MUMBAI: Bitten yet again by the entrepreneurial bug after selling UTV to The Walt Disney Company, Ronnie Screwvala has entered the education sector with the launch of UEducation, an online portal focusing on higher education.

Screwvala has earmarked an outlay of Rs 100 crore in the first phase, which goes mainly into content, interactivity, platform, technology, assessments, adaptive learning, marketing and building a national footprint.

“India has the largest college going age cohort in the world, yet only one out five of them enroll into higher education, resulting in one of the lowest higher education enrolment ratios, even among most developing nations. If we have to meet our GDP growth targets, we need to at least double the participation rate immediately, otherwise we will miss out on our demographic dividend,” he said.

With a decade of experience in the education sector across India, China, Latin America, SE Asia, Middle East and Africa, Mayank Kumar has come on board as co-founder and MD of UEducation. “Our goal will be to foster the next level of degree education / learning and train the next generation Indian workforce to take on the industries of the future,” Kumar said.

UEducation aims to capitalise on the fast increasing demand for digital learning and online education, leveraging technology and working to exceed the experiences and rigour even of on campus programs, whilst focusing on employability.

The new venture will cover sectors such as management, law, marketing, finance, technology, engineering, entrepreneurship, new economy expertise, sports, media, fashion, travel, hospitality and tourism.