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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.