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“Technology is very, very important, obviously, and you need to focus on technology because without technology, India cannot progress, the world cannot progress now,” says Pankaj Jain, Regional Director India Subcontinent, UTS College in an Interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram How are you feeling to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Delhi? I think it’s a good conference. I am at the inaugural session, and we had a lot of senior dignitaries from AICTE, Pankaj Mittal Ji, and the chief guest. It’s good because many times, you are sitting in your offices, and you don’t realize what is happening in technology, what is happening in AI. When you attend such conferences, you open minds because you are away from the office, and you learn a lot of things because these are people from universities. We had Dr. Madhu Chitkara Madam from Chitkara University, and we had the minister from Nagaland as the chief guest. Chandan Ji also spoke a lot of things, so it is always good and helpful to attend such conferences. I would say for all the university delegates, all the foreigners also, to come and attend such conferences. What’s your take on the technology implementation in the education sector? I think, as the lady from LinkedIn also said in the inaugural session, technology is the boom. Like she was saying, we have 10 million guests added every month, which is big numbers. I think it is very important as we talked about AI also, Chat GPT also. So, technology is very, very important, obviously, and you need to focus on technology because without technology, India cannot progress, the world cannot progress now. As you know, the theme of our event is India Vision 2030. How do you see the vision of India till 2030 in the education sector? I think with the new education policy being implemented, like I work for UTS College Australia, we have done two transnational education tie-ups in Gujarat as well as in Bangladesh, and we’re exploring something in Nepal also. So, T&E are the future of NEP 2020, and as per the minister, Dharmendra Pradhan Ji, he also said that we need to focus on this. I had visited Gift City also recently in Ahmedabad in Gandhinagar, a very good city, with a lot of universities and schools coming up, multinational coming up. So, I think by 2030, we should be able to do much better, maybe even before that itself if the BJP government comes to power, which I hope they will come. We should be very positively aiming for reaching this goal by 2026 only. You have a lot of contributions to the International Education. Can you share some key highlights of your contribution? I have been into International Education for the last 24 years. I am a UK MBA plus worked for a UK University for 11 years, then as a consultant, now working for UTS College, which is in Australia, for the last three and a half years. I think a lot of students are going abroad. We have seen around 12 to 30 lakh students going abroad every year, and obviously, the five major countries are UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, which are the top five English-speaking countries. But students have started going to France also now, Germany also now, Poland also now, Japan also now. So, it’s a big thing, and it is good because students get a lot of exposure outside. They learn a lot of things, become self-independent, and can take right decisions. All the universities are trying to open campuses in India also now as per the new policy announced by the government that you can open campuses. So, we can see in the next five-six years, a lot of foreign universities will start campuses in India. So, besides students going abroad to study, we will have foreign faculty, or whatever the tie-ups they do, the courses will be delivered in India, and you can have Indian degrees also studying in India and being residing in India also. ArdorComm Media has completed two years of its existence, any message on this occasion? I think ArdorComm Media has been doing very well. The two-day conference is very promising, with a lot of leading experts in education, academia. I’m not a professor by chance, so I cannot talk a lot of things on lectures on teaching style, but I’m still a sales marketing guy. I think it is a good way of doing. You have 200 plus delegates and speakers, which is good. If you have a thousand-plus, then people don’t have time to interact, so at least if you have a small cohort, you can have time to interact. People can exchange cards, develop relations because it is networking also, relation-building also, and if there’s some work, why don’t we work jointly? That’s the whole idea of a conference.  

“Let’s recreate that place, let’s recreate Nalanda, Takshashila, and let’s recreate that era where we were the leaders in education,” says Prof. Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur in an Interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram How are you feeling to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Delhi? It’s a very well-organized Summit. I am meeting you guys for the first time, and so far, whatever that I’ve seen is a very good organization. As you know, the theme of our event is India’s Vision 2030. What’s your opinion about the education sector going ahead till 2030? Before I say about the future, let me say something about the past. India was always a global leader. We had Nalanda, Takshashila. People from all over the world used to come up to us, look at our Ved, I don’t like to call it Veda. Ved is the right word. They are centuries older, and they have all the wisdom that is required in the world. We were the knowledge creators at one point in time. Then, somehow it disappeared. We had to take back this country to that level, that level of knowledge creation, and be a forerunner in the field of education. If you go to the US, who are the torchbearers of modern education in any field, you’ll find in most of the fields, be it management, be it medicines, be it astrology, we Indians dominate those fields. So, what do we do there? Why can’t we do it over here? The talent remains the same, and many of them are the first-generation scientists who have gone over there after studying here in India. They’ve done their basic graduation in India. So, let’s recreate that place, let’s recreate Nalanda, Takshashila, and let’s recreate that era where we were the leaders in education. Do you think NEP somehow focuses on this vision? Definitely, NEP is a big step. I’ve been in the field of education for about 35 years, and right from the beginning, I used to feel, why am I doing what I was doing? Look at the basic educational philosophy. I don’t like a particular subject, but still, I have to study that. Why? There are most of them, we say we have very less enrolment ratio. Forget enrolment ratio, there are just a few who enrol and complete the program. Your matriculation, for that matter, these are huge dropout ratios, especially if you go to semi-urban and rural places. The problem is people drop out because they have much less to do, much less to understand in subjects like mathematics, science, and so on, and those subjects are thrust upon them. If we could do away with those subjects or once they have the basic knowledge of mathematics, they don’t need to know that. A carpenter doesn’t need to know about high-level calculus. So, even if he can do away with that, and we can give them more skill-based education, those people will be able to do well for themselves in their life. Point number two, we had lost the basic purpose of education. We would not tell them about how to live life, what are our responsibilities as a civilian, and so on. And that’s why we were conducting, in my opinion, educated illiterates. They would know how to read and write, he may have great degrees, but then after some time, he’ll just throw something out of his car on the road. He will just roll down the window of his car and spit on the road. Where is that education? That should be reflected in one’s own personality and behaviour in public too. I’m sure the new education policy has a great emphasis on even changing these fundamental behavioural patterns as well. Any message for ArdorComm Media Group on our 2nd year anniversary? I wish you all the best, and let’s hope that we meet on your first silver jubilee.

“The National Educational Policy talks about Internationalization of higher education, and we are trying to help it out by making one Indian Network of International Higher Education,” says Dr. (Mrs.) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram How do you justify events like this, where we have policymakers, academicians, educators, corporates, and EdTech at a common platform? Association of Indian Universities, is the largest association of the world with a membership base of around 955 universities. We feel that we are answerable to our universities, we want to give them the best facilities and services. So, when we attend events like this, we come to know so many new things, like new technologies and developments in the education sector, especially in the private sector. You have many speakers like starting from policy makers as well as the policy implementers. So, these events are good for us and we keep on learning. These events contribute to the development and improvement of education quality, and they help in bringing new advancements to the knowledge of the people. So, I think these are very good events and very good initiatives, keep it up and keep holding such events and all the best for the future. Would like to understand more about AIU, any special highlights which under your leadership AIU is about to implement or has implemented successfully? Association of Indian Universities is the largest association and our mandate is very big. Unlike most of the associations in the world, we are dealing with the students, we are engaging with the teachers, we are engaging with the Vice Chancellors. For students we have many programs starting from sports and culture, to student research projects. We deal with the teachers in making the capacity building, we deal with the Vice Chancellors in terms of having roundtables and conferences. Some two three initiatives which I would like to highlight here is the National Educational Policy talks about Internationalization of higher education, and we are trying to help it out by making one Indian Network of International Higher Education. So, INIHE we call it in short where we are trying to help the Indian universities to internationalize. We know that India is a vast country, there’s a lot of diversity, there are universities that are very good in Internationalization, there are universities who have the intent to do Internationalization but they don’t know how to do it, whom to contact, how to partner. So, in all these cases we are helping the universities, how to even open an International student’s office, how big the office should be, what should be the objectives, what that office should be doing, what staff should be there. So, in all these things and also in partnering with the foreign institutions, if you are not able to find a partner, we help you find a partner, we help foreign universities to find partner in India. Many times, they don’t know that which university is particularly good in a specific area, so we have an AIU collaboration portal, in the specific areas you come to know that which Indian university is good. We have recently established AADC which is Academic and Administrative Development Centres, and the purpose is that many times the university teachers don’t know how to use technology effectively for the teaching learning, so these centres are basically training teachers to use the technologies for teaching learning, for research, for assessments and evaluation so that it becomes much more effective. So, like these we are taking many initiatives, including one initiative which is having consultancy services for the universities. Nowadays there are many private consultants and at times they are also fleecing the universities, so we have made the consultancy service in which we are helping the universities to find good consultants in all the areas whether it is Internationalization, industry-university connect, NAAC accreditation, NIRF ranking. So, these are some of the major initiatives there are many more. How can universities enrol with the AIU if they are not already a member? It’s very simple, the only requirement is that you should be having a 2F certification from the UGC. So, if you are included in the section 2F list of the UGC, you can enrol as a member of AIU, there’s a proforma given in the website of AIU, just fill up that proforma and we do it very fast, within a month you get the membership and you know how valuable that membership would be because we have less than 1100 universities in the country out of which 950 are our members and it is voluntary not mandatory so, they see value in the membership. So, if your university is not a member, do become a member today. How would you educate or advise people their role for implementing NEP faster in their capacity in their institutions? NEP implementation is something which has to be done in bits and pieces not like a capsule which you have to swallow as a whole. Its like a tablet which can be eaten bit by bit. So, there are many aspects of NEP which can be implemented immediately and many have been implemented but there are many aspects which are long drawn, for example de-affiliation of colleges with universities, 15 years timeline is given, to make every university multidisciplinary, to make every university large. 4-year degree program is something which has been implemented in many of the universities. ABC (Academic Bank of Credit) which has been established but it will take some time. So, there are many aspects which are already implemented, some are being implemented and some will be implemented in future depending upon the timelines drawn in the NEP 2020 document. We are successfully celebrating our second year of existence and it’s our second anniversary, any wishes for ArdorComm Media? I

“We look forward to seeing students from all over the country coming to Nagaland for their education in the next five to ten years,” says Shri Temjen Imna Along, Hon’ble Minister of Higher Education & Tourism, Government of Nagaland in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram You have been heading this portfolio for many years now, what changes have you experienced then and now? Higher education has transformed immensely in my state of Nagaland and everywhere in this nation, especially because of the visionary leadership of our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi Ji, in bringing in the new National Education Policy. It’s a trajectory shift from the British way of education to our traditional and inclusive way of education. So, the National Education Policy 2020 will go a long way in transforming and curating the lives of human resources for the betterment of our nation. What is the dynamics or dynamism of higher education in your state? Higher education in the state of Nagaland is doing very well. With the implementation of the National Education Policy, the colleges have become centres of excellence. Accreditations are being done, and NAAC has been quite successful in Nagaland. Also, with the help and support of the Honourable Chief Minister, Shri Neiphiu Rio, and our government in Delhi, everything is going on okay. How does Nagaland attract students from across India? Some Central institutions like SARS (South Asian Regional Standards), ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), and NIT (National Institutes of Technology) attract students from all over the world. With the pristine environment, better quality of education, and better air to breathe, students from many parts of the country come to Nagaland. Additionally, the inhabitants of Nagaland are students, and we are rebuilding and curating institutions, so we look forward to seeing students from all over the country coming to Nagaland for their education in the next five to ten years. What has been the role of education corporates or EdTech players in higher and technical education? Education corporates and platforms like the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in New Delhi by ArdorComm Media are the right platforms where we can connect and curate education for today’s modern children. Facilitation needs to be done to provide value education that will curate the life of our human resources in the nation. What was the takeaway of today’s session? With all the patrons of education who spoke, I got to learn a lot. At the end of the day, everyone wants to see value education in our country, Bharat, which will curate the life of our human resources. Thank you for inviting me, and all the best on your second anniversary of your ArdorComm Media.