BW Education March 2023

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 51 Top Education Brands 2023 Simrin Bakshi, Chairperson, Vedanya International School, talks about the ecological and sustainable ethos of the school SCHOOL Green School in India By Upasana With what objective did you establish Vedanya International School? Vedanya is where ‘Ved’ (knowledge) and ‘Anya’ (endless) come together to symbolise an open mind that is ever ready to learn. We realised that we were a bunch of individuals who believed in the same philosophy. Life is about making connections, about being present in the moment, and about learning and growing from our experiences. Life is about giving and receiving, and when we give whole-heartedly, we are rewarded with a richer, fuller life. We wanted a place which would respect each child's uniqueness because we are learners each day. That is how Vedanya came about. The goal is to inspire children to become lifelong learners, fostering critical thinking and encouraging them to evaluate and question what they hear. You have won the 'Green School in India' Award. What do you think made your school stand out in this category? VIS believes that life is not about taking but giving. As we move forward, sustainability is the only way to live and every organisation and institute will need to define the same through environment-friendly, support features. We received Platinum level of certification from the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in 2022. This “Life Is Not About Taking But Giving” It is indeed a selfless service for nation building and unique kind of ‘rite of passage’ of passing the baton to humans of the future WINNER Platinum ranking reiterates our commitment towards ecological literacy, mindfulness of surroundings, and sustainable practices as a way of life. As we move forward, essence of giving sustainability is the only way to live and every organisation and institute will need to define the same through environment-friendly, support features. What is your advice to those who want to enter the education sector? There is a saying about parenthood: “Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”. As parents we understand the depth of this commitment made to ourselves and our wards. A teacher needs the same kind of commitment as a facilitator, mentor, guide counsellor towards each child in her class, year on year. It is indeed a selfless service for nation building and unique kind of ‘rite of passage’ of passing the baton to humans of the future. So, anyone who enters this sector should know that they are shaping up many lives.

52 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 Niyati Chitkara, Director of Chitkara International School speaks on the 20 year long journey it took to establish the school and creating a progressive and forward-thinking institution Everything boils down to how innovative and supportive the teacher is By Vasudha Mukherjee T he vision for Chitkara International School began about 20 years ago with a novice team with diverse academic and professional backgrounds. The dream was to build one of the best schools in the country. While it was clear to the team that they did not want to re-create an existing school structure, they began to research and gain experience in the education sector. Reversing the model of education Chitkara University was already running by the time Chitkara International School began. Niyati Chitkara and her team worked backwards from PhD to Diploma to K12 education, creating a model that took care of skilling and knowledge gaps that have long existed within the different sub-sectors of education. Reflecting back on the building of the school, Chitkara states, “I did my bachelors, masters and PhD along with working at the school and the unique part about my learning journey is that whatever I have studied, I have applied.” Synergy between higher & secondary education The advantage of having primary, secondary and higher education under one brand is allowing seamless transitions between the different levels of education. “We have university professors coming and teaching in school, we have university alumni and university students coming and teaching their juniors,” adds Chitkara while discussing bridging education gaps. She adds that students mentoring each other is crucial part of their pedagogy. This collaborative effort and creating synergy between university and school is the cornerstone to the Chitkara education ecosystem. Evolving pedagogies As the education landscape transforms, Chitkara International School leans more into its collaborative methods. Life-long learning and continuous skilling is required. Chitkara aims to create an environment where “teachers can learn from students and students can learn from teachers. The discussion is both ways.” Classes need to be “interactive, engaging, future-centric, data-driven and scientific. It goes beyond boards towards sustainability and independence.” Teachers play an important role in education and imparting knowledge, as Chitkara states, “Everything boils down to how innovative the teacher is and how supportive the teacher is.” Therefore, one must not let the “teacherness get out of your system.” Reverse Engineering The Education Model SCHOOL Innovative School Infrastructure & Learning Spaces in India WINNER

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 53 Top Education Brands 2023 Arti Khungar, Principal, Happy English School, on the right attitude that a teacher must possess to engage students The attitude that it is okay to not know everything is very important for a teacher so that the educator can inculcate the same in students By Yukta Raj A rti Khungar, Principal of Happy English School since last 20 years, believes that she is into the education sector since birth. The legacy of Happy English School was initiated by her father. On the evolution of education sector The education sector has evolved a lot now in the 21st century, and the focus is on skills development. The world is changing and the children are moving towards a global world. The education industry is also changing in that sense. Another focus point is on the development of thinking skills, problem-solving skills, learning to learn and skills to collaborate. It is very important for a child to get ample exposure in the school itself in order to further become a holistic individual. On the struggle during Covid Covid taught us that anything and everything is possible. When it started, it was very disheartening since we were not able to see the students. We started off with a training for both students, and teachers during that time and shifted to hybrid mode. This makes them future ready. When we shifted to hybrid, we obs e r ve d t h a t t h e school is no more restrained till 2’o clock for students. Having learned the skills of collaborating through Zoom, they have gained the skill of staying in touch with each other and this has also improved the group-working. Advice on how educators can improve The most important thing is, who is teaching. So, as an individual, how uncluttered you are automatically gets transferred to the child. You cannot be stuck up in your own thoughts. Thus, there needs to be complete engagement. If you love your students and are passionate about education, then the connect happens automatically. Once such connect happens, when the conversation starts, students are the ones leading the process by asking questions. It is an important way of engaging with the student and becoming a learner with them. The attitude that it is okay to not know everything is very important for a teacher so that the educator can inculcate the same in students. Learn from them, learn with them SCHOOL Innovative School in India

54 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 E ducation is a deep and nurturing process in a child’s life. However, that only remains a matter of business for most school owners across the world. On the other hand, Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam Group of Institutions is an educational institution that believes to nurture a child’s heart along with his mind and hand. “We focus on and believe in providing value-based education for the integral and holistic development of a child. At the core of this, we focus on three Hs; Head, Hand and Heart”, says Bhuvana Santhanam, Director Outreach, Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam Group of Institutions. Reaching out to the last kid Santhanam informs that their pattern of education is infused with love as 75 per cent of their enrolment is from an underprivileged background and that is why most of their campuses are situated in the rural hinterlands of the country. Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam Group of Institutions won two awards under the categories of Innovative school in India and Emerging Higher Education Institution in India. Santhanam says, “Under the guidance of Satguru Sri Madhusudan Sai, every child is embraced irrespective of his caste, creed, ethnicity and culture.” According to Santhanam, her institution follows one innovative way to attach students to teachers by keeping them together under the same roof in all their campuses. She mentions the crucial role of her institution in making sure to provide digital education during the pandemic without any resistance. Santhanam also shares the vision and plans of the organisation for 2023 which is to make the last child educated. Apart from educating children, Santhanam tells the organisation is also working actively in the nutrition and health vertical. Santhanam adds that they feed 1.2 million children every morning across 60,000 schools in the country. Lastly, Santhanam completed the conversation by saying “We live to serve the children”, which is a different yet much-needed motto in our society. "We Need To Educate Children Not Only For Mind But For Heart & Hands" Bhuvana Santhanam, Director of Outreach, Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam Group of Institutions shares the vision and plansof the organisation for 2023 which is to make the last child educated We focus on and believe in providing value-based education for the integral and holistic development of a child. SCHOOL Innovative School In India HIGHER EDUCATION Emerging Higher Education Institution In India WINNER By Shruti Tripathi

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 55 SCHOOL Top Education Brands 2023 Innovative School in India Aishwarya Rao, Director - Academics and Administration, The Vivekalaya Group of Institutions We all thought, there would always be schools and children. Children will never stop going to school. During Covid we realised that everything is at a risk. The value of time... has changed By Yukta Raj A ishwarya Rao, who has been i n t h e ecosystem of education for a decade now, believes that the last 2-3 years have been life-changing journey for her due to covid and lockdown. Rao is deeply vested in change towards progress. For her, it is a passion to be an educator and bring change to the nation. On innovation & strategies "It's is not just in education that we have to be innovative, but it is across the spectrum" she says. "We must be innovative to deliver content, keep people engaged and move forward. Today it's demanded from educators, no matter what field you are in, and to what department you belong. Indeed, education has now taken new strides; for years we have been following a system that is no longer applicable as the world has evolved. It is paramount that every institution is innovative. We at The Vivekalaya Group of Institutions are innovative in being inclusive – we teach all kinds of learners and everyone is included in a safe setting. Apart from this, every year we come up with activities that are new, so that it keeps children engaged." . Covid-time changes "I think there was a shift in importance given to learning, people take things for granted. We all thought, there would always be schools and children. Children will never stop going to school. During Covid we realised that everything is at a risk. The value of time and value of connection has changed." Rao explains. Plans for 2023… "This is the first year when we are fully functional academically after lockdown and policies are coming into effect in various states. We are looking forward for putting these into practice. There are a lot of adjustments happening, and there has been a shift in our head space. So, this year is one of experimentation, adopting new policies and the changes suggested by the government, and see how the delivery of that is going to change, and better the life of a child. Innovation: The Key To Go Forward

56 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 Sasmita Mohanty, Director of Sanjay Ghodawat International School on how the residential school has been practising NEP’s core values for 30 values SCHOOL Leading Residential School in India By Vasudha Mukherjee S anjay Ghodawat International (SGI) School enrols about 4,500 students and around 600 faculty members. It welcomes both boarding and day scholars on its campus and offers CBSE, Cambridge and International Baccalaureate boards. Sasmita Mohanty joined the residential school in 2012 when the school had just begun its affiliation with the CBSE and was beginning the Cambridge curriculum. Mohanty has watched the school expand to offer more opportunities to students and open a branch in Karnataka. Mohanty claims that while the National Education Policy (NEP) was introduced in 2020, the school has already been practising many of its core values for the last 30 years. Mohanty states, “We give equal importance to extracurricular activities and academics.” She adds, “As an educator, I believe students learn many values and develop their personalities outside of the classrooms. So, we maintain a balance in that and we give lot of hands-on experience.” Teacher training The biggest challenge for a residential school is nurturing and taking on the responsibility of a diverse group of children full-time. “Children come from different emotional social backgrounds and they're away from their families and homes,” explains Mohanty. Therefore, the teachers need to “take on the role of parent.” Mohanty stresses the importance of teachers being committed to the children, practising empathy and making sure their emotional needs are being met. Teachers need to be employed with care and provided constant training to be able to adapt to a boarding school environment. Extracurricular and holistic education SGI School prides itself on its strong sports infrastructure and employing professional coaches to ensure quality education and training for their students. Sports facilities include stadiums for football and cricket, along with a shooting range, horse riding, archery and table tennis. The focus of the school is on the holistic development of children. They have a daily routine that makes time for classes, studying, sports and any other activity students may want to pursue. Mohanty stresses the importance of caring for the mental health and wellbeing through meditation and good nutrition. “We focus on development “Hands-on Learning, Outside Classroom” As an educator, I believe students learn many values and develop their personalities outside of the classrooms WINNER of moral values because we feel that creating global citizens with human heart is important,” states Mohanty. When a group of children are together and have nothing to do, “they are definitely going to create some kind of destructive situation", says Mohanty. The key is to keep a structured, organised daily routine that engages and improves children at the same time. A method to address their progress and share it with the parents is also necessary.

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 57 Top Education Brands 2023 We do not admit the child. We adopt the child, which means we are there to nurture the child, we are there to pamper the child and to take care of the child SCHOOL School of the Year Please tell us about your overall journey and experience. I joined Indraprastha 18+ years back. I am very happy that I am part of such an institution which provides quality education to each child and works on the personality and holistic development of each child. What do you mean by quality and holistic education, especially after the pandemic? Our school follows one motto which is ‘Teach each child and develop the whole child’ which focuses on the total personality development of a student by imbibing quality education, values and ethics. Education being a dynamic sector, how has your perspective of education changed over time? In Indraprastha, we do not admit the child. We adopt the child, which means we are there to nurture the child, we are there to pamper the child and to take care of the child. With the National Education Policy being implemented, how is it going to determine the future of school education in India? Certainly, it is for the benefit of the child and Indraprastha has already started the process to implement the NEP. And yes, it is going to bring in a big change in the education system. The vision of the NEP 2020 has great potential to impact the education sector positively. Students are the main stakeholder in the education sector. What changes do you notice among them after the pandemic? I noticed one major change that students are keener than before to learn new things. Before lockdown, they were confined to their classrooms. Now, after the pandemic, they know these things can be done at home. They know that they can learn and explore things while sitting at home. Organising the annual day online was a great achievement for us. Students could not imagine events like the annual day could be organised online but we did and Indraprastha is proud of that. What is your philosophy of education? My philosophy of education is ‘Teach each child and develop the whole child’. This is the motto as well as the objective of Indraprastha International School that we follow religiously. “Teach Each Child, Develop Whole Child” Karuna Dahiya, Head Administration, Indraprastha International School, describes the motto and the vision of her school By Shruti Tripathi

58 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 S chool education is going through unprecedented changes, thanks to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and also several challenges, in the wake of Covid. A school which had its foundation laid just before the pandemic is especially bound to have witnessed tough time. Mukesh Sharma, Chairman, Prometheus School, at the 4th edition of BW Top Education Brands Awards shared the journey of his school and said, “Taking challenges is one of the core values of the Prometheus School. We do not want our children to get scared of failures and taking risks. As a school, we did fairly well. It took us only 24 hours to switch to online mode. We deployed many technical tools and one of them was ‘Prometheus OTT’ for conducting the classes.” Sharma also counted on the other technical tools that help them to figure out the situation like Covid. He added, “In the online sessions it was important to deploy the right tools so that ever yone could collaborate together.” Talking about the affordability of Prometheus, he said that he intends to start the school wherein complete education would be taken care of by the school and the school would cater for the talented students of the below poverty line. As per Sharma, compared to the fee at other IB (International Board) affiliated schools, t h e f e e a t Prometheus is 25 to 30 per cent lower. Sharma mentioned that his school aims at unprivileged children who are talented but cannot afford to be educated. He assured that in the coming 3 to 4 years, Prometheus is going to work actively in that direction. He called NEP a great initiative but added that he was looking forward to seeing its implementation on the ground level. Service to society Describing the pedagogy deployed at Prometheus, Sharma said, “We always try to help students understand that it is competition versus yourself, not others.” “I do not consider education as a part of the business, rather it is my contribution to the society and nation that I live in,” Sharma added. While concluding the conversation, Sharma shared that he sees education as a self-sustainable entity that is shaping our nation. “Education, My Contribution To The Society" Born at the cusp of Covid, Prometheus School has leveraged technology to the hilt. Chairman Mukesh Sharma describes the steps that the school has taken in the right direction We do not want our children to get scared of failures and taking risks By Shruti Tripathi SCHOOL School of the Year

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 59 Top Education Brands 2023 Sudhakar Rao, Director, ICFAI, talks about industry involvement for curriculum design and the need to upgrade skills constantly The competition is good for students as they would get best options, and the best of talent will be recog-nised in the process By Vasudha Mukherjee and Shruti Tripathi I CFAI has 20 campuses across the country. With focus on management education, engineering and technology, law, architecture and liberal arts among other fields, the group has brought about a number of innovations in its programmes through cutting-edge technology and developing entrepreneurial mindset. Sudhakar Rao, Director of ICFAI, shares his thoughts on some critical aspects of higher education. Excerpts: On foreign universities setting up campuses in India ICFAI understands what is best for the student and that has been the core of our practice more than philosophy. And we welcome foreign universities and institutions coming to India. Students in India should get the opportunity. If you want to take a big leap and transform higher education in this country, you need to welcome everyone and keep it open. The competition is good for students as they would get best options, and the best of talent will be recognised in the process. On the establishment of National Digital University Whatever skills you have, are suddenly going to be outdated and not going to be required anymore with the advent of new technologies. So every time you will have to focus on what skills to take up. And what is the duration of rescaling and upskilling? I think with these three parameters as the requirement, we should go for initiatives like digital universities, foreign universities coming to India, and several other establishment activities to take a big leap in the higher education space. On industry involvement Industry is always a little ahead of the institutions. So, the best way to catch up is to bring the industry into the institution and have greater participation in your dissemination of information, design of the curriculum, and delivery of the curriculum. If you involve them, you will have minimised that gap. The alumni base, which is working with industry, takes the lead in helping us revive our curriculum, design the new curriculum, and also identifying new methods of developing it. On faculty upgradation One is we have a faculty base with PhD and new-age research areas. Two, we have professors of practice, and a large number of them come from the industry. This reduces the gap between academia and i ndus t r y o n o n e hand, and also helps the faculty stay invested in future. “Education Should Be Outcome Based” HIGHER EDUCATION Outstanding Institute for Innovative Academic Delivery WINNER

60 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 Abhishek Arora, EVP & Business head, NIIT Digital, on the role that this platform has been playing in skilling the youth NIIT has been acting as a bridge, where we are able to enable an individual and transform them into a new age technology programmes and skills By Yukta Raj A bhishek Arora, who has an overall 20+ years of diverse experience, started his career in international trade and then moved i n to b a n k i n g a n d e-commerce space. He has been associated with online education space for about four years now, which he calls a "tremendous and exciting journey". Excerpts: What made you join NIIT? NIIT has been pioneering in supplemental education. When the pandemic struck the entire world, the plan of the organisation was to transform the education methodology to more digitised and online. And I found this opportunity to be very exciting, because somewhere I also felt that I need to start a new business unit, which is going to transform millions of youths in this country. And that is where I took it up. Tell us something about the initiatives and programmes that NIIT is coming up with. If you look at the overall Indian ecosystem, it has been transforming very fast. In the last couple of decades things have been moving in an agile way. Once out of school, a student goes through college education and a postgraduate education. But when an individual comes out of a college, they have a certain requirement of a skill. As they move forward and tr y to get i n t o t h e corporate world, there is a distance to cover. It is like there is a bridge from a college to the corporate world and NIIT has been acting as a bridge, where we are able to enable an individual and transform them into a new age technology programmes and skills. In last two years, all the individuals who have graduated have been super successful in their domains. And all the programmes which we have launched in last couple of years have been in the new technology space, be it data science, machine learning, cloud computing, cybersecurity-based software engineering or digital marketing. What is your personal philosophy on education? I think education at every stage has a different purpose. What we are doing is to ensure that we transform individuals. So, we do not teach somebody to work on the job, or learn things on the job, we ensure that people are day one job ready and we prepare them for a job which can make them super successful. “We Ensure People Are Job-ready Day One” HIGHER EDUCATION Institution with Excellent Training and Placements

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 61 Top Education Brands 2023 HIGHER EDUCATION Institution with excellent Training and Placements Designing industry-specific programmes to create medical professional for clinical trials, Kamal Shahani, Founder & MD of Cliniminds speaks on the importance of embedding values into technical training Clinical trials are all about ethics. We ensure that students understand the concepts, meaning and importance of ethics in their careers and life By Vasudha Mukherjee What was the inspiration behind starting Cliniminds? The idea came when I was in the United States from 2004 to 2006 and the clinical trials industry was booming there, while clinical trial industry in India was just starting. When I returned to India, I observed a workforce requirement in this sector. There were no opportunities for people to receive formal training in clinical research, drug safety, business analytics and data management. We wanted to create a platform for not only professionals but also those who are just starting their career after studying life sciences or medical education. That's how the Cliniminds branding began. What are some good practices that are critical to Clinical Trials? Clinical trials are all about ethics. In all clinical trials, the procedure and ethical guidelines need to be followed by the company conducting the clinical trial. This is imparted through education. We ensure that students understand the concepts of ethics, the meaning of ethics, and the importance of ethics not only in the clinical science but in their life and overall career. What steps have you taken to bridge the skilling divide between academia and industry? We have approached the government proactively, and sought the accreditation to these programmes in life sciences. Bringing Skills Development C o u n c i l i n t o our programmes has helped us, the students and the industry in standardising the training. Two, this industry uses lot of IT platforms for the clinical trials, softwares and databases. So, we have integrated these softwares and databases into the training process. Itself. Also, every student comes with the vision to get job placement. So, we have a 360-degree placement-oriented programme. Our technical teams are there to train them on writing, interview preparation, mock interviews, doing the aptitude test, etc. All the programmes are designed as per the industry requirement that fit specific job roles. What are your plans to scaling up? During Covid-19, people realised the benefits of e-learning technologies and that they are here to stay. E-learning is helping us reach out to the smaller towns and cities, where students are able to learn from the best trainers and given the same job opportunities as their urban counterparts. This is helping us to grow. Industry-specific Professional Training HIGHER EDUCATION Institution with Quality Industry-Academia Interface WINNER

62 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 E lora Basumatary, who has been associated with Universal Business School for last seven years, calls it a very scintillating journey. She believes in the philosophy that teachers teach the learners, engage with the learners, but they are themselves learners. Excerpts from an interview: What strategy are you focusing on to be able to nurture skills in your students? First, whatever we are teaching, we are providing an environment for the learners to apply because when you can apply that learning, the skill stays with you. Today, problem-solving skills is a top priority. For that, we have case studybased pedagogy, where we put students in a case-study environment for solving problems. We have also created an academic model where we have divided our learnings for the learners into classroom learning, experiential learning and individual learning. Lifelong learning is very important. And that is why we have put a component of individual learning in each module. We also have skill development team, which is talking about the presentation skills or any other soft skills that is required for the interview processes. In your opinion how has the philosophy around education evolved in last couple of years? Technology is one of the things which has really fuelled education in the last couple of years. The National Education Policy 2020 pays a lot of attention to lifelong learning. We want our learners to be lifelong learners, and for that, you must self-learn or should have the access to learn. The big platforms where you can do a lot of certifications have come up in the last few years, specifically during Covid. Another big thing that is coming up is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Technology is shaping education but at the same time, the understanding that you must be involved in order to progress is still there. What are the new projects or certification programmes that are expected from Universal Business School? We are looking at some multidisciplinary programmes like BBA with certain technology infused subjects, or Applied BA Psychology which we are looking at for School of Liberal Arts. We want applied and technical subjects to be included. “Teachers Are Learners Themselves” Elora Basumatary, Director- MBA Programme, Universal Business School on the key priorities for education sector, and her own educational philosophy Higher Education Institution with Innovative Infrastructure & Learning Environment By Yukta Raj Whatever we are teaching, we are providing an environment for the learners to apply because when you can apply that learning, the skill stays with you

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 63 Top Education Brands 2023 Higher Education Leading University in India Madhu Chitkara, Pro-Chancellor, Chitkara University, describes how Chitkara University is for the people and is an ecosystem following the educational philosophy with ethical practice The learning environment at Chitkara represents a unique blend of distinguished faculty and brilliant students with a proactive collaboration with the industry By Suchita Sail While education is a global business now, Chitkara University offers a world of learning, nurturing students to be future-ready, adding an important social dimension in a constantly changing world and the job market. Chitkara University is a private university offering ‘P to P’ (primary to Ph.D. ) education, with outstanding teaching facilities and trained mentors. Today the university is a big name in the northern region of India with its flourishing institutes in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana. The educational journey of Chitkara University, Punjab started way back in 2002 as Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology and today with almost 20,000 plus students, it excels in developing industry-ready minds in almost every sector, like culinary, business, arts, journalism, pharmacy, science, education, healthcare, etc. With such a plethora, the university looks forward to introducing the MBBS programme soon. The university started with a vision to impart quality education to seekers in the region and envisions developing a global research hub on its campus in the coming 10 years. With an aim to bring global education to the campus, Madhu Chitkara Pro-Chancellor of the university aims to develop an ecosystem that supports Serving Education With Whole Heart each other. Teachers support students, students support teachers and technology supports both. She believes this cycle will help to develop an altruistic approach among the learners and the mentors, thus benefiting the educational field. The learning environment at Chitkara represents a unique blend of distinguished faculty and brilliant students with a proactive collaboration with the industry. The university and its stakeholders abide by a 12-point charter. A charter developed to Educate, Prepare, Enthuse, Empower, Inculcate, Foster, Instill, Stimulate and Ingrain the futuristic education path. Twelve Point Charter 1. Educate: Educate students for a brighter future. 2. Prepare: Prepare industry-ready students. 3. Patriotism: Enthuse patriotism among learners. 4. Communication Skill: Empower students’ communication skills. 5. Team Spirit: Inculcate team spirit and camaraderie among students. 6. Civic Engagement: Foster civic engagement among young minds. 7. Core Values: Develop disciplined and honest, industry- representatives. 8. Energy: Develop scholarly energy and diligence among the youth. 9. Global competition: Train each and every pass-out for the global competitiveness. 10. Out of Box thinking: Encourage innovative thinking. 11. Leadership: Stimulate the leadership quality among students. 12. Entrepreneurship: Ingrain entrepreneurial quality.

64 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 Gaurav Goel, the Co-Founder & CEO of Top Rankers speaks on creating a profitable and student-oriented career-building platform What I have realised in this entire journey is, stay close to your student, see what are their needs, keep solving those By Vasudha Mukherjee C oming f r o m a small village, Muzaffarnagar, in Uttar Pradesh, Gaurav Goel began Top Rankers to prov ide student s with options beyond engineering and medicine. “We do careers in law, management, humanities, architecture, design and we are adding many, many more,” explains Goel. He adds that career choice continues to be a big problem with families and students. Education is an ever-evolving sector and there is still a lot to be learned in the space. Goel believes that the recent trend with digitisation has pushed people to only look for solutions in that one space. He states, “Anybody who comes from a tech background thinks that you can solve a lot of problems related to education only through the use of tech.” Goel argues that this is not the case and it is instead a combination of tech, offline and experiential learning and “getting deep into solving student needs.” Goel also advises educators and people in this space to work closely together. He says,“What I have realised in this entire journey is, stay close to your student, see what are their needs, keep solving those and I think you will do well.” This sentiment stretches to education brands and edtech companies as well. Amidst the shake-up being experienced by many startups in edtech last year, Goel suggests turning inwards for answers. He states, “Focus on why you started something. What problem you were trying to solve? Are you adding value to students or the team you are building? Are they aligned in this entire ecosystem?” On the business side of things, one needs to look at the costs and find ways to be profitable, he says, and points out, “A lot of companies sometimes feel that we will become profitable tomorrow.” In the last 12 months, Top Rankers has expanded from 120 to 350 team size, opened up 14 offline centres alongside its online platform and has expanded its categories beyond engineering and medicine and plans to keep adding more in the coming year. The most important thing is to take care of students’ emotional and mental wellbeing. To ensure that they choose subjects they want to pursue and have a talent for, otherwise, they are plagued with doubt. “It's part of their holistic development,” states the entrepreneur. “No Room For Career Doubts” ED-TECH SOLUTION EdTech CEO of the Year ED-TECH SOLUTION Best Education ERP of the Year WINNER

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 65 Top Education Brands 2023 ED-TECH SOLUTION Best E-Learning/ Online Tutoring Company of the Year Kaustubh Khade, Co-founder, Spark Studio on the requisites for holistic development and future success of today’s young generation Schools cannot customise learning for different interests or different pace of learning. This is where skill-based or interest-based edtech is filling the gap T he journey o f S p a r k Studio has been quite exciting. They started in 2021 and soon got selected by YCombinator. Starting with 4 courses, they now offer 14 courses and have above 60,000 students from over 10 countries learning with them. They have expanded beyond live online classes and have launched a game-based English learning app. “It’s been a great validation that customer demand or attendance and renewal rates didn’t go down post-Covid, which shows that it’s a large market with a deep consumer need and that our model is offering unparalleled convenience with a great learning experience,” says Kaustubh Khade, Co-Founder, Spark Studio. They are launching their courses in the US now and have tied up with 41 schools to offer their courses to 7,200 students through a B2B model as well. Spark Studio was a medal winner in the 'Best E-Learning / Online Tutoring' award category. “We’re honoured to have won this award and stoked to be in the august company of other great edtech brands,” expresses Khade on receiving the award. He believes that what made them stand out is their great metrics on retention, completion rates and customer happiness and the fact that they are addressing a large gap in the Indian education system that schools haven’t been able to cater to. Addressing the gap While schools fulfil a critical role, learning is not limited to what schools can offer. “Schools cannot customise learning for different interests or different pace of learning. This is where skill-based or interest-based edtech is filling the gap,” says Khade. As per him, success in life is not necessarily correlated with marks in school. Confidence, creativity, critical thinking, leadership are stronger drivers of success. A study by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Centre showed that 85 per cent of job success comes from well-developed soft and people skills and only 15 per cent from technical skills and knowledge. Kids have never been taught this till now, which skill-based techs are finally offering. The edtech platform has positioned itself as a player focussed on high-quality outcome-focussed learning in English, communication skills, music and art. The company is a global player with presence in 10 countries and they are building teacher supply from several countries and have partnered with global institutions such as TEDEd and Trinity College, London. Drivers Of Success By Upasana

66 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, upGrad talks about their education philosophy, their offerings and future plans You need to stay truly committed to solving a problem and need to be persistent in your efforts By Meha Mathur What started in the year 2015 as an endeavour to help working professionals simultaneously upskill themselves while continuing to work, has now expanded to offer degree programmes and an array of courses in India and abroad. upGrad became a unicorn in 2021 with a valuation of $1.2 billion and has impacted more than 7 million users globally through its programmes. For Mayank Kumar, the success of edtech lies in its foundation philosophy, which is to drive career outcomes. Building on this,upGrad has expanded its Life Long Learning suite and worldwide university network. “We create online courses in partnership with academicians and industry experts to foster outcome-oriented learning amongst our learners and drive tangible career ROI (return on investment) through job switches, salary hikes, promotions or confidence to empower them to perform better for maximum business outputs,” explains Kumar. Growth Story In the last year alone more than 450 career transitions into the MBA domain for its learners happened in quarter one, with the highest cost to company hike of 328 per cent. It became the biggest batch to receive placements across more than 75 companies. In order to build a successful organisation, Kumar states, “You need to stay truly committed to solving a problem and need to be persistent in your efforts.” There are highs and lows in every industry, perseverance is necessary. On the business end, Kumar advises that“it is imperative for organisations to create a business model that is scalable, sustainable, and non-negotiable. And it should add value to its customers”. Moreover, he states. “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.” For this year, upGrad plans to focus on domestic expansion. While the focus is on building a strong online platform, learners are encouraged to meet the upGrad team at their centres in person while choosing the right programme for themselves. To ensure the company stays connected to its user base, upGrad will continue to build on its offline presence and form strategic partnerships with academics and industry. upGrad-ing To The Next Level ED-TECH SOLUTION Best E-Learning/ Online Tutoring Company of the Year

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 67 Top Education Brands 2023 By Himanshu Ojha EDTECH SOLUTIONS Game based learning company of the year WINNER Matific is an adaptive, outof-box and 360-degree solution for kids. There is a saying 'Tell me I will forget, show me I will remember and involve me I will understand'. So, we involve kids in different activities. As far as the journey is concerned, now it's almost a year since we started. The numbers increased from two lakh to 1 million kids on our platform. The idea is to create a worldclass solution. There are three types of learners - sharp learners, slow learners, and average learners. Even slow learners with the adaptiveness of the solution can become sharp learners or average learners. Plans to scale up business The company is working on a B-B model. But we want to collaborate with bigger organisations and people who are creating impact and further make it a B-C model. There is a phobia of mathematics in the country. The path is tough and there is a lot of competition, but no one is providing solutions the way Matific is giving. I don't want to quantify the number here because the sky is the limit. With a very small team in the country, we have created a very big impact. Biggest challenge I can list two. The first challenge pertains to schools, since they have a certain budget and are consumed with a lot of work. For them, adapting a solution and merging it with the curriculum is a very challenging task. But our solution is synchronised with their curriculum, and they are adapting our solution. But when it comes to kids, the biggest challenge is screen time and parents are concerned about that. But in our case, we can time it out. So, there will be a task which will be assigned by teachers and certain time will be allotted to students so they can complete the task. "Even Slow Learners Can Become Fast Learners" Sahil Kapoor, Chief Business Officer, Matific, shares how his organisaiton provides learning solutions for kids and how it has created an impact pan-India There is a phobia of mathematics in the country. The path is tough and there is a lot of competition, but no one is providing solutions in the way Matific is giving

68 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 S hantanu Rooj has been an entrepreneur for the last 25 years now. His previous organisation was working with schools and colleges, helping them automate their processes and improve customer service. While at that, he realised the challenges of distance education learners – this lacked engagement, learning outcome and above all employability. He figured out that through use of technology, it is possible to improve the outcome for the learners. That gave him the idea to start TeamLease EdTech to solve the problem of outcome, signalling value and employability of distance education learners in the country. The company recently won 'Innovative Technology Solutions for Higher Education Provider' award. On how his company has been able to outperform other players in this category, Rooj expresses, “It feels great to be recognised at this prestigious platform. We believe that our focus on changing the outcome of the distance learning degrees at scale and ensuring employability, signalling value and high engagement through an integrated technology platform helped us win this.” The company partners with India’s leading universities and help them design, develop and deliver high-quality, engaging and employable programmes Education: Business With A Social Cause TeamLease EdTech works with about 55 universities and helps them design, develop and deliver engaging & employable programmes at affordable prices. Founder and CEO Shantanu Rooj on company's future plans and collaborations Focus on consumer service, engagement and a long term vision are necessary to survive and thrive in education market By Upasana at affordable prices. “Currently, we work with about 55 universities and 750 employers serving about 5.5 lakh students. We believe that we can increase these numbers 5 fold in the next 5 years,” informs Rooj. Speaking on the Indian higher education landscape, Rooj shares,“Higher education is considered as a pathway for students that leads them to build their careers. However, most often the students are disappointed as they get caught in doldrums and are forced to take up additional courses to improve their employability.” “The welcome change is the fact that NEP 2020 focusses on building skills alongside academic knowledge by embedding this within the course curriculum,” he adds. Rooj believes that education is a business with a social cause.“Every new entrant must realise that the businesses that can provide the right ROI to the learner are the only ones that survive,” suggests Rooj. “Hence, focus on consumer service, engagement and a long term vision are necessary to survive and thrive in this market,” he further says. EDTECH SOLUTION Innovative Technology Solutions Provider For Higher Education

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 69 Top Education Brands 2023 EDTECH SOLUTION Innovative Technology Solutions Provider For Higher Education Nitish Jain, Founder and President of SP Jain School of Global Management, on the global expanse and the industry-oriented programmes that the institute offers, with highly advanced technology Despite a global drop in MBA enrolments due to Covid-19, the school reported a 300 per cent growth in student numbers for its Executive MBA programme. We attribute this growth to ELO By Vasudha Mukherjee S tarting in 2004 w i t h a simple philosophy that “if business is global, business schools should also be global”, SP Jain School of Global Management (SPJSGM) established its first campus in Dubai due to its growing reputation as a regional hub for job opportunities. This was just the start of a journey to the institute expanding globally. As Nitish Jain, Founder and President of SPJSGM tells, “Sometime around 2006, we were invited by the Singapore government to set up a campus there. Asia was poised to leapfrog, which presented an excellent opportunity to expose our students to Asian business practices and culture. Sydney happened next, followed by Mumbai.” Their newest and fifth international campus in London is set to open later this year. Why London? “Because students want to study in London. It is one of the leading cities in the world, home to leading global companies and ranked a top city for university students,” Jain explains. Skill-oriented initiatives Recruiters seek graduates with skills, not just academic knowledge. That’s why SPJSGM implemented various initiatives to bridge the industry-academic divide and equip its graduates with the skills and they need to excel in their careers. Jain informs, “We partner with leading companies, providing our students opportunities to engage with industry professionals, harness their business expertise and gain real-world experience.” He adds, “By participating in internships and real-world business projects, our students gain hands-on experience in a real-world setting. They hone their industry-specific skills, gain insights into the day-to-day operations of various organisations, and develop a realistic understanding of the business world. Students are better equipped to hit the ground running, bringing value to their future employers from day one.” Tech enablement Engaged Learning Online (ELO) is one of the biggest feathers in SPJSGM’s cap. Describing the emphasis on engagement as its unique feature, Jain elaborates, “Can you imagine an online tool that lets you make eye contact and have face-to-face conversations with as many as 70 students in a classroom? I can’t think of any other university that has a similar system. “Since its launch in 2018, ELO has become a much-loved mode of learning amongst our students. Despite a global drop in MBA enrolments due to Covid-19, the school reported a 300 per cent growth in student numbers for its Executive MBA programme. We attribute this growth to ELO.” Technology That Emphasises Engagement

70 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 EDTECH SOLUTION Innovative Technology Solutions Provider for Schools Vivek Varshney, Founder, Speed Labs, advocates hybrid mode of learning which enables a student’s progress through better data and methodological inputs We are more focussed on selfstudy and practice where we use machine learning and data analytics to improve learning outcomes for students and curate their learning journey By Meha Mathur V ivek Varshney’s tryst as an education solutions provider began after long stint in financial services, industrial banking and private equity for 11 years, followed by work in education space for about six years. A BTech and an MBA, Varshney came up with the idea of deploying technology to improve learning outcomes in 2016. Thus was born Speed Labs, a “Catchy” abbreviation for ‘Specialised Education Lab’. Describing the thought process behind the launch of Speed Labs and the service that the startup provides, he says, “If we look at the journey of a students there are three aspects – lectures, self-study and practice. We are more focussed on the second and third aspects where we use machine learning and data analytics to improve learning outcomes for students and curate their learning journey.” Varshney is a firm believer in hybrid learning as against pure online learning, and adds, “In 2016, I was among the few people in the industry urging to go hybrid and thankfully during Covid too we stuck to hybrid model. We never experimented with pure online because it’s not doing justice to students. Pure online has lots of challenges in terms of infrastructure, device, place at home and monitoring. Whereas you can use hybrid mode for better analytics, feedback and suggestions.” Empowerment approach What specific role is Speed Labs playing in a student’s life, and how does it plan to innovate its product? Answering the question, Varshney says that with NEP rolling out, school education as we understand will not be the same anymore. “The term K12 may not remain. It may split into K 8 and 9-12. NEP is emphasising making youth available for skilled employable force. And after CUET’s successful implementation in 2022, every stream, be it engineering, medicine, humanities or commerce will have some competitive exam to get into the college. So, a product like Speed Labs can empower students with more methodological, analytical and data driven inputs for those exams.” In the new scheme of things, preparation based on data and not perception will determine admissions. “It’s better if the student has right diagnosis. Speed Labs is providing the right depth of diagnosis to students so that they can use their time well and work on their weaknesses and make strategy for exams,” he adds. “Better If The Student Has Right Diagnosis”

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 71 Top Education Brands 2023 Dhumil Javeri, Co-founder, Klassroom Edutech chose education of millions over a high-paying MNC job We are proud to say that we were the category creators for hybrid learning in 2016 when there were only offline or online players EDTECH SOLUTION Innovative Technology Solutions Provider for Schools By Resham Suhail T eaching became a passion for Dhumil Javeri very early on in life, when he started teaching physics at some coaching centres as a IInd year engineering student. Upon graduation in 2009, he had the option of joining an MNC which had selected him. But he chose to continue what he loved doing, ie teaching. Starting with a coaching centre catering to students of classes VIII to XII and helping students with preparation of exams like JEE, Javeri and his family, including mother and brother, decided to scale up the operation in 2016. The idea was “to impact millions of students so that they get education that is accessible, affordable, accountable and flexible in terms of mode of learning. The entire education system runs on these four parameters”. They started with the premise that impacting even one member of a family through education can uplift an entire family. Javeri says about the decision, “We are proud to say that we were the category creators for hybrid learning in 2016 when there were only offline or online players. We launched the product in Mumbai. Currently we have close to 150 partner centres in Mumbai, Delhi Pune, Nashik and Ahmedabad.” Javeri calls these physical centres “asset-light”. Along with that, we have 60,000 learners on our platforms, learning from 500 different locations.” He adds, “The best part of our platform is that it’s highly affordable. So someone could aspire to become an engineer or doctor at Rs 5,000 or 7,000 for an entire year.” Recognition for work Javeri is proud that their work was recognised by the PM Narendra Modi last January when they were among the companies selected for live interaction with him. During the interaction, Klassroom made some policy recommendations too. “Fortunately, we are working with 650 central government schools and above 600 state government schools of Rajasthan, implementing NEP and training teachers in those schools.” Elaborating on this, he says, “Since we are working with central and state government schools, all the content that we are creating is completely NEP ready. It’s approved and verified.” “Providing Accessible, Affordable, Accountable Education”

72 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 Expect The Unexpected Alakh Pandey, Founder, Physics Wallah shares his journey of using online platforms to reach as many students who are looking for quality, free education through his edtech, Physics Wallah By Vasudha Mukherjee Anywhere where students are not happy, where students are tormented by high fees, where students are not getting that much quality education, PW will be present EDTECH SOLUTION Edtech CEO of the Year EDTECH SOLUTION STEM Education Solution of the Year WINNER While Physics Wallah (PW) was officially founded in 2020, Alakh Pandey had been working to bring the vision together since 2014 through his YouTube channel under the same name. Born in Allahabad (renamed Prayagraj), Pandey came from a family that saw its fair share of financial struggles. Not being able to avail expensive coaching classes, Pandey made the decision to find a way to lower education costs and make it more affordable and accessible to all. Starting with offline classes, Pandey moved to YouTube to reach a wider audience.Growing to become one of the largest Physics tutoring platforms, he launched an app and expanded the services to include courses, test preparation, doubt clearingand more. Categories were also expanded to include various entrance exams such as UPSC, Banking, Railways, etc. Now PW has 20 Pathshala centres across India, where students can opt for hybrid learning or complete offline education. While Pandey dropped out of college in his IIIrd year, hefeels there is potential to bring “something around university” into PW. “There is something missing in college education. You see students preparing for examinations only seven days before and what they are taught in their courses is not relevant, not useful in the industry,” he feels. Skilling and training is slowly becoming better embedded into school and professional education. Therefore, it is no surprise that PW might expand into this area. The startu p s e c t o r has seen a lot of disruption this past year a n d e d t e c h s were also affected by the economic shift. Despite this, PW has been doing well and has even witnessed growth. In Pandey’s view, this is because PW has stuck to the basics of education. On the currentedtech trends, Pandey states, “All our fellows [edtech players] are doing phenomenal and they are putting their hearts out in their startup.”On the business front, Pandey informs,“Every penny spent in PW is for students’ welfare, so we don't spend too much on marketing costs.” PW stays away from “hypermarketing”, choosing instead to spend on educators and filling in any gaps they may identify in their system like infrastructure and technology.At the end of day, PW sticks to its vision of proving quality education for all. “Anywhere where students are not happy, where students are tormented by high fees, where students are not getting that much quality education, PW will be present,” he concludes.

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 73 Top Education Brands 2023 We have seen the education sector evolving over the years. How has your journey been for you? This is my 25th year in education – I have seen computers in education, smart boards in classrooms, expansion into global markets, and, in the last two years, the growth of edtech space. A lot of change has occurred during Covid, with the lockdown pushing technology. Acceptance of technology has grown and its use has become far more easy. And for the first time the sector is talking about data. There is a lot of talk about engagement and collaboration. How important are these two to you? Collaboration is happening at the level of students as well as teachers. Because of the regulatory environment, a lot of people who could not teach inside the classroom became edtech teachers. And they are fulfilling their passion. The society is far more inclusive now. If you want to teach now, there are multiple ways to do so. You don’t need a BEd to teach. The other big change is, how learners are getting exposure from outside locations. And a lot of collaborations are possible in school, higher education or workplace collaboration in technology. The market has opened up. When I started working in NIIT in 1996-99, at that point of time if I told “Grit, A Combination Of Passion & Hard Work” Ujjwal Singh, CEO, Infinity Learn, describes his philosophy of education, emanating from his 25-year-long fruitful stint in the sector Edtech Solution Edtech CEO of the Year someone I work in education, they would wonder if I am a teacher or what. Now, very qualified people from IITs and IIMs are coming to education sector. Technology will be the most critical aspect for education to evolve. What new can we expect from Infinity in 2023? We work in the area of assessment. One thing we found was, assessment still has challenges. So is solving doubts. So these are some of our focus areas: how to make assessment as close to what the benchmark is, and give good insight to the learner so that he can really benefit. Coming from an experience of 25 years, what is your philosophy of education? Do what you love doing, but do it to your best. Do it so well that nobody else can compete there. If you love doing something, but are frivolous about it, it doesn’t get result. Grit is a combination of passion and hard work. There is no short cut to hard work. By Resham Suhail If you love doing something, but are frivolous about it, it doesn’t get result.... There is no shortcut to hard work

74 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 EDTECH SOLUTION Edtech Company of the Year Vivek Kumar Singh, Co-founder and CEO, Careerera, on the rationale behind his venture and the role of technology in bridging learner-educator gap There are many remote areas in India, where girls are not allowed to go outside for higher education. Online learning is a big relief for them By Upasana C areerera is fulfilling a critical n e e d i n employment-oriented education by offering a range of online courses, like Data Science, Software Development, Cyber Security, Cloud and Visualisation, AI and ML, General Management, Project Management, Banking and Finance and much more. It has presence in more than 60 countries and has trained thousands of professionals. Co-founder and CEO Vivek Kumar Singh believes that educational programmes should be implemented in order to produce industry-ready employees. Sharing the rationale behind starting Careerera, Singh says, “In this competitive world, students are looking for meaningful jobs, not just titles. Since my focus has always been on mentoring students making better career choices, I decided to start my own edtech. I made sure that my edtech offers a diverse selection of courses, majors, and extracurricular activities to make freshers and professionals industry-ready.” No entrepreneurial journey is easy, and the journey of establishing Careerera was not easy either. “In fact, it was full of hurdles,” shares Singh. He adds, “Right from its inception and until today, a lot of patience and hard work is being invested to make it better. However, I had my managers, supervisors and other teammates who walked along with me with unconditional support. The performance of every member in my team is just phenomenal. My family left no stones unturned in providing me the necessary support in life.” Tech prowess Careerera is working hard towards bringing interactive learning methodology to the forefront for its learners. Singh is confident that adoption of new emerging technologies will surely play a tremendous role in bridging the gap between education and learners in this constantly changing world. “There are many remote areas in India where girls are not allowed to go outside for higher education. Online learning is a big relief for them as they can make use of open source educational courses from the best colleges across the world,” he says. To those aspiring to take the entrepreneurial route, his guidance is, “You should always consider offering something unique to the audience that no other institution does. Working on setting yourself apart from the others would help you articulate the value of your institution.” Making Youth Industry-Ready WINNER

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 75 Top Education Brands 2023 HIGHER EDUCATION Institution with Excellent Training and Placements For Social Transformation Aruna M Katara, President, Hope Foundation's Finolex Academy of Management and Technology, on the importance of having holistic approach towards students to make them globally competitive With the internet revolution, education has crossed classroom boundaries and information has become accessible to all. We are witnessing tremendous alterations in pedagogical approaches and infrastructural requirements By Upasana How has the journey been with Hope Foundation's Finolex Academy of Management and Technology? I have been associated with the Foundation's Finolex Academy of Management and Technology (FAMT) along with my father late PP Chhabria, the Founder President, since its establishment in 1996. I have witnessed its transformation over the years, starting with an intake of 60 in Electronics Engineering, to over 1,600 students pursuing various undergraduate programmes in Engineering, a postgraduate programme in MCA and various PhD programmes. Today, FAMT has evolved into a campus with state-ofthe-art amenities, well-qualified and experienced faculty members and strong industry-institute interaction. How has your perspective on education changed in your time with this institution? There have been significant changes in the field of education, especially during the last decade. With the internet revolution, education has crossed classroom boundaries and information has become accessible to all. We are witnessing tremendous alterations in pedagogical approaches and infrastructural requirements. You are the winner of 'Institution with excellent Training and Placements' award. What went into the making of this success story? There is an immense sense of pride in receiving this award. It will certainly motivate us to work further and better. FAMT is nestled in the rural area of the Konkan region. The institute is making efforts beyond the curriculum to impart structured training and the latest domain knowledge to students. It also provides industry exposure through internships and field visits, collaboration with industries, interaction with HR and alumni at early stages along with soft skill and placement-specific training to make students placement ready. How significant is it to have industry-academia collaborations, according to you? Industry-academia initiatives are extremely important to make a student future ready. It also helps fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing between academia and industry through the student’s internship, industrial visits and gives the students an opportunity to work on live projects. What would you suggest to budding educationists? It is very crucial to realise that education is a social transformation activity beyond profit motive. Since the whole world has become one community, in pursuit of excellence ‘Think Globally Act Locally’ must be kept in mind at every step while building any educational campus to make students globally competitive and a good citizen.

76 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 BM Munjal University, with Swati Munjal as President, provides hands-on learning rather than one-way educational delivery Specific courses like Joy of Management offered by theManagement School and Joy of Engineering offered by the Engineering School integrate hands-on activities into the course delivery By Team BW Education T he firm belief at BML Munjal University is that pedagogy needs to be more student centric and should get the student as well as faculty equally involved in the process of learning and knowledge facilitation. As a progressive, forward-thinking university, they believe that the new crop of students requires a very different pedagogical approach which is much more hands on and experientially driven rather than a mere one-way delivery of knowledge. In an attempt to do so the university makes constant attempt to create an infrastructure and a learning environment that fosters experiential learning. Innovations done Experiential learning environment is created at the university across schools in multiple courses. Some of the initiatives are: The Practice School: It allows students to experience corporate roles and responsibilities through on-the-job trainings. At the School of Management, students undergo multiple online simulations as a part of their coursework to experience the intensity of management decision making. Start-up Ecosystem: This brings in the experience of the industry stalwarts to our classrooms and practical experience of our students in the start-ups currently being incubated on campus. Gamification: This includes but is not limited to incorporating board game simulations, group assignments, outbound learning initiatives like river rafting etc. Innovative Courses: Specific courses like Joy of Management offered by the Management School and Joy of Engineering offered by the Engineering School integrate handson activities into the course delivery. Language Labs: The involvement of Language Labs ensures every student participates in developing their communication skills. Global Immersion Programmes: The Global or International Immersion Programmes at the School of Management and various international training programmes keep student’s engagement with the coursework and the university high. Co-curricular Credits: In fact, in the UG course curriculum, credits are also offered for participating in co-curricular activities through the different clubs. Case Based Pedagogy: Solving problems is at the heart of all course delivery at the university. Therefore, many courses follow a case-based pedagogical approach. In fact, the university has a licencing agreement with Harvard Business Publishing to utilise their cases in the university classrooms. Course Projects: Majority of the courses have project-based evaluation components, wherein students in groups solve interdisciplinary problems related to business, technology, and the society at large. Research Projects: In engineering courses, students are encouraged to work in research projects related to water purification systems, solar energy and electric vehicles and legal issues around it. Multiple Innovations In Pedagogy HIGHER EDUCATION Institution with Innovative Infrastructure and Learning Environment

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 77 Top Education Brands 2023 ED-TECH Innovative Technology Solutions Provider for Schools Sachin Bahmba, Founder and CMD, Space Technology & Education Pvt. Ltd. (Space Group), talks about the contribution of his venture to education In our 22 years journey we have developed and successfully executed innovative space clubs and exciting workshops, across 1,000+ Schools and inspired more than +1 million students By Team BW Education Te l l u s a b ou t you r j ou r ney w i t h S p a c e Technology. I am an Indian-born entrepreneur and philanthropist, pioneer in introducing the concept of astronomy, space science education and astro-tourism in the Indian education and tourism sector. I am the founder of Space Group and its parent company Space Technology & Education Pvt. Ltd. I am also an avid astronomer and wildlife-environment conservationist, while being the disciple of physics. I am a strong supporter of hands-on experiential teaching-learning methodologies in science and mathematics. Space has introduced disruptive business concepts in the field of astronomy and space science education, astro-tourism, and manufacturing. In our 22 years journey we have developed and successfully executed innovative space clubs and exciting workshops, across 1,000+ Schools and inspired more than +1 million students. Alongside 1,000+ outreach events, we have also carried scientific expeditions through the land, water and sky. Congratulations on winning the award. How does it feel to receive this award and what steps have you taken to reach this stage? It feels great to receive the award. It’s all the 22 years of hard work and consistency in curating the most exclusive and hands-on experiences for grassroots that has led me to this stage. How has your perspective on education changed in your time with this institution? With emerging technology and indigenous DIY kits being used at schools, education sector has shown tremendous growth for capacity building. While new education policy is promoting the education on rockets, satellites and robotics as new skill learning, we are confident that our youth will lead the industries and sectors for innovation and advancements in years to come. What is your advice to those who want to enter the education sector? It’s a great sector where you will be changing and empowering lives and shaping the future of India through grassroots upbringing. And we need a lot of healthy competition and innovation that makes this sector open for new entrants. Keep your content experiential focused and one which enables students to ask questions so that their curiosity keeps growing. Of Rockets, Satellites And Robotics

78 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 HIGHER EDUCATION Leading University in India Preparing Critical Thinkers And Ethical Leaders Ashoka University’s Liberal Arts and Sciences education enables critical thinking, complex problem solving, effective communication, teamwork and innovation for impact and change By Team BW Education Education at Ashoka carries a strong emphasis on foundational knowledge, thorough academic research based on rigorous pedagogy and hands-on experience A shoka University is a private university located in the National Capital Region (NCR), India, focussing on liberal education in humanities, social sciences and sciences. It is a non-profit university, established under the Haryana Private Universities Act, 2006, having its place of business at Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonipat, Haryana. A deserving university which was recently awarded as 'Leading University in India' by BW Businessworld, it is built on the finest global best practices of institution and university governance. The institution offers programmes in science, particularly, a 'unique blend' of research in science and humanities. The university practises a holistic approach of assessment in its Undergraduate, Graduate, Young India Fellowship and PhD Programmes. Faculty at the university comprises authors, scientists, historians, journalists, artists and entrepreneurs. Each of them has contributed to relevant and high-quality research in their respective fields. The diversity of experience and research in Ashoka’s faculty reflects the university’s foundational goals. The university runs Young India Fellowship (YIF) programme for students. Offered as a year-long residential postgraduate diploma in liberal studies, it brings together 100 curious & driven individuals and exposes them to a multidisciplinary and multidimensional education. Within a year, fellows engage with diverse areas of study, research and practice, enabled by leading thinkers and scholars of our time. Fellows come from diverse academic, professional, socio-economic & geographical backgrounds and have varied aspirations & career trajectories. Accomplished leaders, philanthropists, thinkers and academicians with expertise in varied fields have come together to create the university. It brings contemporary values and practices in higher education, in the tradition of the world’s leading universities, to India. With a strong emphasis on multi-disciplinary learning, development of skills and leadership attributes for 21st century, the university is preparing students to be critical thinkers and ethical leaders in an increasingly diverse world. Education at Ashoka carries a strong emphasis on foundational knowledge, thorough academic research based on rigorous pedagogy and hands-on experience with real-world challenges.

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 79 Top Education Brands 2023 Filling The Gap Between Education & Employment Siddharth Chaturvedi, Pro-Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore University, believes that it is universities' & institutes' responsibility to invest time and resources in training, reskilling & upskilling and the duty of the government to have policies implemented that ensure opportunities to future-proof careers “A considerable necessity has been felt to align higher education with skillbased education and to incorporate skillbased education as an essential part of the higher education system” By Upasana T oday the job and skilling industry has seen several paradigm shifts. However, one of the major challenges that the job-seeking population of India is facing today is the mismatch between education and employment. The skill gap is stark between industrial demands and job seekers. Not only are employers seeking people with technical skills, but the prerequisite also includes soft skills like communication, critical thinking and problem-solving approach, along with other imperatives like leadership, teamwork and emotional intelligence. “It is inevitably the responsibility of universities and institutes to invest time and resources in training, reskilling and upskilling and the duty of the government to have policies implemented that ensure opportunities to future-proof careers and make individuals indispensable assets to companies,” says Siddharth Chaturvedi, Pro-Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore University. “A considerable necessity has been felt to align higher education with skill-based education and to incorporate skill-based education as an essential part of the higher education system,” he adds. Expanding access to skill-based education in higher education can enhance the comp e t i t i v e n e s s o f a nation in the globalworld. Countries like Switzerland and Germany, well renowned for their extensive dual s ystems of vocational education and train - ing, have attained worldwide recognition. Chaturvedi believes that higher education institutions should build partnerships with industry bodies and skill assessment organisations to contribute to reforming strategies. Leaders can come together to assess areas that are facing skill gaps in the industry and institutes can bridge this gap by introducing learning through a practical approach to the same. Rabindranath Tagore University is a frontrunner in various skill development initiatives of the Government of India. It is India's first skill-based university to provide innovative courses with a focus on making students industry-ready while offering benefits like earn-while-you-learn option, a real-timework environment for effective simulation training and flexible course selection. And as it rightly deserves, the university recently bagged ‘Leading University In India' award from BW Education. HIGHER EDUCATION Leading University in India

80 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 T his Thursday, 19th January, BW Businessworld organised its 2023 edition of the Future of Management Education Conclave. More than 50 Directors, management education leaders, hiring managers and industry came together to discuss the evolving nature of business schools. Leaders discussed the challenges in management education today, preparing students for the competitive market and importance of continuous learning and skilling for students and faculty alike. The full-day event at The Park, New Delhi, showcased panel discussions and fireside chats to exchange ideas and discuss trends and opportunities in education beyond the classroom. This kknowledge-disseminatingand networking conclave brought together the brightest minds and recognised some of the high performers in management education today. BW Businessworld Honours Management Education Leaders 2023 In the 2023 edition of the Future of Management Education Conclave, BW Businessworld brings together thought leaders, education leaders and industry experts to discuss trends, challenges and opportunities in management education

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 81 Top Education Brands 2023 Dr Pritam Singh Best Director of the Year Award This year, as part of the Future of Management Education Conclave, BW Education, BW Businessworld launched the Dr Pritam Singh Best Director/ Institute Builder Award, named in honour of the late Padma Shri educationist, Dr Pritam Singh. The Dr Pritam Singh Best Director of the Year Award is a flagship award named after Dr Pritam Singh, a distinguished and most eminent Management School Director who made an exceptional contribution to the field of Management Education. Dr Pritam Singh was an extraordinary thought leader, he was an advisor to several national boards, wrote seven academic books, and published over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. This award is in remembrance of his legacy and was awarded to Prof Janat Shah, Director of IIM Udaipur for his contributions to the field of management research & education and for nurturing one of the youngest IIMs of the country into a prominent institute. Categories Winner Awardee Name Best Use of Digital Technology IIM Calcutta Prof Uttam Kumar Sarkar, Director, IIM Calcutta Manav Rachana International Institute of Research and Studies Prof (Dr) Lt. General R K Anand, Director General, Manav Rachana International Institute of Research and Studie Emerging B School Award Ramaiah Institute of Management Dr. Manasa Nagabhushanam, Director (Academics, Research & Administration), Ramaiah Institute of Management Institute of Public Enterprises Prof S Sreenivasa Murthy, Director Institute of Public Enterprise Best Distance Learning Institute Institute of Management Education, Ghaziabad Dr. Vishal Talwar, Director, IMT Ghaziabad Best B-School in Leadership Excellence Lexicon Management Insitute of Leadership & Excellence Nasir Shaikh, Group CEO, The Lexicon Group of Institutes, Multifit & EduCrack Best International Immersion AwardSP Jain Institute of Management & Research Prof. Ruppal W Sharma, Chairperson-PGPGM, Head Delhi Centre-SPJIMR Best B School in Industrial Training IIM Nagpur Dr. Bhimraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur Future of Management Education Awardees

82 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 B-School directors, faculty and industry representatives discuss hirings of B-school grads, entrepreneurial spirit, training for industry 5.0 and much more at the day-long event T he National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 aims to increase the enrolment ratio in Indian higher education from 27 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030, which is impossible with the current physical infrastructure, providing enough space for the online learning movement to occupy, said Anish Srikrishna, President & CEO, Times Pro, during a conversation with Annurag Batra, Editor-in-Chief & Chairman, BW Businessworld Group and Founder, exchange4Media, on the pivotal role edtech can play in education management. He was speaking at Future Of Management Conclave 2023. About courses in vogue, Srikrishna added that there is massive uptake on technology-related courses as well as convergent courses like management technology. Future of Management Education Conclave 2023 By Team BW Education

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 83 Top Education Brands 2023 Underscoring the offerings by edtech, Anish said that communication technology and the invasion of technology into management have enabled people to develop better personalities and softer skills. Moreover, it has impressed the learner a lot by not only making him aware of events around the globe but also by providing a robust and flexible curriculum. Talking about the role of the learner, Anish stated, "The learners are driving a lot of the thinking that edtech companies are putting into their efforts. This way, we have been able to bridge the learner academia gap and to a certain extent, the industry academia gap because we are at the confluence of the employer-learner academic interface." A global management edu hub As B-Schools prepare themselves to match the existing benchmark of global institutions, it’s also important to remember that they have given many prudent management professionals to the world who are leading big firms. In the panel discussion on ‘Making India the Global Management Education Hub’, Mohit Aggarwal, Founder, of Doon Business School Group, Dehradun emphasised that the role of in-house institutions needs to be discussed in this context. Mayank Daundiyal, Dean, Jindal Global Business School, said that it would be interesting to see how many B-Schools and top management universities in the world would set up here in India. Daundiyal also highlighted the expensive cost of admission in global B-schools that are going to be set up in India. “If we consider that the tuition fees a typical student pays to the public or private institution in India is just a fraction of what top B-school charge outside India, then we need to look at its viability," he said. In this regard, Madhu Chitkara, Pro-Chancellor, Chitkara University stated, “If the foreign institutes and universities are going to establish their campuses in the diverse countries like India, they will not compromise with their fee structure what they have in their country and people are not going to pay that.” Subir Verma, Director, of the Institute of Management, Nirma University B-schools in India are not focussing only on placements. Placement is just a process. All the skills that we are building in a B- School go much beyond placement in the corporate world, in business and in life in particular

84 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 called the entire movement of foreign universities coming to India part of the way the entire management education has grown over the world. “We are noticing the emergence of a new category of students who are just acquiring management education on the basis of fees,” said Verma. "Making India a hub of global management education is about enhancing the quality of management education in India to match the global benchmark," stressed Sanjeev Bansal, Dean - Faculty of Management Studies, Director, Amity Business School. He stated, “As an educator, coming of foreign universities to India does not worry me but I am worried about how we have to make ourselves equipped with the standards that foreign universities are taking care of.” Building student career beyond placements "Business Schools in India are not focussing only on placements. Placement is just a process. All the skills that we are building in a B-School go much beyond placement in the corporate world, in business and in life in particular," said Anil Somani, Chairman, FOSTIIMA Business School, in the panel on the above mentioned theme. Asit K Barma, Director, Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli, opined that the business order around us is getting highly dynamic and we really can't predict what mix of candidates will come onboard. Pawan Kumar Singh, Director, IIM Tiruchirappalli, stated that MBA is not meant for creating students to become eligible for becoming management trainees or just to get placed. "MBA is a life-time qualification." "Living may be covered by placement but life cannot be covered by placement. Transcending from managing living to managing life is significant," he added. Praveen Gupta, Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, concurred. "We are trapped in this

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 85 Top Education Brands 2023 thought process to some extent but the students, the faculty, the administration, everybody including parents should look at management education as the vehicle to prepare for all kinds of adversities," he stated. "All of us as business schools are trying to ingrain a lot of important values, different kinds of skill sets, holistic learning as well but when placement season comes - everything goes out of the window and then we are all measured on that one metric. But at IMT, we are focussed at entrepreneurship and innovation," shared Vishal Talwar, Director, IMT Ghaziabad. Moderator Bhimraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur said, " If we look at the top 50 Indian B-Schools, the fee is extremely high. Students go for loan and that's why they look for better placements." Shaping future entrepreneurs In this panel discussion, experts discussed how educational institutes can act as incubators for young entrepreneurs across the country. Comparing the current entrepreneurial environment with previous decades, Lt General RK Anand, Director General, MRIIRS, said, "Two to three decades ago, the environment in the universities was strictly based on the syllabi and used to be confined within the four walls of the classroom." Now, not just universities but governments and the industries across different verticals are promoting the startup culture. There is integration and conversion taking place between the industry and demand. These conversions are pulling the ecosystem together and motivating all stakeholders to think and innovate. Pooja Jain, Director, Jagan Institute of Management Studies, observed a drastic change in the risk appetite of the youngsters. "We have supported small startups run by students; we have aligned with two industrial areas that are in the vicinity of our campus, and we send our students to the SMEs so that they can support them in running their businesses and learn from them," she said. "Universities abroad have not looked at entrepreneurship as one subject, rather they have embedded entrepreneurship throughout the curriculum of B-Schools," said Nihar Amoncar, Chairperson -PGDM ExP Programme, Faculty Strategy and Innovation, IMT Ghaziabad. Amoncar explained how ‘enterpriseship’ is different from entrepreneurship. Enterpriseship is about having an idea and making it happen. Entrepreneurship is about scaling it up and creating social, cultural and economic value for society. “We must better assist and shape students' ideas, provide them with mentor teams and structured funding and improve their marketing strategies.” The session was moderated by Sudhakar Rao, Director, ICFAI and also saw participation of Sanjeev Chaturvedi, Director, GNIOT Institute of Management Studies and BS Sahay, Director, IIM Jammu. Universities abroad have not looked at entrepreneurship as one subject, rather they have embedded entrepreneurship throughout the curriculum of B-Schools

86 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM Top Education Brands 2023 Evolving hiring practices The hiring process has transformed dramatically since the early 2000s. The processes are all so different that it’s difficult to imagine what seems common now (like LinkedIn, video messages and texting) didn’t exist in the same capacity only two decades ago. And this change is due to rapid technological advancements. To add to the same, Dheeraj Modi, VP and Global HR Head, NLB Services stated, “There are many things and changes which are not in control of human touch and one of it is technology. In November 2022, Chat GPT, the brainchild of Elon Musk was launched; creating a human assistant. Trust me, it has by passed Google in terms of Artificial Intelligence.” So technology besides being an enabler, can also eat up a lot of our jobs in times to come with inventions of software like ChatGPT. Beyond just the rise of the internet, tools like video interviewing and interview scheduling software have helped streamline the hiring process, saving both time and money, making hiring managers’ jobs much easier. Amit Sharma, Chief People and Culture Officer, Volvo Group India, pointed out that hiring modules are coming back at behavioural hiring mode too. “So in a way we are slowly getting back to the hiring where soft skills and behavioural aspects too were important factors in hiring any prospective candidate. Today, most employers are critical of hiring just basis technical skills, as now offices have become in-person again. Hence, behavioural aspects too will play a pivotal role in hiring,” he stressed. Talking about firings and retrenchments, Yuvaraj Srivastava, Group CHRO, Make My Trip said, “If we see, layoffs aren’t something new. Churning out 250 people out of a lot of 10,000 or 20,000 employees is pretty normal. It’s just that now these numbers are being put into social media which is gaining hype.” And the biggest aspect is that such layoffs aren’t creating unemployment. If they get washed away from one organisation, then the employees are updating their respective CVs and getting jobs in different organisations; with specific to knowledge driven industries. Sandeep Girotra, CHRO, DCM Shriram stressed that if employees are expecting a commitment from the employer that they won’t be retrenched, then “I suggest them to go to Banaras, kynki professional world mein ye to hoga hi (these things are bound to happen in the professional world).” Diversity & inclusion Schools have the responsibility to sensitise the students about diversity and inclusiveness and they should teach them to respect other’s cultures, practices and traditions to eliminate discrimination and certain biases, stressed SV Ramana Rao, Director, Siva Sivani Institute of Management, in the session on ‘Inculcating Diversity and Inclusion in B-Schools’. Nagarajan Ramamoorthy, Director, IIM Amritsar agreed, saying, "Diversity is a level playing field for everyone, ensuring equal opportunity and fair treatment for everyone." We are slowly getting back to the hiring where soft skills and behavioural aspects too were important factors in hiring any prospective candidate. Today, most employers are critical of hiring just basis technical skills, as now offices have become in-person again, hence behavioural aspects too will play a pivotal role in hiring

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 87 Top Education Brands 2023 "B-Schools are educating future leaders; without inculcating diversity in the minds of students they will not be able to do so," said Dr Noor Firdoos Jahan, Professor & Head, Department of Marketing, RV Institute of Management. Nasir Shaikh, CEO, Lexicon Group of Institutes and Dr Manasa Nagabhushanam, Director, Ramaiah Institute of Management also participated in the discussion. Bridging industry-academia Gap ."ChatGPT has introduced us to Education 5.0, the future of business education and industrial-academic linkage," said Jitendra Das, Director, FORE School of Management, during the session on 'Bridging the Industry-Academia Gap'. He added, "B-Schools should find their own curriculum and interact with industry to develop job-ready students." Nasir Shaikh, CEO, Lexicon Group of Institutes said B-Schools today operate like a corporate hub, have tie-ups with the industry and provide learning curriculum that suits industry working standards. Radha Thevannoor, Director & Registrar, SCMS Group of Educational Institutes said, "Besides syllabus, there is far more B-Schools can do and training the teacher with industry aspects will help in delivering practical knowledge among students." S Sreenivasa Murthy, Director, Institute of Public Enterprise, also accoladed the faculty internship. He stated that it is easier to train a teacher rather than inviting a number of corporate members, which is mostly not possible. "The root cause of the industry and academia gap comes from the educational curriculum’s non-alignment with industrial today’s want," underlined Himadri Das, Director General, IMI, New Delhi. Industry 5.0 Industry 5.0 is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the nature of job transformations and it requires improving the critical understanding of new job creation including reducing the skills gaps, coping with possible unemployment effects and fostering industrial competitiveness while enhancing inclusiveness, discussed speakers at the session on Industrial Training & Skilling for Industry 5.0. Urvashi Makkar, Director, IMS Ghaziabad emphasised creating an ecosystem, especially where the demand for different skills is changing so rapidly. She said, “Teaching in B-Schools also matters - how we are creating learning agility in students and making it flexible among students and having the inbuilt capability to learn, relearn and unlearn according to the market.” Citing a report of World Economic Forum, M Vishwanathaiah, Director, IFIM College, said, “Nowadays, four skill are very important including problem solving skill, skill of self-managing, working in groups and use of technology and development – to achieve India’s industrial training and skilling for Industry 5.0. Ruppal Sharma, Chairperson, PGPGM, Head - Delhi Centre, SPJIMR, and Vishwa Mohan Bansal, Chairman, NDIM also participated in the discussion, moderated by Sanjay Fuloria, Professor, ICFAI Business School. Inputs from Sugandh Bahl, Bupendra Paintola, Shruti Tripathi, MD Zakariya Khan, Suchita Sail, and Sangeet Kumar Sanu

88 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM FMEC Awards With online classes, you are reaching those who can't reach campus, says Lt General RK Anand, Director General at Manav Rachana International Institute of Research and Studies Best Use of Digital Technology By Sangeet Kumar Sanu L t Gen RK Anand, Director General at Manav Rachana International Institute of Research and Studies emphasises that the ecosystem in the education domain has totally transformed because of information technologies, especially post-Covid-19, differentiatethe students into two segments: one those who love to come to campus and “With IT, Two Segments Of Students Have Emerged” to come to campus and missed campus in the last two years and the other segment who likes online classes. Anand further says, “Covid-19 has thought us to work or practise online, which seemed impossible once. Institutions have conducted courses which never designed to be online and which gave a way to online study and today, there is a large number of students who want online classes actually.” Praising the new education policy, he says that it is interesting that you can do dual degrees at the same time. You may have one degree in physical space and one degree may have in online space. So, it is a very good thing that the two verticals have evolved simultaneously. He points out the benefits of online classes and said that with online courses, you are reaching those people who can't reach campus. If you are living in far-flung areas, you don't need to come to a metro city but education can go to far-flung areas. missed campus in the last two years and the other segment who likes online classes Historically, a learner's educational opportunities were limited by the resources available in a classroom. Fortunately, technological advances have opened up new possibilities for how students can learn. Futuristic technology has the power to strengthen and advance relationships between educators and students, to reinvent novel approaches to learning and collaboration, to close long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and to adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners. Prof Dr Lt General RK Anand, Director General at Manav Rachana International Institute of Research and Studies says that the ecosystem in the education domain has totally transformed because of information technologies, especially post-Covid-19 and differentiates the students into two segments: one is those who love

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 89 FMEC Awards LT GENERAL RK ANAND Changing B-School Focus Talking about B-Schools, he says these institutes have also shifted from teaching classics to creating leaders. Now we train our students not just to become managers but also to become leaders. So, there is a very holistic and experiential learning that’s not confined to classrooms. He counts the new abilities on which B-Schools are focusing on, which include improving personality, ability to take risks, ability to work together and ability to emerge as a leader in difficult situations and ability to adjust according to the changes. “Another important thing that is happening is a fair amount of integration taking place with the industry and industries are also walking into the institutions and mentoring under industry and industry is also overlooking the curriculum of the management courses and syllabus are changing according to the need, not like earlier where for 10 years the same syllabus is in place,” Anand says optimistically. He also believes that great things are happening in this sector. Talking about his institute, he said, “We opened up large areas and feeding industries but at the same time, upskilling is also very important. So, in Management development programmes, we keep conducting this to upskill.” According to him, a fair amount of exchange of policies, knowledge and ideas is taking place between certain regulatory bodies and universities. The AICTE and UGC played a fantastic leadership role and there are some kinds of path breakers that facilitated the universities tremendously, he added. Under the government leadership, many startup and skill development programmes have been launched,as also the Atal Incubation Mission under NITI Aayog,among other initiatives. He believes that India has a large number of startups on campus and hundreds of startups are wanting to be part of these startups and have the capability to innovate and take risks. There is also a fantastic environment in universities driven by the government and agencies promoting entrepreneurship. “The whole education system is opening up and synergy is taking place which allows students to work in different areas and study in parts of the world. In future, students can join engineering and finance as well as can do coding,” he says. To become a good professional and a good leader, you need to become a good human and focus on compassion and communication

90 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM FMEC Awards Manasa Nagabhushanam, Director (Academics, Research and Administration), Ramaiah Institute of Management talks about the changes needed in management education Emerging B-School Award By Shruti Tripathi Management education has so much to offer to the country and the future of the new generation, which is why the implementation of the right policies and the proper execution of the norms is the most decisive step towards a brighter future. Manasa Nagabhushanam, Director (Academics, Research & Administration), Ramaiah Institute of Management who joined the institute three years back and who has vast experience of being in leadership position several other business schools, believes in inclusion and tension-free environment for each stakeholder involved in the education sector. “If there is a free flow of thought, then people will be able to perform. My mantra for good performance is to have an open learning environment, whether it is for students or for faculty. Right from admissions to the placements, we own an inclusive approach”, says Nagabhushanam. She adds, “When you include everyone and have a feeling of oneness within the organisation, not just one individual but the organisation performs.” Nagabhushanam adds that instead of a top-down approach, her organisation pursues the theory of a bottom-up approach because they believe learning happens at the bottom and students are more important to them in the teacher-student relationship because they are the learners. “B-Schools Need To Loosen The Structure For Future Needs” Regarding the transformation of B-Schools in recent years, Nagabhushanam says that like any other education system, in the management education sector, outcomes have become more important. She quotes Steven A Cohen who said, ‘Start with the end and once you start you have to do reverse re-engineering’. There has been a shift in education from mugging up to learning, she claims. Regarding the second paradigm shift, Nagabhushanam says that earlier we used to think that the best of our students will become managers but it has changed; now every individual needs to have entrepreneurial skills.

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 91 FMEC Awards MANASA NAGABHUSHANAM She also highlights the advent of a variety of startups that have influenced the management education system. Now, the education in B-Schools is more connected to the ongoing trends inside the industry. There is a leader in everyone and throughout the two years of education in B-Schools, a leader should come out, Nagabhushanam mentions. One major paradigm shift that Nagabhushanam talks about is that now B-Schools have to match the pace with the startup space. Further emphasising the entrepreneurial characteristics, she says that B-Schools need to have the same kind of agility as the startup leaders have. On NEP 2020 (National Education Policy), she says, “The NEP talks about multidisciplinary and holistic education so B-Schools are also ingraining that aspect. They are also responding to global changes.” Global Perspective The institute also fosters cultural mingling and an example of that is the relationship of Ramaiah Institute of Management with Japan. For this they have Ramaiah Japan Centre. Nagabhushanam says that understanding global changes will set a new trend in business schools. She also talks about collaborations of Ramaiah with big startups like CoCreate ventures which help the students throughout their course duration. She informs that in order to nurture students for their further journey, her institute invites entrepreneurs from across the world to train and transform students. She highlights the shortcomings in management education, like the multiple structures followed by B-Schools and old pedagogy. Nagabhushanam also suggests improvements in the form of experiential learning and newer pedagogy in management education. She appreciates the diversity, inclusion and equity owned by the corporate world that needs to be followed by the management schools. Like the corporate world, there should be someone to take care of DIE (Diversity, Inclusion and Equity) in the business schools as well. Lastly, Nagabhushanam says, “We need to loosen the structure, we need to break down all the rules that were laid down for the business schools and start thinking fresh to build the business schools so that it will not only cater for the needs of today but also of the future of India.”

92 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM FMEC Awards S Sreenivasa Murthy, Director, Institute of Public Enterprise advises B-Schools to gear up for the intensifying competition as foreign university campuses are going to be set up in India Emerging B-School Award By Shruti Tripathi I ndia has been a hub of management education and has given various management professionals to the world who are leading giant companies across the globe. Like other sectors, the education industry has gone through a roller-coaster journey in the last couple of years due to the pandemic and the implementation of education policies. As India is heading towards its aim to become one of the largest economies of the world, management education can play a crucial role in assisting countries to achieve the same. Speaking about the changes that management education is adopting, S Sreenivasa Murthy, Director Institute of Public Enterprise, says, “B-Schools have been changing their strategies “B-SCHOOLS SHOULD HAVE A PORTFOLIO OF ACTIVITIES” universities in India. He says that NEP 2020 is a great move of the government which is going to benefit the students as earlier, students were not able to pursue two courses simultaneously, but NEP has made it possible. Murthy adds that NEP 2020 has enabled students to own a multidisciplinary approach. Through these policies, the government has provided flexibility to students’ career paths. While admitting there are challenges, Murthy adds that with a great amount of flexibility, chances of students leaving one institution and joining another will definitely increase which will mainly impact the revenue side of the respective institution. Murthy also advises B-Schools to gear up for the intensifying competition as foreign universities are going to be set up in India. from time to time to meet the challenges. One is of course increasing enrolment in B-Schools and the other pertains to providing the right product to the industry. How we train the student so that the industry gets benefitted, is a process. The industry also comes back when they require anything. A continuous industry interface is needed. B-Schools should have a portfolio of activities, they cannot depend on a single activity.” He further adds that if they have all activities, including teaching, training, research and consultancy, it gives a lot of experience to the faculty and that experience can be brought to the classroom in the form of case studies. NEP’s impact Murthy appreciates the National Education Policy formulated by the government and setting up foreign

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 93 FMEC Awards S SREENIVASA MURTHY As far as the need of the hour for B-Schools is concerned, Murthy says, “As NEP is coming into the picture and foreign universities are going to set up campuses in India, B-Schools should maintain the quality, they should have proper accreditation and proper delivery in the classroom so that students will be well-equipped, and useful to the society.” Further, he states that whatever the level of the institutions, it is imperative to send the right product to the industry. Growth story Murthy describes the aims, purpose and pedagogy of the institute and informs that he joined the Institute of Public Enterprise, that started in 1964 and deals in teaching, training, research and consultancy, in January 1994 after completing his PhD from Madras Univer - sity. “We conduct a number of conferences in the area of finance. The institute has started a variety of longterm education plans since 1995. In 1995, we started our first full-time education plan as PGDM.” Apart from these, the institute provides educa - tion programmes in retail & marketing, banking, fi - nance and insurance, in - forms Murthy. PGDM in international business and HR are the additional pro - gramme functional in the institute.

94 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM FMEC Awards Indian higher education system needs to gear up for competition, which is coming across from international universities, says Ashok Sharma, Dean-Academics IMT Ghaziabad How are B-Schools preparing their students to compete on a global platform? Whatever happens in one country, it affects the entire globe. And the same thing happens in the education sector. But the Indian higher education system needs to gear up to come forward for competition, which is coming across from international universities. The UGC has announced a foreign university bill and very soon all the foreign universities will have campuses in India. It is very important for the various education institutions to work on curriculum which needs to be globalised. It doesn't mean that it is going to have only the subjects which are being taught by the leading B-Schools. It is the pedagogy which plays a very important role and that has to be revised. Presently, most of the content is student centric and the country centric. But it has to be global centric. Second, giving them a global content. And third, giving them a global exposure. Students should be taken abroad for that exposure. Most of the organisations and the education institutions are also coming up with the strategies, and are reworking their curriculum keeping these things in mind. What are B-Schools doing different from online courses and how they are retaining their value? During Covid, there were a lot of edtech companies that came into existence and they had very deep pockets. They discounted prices and just started selling it. Further, they mass customise the entire curriculum. But Indian students need to be driven to that learning path and there has to be a step-by-step approach from introduction to the culmination of that curriculum. The edtech companies assumed that once you get the student enrolled, there are going to be the videos and various study materials, the students are going to be self-motivated and they will do each and everything on their own. There has to be impetus which should be given to the student, by providing content and then by making that content simpler to understand. “Pedagogy Of B-Schools Needs To Be Revised” Best Distance Learning Institute By Himanshu Ojha

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 95 FMEC Awards Further, we do hand hold - ing to take them through the curriculum. There was a huge demand, for these companies. But later most of these companies, couldn't sustain themselves. Skills play a major role as by see - ing a video one can be sen - sitised but for the student to develop those skills is very difficult. Do you think degrees continue to be import - ant as focus has now shifted more to skillbased learning? Degrees are important. In our country, with its vast population, there are going to be thousands of applica - tions for vacancies. So, the first level of short listing has to be done on some criteria. When a person has acquired a degree that means at least one basic level they have attained. So, that becomes a starting point for getting into the interview process. Now in the interview pro - cess, the skills that he has learned and developed are going to play the role. How it is going to impress upon the panel is one thing but there should also be continued im - provement once they are in the job and that continuous improvement should be skill ASHOK SHARMA based.

96 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM FMEC Awards Best B-School in Leadership Excellence NASIR SHAIKH “Nurturing Tomorrow’s Leaders”

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 97 FMEC Awards Lexicon Mile is creating a futuristic approach to creating self-disciplined individuals, beliefs and systems, says Nasir Shaikh, Group Chief Executive Officer, The Lexicon Group of Institutes, MultiFit and Educrack race, says Nasir Shaikh, Group Chief Executive Officer, The Lexicon Group of Institutes, MultiFit and Educrack. “We at Lexicon groom students into both ‘Job Seekers and Job Creators’, when it comes to job seekers where one wishes to work somewhere, we need to create a zero-professional curriculum, alternatively developing job creators needs an emphasis on entrepreneurship and market mind”, Shaikh adds. Lexicon Mile thus provides students an opportunity to explore through their incubation and innovation centres. The institute gives learners a curriculum that ingrains corporate work ethos and incorporates a nine-month internship programme. Shaikh adds, “We are in a way doing heavy weight-lifting for the corporate world, evolving our teaching curriculum”. He further stresses the multiple collaborations and tie-ups that help the curriculum to evolve with the industry contribution. As a centre of excellence, their work includes having chairs and also having industry partners owning classrooms, underlines Shaikh, mentioning tie-ups with Marriott International, HSBC, TIA, E-Clubs and many more, building a hardcore system for a student’s better tomorrow. The other element which Shaikh sheds light on is the simulation platform running throughout for real-life results, HR, revenue management, finance marketing and so on. “Your action should be the reflection of your desired results”, says Shaikh. While the education is in the process of drastic transformation in order to stay relevant and futuristic, Shaikh says, “We at Lexicon are lucky to be ‘NEP forward’,” highlighting the manBy Suchita Sail We are in a way doing heavy weightlifting for the corporate world, evolving our teaching curriculum I n a n era w i t h a p let hora of B-Schools, Lexicon Management Institute of Leadership and Excellence, (Lexicon MILE) claims to be ‘mindful’, delivering management education, a critical requirement among students and the corporate world. The institute that started back in 2006 with just 16 students is now a centre of excellence with more than 16,000 students. The Lexicon Group of Institutions includes pre-schools to high schools; in postgraduate space it has PGDM, a global MBA (University in South Wales, UK), Hotel Management, Media School and Fitness Academy. Overall, it has been a phenomenal journey creating a difference in education and adding a valuable environment for students and people associated with it, where they can prosper and evolve in the growing world. Today, when almost every other B-School affirms to deliver the ‘finest business education’ and ‘guaranteed placements’ pushing the sentiments of parents and students to seek admission, Lexicon Mile aims to shape young minds and evolve from the rat agement institute’s focus to develop multiple intelligence and digital integration. Over the decades, Lexicon Mile has gained reputation as a quality ‘BSchool’ felicitated with a number of awards and accolades, namely, ‘Pride of Maharashtra’ Award, Best Innovative Management Institute, Best Emerging B-School, Centre of Excellence Awards, Institute with Best Academic & Industry Interface and so on. To add on to the cap is a new feather, BW Businessworld Ranking 2023, in which it was ranked 11th in the list of private B-Schools in West Zone. Skill-oriented The pedagogy in educational institutions today entails practical industry skills. This core change has been adopted well by Lexicon School and as a leader, Shaikh states, “Our motto is to ensure synergy in learning and so we ensure our leaders from different institutes sit together on one platform and integrate different initiatives and monitor them fortnightly for great results.” He adds, “One classic example that showcases our distinct teaching is our ‘Memory Technique’ for grades X, grade XI, undergraduate and postgraduate students, wherein Indian sign language is taught to young minds, honing their cognitive skills,” adds Shaikh. He emphasises that communication is the biggest key for outstanding outcomes, alongside focusing on the desired result and artificial intelligence in implementation. He shares that students from all over the world learn at Lexicon, at times first-generation learners, who are exposed to a higher education space for the first time.

98 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM FMEC Awards Ruppal Walia Sharma, Marketing Chairperson- Post Graduate Programme in General Management (PGPGM) and Head of Delhi Centre, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), describes her learning journey at B-School and how management students should approach their career demand. So today the B-Schools are more into inculcating these elements among students. But we at SPJIMR, with innovative thinking and agility, also concentrate on exposing our students to underprivileged and unstructured environments as part of our curriculum rather than preserving and processing the old pattern. We believe in giving our students a redesigned and reskilled industry learning, a 4.0 industry approach, and making 5.0 industry-ready students. While the youth are concerned about employment, in terms of B-School what are the areas to focus on, to groom future masters of the industry? I think employment is never a concern for the B- School graduates, as the industry always looks at big institutes for talent. The bigger concern is skills. Just getting a job is not the end. Students should look towards the growth points at their workplace, it’s all about how one adapts to the constantly changing industry. All that an institute can give to its executive and the full-time participants is the learning approach. Also, the CXOs expect their future employees to be good in functional areas and technical skills but Best International Immersion Award Tell us about your journey at the B-School, amidst the changes and interventions that are emerging in the educational sector? I have a decade-long association with SPJIMR. I joined the institute in 2003 in Mumbai and worked for five years. After relocating to Delhi, in 2017 again I got an opportunity to work with this great institute. I am presently heading its Delhi Executive Education Centre. And my journey so far is all about learning and nurturing the ethos and philosophy which SPJIMR follows, a guiding principle close to me that is about value-based growth. In terms of evolution, the institute always gives us a platform to think and get new exposure. If we talk about management education, the curriculum is changing with disruption. What is your opinion on this? Business schools’ education has evolved over the last few years, but the scope for change is larger and the transformation needs to be more rapid. Digitalisation, analytics and technical education are the new elements of technology that add to the new curriculum and fulfil the future industry “Keep Learning Even After Graduating” at the same time want a talent that quickly adapts to the change and new skills. It’s not just limited to domain knowledge but the agility to remain updated and learn. So, the learning journey should always continue even after graduating from B-School and we as a B-School teach and develop their mindset accordingly, the biggest gift that we can offer. What kind of environment and culture can a B-School provide to empower and inculcate the habit of learning among its students? To begin with, it is important to develop a student with a learning mindset; a student willing to learn will inculcate growth. The biggest learning happens with questioning; the art of questioning develops a learner. Second is the art of listening. The learner should listen with empathy to the other person’s point of view to grow in life. Talking about the environment and culture, we at SPJIMR try to expose our students to different experiences. Our ‘Abhyudaya’ programme is a transformative experiential learning course in which participants of the full-time PGDM programme mentor schoolchildren from underprivileged backgrounds. An initiative like this provides twoway learning, wherein our students as mentors learn from their students by getting exposed to their environment and watching their problems closely and the underprivileged students get quality education.

W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 99 FMEC Awards We believe in giving our students a redesigned and reskilled industry learning, a 4.0 industry approach, and making 5.0 industryready students. RUPPAL WALIA SHARMA Can you shed light on SPJIMR's industrial partnership and the strategies that are working well with your B-School? We a re i n p a r t ne r sh i p w i t h B-Schools in India and worldwide; we have a tie-up programme where the participants study partly with our industry partner and partly with us. One of our special partnerships is with non-government organisations (NGOs), it’s a training programme where we impart management skills to NGOs and our students also work with them forming a set of learnings. The other important set of partnerships with the industry is where the students learn practical lessons. We have an industry advisory council for the same. We also have tie-ups with organisations wherein an executive after having 5 to 6 years of experience returns to the institute to do management. So, overall our strategy is simple. It's all about learning. We are the learning partners. Can we expect a new initiative from SPJIMR this year? We are continuously evolving and brainstorming for our institutional expansion. Digitalisation is a core area we are looking forward to leveraging in the future. We already have a number of courses online but we look forward to developing more industry-needed courses but it’s not something that is coming right now.

100 B W EDUCATION MARCH 2023 W W W.B WEDUCATION.COM FMEC Awards Bhimraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur talks about the newage courses that the institute has launched, that help a student traverse through unchartered territories in today’s fastchanging times Journey with IIM Nagpur I joined IIM Nagpur on October 6, 2020. Now, it is close to two-and-a -half years. When I joined, our institute was located temporarily in VNIT and then we started construction of our institution during Covid. In November 2021, we shifted to the new campus and not a single batch of ours has been declared as a Covid batch. Students spent at least two terms on the campus before graduating. Further, we equipped all the digital designs and offerings in the institution in such a way that students enjoy it even if it is online and we provided all the facilities to students so that they enjoy it as if it is like face to face. In last two years, we have expanded horizontally as well as vertically. Our strength was 120 when I joined “Experiential Learning Should Be The Pedagogy” Best B-School in Industrial Training By Himanshu Ojha but later our strength increased to 250. We also set up our Pune campus. The city is strategically a very important place for the country as it is a manufacturing and IT hub of the nation. Similarly we set up executive education programme in Nagpur. There are two types of executive education programmes, both short-term and long-term. The long-term programme has 17 varieties and we are the first in the country to have two programmes on cyb e r s e c u r i t y a n d b l o c k c h a i n . O t h e r t h a n t h e s e p r o g r a m m e s , we also have project management, strategic management, digital marketing, general management programme and data analytics. In total, 25 such programmes are running and I must say this happily that out of 14 we are at the first position in running executive education programme. B-Schools’ alignment with new agendas I'm part of National Education Policy 2020 for its implementation at the national level. In IIM Nagpur we revise the curriculum and the current first-year batch is going through that new curriculum. We have introduced some of the unique courses which are not there in any business school in India as a part of the NEP. First, we introduced humanities, arts and social sciences. Then we introduced a course called Indian Ethos and Business Ethics. We also introduce a course called Corporate Governance CSR Sustainability. Further, we introduced Life