AMBALA, February 14: Ambala has not remained aloof from the growing popularity of computer education and the fast money that can be made out of it. A fact borne out by more than 50 computer training centres which have come up in this small Haryana town over the last six years.However, the apparent profitability of the business is proving to be a bane with the number of institutes increasing faster than the business.
IEC was the first to open its centre in Ambala in December 1991. Its franchisees, Vikas and Lalit Sachdeva, started the branch with an investment of Rs 5 lakh.
While Vikas has a masters in computer application, Lalit Sachdeva holds a management diploma. With 200 students taking admission in the first year of its establishment, business began on a good note by Ambala standards. "The number of students has gone down to 150 despite the fact that we have opened another branch in Ambala City," says Lalit Sachdeva. At the time of inception, a monthly fee of Rs 800 was charged. It has, now, risento Rs 1,200.
``The computer education business has been badly hit by the increasing number of institutes imparting training at a very low fee. But we cannot compromise on the quality of training and instructors to meet competition.''
He feels that the future of this business is bright provided the computer sets are upgraded from time to time and there is a personal involvement of the staff.
According to Sachdeva, a good institute should have certain features like a placement cell, special courses, Internet connection, qualified staff, air-conditioned laboratory and library. "This helps the institutes to maintain a standard and attract students in spite of heavy competition. Several institutes have closed down during the past few years due to the lack of such facilities."
IEC has 12 instructors and 20 computer terminals whereas they started business with just 10 sets. ``Ours is the only institute in the region which is accredited to the Department of Electronics, Government of India,'' claimsSachdeva.
NIIT, which had franchisees here who could not survive, opened a centre in April 1997. Launched by Lt. Col V P S Lather (Retd.) with Rs 16 lakh, the centre offers diploma courses of six months to three-year duration. It has 12 computer terminals and three instructors. ``We have eight batches with 12 students each. We charge Rs 9,500 for six months which is in accordance with NIIT norms. Ours is a career-oriented institute maintaining quality and assuring employment to students getting GNIT diploma,'' he claims.
Lather, who is confident of a 100 per cent growth in his business this year, does not see any threat from competitors. He, nevertheless, admits that there is large-scale bargaining in this business and sometimes clients get attracted to heavy discounts in fee being offered by some institutes.
``Ambala is saturated with all kinds of computer institutes and the future of new ventures is not so bright,'' he adds. But for Lather, the NIIT tag may help.
He explains that NIIT centres havean advantage of being spread all over the country. This helps the students in getting migration from one centre to the other. With the aim of maintaining the same standard among all the centres, NIIT staff from Delhi comes for monthly checks.
The Institute of Electronics is another computer training centre. With recognition from the Human Research Development Centre, Lucknow, the institute was established in April 1994 with just 15 students.
Its owner Kuldeep Singla admits that lack of involvement on his part brought a bad name to his institute. "Educational institutes cannot do well without full-time involvement of the owner. I have tried to rectify my past mistakes by personally supervising the business for about a year and the results are encouraging. Within a year the strength has gone up to 40 students.
"Singla maintains that there is no threat for him from competitors simply because they cater to the middle class which cannot afford high fee. He intends to expand operations in the near future byintroducing several new advanced courses in multi-media, fashion designing and computer hardware besides short hobby courses of three month duration.
Bhartiya Computer Institute, a non-profit making centre of the Sanatan Dharam Sabha, was established in Ambala in 1995 as an authorised training centre of LOTUS Inc. with an investment of Rs 65 lakh. According to its director Rajiv Mehta, there is no need for more computer centres in the town because it has already reached saturation.
"The financial gains are too less compared to the expenditure on computer education these days." Most of the institutes are facing stagnation due to financial crisis as sometimes students fail to pay their dues in time, he adds. According to some entrepreneurs, another trend witnessed these days is that the institutes are functioning as "air-conditioned meeting points" for youngsters.
Excel Computer Training Centre was started in 1995 with an investment of Rs 2 lakh. There were 60 to 70 students in the first year but thestrength has come down to 35 to 40. Giving a reason for this, Vijay Chopra, centre manager says, "We do not have any support from our franchiser. Besides we suffered because of insufficient local advertisement.''
Krishna Institute of Computer Study was started in Ambala City by Rajinder Kumar Arora in 1994 with a capital investment of Rs 1.5 lakh, four computer terminals, 40 students and two instructors on a part-time basis. Rajinder claims that he faces no threat from competitors though the institute is located in an area surrounded by several other computer training centres.
"Being qualified in the field and having worked in few reputed centres, I was fully conversant with the practical problems faced by the students. Our teaching system is liked by the students and this is the reason for our success," he says boastfully. Elaborating on the problems being faced by the computer centres, Rajinder says, "There are no computer hardware companies here in spite of the fact the town is flooded with computerstudy centres. We are dependent on Delhi and Chandigarh markets and have to rush there even for small repairs."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
