Anupam- The Dreamer

We live in the times of many bubbles, especially the technology has accelerated the growth of financial bubbles which can burst anytime! There are many bubbles like the stock market bubble, cryptocurrency bubble, real estate bubble. One such bubble, although lesser known, also formed in the mecca of coaching industry i.e. Kota coaching industry.

Since, the beginning of this millennium, Kota saw the influx of lakhs of students coming for preparation of IIT-JEE and NEET examinations. With them, the students brought huge amount of money which pumped into the hitherto dwindling economy of Kota. I had discussed in this article (Suicides in Kota- the curse of education city – Anupam- The Dreamer), that how the economy of Kota was collapsing domino by domino before the city saw a new ray of hope in the coaching industry. The coaching industry gave direct and indirect employment to the lakhs of youth who thronged to Kota from in and around the city (Hadoti region basically). Every Kota resident earned something more from the coaching industry- in the form of rental income, businesses like mess, stationery, cycle industry, auto walas, transport sector etc. etc. The direct beneficiaries like the coaching owners and the teachers became arabpatis and crorepatis, respectively, in no time.

But after its exponential success, it soon became a huge bubble! Year on year, the number of students coming to Kota multiplied like anything starting from early 2000s. Till the end of 2020, the situation was like there were more than 2,00,000 students in the city. Consequently, more than Rs. 3000 crores pumped in the economy every year (assuming that every student spends about Rs. 1.5 lakh per year on coaching, food and lodging). It was understood that the “SUN OF COACHING INDUSTRY WILL NEVER SET IN KOTA”. And rightly so, afterall looking at the education system of our country, there is no way that the coaching centres can be scrapped! Because if there is no coaching, there can be no preparation for the competitive exams as the school system is not equipped enough to make a student qualify JEE or NEET.

But, everything has its own saturation point. In 2020, an unexpected event occurred in the world! No Nobel Prizes to guess it right- it was COVID epidemic. The world turned upside down for everyone and Kota coaching industry also encountered the same fate. All students went back to their hometowns, in the overcrowded buses and trains. And then came the biggest technological change to adapt to the need of the times. Kota coaching institutes started online coaching for the same courses for the students to continue their studies in their hometown. Once, the COVID ebbed away, the world was never the same!

The students thought that if they can study the same courses online from the luxury of their own homes, why is there a need to come to unknown city Kota. Plus, it also alleviates the fears of their parents regarding not able to keep a watch on their children whether they are studying properly in Kota, or indulging in mischievous endeavours like drugs, parties, movies, matargashti etc. Consequently, the number of students also fell drastically.

There was one more significant factor that led to the downfall of Kota empire! The coaching centres started decentralization of the industry right from the mid-2010s. This resulted into proliferation of numerous local centres of the same coaching in Kota across the big cities of India. These local centres offered exactly the same course, reading material, content quality. The quality of teachers was a little lower than the star teachers of Kota centres, but it didn’t matter much for the students as long as they were getting the same reading material. The largest chunk of students earlier came from UP, Bihar, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. They were happy to study in the local centres of Kanpur, Patna, Pune and Jaipur. There was one more factor of student suicides, which was again not helping the cause of the coaching industry!

The situation has now spiraled down to such an extent that the number of students has dropped by almost 50% in the last 2 years as compared to the earlier years. This means a direct economic impact of Rs. 1500 crores flowing less into the financial ecosystem of Kota. And mind it, Rs. 1500 crores is a huge number for a Tier-2 city anywhere in the country. It has significantly crippled the economy of the city.

Many big landlords took huge amount of loans to develop multi-storey hostels with more than 50-100 rooms each. In the good times, they earned Rs. 3-5 lakhs per month in rental income. The hostels have become ghost buildings with occupancy going below 20-30% in many of them. The under construction hostels have come to a grinding halt, with no scope of students rising in the future and the falling rental incomes in the pre-existing hostels. Their loans taken for building hostels have become non-performing assets (NPAs). The other day I was talking to my school friend who lives in Kota, who told me that everyone is unhappy with the prevailing situation. The business owners are suffering loss of business, the vendors (fruit and juice, momos, poha, kachori etc.) have seen huge fall in their monthly incomes, auto walas cannot pay their monthly EMIs and people are seen defaulting on the loans taken for business, cars, etc. They earlier saw “easy income” in the form of rental income, direct income from the students, resulting into excessive spending on the luxuries by the local residents who in turn earned from the students. All that is a thing of the past now. The real estate bubble has also collapsed, with no hope of immediate revival!

The Kota walas are now again back to square one! The city is once again under huge economic stress, as there are no alternate big industries to give employment to the local people. The earlier industries like DCM Shriram, Chambal fertilizers, pulse mills etc. are not expanding. There are no new industrial investments. If the government and the administration do not take bold steps to revive the economy, then it will be a grim picture, with the residents having no alternatives than to look for greener pastures elsewhere in the country. The beacon of hope that the city saw with the dawn of coaching industry is fading fast.

The city needs another Mr. V.K.Bansal type of personality, who saw through the future! Or some Tata, Birla who can setup some industries in the city. Until that is done, Kota walas have to seek some solution by themselves– whether by reviving coaching industry, or by returning to the traditional Kota stone and Kota doria industry, or by thinking something bigger, better, and brighter! I have hope that all is not lost, and the city will definitely bounce back to its days of glory and shine again like a beacon of hope on the fast-changing landscape of India.