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Q: You are attending the Digital Bharat Education Conclave. When you heard this word, what made you witness this event and accept our invitation to attend this event? A: Well, I think the organisers have done a wonderful work and they have reached out to leaders from all over the industry and invited eminent educationists. So, I think that I felt very honoured to be a part of the same as a panelist, and that’s why I accepted the invitation because it’s always good to be on a platform where there are other educational leaders because you always get to learn a lot from other leaders of the same field. Q: Can you tell us more about your institution? A: So, I am Dr. Shalya, the Chief Executive Officer. I am from the Subharti Group of Institutions. It’s a university in Dehradun also and in Meerut, and we have 180-plus courses. We have 18 faculties in the university at Meerut and a similar structure in Dehradun also. We are—why I am calling myself a group is because we are in the industry of hospitality, in the industry of defence, in the industry of media and also in the industry of education. We also have a group of hospitals in rural as well as in urban areas. And we are running a charitable hospital also. We are also training personnel for the defence industry, and eventually, the students get selected for defence. So, we are in the field of education basically, but we are also in the field of other things. That’s why it’s a whole Subharti Group now. Our motto is Shiksha, Seva, Sanskar and Rashtrata. Why I am saying this is because we are not just training students into academia but with a lot of sanskar and nationalism. Q: In today’s era, where a lot of things are going on with new-age learning and artificial intelligence, every panel is talking about it. Where does empathy stay, ma’am? And how should students also be taught to balance their fast-moving pace of life towards the traditional and the roots of Indian culture? A: So, like I started my speech here, and how I am talking to you with “Jai Hind”, that is how our institution is. So, all of us say “Jai Hind” to each other. So, that is how nationalism and sanskar are built in our education system in my university. So, once we are inculcating the value system, I think that is how we have to balance. What today, also in a lot of panels, was discussed is that the students are forgetting their value system. So, we have to work at home and at the grassroots level to get the value system back. So, yes, all the education systems have to work about the NEP, they have to work about AI, they have to work about the latest curriculum and also with that, they will have to work about the IKS. We have introduced Rashtra Bodh as an IKS system, which the UGC is talking about also. Since 2008, when my university was started, since then we are talking about the values. So, we talk about sanskar in our university, and we have a Subharti Day which is celebrated in the memory of one national hero who lost his life in the memory of nation-building. Like Netaji, we mostly talk about him. We know Netaji, but there are many heroes also whom we don’t know. So, at our institute, if you come, Rani Gaidinliu will be celebrated, Avantibai Lodhi will be celebrated, Ashfaqulla Khan will be celebrated. So, we are celebrating Netaji also, and we are celebrating a lot of unsung heroes of India about whom nobody has heard. So, that is how we are contributing to nation-building. Because if our youth don’t know our actual history and the actual heroes’ sacrifices, then how will they respect India? Q: You have witnessed this event. What was the takeaway? What was the learning from today’s event? A: See, I think more such events should happen because we talked a lot about AI in this event. And what we have to understand is about AI ethics. What we talk about AI usually is how AI is integrated into the curriculum, what we should teach students about AI. But what we are forgetting is AI is a double-sided sword, and how AI ethics is also important. We have to teach our younger generation about that AI is a tool, but you have to learn to use it for your benefit. Wherever you will let go of the grasp, then it can harm you also. So, this is what we have to teach our children, the younger generation and Gen Z, as they call themselves today. It’s very trending, so I should say it. So, that’s what I feel is important. Q: I am very happy to share with you and maybe even emotional that ArdorComm Media is in its fifth year. Proudly, we have sailed through many difficult times and good times as well. Today, what we are doing is organising so many events pan-India, bringing a lot of educators, academicians and corporates from school education to higher education and skilling. So, any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media on its anniversary year? A: Well, first of all, I will congratulate you, and I will also tell you one message which my father gave me: that a journey always has to be full of ups and downs. So, because your journey was of ups and downs, now you will have only ups. So, all the best to you, and keep doing such good work. Not an easy task. So, you did a wonderful job, and keep doing it. All the best. Jai Hind.  

Q: I want to know more about CampX and the products and services associated with your work. A: So, CampX basically is an EdTech company. CampX stands for Campus Automation and Management Platforms. We work with higher education institutions and schools. It’s an A2A platform, admissions to alumni. So, the problem CampX is trying to solve is, if you take any typical campus today, there are eight to nine different software applications which don’t talk to each other. So, this creates a redundancy. That’s why, if you look at any institution, they’re struggling to analyse their student data or take quick decisions. So, CampX helps them in that direction. It’s an A to A platform, admissions to alumni. So, everything sits in one single database so that analysis becomes easier. And these days, all of us talk about AI, but AI is as good as the data you have in the first place. So, if you put garbage in, it gives you garbage out. CampX tries to solve that problem also in terms of maintaining a single database. And we have our own agent which sits on top of our ERP and is readily available for all stakeholders to quickly analyse and help them. Q: When we are surrounded with so much technology and so many startups and established organisations as well, what should be the top three questions in mind before enrolling any EdTech in their organisation? A: So, fundamentally, these institutions are slightly different than corporates. The corporate linear structure is not applicable in institutions. So, first thing, they should understand the education ecosystem. They should be design-friendly so that all the stakeholders can be— they may not have a lot of training sessions to use certain products in the institutions. Second, customisability and serviceability is a key factor in educational institutions. So, these products or whatever tools that you’re using should be tailor-made for this institution because even though they follow similar norms, each institution has their own DNA. Now, every institution operates on their own goals. So, you need a customisable tool that can help them cater to their needs. Q: In this segment, most of the ERPs are trying to portray themselves as a multidimensional or multitasking tool at one go. How do you keep yourself different from your USPs? A: There are a lot of tools in the market. In fact, there are tons of ERPs that are actually thriving in the market, but none of them are built for this generation. There is at least a generation old. That’s one of the primary aspects. Generally, what happens in the market is people try to adopt a general-purpose ERP to education. But CampX is built inside out. So, it is built within a university, and we studied the universities. There’s nothing new that we invented in building CampX. We meticulously studied how universities and colleges function and gave a digital ecosystem around it. So, that’s one of the main USPs. It’s not just the product, the approach towards solutioning. In fact, our go-to-live strategy is eight weeks. I don’t think any other company can implement an ERP in eight weeks, but that’s our minimum timeline. We can onboard an institution in eight weeks. Q: After onboarding an institution within eight weeks, do you also have a training session, or is it a rigorous training session, or is it a user-friendly platform? A: See, nobody taught us how to use WhatsApp or Instagram, for that matter. Technology products should be intuitive enough for people to understand. You don’t have to go through multiple training sessions just to use a simple tool. So, that’s a fundamental design principle CampX follows. Most of the products, I don’t say 100% of the product, but 95% of the product can be—it’s easy to understand. Just use, just look at the application and find out what the screen is all about. So, that’s why design plays a vital role in this, and CampX follows certain good design principles to make sure people understand these things easily. Q: Since you are visiting geographies, how do you think or which geography is better adaptive to technology in terms of ease of spending the money and in terms of the habit of adopting technology? A: Again, we take it in a different way. That’s a given problem for us right now. Every market has its own pros and cons. I cannot tell you specifically which market is spending, because when you work with education, you should also be okay to serve them in different areas because everybody’s needs are also different. Right now, the good part is AI is welcomed in all the institutions. Even though I think people slightly thought that this is going to replace jobs, now people are welcoming it. That’s a very good positive sign for us, and people are looking at transformation. Now, people are looking at digital transformation. That is welcoming in all the areas, from Bangalore, Hyderabad, even Odisha, Bihar, North India. We have a good client base in Uttarakhand also. So, that’s welcoming across the country. That’s good to be in this space. Q: Digital Bharat Education Conclave is positioning itself as a national event where we have people from around the country. This event includes people from KG to PG, including skills, corporate and government. How do such forums help the community at large? A: Definitely, this brings common minds together. People can get to exchange thought processes and ideas together. In fact, for our roundtable today, there’s a lot that we learned that can be incorporated into our product. So, people have some solutions where other people can learn from their experiences. So, experience is the best feature sometimes. And also, exposure. People get exposed to a lot of things when they come to events like this. Certain things which cost them a lot to try out can be just heard from another person who can share their experiences. So, I think

Q: Could you tell us more about your institution and the kind of education you offer? A: We are very focused on specialised education for luxury brand management. When I say luxury brand management, people get really confused, but a simpler way to understand is that we produce people who can serve brands ranging from a Rolls-Royce to a Rolex. We focus on the elite class of India because our firm belief, my belief, is that the rich in India should spend within India, and we must make the environment and the atmosphere conducive for them to buy within India. India is the fastest-growing economy. Today, we are the fifth-largest economy in the world. There is a rising GDP and rising premiumisation. Young people don’t drive a Maruti anymore; everyone drives an Audi or a BMW because of various reasons. But it’s also a reflection of the growing economic upliftment of the whole country. With the growing upliftment of the economic scenario, there is going to be a demand for things good in life, better things in life. But no one is servicing them. The rich, or the people who are buying apartments for ₹200 crores in Gurgaon, spend their money overseas. They are not spending in India only because the service is lacking. India is importing the brands, India is importing the products, India is importing the environment and the merchandise. But what do you do with people? In my long years in the formative years of India’s luxury retail industry, I realised that I could bring everything except the people. I had to get down on the floor to train people, and then I realised, why don’t I create a talent pool for the industry? That was the motivation and the concept behind my business school. Over 14 years, we have evolved and, as I said on the panel, in the last three years we tied up with a skill university to make it a degree under the UGC system because we started under the NSDC framework rather than the UGC framework. But now that things are getting merged, it was the opportune time for us to move into a degree formation from a PGP. Not that we don’t do PGP; we continue to do a PGP also. So, we are not a group of institutions but very unique, very focused and very specialised. But proud to say, in 14 years, we have got some 5,000 students in the trade. The students are not only full-time MBA students, but they are students from corporate training and online education. We have now progressed into tying up with other institutes to offer our online 20 hours of specialised education to other streams of MBA programmes. That’s what we plan. Q: Is it a traditional MBA, or are you complementing it with new-age technologies in alignment with the vision of Digital Bharat? A: It’s a combination. We keep the industry in core focus. As all industries are becoming more technologically savvy, I would say COVID was the turning point. During COVID, I would say that we were the first ones in the world to bring in a programme called “Digital Disruption of Luxury.” Being from the industry, I’m very well connected. I was able to talk to people in Milan, Paris, New York and Tokyo as to what’s happening to the luxury industry there. The challenge was that people were completely flabbergasted because technology was being dumped on them. They did not know how to handle the technology. While innovation was happening, like now AI is being the topic of discussion, the disruption started coming in during COVID. The talent, like teachers, were not ready to handle Zoom. Likewise, the service industry people were not ready to handle the technological disruptions. So, what is the disruption? How does it need to be tackled? We brought a 50-hour programme back then, and this year we introduced a 20-hour programme of AI in luxury. How is AI disrupting the luxury businesses? That’s already a part of the programme. So, we try to be innovative and be the first to come up with relevance to the employment space of the particular student. Q: Forums like this, where we have representation from preschools to schools, higher education, skills, corporate and government, how do they help the overall community? A: I think it’s very important that young people like you are bringing, as you said, the governance, the stakeholders and the students together. You are going to below K-12 as well. Basic education starts at the nursery school level. So, if education can be tied up or skilling can be tied up at that level, you will get a better student going upward. I think it’s very, very important that there is a transparent dialogue between all the stakeholders because they are operating in their own silos. So, I appreciate what you’re doing, and that’s one of the reasons I support your endeavour. Q: Lastly, as we complete five years, what message would you like to give ArdorComm Media on its fifth anniversary? A: As I said, I admire what you’re doing. It takes a lot of guts today. It is not easy to continue doing entrepreneurship. People launch a startup and they fold up before they can get into year two. So, if you’ve crossed five years, as a fellow entrepreneur in the academic space, I can say it is very, very tough. We have spent 14 years and we’re still struggling. So, I have no qualms in owning that. It’s very difficult to keep yourself afloat and keep the motivation high. So, if you’re doing both of it, well, welcome to the gang. Wish you all the best.  

Q: What is your takeaway from today’s Digital Bharat Education Conclave? A: Thank you for inviting me as a speaker for this particular conference. It’s a wonderful experience. Today, I was present in the roundtable discussion and then followed by panel discussion, altogether making a digital ecosystem in the higher education system. Institutions particularly require AI plus skill plus innovation plus character building to prepare the students for the future, make them future-ready and employable. At O. P. Jindal University, what we are doing is, in addition to developing the campus as a digital campus through digital infrastructure and facilities, we are also establishing skill centres in around 25 emerging domains. Our focus is also to foster and inculcate innovation, creativity and critical thinking in the students through our Idea Lab and the incubation centre. We are also involved in building the character and integrity of the students. So, all together, the AI-enabled systems, industry connect, skill education, skill focus, and developing innovation and creativity through the incubation centre is what we are doing in the university. Q: In terms of skilling, how is it blending with artificial intelligence, and what new curricula have you launched or are planning to come up with? A: O. P. Jindal University is known for its industry connect. What we are doing in the university is adopting reverse engineering. As we all know, it is an era of digitisation, it is an era of globalisation, and it is an era of Industry 4.0. So, who knows better than the industry? What we are doing is, we are going and asking the industry what kind of engineers, what kind of scientists and what kind of managers you expect from us. Based on their input and involving them deeply in designing the curriculum, we are developing. Recently, we launched the STEEL curriculum. The STEEL curriculum means a Skill-based, Technology-driven, Exponentially Engaged Learning curriculum model. In this curriculum, the two most important best practices we are adopting in O. P. Jindal University are: number one, we are sending 100% of our faculty to the industry for one month on duty every year. And second, we have identified certain industry experts, 100 industry experts. All 100 industry experts are spending one full day every month on the campus of the university. They are interacting with the students. They are visiting our laboratories and suggesting what the gaps are, so that we can make the students industry-ready and based on the current needs of the industry. Q: Your university is also known as a corporate-governed university. Does a student come with a mindset that after studying at O. P. Jindal, they might get placed within the group of organisations, or do you assist and facilitate them for other opportunities in the corporate world? A: No, it is a very good question. We always make our students open to going globally, and we try to make the students globally competent. But the students get opportunities for placement in our group companies, including Jindal Steel, JSW, Jindal Stainless Steel and Jindal SAW. So, this is an additional opportunity for the students, but we are trying to make the students globally competent so that they can go to any corner of the world. Q: Forums like this bring together academicians from preschool education to school education and higher education, including government dignitaries and corporates. What is the outcome of such forums when you come as an attendee or a speaker? A: I think this is the best way of discussion where pre-primary education, school education, higher education and the policymakers all should come on a common platform to discuss various issues, like whether we should use AI, how much we should use AI, what are the advantages of AI, and how we should use AI ethically. This plays a very important role. So, this is a common platform where whatever problems, challenges and issues are being faced by the school as well as higher education can be discussed in front of the policymakers. So, they can incorporate these things in the policy. Q: ArdorComm Media is celebrating its fifth year of existence. Any anniversary message would you like to give to the organisation? A: Congratulations from the bottom of my heart, from the entire O. P. Jindal University family. You are completing your five years, but it looks like you are completing 50 years. The way you are organising the event and the way ArdorComm is progressing, my best wishes. We wish to see ArdorComm at much better heights in the future.  

Q: What inspired you to be a speaker at today’s event and share your perspective on AI and intelligent campuses? A: We all, as educationists and administrators, are witnessing what is actually happening on the ground. We are witnessing how innovation and this advent of technology could be a great tool to institutions in witnessing intelligent campuses, and how the ethical use of those tools could be a great spirit and spark to the upcoming learners of the country. This has made me a part of it. I think, with the experience I have over the journey of 23 years, presently taking up the position of Director Training, where soft skills and its execution at Geeta Institute of Law are concerned, I think AI is a great tool and I think nobody can escape. So, either you change yourself or time will change you. It is always better to be proactive and to take wise moves before it is too late. Q: As we are diversifying and entering into a digital era, are we losing the traditional mode of education and becoming more dependent on digital education? A: I think there is not a gap; it is transformation. Change is the law of nature. Nobody can survive, and somebody who is accepting change is moving on at a fast pace and on a winning edge. So, I would not say it is a gap. It is taking the best part of traditional education, bridging it with the best of the new aspects and making the best offering to be served to the learners. I believe AI is helping such diverse domains in the education industry. There is so much time now for key aspects rather than redundant routine tasks. So, it is an assistant to you. You need not have a PA all the time now. You are carrying your own PA along with you, so you are able to put your precious time into making key strategic moves rather than being almost all the time busy with those daily routines and missing out on things. So, I think it is the best of the two, and the best is coming to be served to the audience. Q: In student welfare, what is your key departmental role, and do alumni and apprenticeship also form a part of the department’s responsibilities? A: Student welfare is one of the domains where the holistic development of a student is taken care of. In the classroom, you can stretch to some extent to skills and knowledge, but behavioural upliftment and holistic development are the responsibility of the welfare domain. I believe it is a great department which is shaping the behavioural aspect, attitude building, and moral and values building of the student domain. So, I think it holds a great responsibility, and it is also not untouched by the use of AI because AI is helping us to categorise, classify and channelise the students as per their expertise and experience. Q: ArdorComm Media has entered its fifth year of existence. What message or good wishes would you like to share on its fifth anniversary? A: You are making a great contribution in bringing people of diverse platforms together at one place for brainstorming, for visualising the best that can happen. So, I think there are miles to go, but it is a wonderful start. I wish all the very best to ArdorComm, and I believe you people are doing really a great job. I believe you people are doing really a wonderful job. Great networking platform, and you are creative. So, I wish you all the best.