Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Layoffs and losses in edtech continue. The Union Budget, despite a modest jump in overall fund allocations, has only made some watery promises for the education sector. And an 18-year old on a national reality TV competition has threatened to buy-out Byju’s and Unacademy. 

In the midst of all the high-stakes news (at least, in the first two cases) coming out of Indian edtech last week, it might have been easy to miss some more fundamental levers being pulled closer to the ground. Like how the world’s largest Development Impact Bond (DIB)—the Quality Education India Development Bond (QEI DB)—has delivered on its expected results just midway through the programme. 

Development Impact Bonds are essentially financial securities used to fund development programmes in resource-poor areas. And in this case, a total of US$3 million was invested by the UBS Prime Foundation towards bettering learning outcomes for students across 117 public and private Indian schools. 

There are some key things to note here:

1. About 100,000 students improved their basic literacy and numeracy skills.
2. The impact was felt across four states.