India has been the world leader in education for ages. However, things are
not worth appreciating today. It has 66% adult literacy rate at a time when
much smaller countries like Sri Lanka, Iran, Malasiya, Mongolia, Philippines and
Indonesia boast of their higher literacy rates (Table 1).
India has now a population of 1,166,079,217 (Wikipedia, 2009) out of
which nearly 61% is below 35 year of age. It is all set to achieve higher literacy rate
by introducing new programs prominently on rural India keeping in mind that
72.2% (Wikipedia, 2009) of total population belongs
to rural India.
The government is also encouraging the establishment of technical,
professional and educational institutes in rural India. A number of leading private
educational institutes have already established (or are establishing) their institutes in
tier-II and tier-III cities in the last seven years targeting the huge potential of rural
India and untapped marketplace. May it be private universities, professional
coaching institutes, computer education institutes, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs),
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) or even Indian Institutes of Management
(IIMs)all have joined the bandwagon to enter the huge Indian rural marketplace.
The government is planning to increase spending on education (Exhibit 1).
All the institutes operating in non-metros are projecting themselves as
the pioneers among others. They take advantage of every possible tool which
helps them in branding, reaching to target groups and finally getting admissions.
Here, the advertisement tools and advertisement messages differ significantly from
those in metros. They are more customized, simple and promising, which at times
seem exaggerated. |
