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“New normal is a challenge and we have to devise ways to improve further and further and to perfect it because this is just beginning,” says Prof Dr. Arvind Kumar Agrawal, President (Vice Chancellor), Nirwan University, 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 the takeaways of this event for you? Well before I talk about it I would like to introduce my colleague Dr. N.D. Jasuja, he’s our Dean, Professor and Joint Register. Yes, I would say that the takeaway from this whole event is first of all I came to know a lot many companies, edtech companies which I was not aware of and also, I could explore opportunities where I could help my students my faculty and my universities curriculum development using these company’s software’s and their expertise. Secondly, I could also communicate with my fellow participants who are from other academic assignments in different universities either as Vice Chancellor or as Pro Vice Chancellor or as a senior officials or academicians of other universities and we could exchange notes on what new experiments they are doing and what we are doing and that was a very fruitful interaction I enjoyed a lot and I think it would help us developing a synergy to move forward. Dr. Jasuja, would also like to hear from you what was your take away from this forum? First, I must congratulate to you for organizing such an important event and in fact a few days back UGC has issued one notification to have credit based revised framework in which they have also encouraged to have industrial linkage and this whole program is based on the linkage of Industry 4.0 futuristic education. So, I must appreciate your initiative and you should go ahead for this and interact with more universities to have collaboration and motivate students to place them in good industry. What weightage would you give to skills when it comes to in comparison to the conventional courses? See, when I attended today’s panel prominent dignitaries clearly indicated that earlier education was transferring the information only it was to provide the information to the students. Nowadays, it is not like education we can provide information along with skilling, if we upskill our students they will definitely get independent and placed in a good industry. Dr. Arvind, any initiative which under your leadership has been taking care to include more of the industry visits or the industry exposure for your students? We are collaborating for example with banks with other Industries, we have already made a move. Since this University is very new it’s a nascent University so it will take some time but I’m sure and now we have come to know about your initiatives so I am quite hopeful that very soon we would join hands together and we would find you in our campus and we would do something together to contribute to the cause of higher education and also to help students and faculty. As we have all gathered for New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards what does the word new normal for you stands? Well this is a challenge it’s not just a new normal it’s a challenge, it’s a challenge in the world which has taken a shape after COVID 19. So, it’s basically fusion of ICT that is internet-based communication technology, information technology and education because these two years have been very tough for our students for parents and for teachers. So, this new technology how it can blend and help students’ institutions and parents because after all our nation will stop if education stops and it will it will be really disastrous. So, new normal is a challenge and we have to devise ways to improve further and further and to perfect it because this is just beginning. As a media start-up we have seen many leaps and bounds from pandemic till now any message or any advice would you like to give to other ArdorComm Media Group? I would simply say that be focused and move ahead, you are doing wonderful work the only thing I would say just please try to add some humane touch which is very much needed between teacher and taught relationship to inculcate in the cultural values of academics among our students through your media company and wherever and in whatever form you can contribute. I wish you good luck.  

“Our University is mobile free, mobiles are not allowed to the students so the students are more human interactive,” says Prof Dr. Pramod K Raghav, President, Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Jaipur 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 event, would like to know more about your university? I am Prof Dr. Pramod K Raghav currently I am President in charge of Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Jaipur. It is nations first private State Women’s University with full-fledged status of a Private State Women’s University. The university is especially established for empowering the woman through education and the mission of the university is Community Development, currently University is having more than 130 programs specifically for the girls for the women’s and it is in medical field as well as in non-medical field. The idea is here to bring up the deprived sector of the country, the women’s through the education. Except this the university has several other specialties also, the safety is at the top priority and second the most important which we call the USP is a mobile-free, our University is mobile free, mobiles are not allowed to the students so the students are more human interactive, they have the time to spare and focus on the studies but they are not lagging behind, they are still well connected with the world through the internet and we have the internet surveillance also. So, it’s a university and it is scattering the need of entire nation it not only for the Rajasthan so that’s how this University is imparting and enhancing the quality of education and serving this special sector. I would also like to add that our PhD programs and distance education are open for both male as well as female. The University was founded by nations first youngest founder of the University late Dr Panckaj Garg sir and currently the university is headed by Mr Vedant Garg who is the advisor and CEO of the University along with a team of very experienced professionals. When it comes to add an edtech player in your organization what are the top two three factors when you select an organization the edtech player or a startup for enrolling any services or any product in your university? One thing is sure that without EdTech without the addition of technology we are not going to go anywhere. So, it is an important part and when we are selecting an organization we are looking that the campus must be paper free most of the facilities must be digital for example we are in service sector actually, if we talk about the private universities so a student must be facilitated and the students are nowadays digital friendly. So, it is very important that all the aspects right from getting leads up to the distribution of the degrees it all must be the digital. Lot of options are there, universities are changing themselves and they have to change because we are competing with the global universities the countries are now open for the foreign players for the foreign universities so we have to enhance our level and digitization is the top most choice for those global universities and only then they can align with us or we can partner with them. So, that’s how I look it for it is a must. What is the outcome of certain forum, what is the takeaway from this event for you? Actually, we had two covid waves and such type of forums as ArdorComm is bringing the academic leaders at forefront and these academic leaders, these academicians are the one who are in a driving phase of these universities who are putting their implementation of the vision of their founders, their sponsoring bodies. It’s very good and to bring them up front to give them an opportunity to share their views to disseminate whatever they have learned in the past and in today’s scenario if you see it is very important that these private universities they must use each other’s qualities, each other’s expertise and there is no harm in doing that will enhance the level of education and the group like ArdorComm Media, I really congratulate you and will definitely add that it is a good event and such type of events should be organized in future also bring these academic leaders let them share their views, let them disseminate what they have learned and that’s the way these private universities they’ll be collaborating one day with each other. Any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? My message is that keep on doing such types of events and keep on bringing these academic leaders because mainly academic leaders they gather in the academic conferences or in the seminars or in the symposia but this is the first type of event I am seeing where you have focused on the academicians those who are leaders in their field so keep it up and keep doing it, thank you.  

“Quality education and employability, these two objectives of higher education can definitely be achieved if there is a full support of the industry in the processes,” says Prof. Dr. H L Verma, President (Vice Chancellor), Jagannath University, 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 How’s your experience of witnessing today’s forum of Education Leadership Summit and Awards? I must convey my thanks to ArdorComm Media Group for taking this initiative because it is the need of the time that you are able to bring industry stalwarts and the academic leaders at one platform and in the changed scenario. So, there is a need that the education is made more industry oriented because in the present market economy it is the demand of the economy that students ought to be upskilled, they need to be trained in a way that ultimately, they are fit for job. So, quality education and employability, these two objectives of higher education can definitely be achieved if there is a full support of the industry in the processes. In isolation neither academic institutions can work effectively nor industry, for industry also it is required now in the whole process this higher educational scenario is going to be changed. Every one of us will have to have a very clear-cut future vision that what type of education now it is going to be as in the developed nations we find that industry and the academic institutions they work with close interactions so the same way industry should also come forward, they need to provide funds to the academic institutions but at the same time the system should be such that whatever is the outcome of education so that need to be shared with the industry and the outcome need to be marketed by the industry. For example, there is a research project funded by the industry so whatever is the outcome of that project ultimately resulting into patents or resulting into they can say the marketable products. So, that should be the ultimate domain of the industry now unless and until in Indian conditions also, so this type of environment will emerge that industry interests are also taken care of, academic institutions interests are also taken care of and only then the right type of skill development can take place among the students that it is now a type of situation type of environment that in which everyone has to open up its steps and take the support of all relevant professionals and Industry people so that our youth our young generation so they are fully prepared to handle the future challenges. With that background I am sure that this type of initiative which has been taken by Chandan ji so it is highly appreciable and in future so these types of more initiatives need to be taken and industry people and the academic institutions. So, all that requires change in mindset of the people now, so no academic institution can achieve excellence, can work in isolation and even I will suggest that the institutions instead of having practical labs within the campus and if these can be established inside the industry and the students go there in the industry they get more practical experience. So, that type of you can say arrangement that will help achieve quality and student will be ready for the product development. I can say so because hands-on experience is more important so it is now education for market economy. So, theory and practice gap is to be bridged at all levels otherwise no institution can survive, can grow in the times to come so that is the type of environment which I understand is required. I am glad to say that recently ArdorComm Media celebrated its one year of existence and one and a half years has already gone, we have seen many leaps and bounds, any message or advice would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? ArdorComm is doing a great job, you are really providing leadership and what others neither at the government level nor at the institutions level alone can do it. So, organizations like you may be in the initial stage there can be certain difficulties because the most difficult thing in the society is to bring change in the mindset of all stakeholders. So, you are doing that, it’s really appreciable and it is a great job and we wish a great success for you because bringing industry and academics at one platform in itself is a great thing.  

“I think skill in terms of ‘RUN’ which is my punch word here, where I say Reskilling, Upskilling and New age skills,” says Prof. Dr. Padmakali Banerjee, President, Sir Padmapat Singhania University, Udaipur 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 and know more about your University? Sir Padmapat Singhania University is based out of Udaipur, the city of lakes and one of the world’s tourism capital of India and this is an initiative of the JK cement which is a very large group, one of the world’s largest manufacturer of white cement and grey cement. This University is a 15-year-old University and it is a very forward-looking University where there is a lot of importance which has been given to the new age education in terms of the professional skill courses and the industry integrated programs coupled with internationalization. How do you rate and how much focus you are giving on skilling part? I think this is something that it is the need of the hour, so as I was in the deliberations today, I mentioned that I think skill today is the most important. I think skill in terms of ‘RUN’ which is my punch word here, where I say Reskilling, Upskilling and New age skills, so every curriculum has been integrated for having certain employability skills also skills which will be enabler for the very chaotic world that we are seeing in the future. Being a corporate governed University does it play a good factor for getting admissions or is still the same way as other Universities are doing? I think it is a brilliant question, the answer is yes where we are looking at not just the admission part but I think the delivery part because I talk about three I’s, innovation in curriculum design, industry integration and internationalization, so in the second ‘I’ of Industry integration here is a university where the students can also go for immersion programs. So, while we go for the most of the universities around from all walks of life for example in the tech area if you look at, very recently we tied up with HCL technology then if you look at Commonwealth education, so I think in a very big way partnerships are playing a very big role at the University and so are the very great placement opportunities and the so-called median salary and the top of the salary. So, I think I see a great opportunity serving such a University. At your role balancing finances is equally important, how do you address when it comes for an edtech integration in your University? I see a business plan for anything, suppose we are going to set up our program say on robotics, so I think you need to set up the actual work area. For example, the labs so we see it as a part of the business plan so even before launching a program, we have that set. For example, even it’s in the data analytics we had a robust partnership with SAS so now our entire cluster is getting that kind of a collaboration and we’re also getting a lot of projects coming from industry, for example we recently got a very good grant for offering programs on the online platform from Commonwealth education. We all have gathered at New Normal Education Leadership Summit, so according to you what is New Normal? I just mentioned in the session today, for me it is a brave New Normal wherein we are doing everything which is breaking the age-old norms. So, whether it is digitalization, whether it is the way we are connecting to the communities, the way the relationships have been, I see slowly the gap that we were talking about 10 years back about industry where I think a lot of tech companies were struggling to make an appearance, I think I see now educators are also coming together. So, I see forming a league which will create a very beautiful and a Happy New India that we look at where education will play a great role. Any message for ArdorComm Media Group? I think ArdorComm Media Group that you have set up, congratulations for the kind of associations you have already created getting almost maybe 30 to 40 top Educators itself, I think already is something that you have won. What I also want to really leave you with is that every organization has to look for the development of youth at large so I think in each of the projects, how are you taking care of the ESG aspect of economy, social relevance and corporate governance. So, that is just a message and since you are with the youth for the youth so I suggest then bring in their seventh sense which is their optimistic intelligence and I think as a technology company it’ll be very easy that you can start bridging that area as well.  

“We are in need to first digitalize our campuses, give them IT facilities and infrastructure so that we can reach to the students and needy ones in a better manner,” says Dr. Vinod Bhardwaj, Associate Professor, Dept. of College Education, Govt. of 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 How’s your experience to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards? This is a great privilege to be a part of this event over here in fact, after covid I am witnessing the first program of this kind where people are talking about education quality, innovation, skilling and digitalization of the educational institutions. Basically, what is happening that after covid a lot of changes have taken place in educational domain but very few people took care about those changes and those compulsions. So, this platform is giving that kind of discussion and bringing people to have the discourse on the changes and their remedies. It was a pleasure for me to be a part of this event that when we were discussing about the innovation and skilling and digitalization of the campuses that’s wonderful program I’m seeing over here and I really admire and acknowledge the contribution of ArdorComm that they have taken this initiative and this program is being organized in Jaipur. Dr Bhardwaj you have been doing so many works under your department to impart digital education, any special initiatives or anything which you remember during your tenure which you would like to share as an experience or as a case study? In fact, after covid we are also just looking for the social media platforms and IT based platforms where we can disseminate the knowledge or the contents to the students. So, we started one program like Gyandoot, so we were having online classes but again whenever we talk about the free sources or free resources available there is a restriction about that. We understand that if we use them then there are restrictions of sometimes storing, sometimes the buffering problem, sometimes the delivery problems, sometimes the network problem, a lot of things. So, instead of that if we can have some small investments in such kind of facilities and inviting some agencies, expert domain people to make this thing facilitate so what will happen certainly our part is to deliver educational content and to reach up to these students that we can do easier. So, we started some program Gyandoot, I remember that more than six lakhs viewers were there when we started this program after one month or so then after that Gyansodha, Gyanganga this kind of program we also started. So, these are all IT based programs and what is the result of these all things or initiative so that certainly we are in need to first digitalize our campuses, give them IT facilities and infrastructure so that we can reach to the students and needy ones in a better manner, that we can do. How does certain kind of forums help when we see educators, academicians, edtech companies, startups and even the representation from government uniting at one platform? Definitely this helps a lot, because couple of years back I was a part of this kind of programs, higher education conclave, even some programs were organized in the association with our department when I was there also and my former commissioners and additional chief secretaries they were enough kind to take this kind of initiatives and we started and I remember that you were the part of that, you were the other team lead at that time, so what happened that we got some agencies under the roof we got some MoUs through this kind of programs who got associated with us and we got our institutions benefited. Some kind of training programs to our students, some kind of skilling programs to our students, so this was a great benefit of this kind of program and still I’m looking for such kind of agencies over here in this program as well. So, this is a wonderful program and really this kind of initiatives rather help to bring all the people, the service providers and service takers at one platform under the one roof and you as a facilitator certainly contributed great in that kind of things. We have been gathered here for a New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what does the word new normal for you stands? New normal is in fact after covid this word is being very much used, sometimes it has become rather a part of our discourse at different platforms but really the topic you have chosen for this discourse is the need of hour, new normal means now we have to give up the traditional formats of imparting knowledge or giving knowledge or the curriculum the syllabi especially the mode of delivery is very much important which we have to take care in this phase and so New Normal is very appropriate, what you are using and in the light of this topic a lot of changes are to be taken into institutions and in the mindset of the people. Certainly, when the Vice Chancellor of some universities were discussing in the forum and other educationists were discussing in the morning session I was very happy at least people are worried about all this new normal and they are thinking seriously on this issue that what should be the shape of our institutions and the education system and when they were quoting about the new education policy, the new education policy is also expecting some kind of changes in the system and New Normal is also expecting this so we are going on the right track to combine the two objectives altogether and introduce some changes in this system and they are certainly to be taken whether it is part of research, whether