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“We are working in video engineering and there are a lot of concepts related to videos that we are coming up with,” says Deepak Joshi, CEO, Phando in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAJaipur #ELSARajasthan Would like to understand more about Phando, your mission, vision and what you are doing at Phando? We started Phando in 2013 as a video streaming technology platform and with a vision that we wanted to provide a cost optimized video solution for all the EdTech, OTT and media industry. We started with a lot of media houses, we’re working with hundred plus media houses and cable TV operators, ISPs, broadcasters. So, I think it’s been a great journey in the past 10 years especially after pandemic there was a surge in OTT and IPTVs so we are tapping that industry as well. I think it’s going well and the future is good for video. We saw some good initiatives here related to videos and EdTech industries is also going towards video-led learnings now. I mean earlier it was more of texts-based learning, quiz assessments but now we see that Coursera, Udemy, UpGrad a lot of EdTech platforms are coming with the vision of video-led learnings, so video is definitely the future and that’s why we are working in video engineering and there are a lot of concepts related to videos that we are coming up with. Do you also provide training to the people who will be buying this or implementing this in the curriculum? No, we are not an EdTech platform we are a back-end technology partner of any EdTech. So, we help universities, schools to set up their own EdTech. As we have all gathered at New Normal Education Leadership Summit, according to you what is the word New Normal stands for? We are hearing this word a lot after pandemic when kids started coming to school in April 2022 we had fear with our kids also that whether this is going to work what will happen uh in a post-pandemic the covid situation and all but I think we are picking up fast and it’s been a great transformation after pandemic they are a blend of offline and online learning now and earlier they were just on physical education and all this but now they are very well comfortable with laptops and online learnings as well. So, I think the new normal is going to be a hybrid model of offline and online learning and that’s what it is. I think for me New Normal is the hybrid model. During pandemic definitely the hybrid or the blended learning was much adopted, are you seeing the same growth post pandemic? Yes, definitely we see a surge, the number says itself there are a lot of surge in the user consumption. We saw a lot of EdTech, Byjus and other they’re growing rapidly and that’s because of this online learning space and also the penetration of Internet is booming, 5G is coming, there are AR, VR possibilities. There are new things coming up with metaverse also things will move faster because it will feel the students that they are there itself. So, of course I see a lot of potential there and it’s growing. How does certain kind of forum help when we see the technology partners, start-ups, EdTech, academia and even the government at the common platform, so how do you experience this event as? This is always helpful, whatever we are doing we are doing that but we also learn a lot with other start-ups, other people from the same fraternity and when we hear principles and educators and EdTech owners so we come to know what’s going on actually in the grassroot. We’re from Delhi and generally we hear a lot from Delhi people but then when we are talking about so for example Jaipur or any regional places it’s very helpful because we probably do not know what’s going on there in tier three, tier four cities so that it’s very important and of course the other companies also, so we learn a lot and I’ve seen multiple solutions here also. I’m glad to share that recently ArdorComm Media celebrated it’s one and a half years and we celebrated our anniversary doing multiple forums, webinars, events, any message or any advice for ArdorComm Media Group? Congratulations, I’ve been following you for the past one year, Ashish was in touch also so we saw you did some fantastic events and Ashish was chasing us and because Jaipur was nearby so we thought that let’s participate this time, but amazing coordination and everything was superb. So, congratulations for all this and I wish you all the best for your future.  

“Our end goal is to automate and create efficiencies across different teams that’s being the major objective,” says Murali Krishna, Vice President (Sales), Leadsquared in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAJaipur #ELSARajasthan How does certain forums help when we see the EdTech partners, academicians and even the government stakeholders at a common platform? All the institutes are going digital, that’s the current scenario right in India and events like this help them to understand more about the ongoing technologies, tools like Leadsquared and various other tools in the market and digital transformation has been buzzword now and how Leadsquared kind of a tools can help in the transformation across admission processes and I think events like this helps them to get that information more handy. Can you tell us more about Leadsquared? We are a 10-year-old company, we focus on application management and CRM and overall automation processes for schools, colleges, universities. As a business we are into multiple domains but education remains our key focus area so we have about 600 odd customers in education across different spectrum of clients starting from large colleges like Amity, BML and we have universities in different categories in different cities. Being said that our core focus area is to help colleges to efficiently run the admission process and automate as much as possible in terms of the student journey. As we have already seen there is the flood of EdTech companies and in the same domain there are many players big and small, what has been the USP of Leadsquared? That’s a good question, so at the outset the basic technology for most of the companies remains the same, everybody is a CRM or a lead management company so the focus is in three important parameters, one is what is the end goal of the product, what is that it wants to solve. In Leadsquared our end goal is to automate and create efficiencies across different teams that’s being the major objective. So, every feature we launch goes around automating the counselling process, automating the admission journey, that’s number one, number two is how you serve that customer and understand the market so education is a very different market compared to other segments like BFSI or marketplaces or any other segments which are there. So, this is more of a nascent market in terms of technological adaption so the core in this particular area is to have a better service and better user adaption so we may have a beautiful software, very robust features but if the end customer is not using it is as good as not helping them solve the problem. So, we focus on driving adaption at multiple levels starting from the marketing teams the counselling teams, admission teams. So, these are the key differentiators and we are pocket friendly also so that may help customers to not burn a lot of money on having tools in place. Any specific reason as in, compared with say tier one, rural or say the tier 2 cities which as per your experience responds better to you? Tire one obviously, because tire one colleges understand the potential of technology, so they are definitely ahead on the curve. Tire two is catching up, tire three colleges they respect technology but they may not need the robust technology because their admissions are more driven by the locality so even if they have technology they may not have enough resources to use the technology to the full potential. So, yeah tire two response better, tire one is always best. As we have all gathered at New Normal Education Leadership Summit, what is the word new normal for you stands? So, the New Normal is colleges adapting technology for me, like five years back people were using pen and paper for admissions now that move to Excel sheet in the last two three years probably and now people are looking for tools which can help them with just not a tool for automation for application but tools across the college it may be an LMS it can be overall digital classrooms, it can be ERP. So, they are looking to adapt to multiple tools which can ease the manual work, so I think from the technology perspective that’s the new normal for us and the education policies and whatever the initiatives government is taking, skill learning and all of that, all of them will add up in the curve in terms of the education as an industry and it will evolve from here and I think there should be no looking back from her. I’m glad to share with you that we have successfully completed one and a half years as a media startup, we have entered into many markets, region, entire geography we are trying to cover, any message or advice would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? All the very best for the whole team of ArdorComm Media and looking for many more events like this. From our perspective the events are decent and if you can get more targeted crowd that would help all the participants as well the partners who are participating. I wish you a very happy journey going forward and all the best for your future.  

“If we want to really create confidence in the students we have got to first upgrade ourselves,” says Dr. C. Manohar, Senior Director, Association of Indian Management Schools, Bangalore in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAJaipur #ELSARajasthan We welcome you at today’s forum Dr. C. Manohar. I must compliment you congratulate you and admire the way you have taken this initiative forward the New Normal Leadership Summit. New Normal has remained just a concept and is changing every day what is normal today is old tomorrow so I think it’s a continuous journey in the flow it’s like river is always flowing we need to integrate ourselves with the changes that are happening, the mindsets of the youngsters. As learners and as teachers we need to adapt, adopt and also change, so there’s a learning curve we have to keep ourselves on the high side so this kind of events what you are organizing I must appreciate is helping the teaching community, the owners of businesses, the educational institutions and all that to update ourselves the EdTech companies that are there. In fact, I have participated, have attended couple of such events in the last two years, I find if the same company comes again, so in the next event they are coming with something new. I mean that is the kind of development and progress that we would like to witness. This gives us a confidence that India is on the right path of growth when it comes to education we can be among the top leaders in education, in the world, definitely in Asia. I think these events are very meaningful for us. How do you think the hybrid learning or a blended learning will take the shape now? There is no escape, it has to be that way, there is nothing like only classroom sessions and face to face are only the online kind of a thing, it has to be integrated, blended and in the concept of blending also it keeps on changing because everything should be learner-centric. Today we find learners are much more dynamic and more educated when it comes to operational efficiency of learning even as compared to teachers, of course many teachers are upgrading themselves and they are good. If we want to really create confidence in the students we have got to first upgrade ourselves so that is very important. So, hybrid learning is going to be the order of the day so because we don’t have now the frontier, there are no borders, no classroom the whole world is your classroom today obviously hybrid has to be there and we have to adapt ourselves. What has been the outcome of this event or what are your takeaways from this event? My take away is, what is coming up again today I’m sure if I come to the next event I will see from now on to next event there will be a lot more changes. So, my takeaway is an update of what is happening in the EdTech space and also the experimentation, the new case studies which are good to replicate in other institutions. So, one good practice in one institution can be replicated and we can bring back with a new context from the same institution again. So, my takeaway is a good networking, and I could meet some new friends in the education field plus I could participate in the sessions, some new knowledge also acquired and that way it’s good, that gives me the energy and I would say that gives me confidence that yes at this phase of life we are also learners and we have to be continuous learners, lifelong learners I would say. Any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? You’re doing a good job, keep going, maybe you have to reach out to, like today you had a session on digital divide and urban and rural, I think these events should go to rural areas they are no more called the rural area they are the emerging new cities and the new knowledge hubs in fact in one of the recent events that happened in Bangalore, over 40,000 students participated and who emerged on the top 10 or 70 percent were the rural students. Imagine now if that is a kind of a reach, if it’s there we should not miss recognizing the fact that today even in rural area there is the talent, that is available we need to nurture it. It’s very important that we do that, so my message to ArdorComm Media is keep doing, keep going, outreach has to be much more, I would say even go to international level, regional levels, you can go to South Asia, Asia Pacific.

“If we talk about the homeopathy science, that is purely based on the mental symptoms,” says Dr. Ashok Narain Mathur, President, Homeopathy University, Jaipur, Rajasthan in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAJaipur #ELSARajasthan What are your takeaways from the event? Firstly, I would like to congratulate you for organizing the event and bringing us all together here. The deliberations that take place in these events definitely helps the education sector and the private universities. Like there were discussions on digitalization, its very much needed not only in the urban areas but also in the rural areas. Though in case of medical education or homeopathy it is not possible because until we see the patients physically, treatment can’t be done, but we can give some tips so that they can be cured. What is the importance of physical, mental and social wellbeing in an education system? All these are important, if the mental level of a person is not good he can’t be cured. If we talk about the homeopathy science, that is purely based on the mental symptoms. So, I would say both physical and mental wellbeing are equally important. What is an outcome of such events where we see the presence of educators, academicians, EdTech and even the representation of the government? The outcome is good, like there’s so much about digitalization and as our prime minister also emphasizes that digitalization should take place, so it is very good. And the organizations should work fast on it so that the universities develop better. What does new normal for you stands? New normal is, as I came to know that you organize such events in many places and this is the first time in Rajasthan, so when we all meet together we’ll naturally speak about ourselves and learn from others, how to address our lacunas and developments. Any message for the students, teachers and faculties? I would like to say that we are making it research based for our teachers, because in medical science research is very important and in homeopathy under Ayush there is an immense need for research. We are trying to focus on this in our university and the more we focus on research the more would be the development in Ayush. During covid time, homeopathic science has developed a lot and not only in India but also across the world there has been a demand for homeopathy. Any message for ArdorComm Media? You have organised the event very well. Like I was listening that you are going to organize it next in West Bengal, so like this keep organizing more such events, it will benefit everyone and motivate every university.