Education.

Education is a large, labour-intensive non-market-plus-market service — about 15 lakh schools, 1,200 universities and 45,000 colleges educating roughly 250 million school students and 45 million higher-education students — whose output is valued mainly by what it costs to produce: the wages of about 11 million teachers and faculty plus depreciation on buildings. It adds an estimated ₹10.5 lakh crore of value in FY26 (3.3% of national GVA), funded 57% by government (₹8.5 lakh crore a year) and the rest by households (₹7.9 lakh crore), with private, trust-run provision growing steadily as private-school enrolment rose from about a quarter of students in FY05 to roughly 45% in FY24. Growth has compounded at about 12% a year nominal since FY05, driven by teacher-wage step-ups (pay commissions) rather than headcount, since the school-age cohort has peaked and is now shrinking; higher education and coaching/test-prep are the growth pockets. Because Indian law requires schools, colleges and universities to be non-profit trusts, capital can only enter through the for-profit periphery — coaching, edtech, publishing and education services — leaving the listed sector tiny (₹452 crore of PAT on a ₹0.56 lakh crore market cap) and the activity among the least represented in the equity market relative to its economic size.

Estimated GVA

10.5 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Share of national GVA

3.3 % · FY26

Government spend on education

8.5 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Household spend on education (COICOP)

7.9 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Government spend as % of GDP

~2.5 % · FY26

Household education spend as % of PFCE

4.0 % · FY26

Household spend per head

5,500 ₹ · FY26

School students (UDISE+)

24.8 crore · FY24