BW Education Jan 2023

w w w . b w e d u c a t i o n . c o m Rs 300 JANUARY 2023 EDUCATION CHANGEMAKERS In the year of edtech bloodbath that was 2022, what set apart upGrad was its range of well-thought-out education programmes - upskilling options for professionals, overseas education, and entrepreneurship and startup courses - coupled with sound execution THE WAY FORWARD THE WAY FORWARD 2023 Building upon the course correction that the country has embarked upon with the National Education Policy, what can we do better, or differently VED MANI TIWARI Chief Operating Officer, NSDC KIRAN KARNIK Author, Columnist and Chairperson, IIIT Delhi BVR MOHAN REDDY Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIT Hyderabad & Roorkee JN MOORTHY Director, IISER, PERSPECTIVES OF : Thiruvananthapuram

INDIA’S LEADING SCHOOLS w w w . b w e d u c a t i o n . c o m Rs 300 JANUARY 2023 What makes IIM A, B and C retain their lead over decades How are second-gen institutes creating a niche for themselves What are some of the takeaways from B-School’s experience

4 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM ANNURAG BATRA [email protected] GOD IS IN DETAILS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S NOTE S chools reopened after a prolonged period of Lockdown and uncertainty in early 2022 and education fraternity was grappling with the learning losses of the last two years. Still, the year was marked by a note of optimism, primarily on account of the National Education Policy with its wide-sweeping changes. Usually, the educational fraternity is divided about the approach to instruction – should it be disciplinarian or free of control; should instruction be imparted in English or one’s own language; which narrative of History is to be told, and so on. As many people, so many views. But now, a consensus seems to be building around the NEP 2020. Its emphasis on skills development, skilling being on par with academic subjects, multidisciplinary approach, provision for accumulation of credit points which can be then transferred, all these are welcome moves, and the intent is right. There was optimism regarding these changes in 2022. The year 2023 onwards will decide the success of the policy, as the execution on the ground, with eye for details will matter. In this issue, we carry views of who-is-who of the education and skilling world – NSDC Chairman Ved Mani Tiwari, IISER Thiruvananthapuram Director JN Moorthy, IIT Roorkee and Hyderabad Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy and Chairperson of IIIT Delhi Kiran Karnik - on how they wish the reforms to be implemented and what changes they wish to see. Year 2022 was also marked by upheavals in the edtech sector, even though some players held their own. We feature upGrad team as the face of the year because its well-thought-out programmes that address diverse needs in higher education and life-long learning, a robust expansion plan that has withstood the test of the Covid crisis. Read the interview with co-Founders Mayank Kumar, Ronnie Screwvala and Phalgun Kompalli, on what makes a startup in edtech segment thrive. We also bring to you the B-School rankings and perspectives of B-School directors. While the rankings continue to be largely dominated by IIM A, B, C and other long-established B-schools, it’s heartening to know several second-gen IIMs and newly opened private B-Schools create a dent by investing in infrastructure, modern pedagogy and emphasis on research and incubation, and encouragement to entrepreneurship, rather than only MNC jobs or overseas stings. These promise to be great times for education. Let 2023 be a right step in that direction. Happy New Year.

6 B W EDUCATION JAN - FE B 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM BW Businessworld does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accompanied by self-addressed envelopes and sufficient postage. Published and printed by Annurag Batra for and on behalf of the owners, BW Businessworld Media Private Limited. Published at J-6/55, Upper Ground Floor, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi-110027, and printed at Infinity Advertising Services Private Limited. Editor : Annurag Batra. © Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. All rights reserved. R.N.I.No. 39847/81 BW Businessworld Media Private Limited EDITORIAL OFFICES BW Businessworld Media Pvt. Ltd. 74-75, Scindia House, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001 Phone: 9818063325 ADVERTISEMENT/CIRCULATION / SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES BW Businessworld Media Pvt. Ltd. 74-75, Scindia House, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001 Phone: 9818063325 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE Vinod Kumar +91 9810961195, [email protected], [email protected] Subscription rates: ONE YEAR - Rs 2,899 TWO YEARS - Rs 5,599 THREE YEARS - Rs 8,199 HUMAN RESOURCES: Namrata Tripathi ([email protected]) LEGAL ADVISOR: Sudhir Mishra (Trust Legal) GROUP CHAIRMAN & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr. ANNURAG BATRA CEO, BW COMMUNITIES Bhuvanesh Khanna CEO & CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER Hoshie Ghaswalla (CEO-BW Engage) GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Noor Fathima Warsia BW EDUCATION: Vasudha Mukherjee, Upasana, Sr. Associate Editor: Meha Mathur EDITORIAL TEAM Sr. Associate Editors: Ashish Sinha, Jyotsna Sharma Sr. Correspondents: Rohit Chintapali, Deep Majumdar, Correspondents: Abhishek Sharma Arjun Yadav, Aparajitha Nair; Trainee Journalist: Sneha Patro DESK TEAM Deputy Editor: Mukul Rai Associate Editors: Madhumita Chakraborty; Smita Kulshreshth ART TEAM Art Directors: Shivaji Sengupta Assistant Art Director: Rajinder Kumar Infographics & Data Visualiser: Arun Kumar Assistant Images Editor: Sanjay Jakhmola PHOTO TEAM Sr. Photo Researcher: Kamal Kumar BW ONLINE: Assistant Editor: Poonam Singh VIDEO EDITORIAL TEAM Video Team: Anurag Giri Pappu Kumar Singh, Sr. Cameraperson: Ratneshwar Kumar Singh BW APPLAUSE & EVERYTHING EXPERIENTIAL: Ruhail Amin, Neelima Sharma BW AUTO WORLD: Utkarsh Agarwal BW CFO WORLD: Urvi Shrivastav BW CIO WORLD: Ratnadeep Chaudhary BW DISRUPT: Resham Suhail BW HEALTHCARE WORLD: Smridhi Ratra, Shivam Tyagi BW HOTELIER: Editor: Saurabh Tankha Editorial Lead: Bulbul Dhawan Operations Controller: Ajith Kumar LR BW LEGAL WORLD: Managing Editor: Ashima Ohri Editorial Lead: Krishnendra Joshi, Kaustubh Mehta; Marketing Lead: Anurag Nagar BW MARKETING WORLD: Soumya Sehgal BW PEOPLE: Sugandh Bahl BW WELLBEING: Kavi Bhandari VC WORLD: Anisha Aditya GROUP EDITORIAL HEAD: Vishal Thapar (BW Defence, BW Securityworld & BW Policeworld) BW POLICE WORLD: Ujjawala Nayudu DIRECTOR: Prasar Sharma GROUP SR. VICE PRESIDENT - STRATEGY, OPERATIONS & MARKETING Tanvie Ahuja ([email protected]) CEO, BW HEALTHCARE WORLD & BW WELLBEING WORLD: Harbinder Narula DIRECTOR, ADVERTISING & REVENUE: Aparna Sengupta DIRECTOR, PROJECTS & COMMUNITIES: Talees Rizvi SR. VICE PRESIDENT : Deepika Gosain VICE PRESIDENT STRATEGIC PROJECTS: Uday Laroia MARKETING & DESIGN TEAM: Prerna Singh Rathore, Kartikay Koomar, Mohd. Salman Ali, Moksha Khimasiya, Shweta Boyal, Alka Rawat, Arti Chhipa Asst Manager - Design: Kuldeep Kumar EVENTS TEAM: Tarun Ahuja, Devika Kundu Sengupta, Ashish Kumar, Nandni Sharma, Nivish Singh, Mahek Surti, Reeti Gupta, Khabirul Islam, Atul Joshi, Mir Salika, Preeti Tandon, Biren Singho, Abhishek Verma, Neeraj Verma, Prashant Kumar, Mayank Kumar DIGITAL & WEB TEAM Sumit Kumar SALES TEAM NORTH: Ravi Khatri, Anjeet Trivedi, Rajeev Chauhan, Amit Bhasin, Somyajit Sengupta, Shruti Arora, Cynthia Majhi, Priyanshi Khandelwal, Sajjad Mohammad WEST: Kiran Dedhia, Nilesh Argekar SOUTH: C S Rajaraman BW COMMUNITIES BUSINESS LEADS Priya Saraf (BW Education), Gareema Ahuja (BW LegalWorld), Chetan Mehra (BW Disrupt) CIRCULATION TEAM General Manager - Circulation, Subscription & Sales: Vinod Kumar NORTH: Shiv Singh, Mukhtadir Malik EAST: Debraj Sur WEST: Arvind Patil, Gorakshanath Sanap SOUTH: Sarvothama Nayak K, Anup Kumar FINANCE TEAM Ankit Kumar, Ishwar Sharma, Shrikant Sharma, Vijay Jangra IT SUPPORT: Brijender Wahal ADMIN SUPPORT: EA to Chairman & Editor-in-Chief: Durga Krishnamurthy ([email protected]); Sanya Kapoor ([email protected]) JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 www.bweducation.com

8 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM CONTENTS 10 NEWS/ JOTTINGS 26 33 13 LOOKING AHEAD – 2023 COVER STORY CAMPUS UPDATES THE YEAR THAT WAS JANUARY 2023 Kiran Karnik Chairperson, Board of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-D). upGrad, THE EDTECH FLAGBEARERS OF THE YEAR Ved Mani Tiwari CEO, National Skill Development Corporation, 16 19 22 25 JN Moorthy Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram Rohit Kumar Co-founder of Young Leaders for Active Citizenship

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION N JANUARY 2023 9 INTERVIEWS LAST WORD BW Businessworld B-School Rankings provides an aerial view on how management institutes are nurturing and preparing the leaders of tomorrow. BSCHOOL SPECIAL RANKINGS REFLECTIVE OF VALUE CREATION 44 IIM KOZHIKODE 46 SPJIMR 48 NMIMS 50 SIBM 52 IIM UDAIPUR 54 JBIMS 56 KJ SOMAIYA 58 BIMTECH 60 IIM TRICHY 62 IIM RAIPUR 64 WOXSEN 66 IIM RANCHI 68 IRMA 70 MICA 72 IIM SHILLONG 74 IIM ROHTAK 76 IIM KASHIPUR 78 BITSOM 80 MAHINDRA 82 DAYANAND SAGAR UNIVERSITY 84 94 95 105 TOP B SCHOOL OVERALL B-SCHOOLS GOVERNMENT TOP B SCHOOL PRIVATE TOP B-SCHOOLS - REGIONWISE Marvin Krislov President Pace University BVR Mohan Reddy Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Roorkee and IIT Hyderabad Vinod Gupta & Anil Ahuja 88Guru founders Victor Fedeli Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Government of Ontario, Canada 42 116 118 120 122 RANKINGS

10 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM NEWS JOTTINGS TG Sitharam, Director of IIT-Guwahati, has been appointed as new chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the Ministry of Education stated on November 22, 2022. He is taking charge from M Jagadesh Kumar, chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) who has been holding interim charge of the post for the technical education regulator after Anil Sahasrabuddhe superannuated on September 1, 2021 upon turning 65. The MoE stated in an official notification, “The Central Government hereby appoints, Prof TG Sitharam, Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, as Chairman, AICTE for a period of three years from the date of assumption of charge or till attaining the age of 65 years or until further orders, whichever is earliest.” He had taken over as the director of IIT-Guwahati in July, 2019. Before that, Sitharam was a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, after a stint as the chair professor in the Energy and Mechanical Sciences at the institute. He has served at the IISc for a period of around 27 years. The 2023 ICSE (Class X) examinations will begin on 27 February and ISC (Class XII) on 13 February, the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) announced on 1 December 2022 and released the time table. The first test in both ISC and ICSE will be held in English Language. The ICSE will continue till 29 March and the ISC will end on 31 March. The last exam in ICSE will be organised in Biology – Science paper 3 and the last test in ISC will be of Environmental Science. The schedules for both the examinations are available on the website of CISCE. The results of both the board exams will be announced through the convenors to the heads of schools in the month of May, Gerry Arathoon, CISCE secretary and chief executive stated in a circular provided to the schools. The council instructed all schools to take necessary precautions against Coronavirus during the conduct of the examinations. The council has released the exam dates and announced the time table a little early this time. Most schools have completed teaching the syllabus and the early release of the exam time tables will assist the students to do their preparations in a better way, principals of schools said. Takes charge from UGC chairman Jagadesh Kumar who had interim charge The exams will start on February 13 and will extend till March 31 TG Sitharam, New AICTE Chairman CISCE Releases Schedule For Class X, XII Exams

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATIONB JANUARY 2023 11 NEWS JOTTINGS S anjay Kumar took charge as Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy in Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi. Pursuant to assuming charge, Kumar held a meeting with the senior officials of the Ministry in which he reviewed the functioning of the department, autonomous bodies and various schemes relating to school education. Discussions were held on the implementation of National Education Policy 2020, capacity building of teachers, infrastructure in schools and the upcoming Prime Minister’s interaction programme ‘Pariksha Pe Pariksha’. Kumar said that he looks forward to contributing towards providing quality, accessible and affordable education to every student of the country. University Grants Commission has made it compulsory for the universities to take approval before offering courses in Distance mode. The Commission stated, “Universities may offer courses in the Open and Distance Learning mode, with approval of the Commission, provided it satisfies all the conditions laid down under the regulations, by whatever name they are called, pertaining to Open and Distance Learning mode notified by the UGC from time to time.” The Commission added that amendments to the existing regulations were approved on October 28 at the 562th meeting and these were published in the Gazette of India on November 18. According to earlier rules, universities were permitted to offer Distance Learning and Open programmes without prior approval of the Commission, provided they satisfy 'all the conditions laid down under the regulations, by whatever name they are called, pertaining to open and distance learning mode notified by the UGC from time to time'. Sanjay Kumar looks forward to contributing towards providing quality, accessible and affordable education to every student of the country As per the Gazette notification published by UGC, it has made amendments to the existing rules for offering Distance Learning courses New Secretary, Dept Of School Education & Literacy UGC's Approval Must For Open, Distance Learning Courses

12 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM NEWS JOTTINGS To propel economic growth by empowering the youth with the right skills and providing them the access to right opportunities, 12th meeting of the Indo-German joint working group was held on December 7 in New Delhi to encourage Vocational Education and Training (VET). The deliberations at the meeting were aimed at institutionalising a standard mechanism for VET to meet the skill requirements in priority sectors as per the German standards. A skill mapping exercise will be undertaken to assess the skill gaps and based on the same, bridge courses and upskilling programmes will be designed for skill training of Indian workers. Dr KK Dwivedi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India and Alexander Hochradel, Senior Policy Officer of division 222: ERASMUS; International Cooperation in Vocational Training, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) co-chaired the meeting. During the meeting, the two partner countries discussed establishing a framework for employer connect and getting an understanding on how skilled certified workers could participate in economic development. 12th meeting of the Indo-German Joint Working Group held to encourage Vocational Education Training India Germany Strengthen Partnership On Skills Agenda An Indian student studying in the UAE, Dhanalaxmi Gaddam has been announced as the winner of the first edition of DP World’s Big Tech Project, claiming the top prize for a virtual solution that could enhance productivity and efficiency at ports and terminals around the world. DP World, a provider of smart logistics with operations across the globe, including a technology hub in India, challenged students from all over India and the UAE to design solutions that answer one question - how would you solve trade challenges through the power of the Metaverse. The project challenged students from the top universities in UAE and India to reimagine global supply chains and create new technology-driven solutions. The event saw participation from major universities in India and the UAE, before the final four teams were treated to an all-expenses paid trip to Dubai. The expert panel of judges assessing the four shortlisted solutions felt that the Metaverse-based solutions created by students from some of India and UAE’s universities have the potential to change the face of global trade in the future. Eight finalists, including six from Indian Universities, will undergo two-month internship where they will discover how technology is changing the face of global trade Indian Student Wins At DP World’s Big Tech Project Competition

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 13 IT Roorkee, the ‘White C a m p u s ’ on account of several heritage buildings in white dating to the 19th Century, celebrated its 175th year of establishment. Started as Roorkee Civil Engineering College in 1847 and rechristened Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854, the institute came to develop expertise in hydraulics and was instrumental in the development of the canal work in the region. Post-Independence, it was elevated to the University of Roorkee in 1947. In 2001 it became IIT. This glorious journey of the institute was highlighted during a two-day Founding Day event that concluded the year-long celebration of its 175th Year of Founding. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla graced the occasion. Commending the institute for the role it has played in research and education, he expressed hope that the institute will be at the forefront in building competencies for India to be the ‘vishwa guru’. A commemorative stamp and a coin were also released on the occasion. Vineet Pandey, Secretary, Department of IIT-Roorkee Turns 175 Looking back at its glorious past, the institute uses the occasion to envision engineering education in its 200th, and Independent India’s 100th Year I Posts, GOI, and BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Roorkee and IIT Hyderabad and author of Engineered in India graced the occasion that saw alumni from several generations in attendance. Among the events that marked the occasion was the Start-up Expo, showcasing products and services of social relevance that were incubated on the campus. These included solutions like converting stubble into batteries that can be used for transport, spraying of fertiliser using a robot, advance warning of an earthquake in Uttarakhand, clothing during periods to reduce pain, among others. A panel discussion took up the question of Engineering Education in 2047 – the year India would turn 100, and IIT Roorkee, 200. Former Director Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, pointed to several possibilities, among them the dynamic nature of rankings, and how IITs will continue to maintain the rankings that they today enjoy, and reminded the gathering not to take anything for granted. BVR Mohan Reddy reminded the gathering that what has brought IITs this far will not take them to 2047. Faculty will have to be more engaging, as attention span now doesn’t extend beyond 12 minutes. On the occasion, IIT Roorkee Director KK Pant said, “IIT Roorkee aims to lead the transition in the new era of higher education and increase contributions to basic and applied research leading to the development of products, infrastructure, processes, and materials for different sections of society.” Citing the example of Startup Expo, he said, the institute is “constantly supporting innovative ideas and technologies by providing mentoring and financial support to young entrepreneurs”. CAMPUS NOTES

14 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM CAMPUS NOTES ndian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and the University of Birmingham, the UK, are joining forces to launch Joint Masters’ programmes that will see students studying in Birmingham and Chennai before receiving a single degree awarded by both universities. It is proposed to launch the first joint postgraduate programme next year before developing further study programmes in subsequent years. The partnership agreement was reached during a visit to Chennai by Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Birmingham, Adam Tickell. V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, and Adam Tickell signed a collaborative Statement of Intent to explore study areas including Data Science, Energy Systems and Biomedical Engineering. The universities have also agreed to establish a joint research fund to support academics and researchers as they explore potential research partnerships in Data Science, Energy Systems, and Biomedical Engineering. IM Ahmedabad has announced Pankaj R Patel, Chairman of Zydus Life Sciences, as the new Chairperson of its Board of Governors. He took charge on November 16, succeeding Kumar Mangalam Birla. Patel has been a member of the IIM Ahmedabad Board of Governors for eight years. Meanwhile, the institute has unveiled a “redesigned website as well as a refreshed logo to enhance its digital and global reach”. As per the announcement on the institute IIM Ahmedabad Announces New Chairman University of Birmingham – IIT Madras Joint Masters Board of Governors to be headed by Pankaj R Patel; institute also redesigns website Single degree to be awarded by both universities; joint fund to support academics and research I I website dated November 3, “The idea was to make it more engaging with the prospective students, alumni, current students & faculty and reflect the institute’s voice as a global leader in research, teaching, and innovation while maintaining the bold & global image of the institute. In a digital-first ecosystem, it was important to adapt to a more user-friendly interface. New features have been added which will make the site compatible with various formats such as smartphones.”

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 15 ioNEST, the Bio-Incubation Centre of IIT Guwahati, organised the Rural Healthcare Hackathon today, in early November. The event was conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Nanotechnology, Jyoti & Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences & Technology from IIT Guwahati, and CCAMP-Bangalore. The four-day event saw 31 teams with over 100 participants from various states participate. They worked on four problem statements on accessible and cost-effective rural health and hygiene. IIT Guwahati’s Rural Healthcare Hackathon The competition organised by the Bio-Incubation Centre of the institute saw innovative ideas from 100 teams B They were exhaustively mentored by domain experts on various aspects of entrepreneurship. First prize of Rs 40,000 sponsored by Molbiogen, was awarded to Team Hycare - Sayantan Ghosh, Lopamudra Giri. They proposed a cost effective, portable imaging device for diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy in remote and rural areas. Second prize of Rs 25,000 was awarded to Team Udigni - Mit Patel, Navneet Pathak and Shamshudheen who presented a cost-effective solutions addressing the gap in diagnostic services in rural India. Third prize of Rs 15,000 was awarded to Team Biosensor Group for their project titled, ‘EnerJivanu’ which is about waste water disposal management in villages. esearchers at IIT Jodhpur have developed the coating technology for easy and self-cleaning of solar panel surfaces. These coating is transparent, scalable, durable and superhydrophobic. It reduces dust accumulation on solar panels and is capable of self-cleaning with very little water, and is also suitable for easy integration with solar panel manufacturing plants. This self-cleaning coating has been developed by the principal investigator, Ravi KR, Associate Professor & Head, Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering,and team members Meignanamoorthi G, Project Assistant and Mohit Singh, Research Scholar & Prime Minister's Research Fellow (PMRF), Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Jodhpur. The technology has been sent for patent approval. Research On Maintenance Of Solar Panels IIT Jodhpur team works on coating technology that’s capable of self-cleaning R

16 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM LOOKING AHEAD - 2023 Need For LivelihoodENSURING EDUCATION We need to work on scale, relevance, quality, and innovation to achieve this goal erspectives on education have substantially changed as a result of the Covid pandemic. Technology has long been considered a possible aid to pedagogy, but Covid lockdowns forced countries around the world to adopt an ‘only online’ model for all levels of education. The period varied by country and level, from a few months to a year plus; everywhere, though, online education has left an indelible mark. Most people now expect that some hybrid form - combining digital and online with traditional face to face - will be the future of pedagogy. In India we are amidst another important change. The last few years have seen a lively discussion on a new education policy triggered P By Kiran Karnik

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 17 rigid regulatory framework, though the NEP mentions “light but tight” regulations. On the other hand, the training and coaching segment has minimal regulation, and is flourishing. Here, the need to scale up as also the growing access to devices (computers, tablets and smart phones) combined with low prices for data transmission, has led to an explosion of on-line coaching. This, and intense competition, is making it major driver of the use of technology for education. The future for noteasily-automated jobs will require skills like critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and compassion: areas in which humans are likely to score over machines by the work of the KasturiranganCommittee. Emanating from this is the National Education Policy (NEP 2020). It has made a number of suggestions and recommendations, some with potential for a far-reaching impact. These two developments - one related to pedagogy and the other to policy - will clearly affect education in a big way in the years ahead. One change is the move to expand teaching in the mother tongue and ensuring that it is the medium of instruction in schools, at least upto Grade V. Concern about compulsion has led to clarifications that there will be alternative choices. With regard to higher education, at least two states are translating medical textbooks into their local language, so that students can do the course in their mother tongue. Doubtless, this will soon be the norm for all courses. The reality, though, is that most parents prefer English medium since that is seen as the means of jobs, geographic and economic mobility. Another feature flowing from NEP is the concept of multiple entry and exit points. Thus, one can take up an engineering course, for example, and leave with a certificate after one year, a diploma after two or three years, and a degree after four years. Further, those with a diploma from an ITI could seek lateral entry into an engineering degree course. At school level, following past failures to popularise vocational courses, it is now planned to integrate these into the mainstream, enhancing employability of school dropouts. Over the years, there has been a steadily increasing privatisation of education, from primary schools to universities. This trend seems set to accelerate. However, it is doubtful if this means an unshackling of the Experience during lockdowns over the last two years has helped to refine and improve on-line teaching in ways that enhance learning outcomes. Merely streaming a video of a chalk-and-talk lecture is now obsolete. The minimum additions are re-plays, graphics, animation, and outside-classroom footage. Online tests, feedback, and interaction (with teachers and amongst students) is becoming standard. Use of AI and data analytics to identify segments which are difficult to comprehend, and also do more sophisticated granular analysis, will help to make modifications that maximise learning. The lockdown marked a period of great advances in the practice of digital remote learning. Yet, it also threw up some serious issues. Millions – especially school students - were deprived of education because of lack of access: not owning an appropriate device and/or poor connectivity to the Internet. Homes that owned a device often had only one, which was shared, and children – especially girls – got the lowest priority. These problems of

18 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM LOOKING AHEAD - 2023 affordability, availability and access further widened existing learning gaps between well-off city-based students and their poorer rural counterparts. Further, while on-line took teaching to students confined to their homes by the lockdown, it was clearly not an adequate substitute for the classroom. Learning outcomes were generally poorer and – especially important for children – so was development of social skills which require peer and teacher interactions. As students return to the classroom, what changes might we see in pedagogy in the coming years? Certainly, it seems that integration of on-line degree into education is inevitable. Listening to a lecture can now be done with greater flexibility - and learning enhanced by a simple thing like re-playing –than an in-classroom version. Recorded lectures have the advantage of using the best possible teacher and being viewed by students at times and places convenient to them. Tutorials in the classroom could be the means for clearing doubts and answering questions. With such integration of online with classroom learning, the future classroom teacher may be more a coach and guide. As more jobs, including some that require specialised skills, are automated, we will face the challenge of creating enough employment opportunities for a huge youth population. This is a challenge to educationists, in terms of providing a relevant education. The future for not-easily-automated jobs will require skills like critical thinking, creativity, innovation, and compassion: areas in which humans are likely to score over machines. The education system also needs to prepare students for gig work and entrepreneurship, focussing on livelihoods rather than on “regular” jobs. The importance of inter-disciplinarity is well-established. NEP 2020 too advocates Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities. In the years to come, this is a challenge for many of our top institutions, which began – and most continue - as single area or discipline Institutes (for example, engineering, law, management, architecture, or medicine). Some – including a few IITs – have begun to make a transition by introducing varied disciplines, including medicine, law, and management. Such “broadening” has its pros and cons; however, when one looks around the world, the top institutions are all multi-disciplinary universities. How best – even, whether - to do this is an issue that many of our institutions will have to grapple with. The importance of inter-disciplinarity is obvious when one looks at a host of new developments. As an example, consider med-tech: it requires knowledge of health sciences and technology. AI is based on an understanding of neurology, computer software, electronics, and psychology. Many innovations too originate at the intersection of disciplines. Today, cross-disciplinaritycourses are constrained by rigid regulations and diverse regulators (UGC, AICTE, NMC, BCI). A single apex body for education, cutting across science, humanities, technology, law, medicine, etc., has been discussed for years.However, in this the NEP makes no move forward: the proposed “umbrella”body explicitly excludes medical and legal education. Also, while its goal is promotional, the specifics make it a regulator rather than a facilitator. Again, while recognising the vast diversity of India, the thrust is yet towards centralisation and uniformity. This means control, little scope for innovation and a high likelihood of standardised mediocrity. If India is to achieve the ambitions outlined in NEP and leverage its demographic dividend (a large and growing working-age population), it must provide livelihood-ensuring education to its youth. This calls for scale, relevance, quality, and innovation in its education system. These goals require regulation which is minimal and aimed at promoting rather than controlling and centralising. Only then can institutions innovate, capitalise on India’sdiversity, and strive for excellence. The author is a public policy analyst, columnist and author. He chairs the Board of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIIT-D). His most recent book is ‘Decisive Decade: India 2030, Gazelle or Hippo’ (Rupa, 2021).

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 19 SDC, a not-for-profit public limited company set up by the Ministry of Finance in 2008, has been at the helm of skills development initiatives in the country for over a decade, identifying in-demand areas and training needs, driving tie-ups and collaborations, training of trainers, international collaborations and India’s participation in World Skills competition. CEO Ved Mani Tiwari, CEO of the organisation, sheds light on the recent initiatives, and the skilling needs in 2023. Excerpts: Can you tell me looking back how has 2022 been for you and going forward, what kind of initiatives are you planning on launching in the coming year? For NSDC, this year has been very fruitful. We took a lot of new initiatives. To begin with, we started focusing on developing a fee-based market, which requires access to loans. So, education loans are now available for students who are skilling and cannot access education loans. We also started working at the beginning of the year with a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) and designing a product which can be accessed by the skill Ved Mani Tiwari, CEO of the National Skill Development Corporation, expresses the work done for skilling in the last one year, and the road ahead N By Vasudha Mukherjee “NSDC Developing Online Counselling Solution”

20 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM LOOKING AHEAD – 2023 students. In this process we have secured commitment from five NBFCs for upto Rs 5,000 crore in the feebased market, where they can provide loans to students who want to take skill courses. We have successfully skilled close to five lakh students, which makes up approximately 1,000 crore market value. So, a 1,000 crore fee-based market was created. Moreover since the skill courses were employment-oriented, NSDC, through these institutes was able to place nearly two and half lakh people. In that regard, skill-loan, as a product, helped revive the market from both opportunity and access perspective. We also brought in lot of new age courses in the IT, healthcare, drones training, banking and financial service domains. It was a new dimension for even us. Secondly, we are proud of our digital team. We have taken a giant leap as far as the digital skilling is concerned. The team is working on a Skill India digital platform which is like a Google of skills. Anybody who needs any skills can search for Skill India and they will reach the Skill India digital platform. This platform will provide online, offline and blended courses for skills; and some very novel features are coming into this such as the ‘nearby’ feature, to find training centres and base facilities in close proximity and a learning management system. Our vision is ‘skills for all, anytime, anywhere’ because the digital platforms allow people to access skills at the time and place of their choice. The third dimension of this is the global dimension. We set up a subsidiary company last year in October, which we call ‘NSDC International’. Over the last few months the company has done well and has witnessed a huge demand for skilled Indians from all over the world. Currently, we are working on close to 10,000 demands from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Australia and Ireland. The final area where we are very focused is bringing skills to the education system. We are working with foreign universities and trying to bring international grid skill courses to India. Can you tell me which industries are in most demand for skilled workers right now? And what scaling courses are in most demand? In the global skills market, the IT, healthcare and construction are the three sectors which are in high demand. When it comes to India, we find that manufacturing has picked up really well. Logistics is other sector where there is a lot of demand. Retail is also picking up very fast. I'm very confident that there will be lots of job opportunities for individuals in these sectors in the next year. How are your courses making sure that students who are getting skilled are getting ready for a career, not just a job? Counselling helps people to think about their careers. So, we are building an online counselling solution which everybody should be able to access over NSDC digital platforms. Creating awareness is the second challenge. Bringing lots of affordable courses to the people which help them shape their career and informing them of the directions they can take beyond the first job. We, also, conduct a skill gap analysis for individuals. We are working on a solution where people should be able to define their career goals on the basis of the skills that they have today and what skills would be required to realise their career. A skill gap analysis will emerge and which is kind of a diagnostics to any individual and then, we provide the courses to address this skill gaps. Have you noticed any kind of a pattern in what employers are looking for and what kind of skills or what factors are more likely to get one employed? The realisation that we have had over last few months is soft skills are critical not only for those who are in the workforce, but actually, if not more than, equally critical for those who want to join the workforce. That is what I think employers today are looking for – We have taken a giant leap as far as the digital skilling is concerned. The team is working on a Skill India digital platform which is like Google of skills

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 21 how do future employees present themselves and how are their communication skills and their ability to work in teams? Typically, someone joining the job market for the first time might be working in a very closed cohesive groups of their friends and families and close circles. When they come to work place are required to work with very diverse group of people. There's a lot of work to be done in this area. India is such a diverse country and we have so many different people from different backgrounds. How can we ensure inclusivity? We have chosen four core values - integrity, innovation, inclusion and impact. So inclusion is something very dear to our heart. We have taken specific measures in that direction, such as our ‘Skill Impact Bond’, which is focused on employment and retention of women who are impacted by Covid-related chronic disruption. This year itself we have been able to train and place close to 10,000 women in that category. The inclusion agenda also requires local opportunities for women and other social groups. We started lots of multi-skilling programmes, especially in tribal area that are rich in resources. The effort is to ensure that every person acquires more than one skill and can leverage these local resources. This way they should be able to create market-friendly products. You do have like long standing relationship with countries like Japan. Are there any plans to have any similar partnerships with other countries? We have studied 16 countries and we find that there is a large opportunity for India because our study shows that these 16 countries alone have requirement of close to 1.8 million or 18 lakh skilled professionals, so that's a massive opportunity. It’s like the Y2K movement for India. When Y2K happened, Indian IT professionals were suddenly in huge demand in the US and we have never looked back. There are European nations where the demand is coming up. GCC has a large requirement. Australia and Canada, with their matured immigration systems are also showing demand for Indian skilled professionals. We have set up our offices and our subsidiary companies in UAE, Australia and we are in the process of doing so in Malaysia. Where do you think India’s strength lies when it comes to the global talent pool? Post Covid, the realisation is that lots of care-jobs are in the market whether it's for people who might be undergoing health issues or elderly people or neo-natal and children.India is best placed to participate in the care economy given our social and cultural constructs. We are also seeing lots of teaching jobs all across the globe. However, I am conscious of this fact that the teachers are also needed in India. We first have to meet our internal need and then look outwards. Similarly, nurses are in great demand. Have you noticed any kind of discrepancies between the kind of opportunities that are available versus the kind of things that people are actually interested in learning? We have to expand the basket of skill programmes and that is why ‘skills for all’ is a critical value statement that we have for ourselves. Once you expand the range of options available to individuals, they will be able to choose options which make sense for them. Otherwise, today they have to rely on the informal counselling methods and other people. All over the world we are witnessing the demand for degrees going down. Earlier, there was an information asymmetry, but now that we have solved this, there is a new opportunity before us in skill courses. We need to spread awareness of these options. What kind of attitude do you think students have towards degrees? There is a realisation and a need in the private sector to have people with specialised skilled. However, our world of education does not understand that it needs to be better integrated and meet the needs of the world of work and employment. Advocacy is one area we need to focus on a lot. We may have to work on this in the coming years because even the industry sometimes has difficulty assessing the skills it requires. It’s a work in progress but eventually we will reach there. Overall, it has been a very satisfying year for NSDC and in the next financial year we are going to take a giant leap and accomplish multiples of what we have started.

22 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM LOOKING AHEAD – 2023 f the seven IISERs in the country, IISER Thiruvananthapuram was established in 2008. The institute offers multiple academic programmes – the five-year BS-MS dual degree, two-year MSc programmes along with seven-year Integrated PhD and 5-year PhD programmes. JN Moorthy, who took office as the Director in 2019 and has been steering academic expansion, describes the aptitude and skilling needed for research, developments in the field, new initiatives and the focus areas for 2023. What is the focus of IISER with respect to work done in past few years and also the plans for 2023 and moving forward? The mandate of the institute is to impart education that is integrated with research. The education that you get in IISERs is vastly different from what you get in Sciences in the university system, where students of undergrad programmes seldom get to engage in research. At IISERs, they are exposed to frontier research, and work actively with research scholars. Till the institute had its campus built and moved to its present location toward late 2018, it had four disciplines – Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology. After I took charge in 2019, we initiated a rethink of our academic discourse, and in February 2020, we launched the Integrated and Interdisciplinary Sciences (i2 Sc) programme. JN Moorthy, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, on his vision for research in the country O By Meha Mathur and Vasudha Mukherjee “Wish To See Students With Passion Joining Research” NEP came into picture in 2020. So our programmes and curriculum are already aligned with the NEP. We worked a lot to develop a curriculum that allows the students to be rooted in a particular discipline, and at the same time explore other areas across disciplines. As a part of i2 Sc, we also launched a new BS-MS programme in Data Sciences. In 2021, we started twoyear MSc programmes in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology – the first among IISERs. We have created two new centres – the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) for computational research, and the Centre for Advanced Materials Research with International Engagement (CAMRIE). Here, students get to be guided jointly by a faculty from the Institute and a scientist from abroad, with mandatory experience in an international research laboratory. And, we have submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Education for a new School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Sciences (EESS). We will soon be offering a BS-MS

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 23 Choose a subject/ area that resonates with your heart. You need to figure out where your passion lies. My advice to all students is to explore very well and make a very informed decision programme in this discipline. So, stepping into 2023, we have to manoeuvre these new programmes effectively such that our graduates emerge in the way we have envisioned. We want to showcase to the country that the education that we impart is the stateof-the-art. We want to focus on ensuring that the programmes that we have launched are successful. Which are the fields that hold promise, and where a lot of work is being done? You can look at the major issues that humankind is fraught with. There is a war in Ukraine, which has accentuated to energy crisis. There is a huge reliance on non-renewable resources which are fast getting depleted. So the focus is on alternative energy sources. The next area is quantum technologies that is set to revolutionise our digital world. When I started as a PhD scholar there was only a computer of 256 MB memory/storage. Now, even a kid has a phone with128 GB capacity. And still people are not happy. Restricted access and bandwidth are matters of concern. We have to bridge the digital divide. AI is becoming a part of every aspect of life. And, when it comes to sustenance, we have just gone through the terrible pandemic and we have to worry about infectious diseases and the drug resistance that the pathogens develop. When it comes to research, what is the promise that the education ecosystem of the country holds? I am a practising scientist and I can tell you, the research in higher education institutes is pretty good, especially in the institutes of national importance. In the last 20 years or so, the research in these institutions has vastly improved. There is a considerable flow of funds to these institutions. The scientists hired are at par with global counterparts. But this is limited to institutes of national importance or laboratories and institutions set up centrally, like the ones by CSIR, DBT, DAE, etc. In the universities and their affiliated colleges, you see a gradual decline in sciences and the quality of research. On the question of global rankings, and the emphasis on research in these rankings, and of citations as a key criteria in research impact, what is your view on that? Even our government has evolved a framework to rank institutes, the NIRF. No system can be foolproof but rankings are a guide as to which institute is doing well and which institute is lagging overall or in a specific domain. One would like to know where good quality scientific research is happening. How would one know? A major parameter to gauge that is what is available in the public forum. Publications are a means; any path-breaking or significant work will get noticed by many. Which is where the citations come into picture. Publication with large number of citations is perceived to be impactful work. From that point of view, global rankings have to be

24 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM LOOKING AHEAD – 2023 taken seriously. How do you think the NEP will help encourage the research ecosystem? The key emphases of NEP are interdisciplinary training and flexibility in education or learning. Students can choose any course that they their passion resonates with. The multidisciplinary approach ensures that the graduates are not narrow-minded specialists. They emerge with core strengths and exposure to other disciplines. Excitements in Science today are in the interface areas. For example, Biophysics, Chemical biology, etc. And the graduates with multidisciplinary education will be well-rounded and capable of taking up the challenges of today and tomorrow. STEM education at school level is being much talked about. What is its status? In some states it’s good. But in others, it’s completely book-based. I don’t think we have evolved, and are certainly lagging in hands-on experience. In the West, it’s not so much of the material that you cover, but how you open up the minds is what matters. So, what can we do? The answer is that the children need to be exposed, through visits to institutes where research is being done, visits to the industry, etc.They ought to have the opportunities to experience applications of what they study. We now have Atal Tinkering Labs where students can enjoy working hands-on. This kind of activity helps even cultivate their innovation skills. One detrimental factor is the race for admission to higher education institutes. From the age of 13-14, when they are in VIII or IX standard, they start preparing for IITs. Education has become more of cracking competitive exams. Such a thing hijacks any possibility for innovation. Can you tell us a bit about good practices that research institutes need to adopt? One of the serious problems that we face is plagiarism. When it comes to a research set-up, copying is a crime. Students don’t even realise the gravity of such an action. Which is why training is required, right at the commencement of their careers. Many institutes have mandatory course work on ethics and best practices, to educate students on what is acceptable and what is not. Another issue is that of workplace harassment for women. The harassment cases went unaddressed in the past, but these are being reported now, which is good. Gender neutrality and safety at work place must be taken seriously. Sensitivity to these issues need be generated. In 2023 what would you like to see? Choose a subject/area that resonates with your heart. You join a degree course that spans a period of five years. You need to figure out where your passion lies. My advice to all students is to explore very well and make a very informed decision happening in the field of research? The students who embrace research are of 22-23 years of age, having completed a Masters’ programme. In that age group, someone who took up Engineering or vocational education would be earning money. A PhD student would spend another five years or so in research, till about 28. Research is a demanding profession. I wish to see that only those with passion take up research. They do not come for petty money available in the form of fellowship. The lack of passion kills the work culture. If you have passion and are inquisitive, then you can contribute to successfully in research. In the process, you help yourself and the institute. The research community has to be conscious of the time spent. At the end, one should question oneself if ne has acquired the necessary skills to be competent enough to secure a job in the job market. Do you have a personal philosophy on education? It’s very simple. Choose a subject/ area that resonates with your heart. You join a degree course that spans a period of five years. Take the example of Chemistry, which again has so many sub-subjects. You need to figure out where your passion lies. My advice to all students is to explore very well and make a very informed decision. If you have not been exposed, and you have not allowed yourself an opportunity to know about what you have on platter, if the subject that you have chosen turns out to be one that you don’t like at all, then that will be a serious loss. If you don’t like what you do, you will not be successful.

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 25 LOOKING AHEAD – 2023 ounded in 2016, Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) aims to increase the participation of young people in the policymaking process and build their capacity to lead change. Co-founder Rohit Kumar has served as the Head of Policy and Research with a parliamentarian, and worked with PRS Legislative Research and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He shares with BW education his hope for the youth in 2023. Excerpts: Can you describe the work that YLAC is doing? Our goal is to identify leaders, build their capacity to bring change by raising their consciousness and helping them get a better understanding of how change happens. We do this through different kinds of interventions. Some programmes are directly run by us, and some by schools where we identify promising candidates and train them. The age group we work with is 13 to 30. One of the largest progammes is Equality Plus in collaboration with Oxfam India, running in 102 schools across 30 cities which is a year-long programme for which we have designed the curriculum. As we welcome 2023, what is your hope and what are your Rohit Kumar, Co-founder of Young Leaders for Active Citizenship on how the youth can be engaged and their potential tapped to change society F By Meha Mathur “Youth Have High Energy, Immense Promise” expectations from the youth? I think young people have a lot of promise. There is a lot of energy and curiosity.As educators we can need to give them exposure and to help them understand, what they are good at, and help them tap their potential. Second important aspect is building their social consciousness early on, especially about things like privilege, identity, and how democracy works so that people grow up to be more conscious citizens. And it’s a constant endeavour to make sure they engage with the system to hold the government accountable and make the society better. But do you think that in the country as a whole, they have been provided the right tools so that they can contribute positively? They can positively do it, though our education system in large parts of the country is still rote based. It doesn’t provoke critical thinking. Though there is a steady change. Educationists are devising ways of interconnectedness of knowledge. You can’t teach in silos. And not just teach facts. So, while teaching constitution, don’t just teach about rights, but make the student think how they are played out. So, a lot remains to be done in education but I see the change happening.

26 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM THE YEAR THAT WAS he National Education Policy of 2020 brought stakeholders in education on one common platform. Education usually sees dissonance when it comes to right approach, but perhaps for the first time, cutting across leanings, all are on the same page when it comes to intent. During the various education conclaves, this was the overarching take away. Some of the key provisions that have been applauded are: • Universal access to education • Education to cater to the growth of a child depending on the learning needs of that age group: 5+3+3+4 • No hard separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and The education fraternity is on the same page on the path-breaking policy that has several points of departures from the past T Rare Consensus on NEP academic streams • Emphasis on skills right since middle school. Schools to actively collaborate with ITIs and polytechnics; skill labs to be set up and created in the schools in a hub-and-spoke model which will allow other schools to use the facility • Emphasis on learning in Indian languages • National Testing Authority to offer Common Entrance Exam for Admission to HEIs (Under this, admission to central universities already taking place on the basis of CUET) • Multiple exit and entry points wherein a student can enter back education stream after gaining real life experience, there being no questions asked in case of a break • Setting up of academic bank of credit; credits are transferable • Emphasis on multidisciplinary research • Expansion of open and distance learning to increase GER • In order to bring the focus back on education and learning, it may be desirable to re-designate MHRD as the Ministry of Education (MoE). For long, educationists have rued rote learning as the criterion to success in life. The NEP puts emphasis on understanding of concepts, learning by doing, and applying knowledge in real life situations. Perhaps the two big departures are relaxing the rigid age-specific structure by bringing in multiple exit and entry points to facilitate richer learning; and bringing vocational education at same level as hard-core academic subjects – for this the schools have to collaborate with ITIs, polytechnics and local industry. Year 2022 was a year of optimism. It’s now time to get down to implementation. Success will lie in execution on the ground. By Meha Mathur

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 27 alling in the bracket of 251-300 in the latest round of Times Higher Education (THE) rankings - 2023, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) retained the top spot among Indian institutes. Oxford University got the top rank in the THE rankings, followed by Harvard University at second position, University of Cambridge and Stanford tied at third rank and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at fifth position. Some low-profile institutes figuring in the national and global rankings signal the new imperatives of education F Signs of Changing Times Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences in Himachal Pradesh (351-400 overall) took the second place among Indian institutions. The private university is ranked 96th in the universities category of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2022. A private university in Karnataka, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, shares Shoolini University's ranking among Indian universities. Alagappa University, a public institution in Tamil Nadu, ranked third in India (401-500). The ranking was boycotted by most Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) for the third consecutive year over transparency concerns. This year, IIT Ropar slipped from the 351-400 band of last year's edition of THE, and to the 501-600 band globally. IIT Indore secured placed in the 601-800 band, followed by IIT Patna and IIT Gandhinagar which is in the 801-1000 band. Eight IITs in total featured in the 2022 rankings by THE. Meanwhile, the NIRF rankings saw some institutes across domains retain their position but at the same time also sprung surprises. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras retains position as top overall and Engineering institute, followed by IIT Delhi and Bombay. In Management, IIM A, B and C retain the top three slots, in that order. In Medical Sciences, AIIMS New Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh and CMC Vellore are on top three ranks, in that order. The top three universities are IISc, Bengaluru, JNU, New Delhi and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. The top three colleges are Miranda House, Delhi, Hindu College, Delhi and Presidency College, Chennai. Institutes like Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College, Delhi have broken into the top 10 colleges league, while institutes like St Stephens, the most coveted college for Liberal Arts once, did not make it to the top 10 category. By Vasudha Mukherjee and Upasana

28 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM THE YEAR THAT WAS n a major departure from Class XII marks being the deciding factor in admission to degree courses in universities, the National Testing Agency (NTA) introduced the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), with effect from the 2022-23 academic session. CUET is a standardised test for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses, certification courses, diplomas and research programmes. CUET-UG is for admission to undergraduate courses in 90 universities, incorporating 12 state and 21 private universities. With around 14.9 lakh registrations in its maiden year, CUET-UG has become country's second-largest examination, outpacing the The objective of the common entrance test is to standardise college admissions across India, but teething troubles agonised students no end CUET, A Hurdle Or Catalyst? JEE-Main’s average registration of 9 lakh in the past five years. While CUET removes the limitations of merit-based admissions for students of different boards, so far it hasn’t been a very smooth ride for students. NTA offers 33 languages and 27 domain-specific subjects under CUET, from which a student can choose upto nine subjects, as per their choice of course and college. This range of options has created more than 45,000 unique subject combinations. CUET was conducted in six phases - between July 15 and August 31. But eleventh-hour changes in timings & test centres, technical glitches affecting the time available to students, lack of clarity on the examination pattern and uncertainty of when and how the admission process will end and the academic year begin caused anxiety among students. The Common University Entrance Test open new avenues of opportunities for offline coaching centres and edtech players to attract a larger student base. Edtech firms rolled out new courses focussed on CUET preparations and saw a growth in enrolment of students. Missed opportunities The admission processes were delayed by months due to CUET. Generally, college classes begin from June or July. Because of the delay in announcement of CBSE results, issues with the conduct of CUET had added to the woes of students who passed Class XII in 2022 and were looking to enrol in undergraduate courses. Due to the delays, numerous students had to give up on their preferred choice of college. Earlier, admissions for undergraduate courses used to wrap up between June and first half of July and the academic session used to commence either from the second half of July or from the month of August. The two-month delay, as per educators had the impact of shorter vacations and curtailed academic sessions, along with adding to the pressure students face in completing huge part of their course in less time. By Upasana I

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 29 any states, including Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana among others, opened schools on February 1 following the third wave of Covid-19. The state governments had earlier shuttered the schools because of the spike of Omicron cases in India. As many as 247 million students enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in India were touched by the pandemic. In addition, before the Covid-19 problem had started, almost six million boys and girls were not attending school. Since just one in every four children has access to digital As schools and colleges limped back to normalcy, the education fraternity took stock of the learning losses M Return To Classroom By Himanshu Ojha devices and internet connectivity, online education is not an option for everyone. Prior to Covid, only 24 per cent of Indian families had access to the internet, and there are significant gender and rural-urban divides. According to UNICEF globally, 214 million pre-primary to upper secondary education students in 23 countries missed at least three-quarters of classroom instruction time. Primary school students constitute the majority of the world’s school children, so they are also the majority among those who missed at least three-quarters of classroom instruction (105 million), followed by lower secondary school students (53 million). Among these 214 million students, 78 per cent missed almost all in-person classroom instruction time. For the purposes of this report, a country is said to have missed “almost all” in-person instruction time if between March 11, 2020 and February 2, 2021 the country had (i) 10 or fewer fully open school days and (ii) 12 or fewer partially open days. Globally, 168 million students in 14 countries missed all in-person classroom instruction since March, 2020. Brazil, Bangladesh, Mexico and the Philippines have the largest number of students impacted by these full school closures. UNICEF, UNESCO, UNHCR, World Bank and World Food Programme developed a Global Framework for Reopening Schools which was adapted to the Indian context. The Ministry of Education finalised guidelines, drafted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), for safe school re-opening with emphasis on promoting regular handwashing and safe hygiene practices of students, teachers and other school staff and sanitisation of schools, with adequate supplies and facilities as well as physical distancing strategies.

30 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM THE YEAR THAT WAS esponding to a question raised by Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan, Union Minister of State for Education, Subhas Sarkar stated that, until November 30 2022, more than 6.46 lakh Indians indicated ‘higher education’ as their purpose for travelling abroad. A significant increase from the previous year of 4.44 lakh. This is the highest number of students reported to be opting for studying abroad in the last five year. In 2017, the number of students traveling abroad was 4.54 lakh, 5.18 lakh in 2018 and 5.86 in 2019. The figure dropped to 2.59 lakh in 2020 due to travel restriction during the height of the pandemic. According to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) estimation, in April 2022, there were approximately 13, 24, 954 Indian students currently studying abroad. Top Destinations The US continues to be the preferred destination among Indian students, issuing 82,000 student visa to Indian students for higher education from June to August this year alone, reportedly. In the UK also, showed that India surpassed China for highest number of student visas issued in August. MEA’s April 2022 estimates show the US to be the number one destination followed by Canada, UAE and Australia. As travel restrictions lift, Indian students embrace higher education opportunities abroad. Moving beyond the traditional destinations, students are taking chances on unique locations, prioritising experience, quality over rankings R Students Take Flight: Study Abroad Trends 2023 Student Preferences According to iSchoolConnect Survey 2022 some of the major factors that influence destination and university choices for studying abroad include: quality of education, safety and affordability. More than university rankings, students look for institutes that can provide due support, return on investment and a successful study-abroad experience. The same report showed that 85 per cent of Indian students opted for universities and countries offering scholarship and financial aid, while students from Sri Lanka and Thailand looked for facilities such as accommodation, healthcare, research as well as parttime and other employment opportunities. As far as degree preferences go, 69 per cent of students favoured pursuing a masters degree abroad, while 23 per cent were inclined to undergraduate degree courses and the final eight per cent made up diploma, certificate and doctoral studies. 2023 Study Abroad Trends The pandemic spread awareness of opportunities beyond the preferred destinations for studying abroad. Leap-Ipsos Strategy3 Study Abroad Outlook Report revealed that while predominantly English-speaking countries such as US, UK and Australia remain most preferred destinations, 42 per cent of students are open to explore non-English speaking countries such as Japan, France, Scandinavian countries, among others. The reason for the rise of interest include, quality of education, specialised courses, lower cost of living and culture & arts. There has certainly been a shift in perception among students, who are looking beyond qualification to experience and return on investment. With increased digitisation and globalisation, more opportunities are now available for students around the world. Moving past the constraints of the pandemic, students are finding new possibilities in destination and formats of education. By Vasudha Mukherjee

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 31 he Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have introduced various new courses in 2022. These courses are being rolled out in adherence to the framework of National Education Policy 2020. Some of the new courses that have been floated are - MTech in Electric Transportation by IIT Mandi, MTech in Electric Mobility & MS(R) in Transportation Safety and Injury Prevention by IIT Delhi, BSc in Programming and Data Science by IIT Madras. As of now, these courses are being launched in the hybrid mode. The Indian Institute of Technology Patna has introduced six new courses for the academic year 2022- 23. These courses do not need the score of Joint Entrance Examination. The recently launched courses are - BSc (Hons) Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity (AICS), BSc (Hons) Computer Science and Data Analytics (CSDA), BSc (Hons) Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS), BSc (Hons) Business Management and Analytics (BMA), Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) and BSc (Hons) Accounting and Financial Management (AFM). Indian Institute of Management Indore in collaboration with edtech firm Jaro Education, has launched a certification programme on Public & Corporate Leadership in the VUCA world. The programme will highlight The year 2022 saw introduction of some new innovative courses which are mainly focussed on programming skills and data science expertise among others T New Beginnings various aspects of public administration from a range of social science disciplines, such as public policy, psychology, political sociology and international relations. The eight-month certification programme follows a pedagogy incorporating a balanced mix of lectures, project works, case discussions, term papers, assignments etc. Edtech companies are offering various tech-related courses in association with premium institutes to assist people remain job relevant. Imarticus Learning has collaborated with IIT Roorkee for an Advanced Certification in Digital Marketing and MarTech (Marketing Technology). The course is suitable for those who want to enter and build a career in the Digital Marketing and MarTech industries. Edtech startup STEMROBO Technologies is providing training in technologies through their Tech Entrepreneurship Programme in collaboration with AIC IIT Delhi for 8-18 years of age group. Through the CIC (Consumer – Innovator – Creator) approach, this programme is focussed on embedding skills like Robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Coding and Blockchain. Similarly, Simplilearn is offering Professional Blockchain Certification Programme in association with IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras & Great Learning are offering Advanced Certificate in Software Engineering for Cloud, Blockchain & IoT. The private sector institutions are also not behind the race and have launched some interesting courses, some of which are also in collaboration with edtech firms. By Upasana

32 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM COVER STORY he final quarter of 2021 saw the start of the funding winter. In its wake, four edtech startups were shut down, including Udayy, Super Learn and Crejo. Fun and Lido Learning. As the threat of the pandemic subsided, schools, colleges and coaching centres re-opened their doors. Despite the push towards hybrid and phygital as the future of education, demands in edtech services in the K12 and test prep sectors were heavily impacted. On the other hand, certification, skilling and job-focused edtechs gained traction, collaborating with industry and educational institutes alike. According to ‘Tracxn Geo Annual Report: India Tech 2022’, edtechs saw funding drop by 39 per cent in The sector managed to grab big headlines as the funding winter crept in because of significant layoffs. According to data from Tracxn, investments in the edtech sector took a plunge from $4.1 billion across 322 deals in 2021 to $2.5 billion in 2022 across 164 deals T Indian Edtech Sector: Not All Gloom And Doom 2022. However, Byju’s raised US$ 1.2 billion in 2022, which accounts for 50 per cent of the total investment made in the sector. LEAD, upGrad and Physics Wallah also raised more than US$ 100 million in funding rounds. The largest setback, however, came with the mass layoffs that shook confidence in the whole sector. More than 6,000 employees were let go in the edtech sector alone in 2022. Byju’s laid off 2,500 employees, closed offices in 60 cities and announced plans to restructure its marketing strategy. Vedantu let go of 1,100 employees (approx.) and Unacademy laid off 10 per cent of its workforce. Teachmint has been the latest to join this trend, letting go of 45 employees ie five per cent of its workforce. While BYJU'S made a US$ 600 million bet on the skilling segment by acquiring Great Learning in 2021, PhysicsWallah plans to develop its skills-related classes to expand its upskilling vertical. On the other hand, Unacademy and Simplilearn are also exploring newer segments such as job-focused platforms. In the coming year, the sector will likely see some stabilisation. As education continues to find the role of edtech in and outside of the classroom, the major challenge ahead for edtech companies now is to rebuild and maintain customer trust and plan for long-term solutions. According to the industry leaders, it is expected that the number of layoffs may go down this year. Strategic and mindful hiring is what is the requirement of the sector which is likely to pick up the pace in the latter half of 2023. By Vasudha Mukherjee

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 33 n the past few years, the edtech sector has created numerous jobs in India and has helped massively mitigate the job crisis during the pandemic. Last year was unprecedented for edtech startups in terms of funds raised, valuation milestones and growth slowdown. After a year of plentiful liquidity, a rise in inflation and interest rates has also had an adverse impact. The startups dependent on high cash burn for expansion or those who did not raise enough capital would struggle the hardest. In August 2022, Ronnie Screwvala, Phalgun Kompalli and Mayank Kumar-led upGrad raised an external fund of US$ 210 million amid times when the world has labelled edtech to be a de-growth sector. It’s tough to break the vicious cycle of cost-cutting, falling business KPIs, poor investor interest and talent fight once the tide turns. But the brand that believes in this being cyclical and all is happening for the best is upGrad. Standing Sturdy Amidst The Turbulence During the first wave of the pandemic, upGrad had doubled its learner base to 1 million in 10 months (by January 2021) and had set a target of crossing the 2-million mark in 18 months since then, but it achieved the same in just eight months. Owing to exponential growth, 15 months down the line, the company currently has 7.7 million total registered learners on its platform. upGrad which is valued at $2.25 billion has been successful in surviving the bloodbath in the edtech sector. Glimpse In Numbers Strengthened upGrad’s footprints in the US through our partnership with San Fransisco’s GGU - one of the oldest private universities and the DBA program with GGU has been one of the best sellers of FY23 By the end of March, the company should have an annual gross revenue run rate (ARR) of US$400 million, as the Jan.-March quarter will have generated US$100 million in gross collected revenues by that time. upGrad to hire 1400 employees March 2022. Of the 1400 members, the majority will be faculty, trainers and experts followed by sales and marketing, content, delivery and learning experience. Acquisitions Fuelling The Growth According to the Co-founders of upGrad, the conversation used to be on the Decoding the edtech startups success model I By Resham Suhail lines of how large are you and what are the strategies for expansion but now the focus is on profitability and revenue generation. Even upGrad is on an acquisition spree, the stakeholders of the brand is consistently sharp-eyed on profitability. Other than taking the profit up, upGrad has been true to its core vision which is to power career success for every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner. The larger mission is to create an impact in every learner’s life by extending their offerings. upGrad during the same year facilitated placements for over 1200 learners into the MBA domain, thereby dispelling several stereotypes associated with online education. Joining Hands For The Greater Good The current acquisitions done by upGrad are more than just being the expansion of the business. Below-given is the in-depth description of all the ten recently acquired education-centric companies. The impact of the coming together and what have been the strategies for both of the companies post acquisitions. The upGrad Story

ACQUISITIONS Harappa Established in 2018, Delhi Founders: Pramarth Raj Sinha, Shreyasi Singh Acquired for US$ 38 Million Acquired in July 2022 INSOFE Established in 2011, Hyderabad Founders: Dr Dakshinamurthy V Kolluru Acquired for US$33 Million Acquired in May 2022 2022 2022 2022 2022 Our coming together has expanded our ambitions. Most notably, our foray into launching our enterprise business in the United States. It’s also wonderful to be part of an inspired group of education founders who have brought like-minded entrepreneurs under the ‘One upGrad’ umbrella upGrad helped INSOFE to transition from a small yet high-quality Data Science institute to the world’s largest, by the size of faculty and innovations. We have evolved operationally to now teach through our brand uGDX and also build products, create IP and file patents through TuringMinds Pramath Raj Sinha Shreyasi Singh Founders, Harappa Dr Dakshinamurthy V Kolluru uGDX and Turing Minds Swapnil Kamat Co-founder of upGrad Centum Learning Established in 2006, Delhi Founders: Sanjay Bahl Amount undisclosed Acquired in Sep 2022 Strategy and plan - Currently Centum offers impact-based training to corporates as well as vocational, and educational training to schools and college learners to make them either self-employed or meaningfully employed. Work Better Established in 2006, Mumbai Founders: Swapnil Kamat Amount undisclosed Acquired in Jan 2022 The strategic collaboration of the two businesses has accelerated our revenues by 2.2x over the last FY. The credibility attached to upGrad’s brand name has helped us make further inroads. 34 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM COVER STORY

Rekrut Established in 2020, Mumbai Founder: Ajay Shah, Husain Tinwala Amount Undisclosed Acquired in Jan 2021 2022 2021 2021 2021 2021 We have synergized with a vision. upGradRekrut placements have also jumped 10x in the last 6 quarters and we have now grown to facilitate nearly 1000+ placements every month with an average salary increment of over 45 per cent Wolves India Established in 2014, Bengaluru Founders: Raghu S Amount undisclosed Acquired in July 2022 Strategy and plan - Wolves will support upGrad to present world-class tech job opportunities to its learners and, together with upGradRekrut, create a market leader in tech hiring. Impartus (upGrad Campus) Established in 2013, Bangalore Founders: Amit Mahensaria Acquired for Rs 150 Crore Acquired in May 2021 Strategy and plan - upGrad campus will target HigherEd institutions and college students, with its learning tools and world-class content, in an integrated solution. Global Study Partners Established in 2014, Sydney Founders: Elaine Starkey Acquired for $16 M Acquired in Nov 2021 Strategy and plan - This acquisition will enable upGrad to strengthen its overseas education network and accelerate the Study Abroad vertical, one of the fastest growing segments worldwide. Talentedge Established in 2012, Gurgaon Acquired for estimated Rs 300-400 crore Acquired in Nov 2021 Strategy and plan - Coming together with upGrad enables Talentedge to accesitsir best-in-class products and solutions, technology, and their data-driven pedagogical approach. KnowledgeHut Established in 2011, Bengaluru Founder: Subramanyam Reddy Amount undisclosed Acquired in Aug 2021 Strategy and plan - To leverage this market opportunity, the combined might will allow KnowledgeHut to offer learners a scalable and immer- sive learning model, to upskill and help them drive meaningful career out- comes, through its next-gen flagship learning experience platform, PRISM. Ajay Shah Founder & Placement Head Husain Tinwala Co-Founder upGradRekrut, States, WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 35

36 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM COVER INTERVIEW Edtech platforms rendered critical service during the Lockdown. However, post-Covid, several players have shrunk or having a rethink about their operations. One platform that holds out in this period of turmoil is upGrad, founded by Mayank Kumar, Ronnie Screwvala, and PhalgunKompalli (fourth founder, RavijotChugh not associated any more). What started in 2015 as an endeavour to impact the lives of working professions by helping them upskill while at work, has expanded to offer upGrad degrees, ‘Startup with upGrad’ programme for entrepreneurship and ‘upGrad Study Abroad’, among others and offers life-long learning options. Becoming a unicorn in 2021 with a valuation of $1.2 billion, upGrad has impacted more than 7 million users globally through its programmes BW Education interviewed the three co-founders to know what has made upGrad thrive in this period. Excerpts: What education philosophy do you go by? Mayank Kumar (MK): At upGrad, we are obsessed with following our commitment to driving career outcomes and have come a long way in terms of our portfolio which is now a vast LifeLong Learning suite and worldwide university network. We create online courses in partnership with academicians and industry experts to foster outupGrad founding team of Mayank Kumar, Ronnie Screwvala and Phalgun Kompalli talk about the robust educational services they have built, that enabled them to grow manifold in 2022, that became a year of edtech winter E By Meha Mathur "COMMITMENT TO CAREER OUTCOMES"

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION ON JANUARY 2023 37 From Left: Phalgun Kompalli, Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar come-oriented learning amongst our learners and drive tangible career ROI through job switches, salary hikes, promotions or confidence to empower them to perform better for maximum business outputs. This commitment has helped us grow year-on-year, thereby cementing our stature as India’s largest higher edtech company with a strong foothold across geographies. In the year of edtech mess, how did upGrad thrive and what factors led to its resilience? Ronnie Screwvala (RS): “Mess” is a media creation. There is a massive reskilling revolution that is going around the world. The only mess happened with a couple of companies and 5-7 indulgent investors who invested without diligence in companies. So, the only mess that people refer to today is the three per cent of edtech startups. The other 97 per cent is very revolutionary, impactful, outcome-oriented, high ROI for learners in India, Singapore, Africa, Europe, US and South America. All of that is getting lost in the hubris and false noise regarding a few companies who raised the money at a rapid pace from funders. The more they got funded, the more they spent on marketing, hiring and diversification. And now, the same investors who said ‘Go, go, go”, are now saying “stop”. Phalgun Kompalli (PK): It was a time of reality check for some people. But it’s good because it helps us build on a more solid foundation. The resilience is due to the fact that we have always kept in mind two things. One, whatever happens, learner outcomes are most important for us. From day one we believed that we have to deliver solid learning and career outcomes. If that does not happen then we are not doing our job. Two, the way we have thought about our acquisitions is different than other people. But the fallout even in the case of those 3 per cent of companies has been a large number of job losses. What is your take on that? RS: We need to understand that a non-sustainable model would have resulted in jobs going sideways regardless. Two, it’s unfortunate that you suddenly let close to 15,000 people go between a few companies. That’s a large number. These were companies that were hiring so rapidly with no sense of clarity that their attrition rate is 10 per cent a month. Which means that 60 to 70 per cent would have moved on to another job in any case. I am not trying to undermine the immediate job loss. But these are all young people and they are better off building their career somewhere else.

38 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM COVER INTERVIEW What is the secret to thriving in startup sector? MK:To begin with, you need to stay truly committed to solving a problem and need to be persistent in your efforts. Two, the team has a significant impact on how quickly a startup can innovate and execute, so investing in the right team can work wonders for your start-up. Another challenge is innovating to grow. With startups experiencing various inflection points, one can get stuck at one point for months. Post which, determining the next innovation to jump to the next point is difficult. Finally, you must not seek instant gratification and sign up for multiple failures and rejections. You acquired a number of other startups in 2022. What was the criteria and what value addition have these acquisitions done? RS: Our goal and vision was very clear. We wanted to be an integrated global edtech company, for lifelong learning path. We have college learners, give undergrad degrees along with colleges, we have short courses, we have study-abroad, boot camps to make them job ready, and for working professionals there are courses for upskilling. And we found some founders who had built critical size in good business but were stuck for last few years and when they joined us, we could unleash them through our synergy. We filled in the gaps, as we felt that if we build afresh it will take us two years and the acquisition helps us seed to market. These founders came into the system not because of money but because of the synergy, strategy and whole value chain. PK: We wanted the upGrad to be lifelong learning partner, starting since when a person is 18, till even when they are 80 and investing in self-improvement. Throughout that journey, how to ensure that upGrad has a robust product portfolio to cater to that entire lifelong learning journey. That was always the vision. We launched masters, PG diplomas and doctorates which is still our biggest vertical. As we did that, we started to expand that lifelong funnel. We identified opportunities and entrepreneurs or companies who were doing fantastic job. They might have a superior product or distribution channel. The eventual idea was to build this one upGrad as end-to-end learning partner. What are your plans to expand physically in 2023? MK:Domestic expansion has been a priority for us. While our business model is reaping 100 per cent+ results quarter-on-quarter, it's important for us to reinvest our gains The only mess happened with a couple of companies and 5-7 indulgent investors who invested without diligence in companies Ronnie Screwvala Chairperson to scale the impact we aim to drive. We are expanding to house the larger teams that we are bringing on board. Also, while our focus is on strong online delivery models, we encourage our current and prospective learners to meet us in person while they decide on the right programme for themselves. Thus, having an offline presence allows us to be closer to our learners in their LifeLongLearning journey. Recently, we have also entered into additional premises across India of over 100,000 square feet to strengthen our business footprints while also committing to add 1,400 members at One upGrad by March 2023, of which the majority will be faculty, trainers, and experts followed by

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION ON JANUARY 2023 39 ted to positively impacting millions. Our teams across cities and geographies have continued to demonstrate diligence, passion, and persistence, thereby making upGrad a market leader and a strong brand name. PK: There is a very high amount of trust and ability to work together. The second aspect is, none of us has a specified role. My role has changed four times in eight years. And our communication is very transparent – we overcommunicate. We make sure to understand what are the opportunities and split those up between us, like overseas expansion, mergers and acquisitions, etc. How will resumption of schools and colleges have an impact onedtechs? RS: I think that’s where we are wrong. The edtech companies that we were referring to were not substituting schools. They were just augmenting with an algebra lesson or so, not filling up the curriculum. They were still in class, online. The augmentation they were doing didn’t have a business model. How do you see edtechs shaping up now, and what is your advice to other edtech players? MK: It is imperative for organisations to create a business model that is scalable, sustainable, and non-negotiably it should add value to its customers. Instead of focussing on short-term valuations and growth, edtech companies should focus on products and strategies that are for the long run in the business ecosystem. PK:The fundamentals remain the same – delivering learner outcomes will continue to be paramount. As long as we build a product that delivers on this count, you will be very successful. What might have changed is that there might not be easy capital available. But it’s always available for great companies.It’s still nascent times for edtech companies in India and globally. There is a significant opportunity to do something powerful. For people with ideas it’s a great opportunity to develop products and services. Any mistakes to be avoided? PK: A lot of times, people have driven growth by spending money not in a sustainable way. People chase growth at all costs and invested in very unsustainable ways of growth without focussing on creating a brand, strong learning outcomes, word of mouth. It was a time of reality check for some people. But it’s good because it helps us build on a more solid foundation Phalgun Kompalli Co-Founder sales and marketing, content, delivery, & learning experience. What qualities of the three cofounders have led to great working dynamics? What kind of synergy has existed that has helped in crisis management and strategising? MK: Today, successful businesses are all about how well you are going to do that one particular thing that will scale and impact others. I, along with my other co-founders Ronnie and Phalgun, have remained true to our obsession with driving concrete career outcomes for our learners which, in turn, has helped us build a strong workforce that is equally driven and commit-

40 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM COVER INTERVIEW At upGrad, we are obsessed with following our commitment to driving career outcomes and have come a long way in terms of our portfolio In the current fiscal, upGrad has reported 450+ career transitions into the MBA CTC hike of 328 per cent. Placements across 75+ companies In FY22 (fiscal year), multiple upGrad learners have broken the CTC threshold of Rs 1 crore a year for in-demand courses like Data Science amongst others, while also receiving the highest salary hike of 329 per cent during Q4 in the same fiscal. Mayank Kumar on upGrad’s performance domain for its learners in Q1 with the highest It became the biggest batch to receive like Reliance Jio, Disney Star India, Infosys, Monster, HDFC AMC, Clear Tax, Flipkart, Eduvanz, Expedify, Infocomm Limited, Zolo Stays, and Delhivery, amongst others. Numbers Speak

One-Year Executive Post Graduate Diploma in Management (EPGDM-VIL) Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration and Governance [B.A. (Hons.) - PAG] XIM University aspires to become a Research University, inspiring futures to lead extraordinary lives. Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, a 35 years old Business School, is the constituent School of the University, connecting business and society. EXCELLENCE & INTEGRITY EXCELLENCE & INTEGRITY ...the winning way ...the winning way Master of Arts in Mass Communication (MA-MC) Bachelor of Science in Economics [B.Sc. (Hons.)-Economics] School of Liberal Arts Master of Science in Economics (M.Sc. - Economics)

BSCHOOL SPECIAL OVERVIEW 42 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM s the year comes to a close, it is once again time to reflect on the performance of our B-schools. BW Businessworld survey looks at best practices in management education, its goals, challenges and the impact it creates. With hundreds of institutes across the nation, find out which ones stand out in the crowd and how they are moulding the future of management education. BW Businessworld B-School Rankings provides an aerial view on how management institutes are nurturing and preparing the leaders of tomorrow. A Rankings B schools are assessed on the basis of leadership, knowledge creation, institutional capabilities, transition of knowledge into work force and finance. These factors are further broken down to explore the overall investment into education by the institute and its impact on the graduating students, faculty and industry. During a time when skilling and skill gap are high concerns for the By Vasudha Mukherjee RANKINGS REFLECTIVE OF VALUE CREATION

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 43 focus to skill-oriented and practical education. While management institutes are focused on professional education and industry-relevant skilling, the outcome of their efforts beyond placements needs to be further explored. Employers are also more likely to hire students who have interned with them in the past to ensure seamless integration into the organisation, effectively combating issues of skill gap. Upgrading the curriculum Specialised MBA courses, executive management degrees and online courses are among the latest trends in management education. Online and hybrid mode of education has not only enabled a vast majority of the nation to have access to opportunities but has also helped the industry find and nurture talent from the remotest parts of the country. With upskilling and continuous education gaining momentum, B-schools are designing courses that target the needs of working professionals and accommodate their schedules. Working closely with industry and edtech companies, management education modified and upgraded their curriculum to be more relevant to the industry and flexible to the needs of the student. Many MBA courses are now being offered through edtech platmarket, it is imperative for management institutes to step up and work in collaboration with the industry, government, faculty and closely with students to ensure that the knowledge and practical experience remain relevant to the ambitions of the individual, market and institution alike. We find IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore once again leading the pack. Closely followed by IIM Calcutta and IIM Lucknow. We also find higher number of private universities performing well in the 2022 rankings with institutes with such as MDI, SPJIMR and NMIMS among the top 20. Management institutes that find themselves further down the rankings seem to perform low when it comes to evaluating the impact, displaying lower numbers in the ‘return on investment’ and ‘global interface’ categories. This goes hand in hand with less industry linkage, intellectual capital and innovation. Older and larger institutes have an advantage with larger data to properly evaluate impact, while newer and smaller institutes may need to more time to build industry relationships, collaboration and a strong alumni base. Skill-oriented education Quality management education is need of the hour as the country to meet the needs and expectation of a growing economy. Industry has also begun taking a more active role in offering internships, cases studies, consultancy opportunities and training programmes to fresh graduates, ensuring that students gain experience before graduating from a course. Over the last two years, education institutes have shifted forms such as upGrad and Coursera. IIMs and private institutes alike are working with edtech companies to make courses more accessible and affordable for people. Institutes are holding workshops that focus on learning tools, incorporating artificial intelligence & machine learning and digital technology applications into their programmes. Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability One of the biggest lessons of the pandemic was the realisation of how ill prepared we were to handle a crisis. The realisation that a crisis is just around the corner and can have an equally devastating impact, both in the short and long term, was a wake up call for the industry. Moving beyond specialised courses such as sustainable management, institutes are opening Centre of Excellence on sustainability, organising workshops on diversity and creating awareness on pressing environmental concerns and sustainable development. Future management education is working to prepare students have a 360 degree perspective on the situation and respond with sensitivity. Conclusion BW Businessworld B School Rankings features interviews with management institute director and leaders who identify the changing trends in education, evolving pedagogies, research developments, tackling social issues and bridging the academia-industry divide. The following pages are a treasure trove for academics, students, faculty and even HR professionals looking to hire their next set of rising stars.

44 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM BSCHOOL SPECIAL ith 2,289 students enrolled for various regular, executive and certificate programmes; 95 regular, 16 visiting and 7 on-contract faculty, the picturesque campus of IIM Kozhikode is among the leading IIMs today. Director Debashis Chatterjee, an author of great repute, talks about how the institute is fostering an unhindered exchange of ideas for the next generation of thought leaders: How is IIM Kozhikode aligning with the changing realities of education, being shaped by the NEP, increased role of technology and emphasis on skilling and entrepreneurship? IIM Kozhikode prides itself on being a ‘School of Ideas’. Our Thought Leadership is ranked in top-85 globally and we are in constant competition with ourselves to constantly innovate amidst paradigm shifts not only happening in the education sector but also in a dynamic business environment. Our curriculum encourages entrepreneurial thinking amongst students and we are also home to IIMK LIVE – our trailblazing startup incubator which recently completed six years. Having incubated 90 startups with a high success rate of 40 per cent, the incubator has till date raised Rs 37 crore and also generated revenue worth Rs 50 crore in this short span of time. We were also among the first to pre-empt NEP’s focus on multi-disciplinarity having launched full time MBA programmes in Liberal Studies and Management (PGP-LSM) and Finance (PGP-F) along with a PhD Practice Track programme for Working Executives. We consciously endeavour to take education beyond silos encourage students by kindling their entrepreneurial spirit during their time here. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode, on the changing nuances of management education and how B-Schools must equip students for the same W By Vasudha Mukherjee Be Resilient In The Face Of Accelerated Changes

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 45 What has been the major infrastructure augmentation at the institute in the last five years? We added a new feather to our cap by opening the Phase-V Green Campus certified with ‘Five Star’ rating under GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment), an initiative of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in 2020. Water, soil and energy conservation measures have been extensively adopted in this expansion and solar energy to the tune of 50 kWp (Kilo Watt Peak) is also now being harnessed in the campus. We have also introduced the state-of-the-art intelligent classroom set up which will be virtual We have to proactively train students to not only face the corporate world but also equip these future managers with the earnestness to deal with human beings with equal effectiveness where in the world. Another area we have consciously worked on is augmenting accessibility features of the campus for the differently-abled. We also created a unique classroom experience in the form of ‘Gurukul’. Set up in natural ambience with grass floor, the sunlit high-ceiling glass room IIM Kozhikode Gurukul offers a free and holistic space for unhindered exchange of ideas for the next generation of thought leaders. How is IIM Kozhikode sensitising students on the environment and sustainability front? We are blessed to have an oxy-rich campus that is abundant in greenery, flora and fauna. IIMK’s core philosophy of ‘Nityam’ (sustainability) is deeply imbibed in not only the students but the entire IIMK community. Various Students Groups actively participate in sensitisation campaigns through awareness campaigns in this plastic-free campus. We are also the first IIM to make its academic foray into initiating studies on ‘Climate Change’ and offering mitigating solutions to one of the most pressing challenges faced by global world order through the Centre for CLIMATE Studies (Climate Leadership, Internationalisation and Management mic-less, aided by first-of-a-kind use of ceiling microphone offering adaptive and intelligent response to user and room behaviour. Additionally, the classrooms also boast of cloudbased conferencing, streaming and audio conferencing with both wired and wireless presentation capability. Students with access credentials will be able to participate in the classroom sessions virtually from anyfor policy Advancement, Technology and Enterprise). In a first, many prominent Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) also addressed our students during their orientation programme. How can we move towards more quality placement that better meets student aspirations? Placements are a function of place-ability and your ability to respond to the market. We have to proactively train students to not only face the corporate world but also equip these future managers with the earnestness to deal with human beings with equal effectiveness. We should persevere and endeavour to bring the hidden skill sets and latent talents of students before the corporate world to give a holistic experience during the placement process to both students as well as recruiters. Any message for management students. Just three key things: • Don’t look for jobs;look for customers of your talent. • Be resilient in the face of accelerated changes. • Remain relevant and flexible to dynamically changing market.

46 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM BSCHOOL SPECIAL Varun Nagaraj, Dean, SP Jain Institute of Management Studies, on the thrust areas of the institute ounded in 1981 and part of the prestigious Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, SPJIMR has been nurturing the youth to take up leadership positions and to equip them to take decisions that would positively impact society. Dean Varun Nagaraj sheds light on the pedagogy adopted by the institute. Excerpts: How is the institute aligning itself with the changing realities, like the changes brought about by NEP, online education and emphasis on skills and entrepreneurship? The NEP highlights the importance of a rounded and inter-disciplinary approach to education. This approach is consistent with what the west refers to as a liberal arts-based education. Done right, liberal arts education is really about acquiring a starting set of broad and foundational knowledge, knowing how to expand that knowledge base throughout one's life, and being able to apply a critical and integrative perspective to that knowledge base in order to validate and apply it in context. At SPJIMR - this approach is reflected in our emphasis on incorporating courses in history, ethics, spirituality, critical thinking, systems thinking, etc. into our curriculum, and in our insistence that all SPJIMR students develop reflective capabilities. Regarding online instruction, of course, SPJIMR is as committed to this mode of delivery as other schools F By Team BW Education “Amongst The Best In Meeting Students’ Aspirations”

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 47 gardless of the students' work aspirations. I believe that the quality of management education in India is comparable to that available overseas. On the other hand, overseas universities have a higher variety and possibly a better quality of masters programmes in the sciences, arts, and engineering than what is available in India. Diversity and inclusion are major planks of the corporate world. How is the institute sensitising students for future corporate roles when they will have to rise above biases while taking important decisions as honchos? We should first note that many students come in with a pretty good appreciation of certain kinds of diversity. So as educators, we get to build on a pretty solid base of goodness and fairness that our students already have. We try to place It is imperative that every student should develop an entrepreneurial mindset – which is defined as being proactive, being comfortable with ambiguity and risk, and having a sense of urgency in India. In addition to pure online delivery, several of our modular programmes that cater to working professionals now involve some "contacts" that are in person and some that are online. However, I think there are still some policy issues to resolve at the national level regarding the pros and cons of sync versus async (sync refers to streaming lectures online as was done during Covid while async refers to designing courses to be primarily self-paced). Regarding entrepreneurship, it is imperative that every student should develop an entrepreneurial mindset – which is defined as being proactive, being comfortable with ambiguity and risk, and having a sense of urgency. However, my concern is that an entrepreneurial mindset, which should be universally inculcated, is being conflated with being an entrepreneur, which is only appropriate for some people at the right time. The kinds of ventures that India needs includes what Debjani Ghosal of NASSCOM referred to as deep tech. Starting a deep tech venture requires more than a college or a B-School education. It requires years in the field, an immersion with what works and what doesn't. I fear that this important nuance is being lost in the populist drumbeat that "everybody should be an entrepreneur coming out of college". How do Indian B-Schools continue to be coveted places for students, when for most other disciplines, they wish to pursue a master’s degree abroad? I would contend that most students pursuing Masters programmes abroad (including MBA) are looking at working overseas and therefore it makes sense that they pursue that degree abroad. If a student is interested in an India-based career, the ROI is much better if that student pursues their postgraduate education in India. The second factor is about comparing the calibre of education rethese concepts in a business context - looking at not just the inherent rightness of diversity and inclusion practices, but the benefits they bring such as enhancing organisational morale and creativity. We do so in our classroom discussions and by incorporating industry speakers. A unique way in which we strive to make our students even more broad minded is by exposing them to as many diverse perspectives as possible including those from lesser-privileged sections of rural and urban India. How can we move towards more quality placement that better meets student aspirations? This may sound immodest - I believe that we are amongst the best in the country in terms of meeting student aspirations regarding placements. But aspirations are continuously evolving. At this time, joining a management consulting firm is a popular aspiration as are evergreen options such as brand management in FMCG companies. However, as India continues its transition towards developing home-grown technology products and technology-enabled services, product management and product marketing are becoming aspirational roles. We are responding to such aspirations by expanding the pool of companies we bring on campus, and by preparing our students through coursework and through extracurricular activities.

48 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM BSCHOOL SPECIAL Prashant Mishra, Dean and Professor of Marketing, School of Business Management, SVKM’s NMIMS University, delineates the broad strands in management education today tarting in 1981, SVKM’s NMIMS University (earlier called Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies), Mumbai, has several campuses, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Indore, and has grown to offer programmes in several disciplines. Its School of Business Management offers several programmes, including MBA, MBA in several specialisations, part-time MBA programmes, specialised programmes and Doctoral programme. In an interview to Businessworld, Prashant Mishra, Dean of the School of Business Management provides a larger overview of management education. Excerpts: S By Team BW Education "Compensation Keeping Pace With B-school Education Cost" How has the focus of B-school education changed in the last five years? What new components have been added? In the past five years, the transformational effect of big data and emergent digital technologies has led to significant shifts in business and society. The business organisations have proactively and reactively embraced these transformations to remain relevant to their stakeholders. B-School education, being primarily focused on developing leadership talent for the organisations, has also responded to changing landscape by progressively revamping curriculum, reframing learning goals, and integrating technology driven tools in its pedagogical breadth. Today, leading B-Schools’ curriculum and pedagogical repertoires include a combination of traditional and contemporary components of learning. NMIMS’ School of Business Management has programmes and workshops which are focused on learning tools and contents such as New-age Business Models, Managing Disruption, AI & Machine Learning for various business applications, Digital Technology Applications in Marketing, Finance etc as well as corporate sustainability and similar other topics.

WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 49 ers’ apprehensions for personal wellbeing and psychological safety were real. With the help of all stakeholders and active encouragement and support of the university leadership, we were able to achieve normalcy in a very smooth way. The other significant challenge was to ensure curriculum relevance in a post-pandemic environment where some tectonic shifts occurred in our external environment. We undertook a collective strategic review to strengthen and rebuild our academic and administrative processes. We made a conscious effort in revisiting our pedagogy and involving industry experts to make certain changes that were more adaptive to the current environment. Considering the changes ushered in by NEP, and other socio-economic changes, how is your B-School aligning with these changing realities? Some aspects of NEP such as multidisciplinary approach, collaborative multi-institution credit transB-school education has responded to changing landscape by progressively revamping curriculum, reframing learning goals, and integrating technology driven tools in its pedagogical breadth Post the economic downturn of 2008-2012 and now Covid, is the B-School education viable and affordable for average Indian families? The pandemic did affect the economic landscape. However, based on the publicly available career opportunity data from leading (top 25 B schools) management institutions, one can draw inference that the compensation outcomes have certainly kept pace with the cost of B-School education. The key here is to facilitate the learning and development process of the young participants through an industry-relevant curriculum and other educational inputs in a way that they are ready to make an impact right from their early days in their employment. A recent FT Global Masters’ in Management ranking survey points to the fact that SBM, NMIMS University graduates have one of the best career progression (Ranked 27th Globally) amongst top 100 global schools, which is reflected in their compensation appreciation to almost 52 per cent three years after graduation. In my view, affordability should be seen not from past economic strength but from an investment- return perspective, which I believe is reasonably favourable for the graduates coming out of leading MBA programmes. Even the Indian government’s proactive facilitation through education loans help overcome the cost barrier. What has been your biggest challenge after taking the charge of Dean of SBM? How did you manage to overcome them? I think the biggest challenge was to steer back-to-college or workplace in the new normal. The stakeholdfer facility, industry centricity of the learning process, practice-oriented curriculum and job orientation are traditionally the forte of management education. The curriculum at NMIMS has always been multidisciplinary and has been designed to be collaborative for exchange and joint offerings. SBM had a similar partnership with Purdue University for a dual degree programme under credit transfer scheme. NMIMS’ SBM has more than a dozen overseas schools as exchange partners where our students can go and earn credits. Employment centricity and industry participation in all aspects of curriculum development and delivery, co-curricular activities, summer internships are long standing elements of management education, which are perfectly aligned with the NEP vision at NMIMS’ SBM. Any message for students aspiring degree in management and budding managers. Our message to the young aspirant is that the times today and in the near future are full of exciting possibilities in terms of career paths and opportunities. What is expected of them is to develop skills and competencies such as critical thinking, analytical mindset, problem solving orientation, digital proficiency, combined with a transformative approach to succeed in a world where change and disruptions are going to be only constant.

50 B W EDUCATION JANUARY 2023 WWW.BWEDUCATION.COM BSCHOOL SPECIAL stablished in 1978 and a constituent institute of Symbiosis International University, SIBM offers its flagship two-year MBA programme, besides MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, part-time PGDBM, and MBA Executive programme, among others. Director Ramakrishnan Raman throws light on the changed focus of these programmes. Excerpts: How has the focus of B-school education changed in the last few years? What new components have been added? It is a fact that the social, technological, and geopolitical changes have made B-Schools reconceptualise business as a discipline and have brought several changes to the curriculum. Automation being a reality and with several mundane and mid-level jobs being lost to automation, B-Schools are taking unique approaches to equip students with soft skills, including aspects like oral and written communication along with emotional intelligence and are also equipping them to handle tech disruption. The focus of B-Schools has moved from just creating graduates who are job-ready to creating graduates who are selfaware and are responsible leaders, who are able to take critical decisions in business with their potential impact on people and multiple stakeholders in mind. The changing business environment is nudging B- School to emphasise on lifelong learning. Almost all the top B-Schools of this country have courses like BlockChain and Data Analytics, R-Programming, Python etc. in their curriculum. At SIBM Pune we have courses like Doing Business in India, Indian Ethos and Values for Management, Sectorial Innovations, Design Thinking, Creativity and Problem Solving in the MBA and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune has been preparing its students to be able future leaders for decades now. Ramakrishnan Raman, Director, talks about how the institute sensitises its students to diversity & inclusion and environment & sustainability E By Vasudha Mukherjee Creating Graduates WHO ARE SELF-AWARE