Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

It’s been seven months since the India Edtech Consortium (IEC) was set up. A body that aims to self-regulate India’s edtech industry, its current chairperson is Mayank Kumar, the CEO and c0-founder of UpGrad, and its steering committee has some of the most influential players in Indian edtech, including Byju’s co-founder Divya Gokulnath and Sequoia Capital’s managing director GV Ravishankar. Its 22 signatories are a mix of K-12, test prep, and professional learning edtech solutions.

For the better part of these seven months though, the IEC has found itself in the midst of a perfect storm. Business models have popped, funding is down, layoffs are happening everywhere. And the flow of complaints—from parents and students who feel duped by missold, overhyped products—hasn’t ebbed.

It’s the worst of times. Ironically, it’s also the best of times. 

There are certain advantages to having an IEC. It’s been an effective buffer between individual edtech companies and a trigger-happy, reactive government machinery that’s always itching to regulate. It has also absorbed some of the public vitriol directed at edtech companies, and created an official mechanism which claims to have settled “100%” of complaints that have come its way.