Kota: A City Built on Coaching

How a Rajasthan city became India's hub for engineering and medical entrance coaching, the economy that grew around it, and the concerns about student wellbeing.

Kota, in Rajasthan, was once known for industry. From the 1980s and 1990s, it became famous for something else: coaching students for highly competitive engineering and medical entrance exams, such as JEE and NEET.

How it grew

The story is often traced to an engineer who began tutoring students in the 1980s after an industrial job loss. As students succeeded in exams, word spread. Coaching institutes multiplied, and students from across India began moving to Kota.

At its peak, large numbers of students, estimated in the lakhs, lived in Kota each year, many aged 15 to 18 and far from home.

The coaching economy

A whole local economy grew around students:

Hostels and paying guest accommodation.
Mess and food services.
Stationery, printing and study materials.
Transport, laundry and other services.

Coaching fees plus living costs can reach lakhs of rupees a year per student, a major expense for many middle-class families.

Why families pay

Seats at top institutions, such as IITs and top medical colleges, are very scarce compared with applicants.
Families see admission as a path to secure, well-paid careers.
Coaching promises an edge in intense competition.

Economists see this as an example of a positional good: what matters is doing better than others, so everyone spends more without increasing the total number of seats.

Concerns

Pressure and mental health: a series of student suicides in Kota drew national attention.
Missing school: many students enrol in “dummy schools” while spending their time in coaching.
Inequality: families who cannot afford coaching are at a disadvantage.

Regulation and change

Rajasthan issued guidelines for coaching centres in 2023, and central government guidelines in 2024 discouraged enrolling students under 16 and required counselling support. With online coaching growing and new hubs elsewhere, student numbers in Kota have fallen from their peak, hurting local businesses.

The hostel owner

A family in Kota converts its house into a student hostel, earning steady rent for years. When student numbers fall with online coaching and new rules, several rooms stay empty, showing how dependent the local economy has become on coaching.

Thinking more coaching creates more opportunities

Coaching can help individuals, but the number of seats at top institutions stays fixed. Competition mainly raises spending for everyone.

Key takeaways

Kota became India's best-known hub for entrance exam coaching.
A local economy of hostels, food and services grew around students.
Coaching for scarce seats resembles spending on a positional good.
Student wellbeing concerns led to new guidelines, and numbers have fallen from the peak.