Indian edtech is a burning building, so why is Suresh Kalpathi running towards it?

In the early 90s, when Indian IT services was just starting to make a name for itself on the global stage, Suresh Kalpathi made his first foray into education. SSI Ltd, the company he founded along with his two brothers, offered short-term IT courses which served as a springboard for those looking to enter the booming IT space.

It didn’t take long for SSI to reach stratospheric heights. It went public soon after it was incorporated in 1991 and even entered a joint venture with New York-based stock exchange NASDAQ to provide securities solutions to global customers. It also acquired US-based Albion Orion for nearly $64 million, in what was then the largest cross-border acquisition by an Indian IT company, and even bought a controlling stake in one of its publicly listed rivals, Aptech.

In 2008, when the brother-promoters exited SSI, media reports suggested the company was valued at around Rs 900-1,000 crore.