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Q: Please introduce yourself and tell us about your experience at the Digital Bharat Education Conclave 2026. A: I am Dr. Neetu Malhotra, Principal of Satyam Fashion Institute, Noida. Thank you for inviting me. Digital Bharat Education Conclave 2026 was really a nice initiative, and all the educators and vice chancellors are giving a lot of knowledge regarding AI and Digital Bharat. AI is very important for the future generation and in today’s scenario. Because I am associated with a design college, hands-on skills are important, but AI is playing an important role in innovation and future skills. Students are giving 100% to their hands-on skills by developing products, but imagination and then creating the final product, design thinking skills and innovating their skills by incorporating AI will be a great initiative. Q: Tell me more about your institute. A: We are from Satyam Fashion Institute. We are running AICTE-approved Fashion Design, Textile Design, Lifestyle Accessories and Fashion Communication programmes. We are providing B.Des. and M.Des. programmes. These programmes are duly approved by SNDT University, an 120-year-old university, and we are inculcating NEP-aligned programmes because NEP is very important in today’s scenario. Students should learn in accordance with the National Education Policy, with the Indian Knowledge System, and we have also inculcated AI integration with Fashion Communication, Fashion Design, Textiles and Lifestyle Accessories programmes. Q: What is the basic qualification for applying to the programmes at Satyam Institute of Fashion Technology? A: For the B.Des. programme, the student should be 12th pass. For the postgraduate programme, for the M.Des. programme, a B.Des. is necessary. For the postgraduate diploma programme in Fashion Design, two years of any graduation stream is required. Q: In terms of AI implementation, how is it playing a role in the field of fashion designing? A: While designing on paper, students have different levels of design skills. Those who are good in design skills can design on paper, but some students are hesitating to design on paper. They may have good imagination skills. So, AI, while giving a good prompt, can help. Suppose they have to design a shirt with a collar and buttons. They are giving a good prompt, and after giving a good prompt, they are getting the results. That’s why AI is important, and AI is helping those students who are not good in hands-on skills and hand illustration. Q: What has been the outcome of the event and what is your takeaway from today’s event? A: The takeaway from the event is that AI is important, but hands-on skills are also important to create and innovate. In today’s scenario, AI is very essential for each and every individual, whether you are a teacher or a student. In both ways, if a teacher is going to the industry and learning what new things are coming in, in terms of technology, in terms of industry and in terms of practical knowledge, and after learning from the industry, when a teacher is guiding the students, then the output is really good. Q: ArdorComm Media is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. What message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? A: Thank you so much to you and your team. You have taken a very good initiative, and this will be very fruitful for all the students, for all the teachers, those who are studying in the university and stakeholders. This will be a great initiative, and I hope for future association with you and our college.  

Q: As we are talking and the buzzword around is Artificial Intelligence, skilling and innovation as a part of our life. How is Artificial Intelligence blending with skilling and innovation? A: Actually, I always look at AI, skilling and innovation together. AI plus skilling plus innovation is called impact. This is what AI represents. It represents technology, technology to facilitate, enabler, to democratize the education system because where it was not going, we are using AI to ensure that in small villages everywhere, the learners get more opportunity. Skilling, AI is going to provide more opportunities for skilling because the learning ecosystem is accessible now. And when skilling is there, more information is there. When we talk about innovation, generally the challenge is how to manage the data, how to look into the real problems. And if in the rural areas, through AI and skilling, we are able to bring the transformations, the solutions lying there silently, they will find more solutions, more things will come out and young people will formulate ideas. I always believe innovation starts with something called jugaad. Once you identify a problem, find a solution which is maybe one time, not sustainable, but with the help of information, knowledge and skills, you can make it a sustainable and replicable solution. It becomes innovation, and the country needs so much. I’m sure that AI, skilling and innovation, when we look at them together, this is what we need. Q: I really follow you, and I’ve seen your journey, which you balance pretty well with the Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Your passion about the rural empowerment of the country and towards rural India development, you have done a lot. Would you like to throw some light on that? A: Actually, you used about Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. So I look at it as a pyramid. So Tier 3 is the base of the pyramid, which is rural areas. So any pyramid will stand when the base will be strong. And this is what we are doing. We are working on the base of the foundation of that pyramid, which is called Bharat, which is called civilization, which is called development. That has to be very strong. And through one of our universities, we are ensuring this thing that everybody who has aspiration, who has eligibility, wants to do something, they must have access to education, to technology and to fulfill their dreams. Q: In terms of AYUSH and especially in healthcare or wellness, any insightful thoughts of yours as an initiative? A: Actually, if you look at the government initiatives nowadays, we are talking every district should have one medical college. This is an initiative of the government. But if we look at the number of people around, population of the country and the needs, modern healthcare cannot fulfill the requirement. It means we have to go back. We have to see that our traditional medical system, healthcare system and wellness system has to be strengthened. We are working through one of our medical colleges. We have a 200-bed hospital, naturopathy, yoga. We are working, and this is the only idea that at the end of the day, the country has to be healthy. It does not mean that through modern healthcare or traditional healthcare it is, but we have to be healthy and we have to ensure this thing that all pathies are integrated and strengthened. And we are working on AI and Ayurveda together. This is what the nation gets. Q: You’re also chairing a very important and a very strong association in education, ASSOCHAM National Council on Education. The responsibilities with that profile, the responsibilities at your current role and the responsibilities toward society—how do you manage and balance this? A: Everybody can manage one thing. And secondly, when we talk about education, every time it is that there has to be a bridge between industry and academia. And this, as Chair of ASSOCHAM National Education Council, I have an opportunity to strengthen that bridge because I am very close to industry through ASSOCHAM. And otherwise, as a professional, I’m very close to education. So we are trying to bridge it, and once you have a desire to do things, the door is open for you. Q: I may be emotional in saying that we have ventured or entered the fifth year of our existence as a media startup. You have seen the journey growing. So, any message for the anniversary or good wishes for ArdorComm Media? A: Five years is not a big time, but it is not small also because these are formative times, and formative times are always very challenging. And you have passed that, I’m sure. So one thing I will tell you: remain as you are, remain unaffected and do what you are doing. You are spreading the fragrance of education, skilling and the digital world. Keep doing. My good wishes and blessings.  

Q: Hello friends, we have a very young and dynamic leader in education, Dr. Pankaj Kumar Mishra. He’s the Pro Vice Chancellor of IIMT University at Greater Noida. We welcome you, Professor Dr. Pankaj Kumar, at today’s event. A: Thank you, and it’s a great honour to see the wonderful audience and great arrangement that you make, and nothing new about it. You are an expert in arranging and inviting the people, and today the crowd and this kind of senior leaders visiting this hall is really awesome. Q: Your journey has been amazing in the field of higher education. What made you move to IIMT University, and any key highlights you would like to introduce about IIMT University? A: Yeah, actually, if you see the Greater Noida area, NCR area is considered to be more industry-oriented. If you consider Noida itself, Noida itself, the full form is New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, and everything is there. So, Noida and Greater Noida, if you can see, full of industries are there. In my previous assignment, I used to take care as the officiating Vice Chancellor of Future University, Bareilly. And now I have seen that the students of Bareilly, they were very much struggling to invite the industries at this campus, and also the industry orientation is very, very much important. If you can see, academics could not be run at all. Industry orientation is much required, and it’s a kind of need. But we have seen the Board of Studies, the kind of syllabus, the curriculum, were very much struggling because of the intervention of industry experts. I mean, I was always in the mood, why don’t we sit with a director of HR of some great industry and sit together and find out the exact training? Any student who is passing from any academic institution has to go for six months or up to one year of rigorous training before deploying them into regular jobs. So that was a gap. What we are teaching, I don’t know, but industry has to take them. One year they are paying less to my students, and they’re giving them rigorous training to make them job-ready for their kind of work. So I thought, why don’t we have industry orientation? So that led me, dragged me to the NCR region, and I’m right now heading the Pro Vice Chancellor role at IIMT University, Greater Noida campus, which is an off-campus campus, recently inaugurated and approved by the University Grants Commission. And happy to share with you that we are 11th in Pan India and second in Uttar Pradesh and seventh in the private university offering off-campus UGC-approved campuses. So it’s a kind of satellite campus, offshore campus. So we are the UGC-approved off-campus where we are giving, doing the training. So, I have experimented when the things are with me. I’m also innovative like you and try to experiment. So, this year we have introduced drone technology, a complete four-year course in drone technology, a complete four-year course in space technology. When we talk about space technology, everybody understands that ISRO, the great ISRO, no doubt about it. The contribution of ISRO in space technology is awesome, but only ISRO cannot be sufficient for the development in India, for Viksit Bharat and for Digital Bharat. So, I thought, why not we can introduce space technology? So, we have introduced B.Tech in Space Technology, in Drone Technology. Then, AI, everybody is talking about AI. What happened, I don’t know. So, in that case, I thought, if AI is here and which is affecting, positively or negatively impacting, the various fields of life, why not it could be impacting security? So, we have introduced cybersecurity kind of courses. So, that’s all beginning, and let’s see how the road manages. Q: The forums like this, when we see the government, academia and the corporate at one platform, how does it help the community at large? A: This kind of arrangement is very, very much required. I have seen that you have invited Samsung also, you have invited many AI companies also, and this is a great platform where the academicians and especially the senior leaders are there. The problem is that the senior leaders are also not much aware about the recent developments in the technologies and industrial developments and all. So, this kind of platform where you are inviting the industry people and you are inviting the school people also and the senior academic leaders, that comprises of Pro Vice Chancellors, Directors, Vice Chancellors and Chancellors also. I have seen that many founders and chancellors are also here. So, in that way, when we all sit together and try to do a kind of brainstorming, and that could be published, and I’m sure that you are publishing the white papers and sharing with everybody. So, that will be changing the paradigm and helping academia and the community at large. Q: I will be also happy to share with you that this is the fifth year of our ArdorComm Media. It is a five-year-old baby as a media startup. Any message on the occasion of our anniversary to us? A: It’s really great news that you are sharing with me that it’s the fifth year, but I wish you should be the same. You should carry the same kind of legacy. You should carry the same kind of enthusiasm, and one day we will stand together on your 25th anniversary also, in your 50th anniversary also. So, what is the difference is that this kind of platform, again, we can see the mushrooming of this kind of platform also. Many people are coming and experimenting, and they have made it kind of revenue-generation model. But the difference you have is that you are not inviting many commercial people. I have seen you that you are inviting academicians, and that too only senior leadership. You’re not inviting even deans and directors also. You’re inviting senior

Q: As we are progressing towards a Digital Bharat, sir, what are the new perspectives which Digital Bharat has brought in for the likes of Sanfort Group of Institutions? A: So, if we talk about Digital Bharat, as I spoke on the stage also, Digital Bharat means the new innovation, how to deliver quality education, school education, because I am into the school sector, this quality school education to every child of the country. This should be the mission of every educator today. Because if we talk about Viksit Bharat, Viksit Bharat cannot be possible without the educated Bharat. So, what we challenge is what we feel in the small towns and the rural areas. We are expanding our wings there also. We are going down to the Grade 4 cities and up to all those areas. So recently, we opened several schools in even those areas which are not even the cities.  So, in those places, it is very difficult to find out good and skilled teachers. Because whoever, you know, has the knowledge, whoever is good in academics and who becomes good teachers, they move to the big towns. So we are facing lots of challenges. So we first planned, then scripted it, and then we came out with an application, where we have created a platform to, you know, groom the teachers, to train the teachers and to find out the best possible, you know, staff out of those places only, because nobody will go from Delhi or any other place to any village to teach.  So this should be the need of Digital Bharat. The kind of quality content our children in the cities are absorbing, the same quality should be delivered to the village children and the same quality of teaching should be there. For the teaching, we have created a platform. And I tell you one thing, today every parent can’t afford the high fee of the coaching institute. And I give you an example from my family only. My brother-in-law’s children, he has one daughter and one son, the daughter is elder, so both the children cracked NEET and JEE, with that application, they paid some 5,000 to 7,000 a year. So this is Digital Bharat. If any child, living in a small town or if the parents are not able to afford that kind of fee, what today’s, schools and today’s coaching institutes are charging, so there are applications available. You pay just ₹5,000, ₹6,000 or ₹7,000 a year and if the child is bright, and the child is hardworking, he or she can crack even the competitive competition. Q: Early childhood education—what are the challenges or opportunities for this sector to grow in groups? A: See, post-COVID, because the children are so young, they are not coming out of the houses, so their development is stopped all of a sudden. And the moment schools reopened after that, the children who were coming to our schools, and for that matter, for any school, they were even not able to speak properly. They’re afraid of the crowd, they don’t want to play with other children. So now the situation is better, but still there are lots of issues there. We are working on that, and I believe all the people who are working in early education, they are working very hard. Because today the parent doesn’t have time. Both the parents are working. So the socialization of the child is not happening. They’re not taking so much out of the house and, for the socialization, and peer group learning is not happening. So we, as the preschool people, are working very, very hard, on the skills of the young children. Q: Would you like to highlight some of the growth journey of Sanfort World School and Sanfort Group of Preschools? A: So, I’m into this field for more than 26 years now. We started our first preschool in the year 2000, we launched our franchise model in December 2009. You know better because many times we have discussed all these. So now, before COVID, we had some 250 schools. And post-COVID, we were left with some 60–70 because most of the schools closed down. Again, we crossed the 300 mark, and now we are expanding in the South market, West market and the rural market because, after the National Education Policy 2020 came into existence and now it is implemented all across the country. So every child between the age of 3 to 6 has to attend preschool education. This is the compulsory part of the school education now. So now we have to create lakhs and lakhs of preschools, starting from the cities, because cities are overcrowded already. So we have to, you know, enter into the rural market and small villages and towns and C- and D-grade cities because there’s need, there’s need, and every child needs to attain preschool education. So we have to create lots of preschools across the country. Q: I also will be very emotional to say that this is our fifth year of the journey as a media startup. Any message would you like to give, an anniversary message to ArdorComm Media? A: ArdorComm Media Group is conducting these types of events in small towns. So we have so many schools in Jammu. Jammu, we have more than 15 branches. Three more branches are coming up. So you conducted your conference there also, small, small towns. No other media group is going to small towns but you created a platform there, and I must congratulate you people. You have shown the courage to organize these kinds of events in small towns, and I’m sure those events must not be the profitable ones, but you showed that. That’s fantastic.  

Q: You are in a much responsible position now. You have seen the development in terms of franchises, in terms of operations. How is Sanfort growing in your eyes? A: See, there’s obviously always a scope of growing and expanding even more than what we were doing earlier and what we are doing right now. But yes, the expansion has been wonderful. Especially if I talk about post-COVID, before COVID we had more than 250 schools. Then in the COVID era, we lost a couple of them. Almost, you can say, more than 50% of them we had unfortunately lost them. But now we have more than 300 schools. That is just the preschools I’m talking about. Apart from this, we also have 15 primary schools. We are also running one company-owned K-12 school and planning for another one. So, this is the trajectory of Sanfort, and being the second generation, I know the roles and responsibilities that I have been given by my father, and definitely you will see that Sanfort is going to become a legacy and definitely with ArdorComm, we’ll always be there. Q: Abhishek, I have seen your growth journey since the time you have been coming with your dad and the way you look to your dad as an aspiring entrepreneur as well, and a leader as well, and a guide, mentor, obviously. Yes, he’s your dad, but taking the legacy in the direction and even expanding better and more, even in the difficult era of COVID and post-COVID, is an amazing responsibility which you have delivered. What has been your experience and journey, good or bad? A: I think the first-generation entrepreneurs always have that resilience. I mean, it was not just me; it was my father only who gave me that energy to, despite whatever challenges that we get, we will get out of that, and we will expand, we will grow. That sort of energy obviously comes from the first generation itself. And what he has done, I can never replicate it. He’s always done something which I might not be able to do. And we got a business with a certain level of 100 schools, we already had. So, from the journey of zero to 100 is the most tough part, and from 100, then of course 200, 300, we are doing that. But at the same time, I would say that foundational years are very, very important, and that is only taken care of by the first generation, that is by father. So, with his energy, of course, we will grow, and definitely you will see that Sanfort will not just be in India, but in different parts of the country, and our main motive is to provide quality education across. So, yes, we are working on that, and definitely we will deliver. Q: What is your motivational factor towards making the mission and vision of Sanfort stronger? A: I think the motivation factor is our students, our children itself, because we see the kind of changes, the kind of, you can say, this is Gen Alpha, Gen Beta that we are catering to now. If I talk about preschools, we see that they are already so tech-savvy, they are already so much intelligent, much more than us. So, they are our motivation, and having the right sort of education for them, it is our goal, and that is our discipline that we need to keep for ourselves. Q: What are the strengths that your wife, your sister and your mother give you when you see the women’s strength around you? A: I think utmost dedication. They have so much love, so much passion. Irrespective, I mean, as men, we have a monetary aspect in our head also. I think the women have less of a financial sort of a thing. They will always say that I am more passionate. I see my mother working since the last 30 years, going to the school, reaching there by 8:30 so that she can receive each and every child and every day, not missing. So, that is the inspiration that I’ve gotten from my mother. If I talk about Sneha, she is a passionate entrepreneur, a passionate leader, and her contribution to the preschool education is immense. So, of course, that is the passion that one should definitely learn from the females. The emotion and the passion that comes from them, the empathy and the compassion. Q: When you see the other second-generation people in the same industry, when they see you, do you become a kind of an idol figure for them? What keeps you on? A: I think I don’t want to be an idol to anybody. In terms of idolisation, could also come an insecurity that I would want to become like somebody, but how will I be able to do it? Rather, if I would put myself in an idol situation, which means that I’m putting myself above others. I don’t want to do that. If a next generation is coming, then of course it would be better that we, as a future generation, would be able to create more impact and adopt more futuristic technology into the education system itself. So, rather than idolising myself, I would say that it would be better that we have more communication. If we have more communication, only then we’ll be able to come to more solutions. Q: If anybody wants to connect with Sanfort and is looking and willing to have a franchisee or be a part of your business, what is your advice or what is your suggestion to them? A: See, if you are passionate to start a school, if you’re passionate about students, if you’re passionate about entering into a venture which is not only just monetary-driven but definitely emotion-driven and passion-driven, so we are the right brand to start with. And you can go to our website also, which is SanfortSchools.com, and in that you’ll