part of the push towards NEP 2020's goal of 50% GER by 2035, 153 universities have introduced flexible entry-exit and twice-yearly admissions24.
  3. Budget 2026-27. The Ministry of Education is allocated ₹1,39,289 crore, 8.27% more than the 2025-26 Budget Estimate, or 14% more than the Revised Estimate by PRS's count6. School education gets ₹83,562 crore and higher education ₹55,727 crore6. These are allocations, not spending.
  4. Tinkering labs become a scheme. Atal Tinkering Labs are now a new flagship central-sector scheme of the Department of School Education and Literacy, allocated ₹3,200 crore for 2026-2725.
  5. Content creator labs proposed. Budget 2026-27 proposes AVGC (animation, VFX, gaming and comics) Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges26.
  6. Labs on the ground. About 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs have been set up in Indian schools: 5,945 in government schools and 4,055 in private ones27. The 50,000 target is for government schools, so the figure to set against it is 5,945, not 10,000827.
  7. AI in the CBSE curriculum. From the 2026-27 session, CBSE is rolling out a curriculum on Computational Thinking and Artificial Intelligence for Classes III to VIII7.

06Trends to watch

Edtech money dried up, and consolidation followed

By Inc42's count, Indian edtech startups raised $249 million in 2025, down 56% from 202415. Separately, Tracxn counts 94 acquisitions and seven public listings in the sector between 2021 and 202617. upGrad has completed its all-stock acquisition of Unacademy at a reported value of a little over $200 million19.

AI arrives in classrooms from the top

CBSE is adding a Computational Thinking and AI curriculum for Classes III to VIII from 2026-277, and Budget 2025-26 set aside ₹500 crore for an AI Centre of Excellence for education8. On campuses, 60% of 30 leading institutions surveyed by EY-Parthenon and FICCI said they permit students to use AI tools13.

The state is paying for labs

Atal Tinkering Labs now have their own scheme, allocated ₹3,200 crore for 2026-2725. Budget 2026-27 also proposes content creator labs in 15,000 secondary schools26. For scale, 5,945 government schools have a lab so far, against a five-year target of 50,000827.

Few young people reach work with formal skills

Only 0.97% of Indians aged 14-18 have received formal institutional skilling5. UNICEF YuWaah estimates that only about 10% of young people joining the workforce each year receive any green skilling22. Youth unemployment was 9.9% in 20254.

Women are a rising share of STEM enrolment

Women's share of STEM enrolment in Indian higher education rose from 38.4% in 2014-15 to 44% in 2023-2428. Female GER, at 31.2, is above the overall 303. At Smart India Hackathon 2025, 2,993 of the 8,160 finalists were women29.

07The problems our guests are solving

Teaching young people to build for the planetEP06
India

Supriya Panchangam · Future Founders Co.

Teaching young people to build for the planet

Supriya runs a Bengaluru-based programme helping young people make pro-planet choices and build climate ventures. In the episode, she says its India Sustainability Startathon ran 112 teams in 2024 and lined up 220 exit pathways, so the competition led somewhere30.

about 10%

of the nearly 12 million young people who join India's workforce each year receive any green skilling, a UNICEF YuWaah report (Oct 2025) estimates22.

68,766

student teams entered Smart India Hackathon 2025, submitting 72,165 ideas against 271 problem statements29.

SIH publishes no breakdown by discipline, so how many non-STEM students take part in programmes like it is not measured. Future Founders runs in-person programmes, so the edtech funding and market figures on this page are context, not its market.
Watch the episode →

See how these conversations connect on the Discovery Atlas →

08Sources

One research agent gathered 32 figures from government, regulator and established data sources. A separate red-team agent then reopened every source, checked each number, its scope and its date, and looked for newer or conflicting data. It kept 12 figures as written, corrected 20 and cut 0. Each figure above links to its source below, with the date it refers to.

  1. PIB backgrounder on UDISE+ 2025-26, Aug 2026 · UDISE+ 2025-26
  2. Ministry of Education (AISHE), Jul 2026 · AISHE 2023-24
  3. Ministry of Education (AISHE), Jul 2026 · AISHE 2023-24
  4. MoSPI, PLFS Annual Report 2025, Mar 2026 · Calendar year 2025, usual status (PLFS)
  5. Economic Survey 2025-26 (via PIB), Jan 2026 · PLFS (as cited in Economic Survey 2025-26, Jan 2026)
  6. Ministry of Education / PIB, Feb 2026; PRS Legislative Research · FY 2026-27 Budget Estimate
  7. Ministry of Education / PIB, Apr 2026 · Session 2026-27
  8. PIB (Ministry of Finance), Feb 2025 · Announced Feb 2025
  9. PIB backgrounder on UDISE+ 2025-26, Aug 2026 · UDISE+ 2025-26
  10. TechCrunch, Feb 2026 (Sam Altman, OpenAI) · As stated Feb 2026
  11. Storyboard18, Aug 2025 (Leah Belsky, OpenAI) · As stated Aug 2025
  12. YourStory, Aug 2025 · Announced Aug 2025
  13. EY-Parthenon & FICCI, via Careers360, Oct 2025 · Survey published Oct 2025
  14. India Skills Report 2026, via Careers360, Nov 2025 · India Skills Report 2026 (Nov 2025)
  15. Inc42, Jan 2026 · Calendar year 2025
  16. Tracxn, via ThePrint, Sep 2026 · Jan-Aug 2026 vs full-year 2021
  17. Tracxn, via ThePrint, Sep 2026 · 2021 to Aug 2026
  18. Business Standard, Nov 2025 · IPO, Nov 2025
  19. YourStory, Sep 2026 · Reported Sep 2026
  20. Tracxn edtech report, via CXOToday, Sep 2026 · End of FY26 (Mar 2026)
  21. India Skills Report 2026 (Wheebox/ETS with CII, AICTE, AIU), via Careers360 · India Skills Report 2026 (Nov 2025)
  22. UNICEF YuWaah report, via PTI/The Week, Oct 2025 · Report released Oct 2025
  23. UNICEF YuWaah report, via PTI/The Week, Oct 2025 · Survey for Oct 2025 report
  24. Economic Survey 2025-26 (via PIB), Jan 2026 · Economic Survey 2025-26 (Jan 2026)
  25. Ministry of Education / PIB, Feb 2026 · FY 2026-27 Budget Estimate
  26. Ministry of Education / PIB, Feb 2026 · Announced Feb 2026
  27. Business Standard, Feb 2026 · As of Feb 2026 (information placed before Parliament)
  28. Ministry of Education (AISHE), Jul 2026 · AISHE 2023-24
  29. Ministry of Education / PIB, Dec 2025 · SIH 2025 (Grand Finale from 8 Dec 2025)
  30. Building Real, EP06 episode page (Supriya Panchangam) · Guest's own account, 2024 Startathon