The Curious Case of Commerce Education in India

India has highly ambitious long-term and short-term economic goals, and it is riding an excellent growth curve. The expanding economy and booming capital markets continue to surge demand for investment bankers who can deal with complex financial transactions. Dissecting it further, the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) industry, in particular, is undergoing a rapid transformation, and the reports project the enterprise fintech industry to grow to approximately $20 billion by 2030. Quite clearly, the need for financial professionals is humongous. But interestingly, the number of students opting for commerce courses is not witnessing a similar growth in the country.

According to a study by the Ministry of Education, only 14 percent of Indian students opted for the commerce stream each year for higher secondary classes in the past 10 years (from 2012 to 2022). Let’s look at some of the actual numbers to put this into perspective. According to the study, 30.9 lakh students took the arts stream in 2012, which went up to 40 lakh in 2022. The science stream had 30.7 lakh students in 2012, which increased to 42 lakh in 2022. As many as 13.7 lakh students had taken the commerce stream in 2012 and 14.4 lakh pupils in 2022.

Going forward, with the economy's growth, including a blooming financial sector, the demand for financial professionals will grow multifold, and the country is heading toward a significant demand-supply gap. The government must focus on promoting commerce education in the country, especially given the abundance of quality educational institutions in the country. Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) is one among them. Established in 1926 by philanthropist and industrialist Sir Shri Ram, SRCC has produced some of the country's finest financial professionals and leaders beyond its borders. We dedicate this issue to them.