The NIIT Story

Only in a few engineering and computer science colleges offered computer education. This led to the emergence of small, regional IT training institutes offering low-end courses, focusing mainly on creating a general awareness about computers. Soon, the industry started attracting students in hordes and by the mid-1990s, it was growing at around 30-35% per year. By 2001, the global IT training market was estimated to be around $16 billion, of which India's share was $350 million. NIIT was the first company to start a chain of computer education centers in the organized sector in India imparting IT training to a broad spectrum of people including students, IT professionals, school children and managers. Entrepreneurs Rajendran, Pawar and Vijay K Thadani, who were working with HCL promoted the company in 1981.¹

In 1989, NIIT got recognition from the American Council on Education(ACE),² which enabled its students to get credit exemptions from around 1700 university members of ACE. Over the next few years, the NIIT brand became synonymous with IT education in India. Though its courses were not recognized by any Indian university, its placement records were rather good and the company was able to sustain the inflow of students. In 1993, the company came out with an initial public offering of 3.6 million shares. In the same year, the company diversified into the software development business with the development of instructional software products to be used as teaching aids in schools. In 1994, NIIT implemented ISO 9001 standards and was certified by BVQI³...