At eight o’clock in the evening, Vibha Iyer, 23, an M.Sc in Physics, settles down in front of her home computer station to give online lessons in science to students in far off countries like the US and UK. Vibha is an e-tutor and she relishes the flexibility and money this job offers her.

E-tutoring is being touted as the next big thing in the domain of learning. With white boards and computers gradually becoming prominent in classrooms all across the world, virtual tutors are gaining currency too.

The flexibility of being able to sit at one place and tutor individuals across the globe is luring people even as the initial distrust of online learning erodes.

Says Lakshmi Ramanujan, online facilitator, The Writers Block (TWB), Bangalore, “E-tutoring is the future of education. We should gear up to it.” And we sure are.

India is fast emerging as a global online tutoring hub for quality teaching at affordable rates. This demand for online tutoring from India is driven by its large talent pool of teachers that are available at lower costs.

Says Chandan Agarwal, director, Learninghour.com of Educomp Solutions, “Over the last few years, online tutoring from India for students across the world has taken on the contours of an industry with tremendous growth potential.”

He states that in the US market alone, revenues for Indian tutoring companies are estimated to be at $20 million today, and industry players expect it to reach $2 billion in three to five years.

India is fast emerging as a global online tutoring hub