Parrying questions about the paid-up equity capital he said the investment could be in terms of equity or loans from the parent company. The subsidiary could also go in for loans from financial institutions, he added. On profits, he said the target was Rs 100 crore on a turnover of Rs 500 crore in five years. "Zee Education is already a profit centre," he said.

The core business of the subsidiary would be to create a "learning solutions network" for which it would use cable television, interactive television, video, print and the internet. It plans to set up a 24-hour dedicated learning channel by June 2000 with an investment of Rs 15 crore, ZILS CEO and president Uma Ganesh said. Uma Ganesh wasearlier head of Zee Education.

"The main purpose of launching a separate company is to give key employees equity stock options," Chandra said. In two to three years the company will also go public on the exchange which gives the best valuation to knowledge based companies, he said in response to a query. The ZED Career Academy and ZED Points which were earlier with Zee Education will now be part ZILS.

The firm will concentrate on youth, school students and corporates in the retail arena and the IT sector, banks, insurance, advertising agencies and education institutions in the corporate sector.

In the first year of operations it will also set up around 500 cybercafes throughout the country in association with schools. The cybercafes will be housed in the school premises which are mostly unused after school hours. Both cost and revenue will be shared between the school and ZILS. The first agreement for a cybercafe has been signed with NIMMS.

Education services will range from small courses on subjectslike internet and marketing to full-fledged MBAs. ZILS will have affiliations with institutes and universities for some of the courses. It has already signed an agreement with Pune University for technology courses and is in talks with SNDT for fashion and interior designing courses.