The Hindu Business Line : Indus schools to expand network

Hyderabad, Dec. 12 Mr Kumar Malavalli, a member of Silicon Valley Hall of Fame and founder of Brocade Communications, and Ms Nandini Ramalinga Raju have come together to set up the third Indus International School in India here. They plan to invest about Rs 50-80 crore in it over the next four years.

Five such schools are planned by 2011 and the Hyderabad school will be operational along with the one in Pune by August 2008. The Bangalore school is poised to complete five years shortly. They expect to establish two more in Mumbai and New Delhi.

“This initiative is part of our effort to give back to the society by setting up schools that would make a difference to the life of a student, where the learning model is different. These schools follow International baccalaureate training methodology, with a focus on developing a well-rounded personality,” Mr Malavalli said. The Bangalore school has managed to break-even financially, he added.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Malavalli said the Hyderabad centre would have a specialisation on Nantechnology, wherein children in their formative years would be groomed to lay focus on such subjects of future.

The Chief Executive of the Indus Trust, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Arjun Ray, said there is growing demand for schools with international training methodology and about 20 such schools are being added in India each year as per conservative estimates.

The Hyderabad campus is being developed in a 20-acre site and expected to be operational next year. Typically, the school has a student-teacher ratio of 9:1 and the fee ranges from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh a year depending on the class a student is in. Each student will be given a laptop.

There are no plans to take the franchisee route for expansion.

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