Policy Reforms for Affordable & Accessible Digital Education
India stands at a pivotal moment in its education journey. Its digital learning ecosystem is gaining strong momentum – for example the online education market in India was valued at about US $8.2 billion in 2024. At the same time, internet reach is expanding rapidly with around 806 million users in India as of January 2025. Yet, India’s rapid digital transformation has not translated equally across its classrooms. Despite the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 envisioning technology-enabled learning for all, access to digital learning tools remains highly unequal. Towards this, Chase Advisors in collaboration with Indian School of Public Policy organized a closed-door roundtable discussion titled ‘Making Digital Education Affordable and Accessible: Policy Reforms to Bridge India’s Digital Education Divide’.
The discussion brought together, member of parliament, academia, industry and civil society organisation to deep dive into making digital education accessible and affordable. The session was moderated by Kaushal Mahan, Senior Vice President, Chase Advisors with Keynote Address from Dr. Sasmit Patra, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. Expert Speakers at the roundtable discussion included: Prof. Pradeep Kumar Misra, Director, Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education; Prof. Bornali Bhandari, Professor, National Council for Applied Economic Research; Ms. Kanchan Lall, Director, The Education Alliance; Mr. Ram Kamesh, Assistant Dean, Indian School of Public Policy; Mr. Santhosh Viswanathan, MD - India Region, Intel Corporation; Dr. Sheetal Singh, Head of Department, Law, Christ University; Mr. Vinesh Menon, Director General and CEO, Association for Reinventing School Education (ARISE 2.0); Dr. Nitya Nanda, Director, Council for Social Development; Mr. Yogesh Huja, Founder and CEO, Gignaati; Mr. Shashank Maheshwari, Assistant Professor, O P Jindal Global University; Ms. Dipakshi Mehandru, Director, India Government Affairs, Intel Corporation.
The discussion highlighted key themes such as Fiscal reforms to make educational devices affordable, Connectivity and infrastructure to ensure all schools and communities are digitally connected, teacher capacity building for effective technology adoption and Public–private partnerships to mobilize resources and innovation at a scale.
