When Chennai-based Everonn Education begins setting up international schools in the country next year, it plans to do so as a private limited entity under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, and not as a trust. The reason: The company sees this as an alternative way of having a scalable model (which the trust structure does not allow as its bars payment of dividends). Increasingly, educational institutions in the country are taking innovative routes to expand. For example, schools that cannot go for the Section 25 option have begun turning to “smart equity” from private equity (PE) players to expand access to new technologies, build new set of services and add resources. This explains the $22-million (100 crore) deal that Reliance Equity Advisors — Reliance Capital’s PE arm — struck with Pathway World School recently. The stake acquired was, however, not disclosed. […]