Interviews

“Being an ISRO scientist, hard skill I will give 70 percent weightage and 30 percent yes definitely required a soft skill, that is the ratio a university leadership has to plan and accordingly students should be groomed,” says Prof. (Dr.) P. M. Udani, Director General, CVM University, Anand in an interview with Chandan Anand, Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Would you like to highlight some of the initiatives under your leadership which is happening in CVM University? See when NEP was rolled out in 2020 and what we have done in last two years is immediately we planned at least 20 to 25 minor degree programs having a capsule of a four courses, one mini project an entire credit structure is 18 to 20 credit and this we have started offering since last one year and this year we are rolling out another 10 minor degrees and few minor degrees are curated with the help of Coursera also because we have 6000 license of Coursera and the kindness of the CVM management is we are not going to charge a single paisa for minor degree offered from CVM University. For example, a 20 credit is equivalent to one semester course so when you are offering minor degree of 18 to 20 credit to the student and not charging anything that means you are giving a scholarship of one semester to the student, that is the greatness of the CVM University. How is hard skill and soft skill important along with the regular pedagogy and regular curriculum? Being an ISRO scientist my inclination will be always towards hard skill. Soft skill is required in today’s world because a remote environment you are collaborating with many colleagues and your product design also may be done at different places so that kind of things are required but if a mechanical engineer is not able to assemble or design a machine then his soft skill has no value. So, being an ISRO scientist, hard skill I will give 70 percent weightage and 30 percent yes definitely required a soft skill that is the ratio a university leadership has to plan and accordingly students should be groomed. But if I had to restructure my entire curriculum my preference would be let us have a 30 percent classroom teaching 40 percent lab so that is core curriculum where you have to take examination as per the curriculum and framework of the country and 30 percent should be only startup and innovation where there is no curriculum there is no standard set of examination and you can guide students just like a research supervisor is getting a research student you have a unique problem for a group of students and they will be demonstrating their hard skills and soft skills and everything and that is a 30 percent weightage in an entire curriculum and that 30 percent weight will relieve student also and faculty also from that conventional kind of a teaching learning process that is what everybody should do it but we are going to attempt from next academic session. I’m sure you must be having an alumni association also do you do a regular program which encourages the current people who will be coming out, who have faced last two years of difficulty for a motivation or an industry reaction? See university was started in 2019, it is a two years old university but our most of the institutions have legacy of 70 years, 50 years, 30 years. We have alumni of more than 1 million so we have a rich alumni association and they are helping our student also. Many are giving donations for establishing laboratory facilities, establishing centre of excellence and they are continuously interacting with our student also online or offline mode and that is the because of our legacy. University yes started in 2019 first batch was admitted in 2020 but we have a legacy of 1 million alumni and they are helping our student in a very great way so we are also very much thankful to the all the alumni more than one million spread across the world. As you know that the event name is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what is the word new normal for you stands? So, before pandemic it was totally a brick and mortar system, New Normal is going to be blended only and that is what morning session upGrad also pitched the same idea. When you design a course you have to make it very clear if somebody has taken admission in B.E. Mechanical engineering at the time of admission we have to make it clear these are the courses which will be taught in a brick and mortar system in your offline mode and these are the courses including subject course, Course Code Credit and hours and everything will be taught in an online mode and something can be blended more. So, when student is taking admission at the time of admission is clear by how program will be transacted what is the component in online mode, what is the component in offline mode and what is component in blended mode but what will be repercussion? It would be your entire business model may change near future. Today we are admitting student per semester and student is paying fee per semester it’s just like eating a Gujarati thali, Italian thali or Rajasthani thali you are paying for enter thali. Tomorrow a student will register for the courses and fees also will be decided according to the courses that is what I am visualizing next two three years things will happen something like this. I’m glad and happy to share that we recently celebrated our one year and it has been a wonderful journey from the pre-pandemic during pandemic and post pandemic, any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group? First of

“In over next five years and backed with our investors and backed with our strong team I think I’m very confident of achieving the same,” says Sushil Mundada, Co-Founder, ExtraaEdge in an interview with Chandan Anand, Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad What’s the extra and what’s the edge in this? So, thank you again for asking this question again a lot of people have been asking us, so ExtraaEdge we are an edtech startup based out of Pune working with higher education, coaching and schools for six years now. Primarily their entire admission processes we automate, we ensure that the new age marketing technologies like WhatsApp or automation can reach to them and institutes and universities can get more and better students that’s the focus area we have and we have been helping around 300 plus institutes now happy to share in around six years now we’ve been working with them and helping these institutes to grow year on year. Can you focus and highlight some of your products and services under ExtraaEdge? Yeah so primarily we have four products the first one is on the CRM and marketing automation that’s like our core product which is there institutes can manage their leads and nurture their leads via the product. The second product which we have is on WhatsApp automation so students today are much more heavily focused on WhatsApp so that’s the product which we have so ensure consent and receive WhatsApp in an automated or a direct way via the product and then we also have products like chatbot and live chat again to interact with the students. The Institute can use this and the last product which we have is an application management and a tracking system so especially in universities and higher education when institutes want the student to get attracted to them and apply to them in a seamless manner they can potentially use this product and all these four products work hand in hand with each other to increase the number of applicants and students which Institutes can acquire. So, Sushil how has been these six years journey and what’s the five years plan? Yeah so again happy to share that six years ago when we started we did not understand the market as much neither the market understood this technology. We were the first to coined this term called education marketing technology and some introduced this so we created a category around this so in six years we’ve been able to completely create a category, reach out to a lot of institutes now in India I think almost every city and town we are present, we have always also expanded our horizons outside of India now present in Middle East and some customers in UK and US as well. So, that’s going to be the plan, continue to build more products in India solve the problems on the ground like what exactly in admission what exactly problems an Institute faces so solve them and then make India proud by going outside and have more customers outside of India as well that’s plan. In over next five years and backed with our investors and backed with our strong team I think I’m very confident of achieving the same. Yours is a startup and you have been funded by many of the organizations a very nice questions I would like to ask if you want to answer it, what does an investor look for before investing in edtech? Okay so again a very tricky question in edtech so I think by default every investor looks for a returns I think that is unfed at the rule but I think investors also look at what’s an impact which is happening right when it comes to education and edtech a lot of investors potentially also looked at what’s an eventual impact which is happening on the industry as a whole and of course the country and overall economy as a whole so that’s like a very macro level view. Every investor potentially wants to ensure that technology I’m talking about technology investors right so technology comes to education and doesn’t reach only to tier one and tier two only to a metro level town but even tier two and tier three towns and cities and institutes right. So, I think a lot of investors they ask us, even happy to share that today we don’t just work with just metro cities like Pune and Mumbai right so we have got customers right from Jammu and North to around the lowest part in Tamil Nadu today and some customers in Kerala, Gujarat, smaller coaching institutes larger universities so I think that’s what investor looks at the impact on the overall ecosystem as a whole. So, the event name over here is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards according to you how would you define on your own words New Normal? Yeah so, I think thankfully all of us have passed covid that’s what I can say personally I have been looking forward to this new normal. I can meet people like you and so many people, I can meet now but most importantly I think as far as pre-covid and post-covid is concerned everybody’s understood that we cannot do away with the technology but most importantly we cannot do away with the personal human touch as well. So, we need to kind of have a hybrid whether it’s a learning side, whether it’s on the business side, whether it is on any kind of a communication which is to be there right. So, if I have an option of meeting online I should but that cannot be replaced completely by face to face meeting so even for as far as our team is concerned we have followed hybrid model where most of the teams works out of office but then people want

“If you have to integrate all these platforms into one solution and connect all the five stakeholders that are there if you have to combine everything that is what Teachmint is basically,” says Krupal Bhansali, Zonal Sales Head, Teachmint in an interview with Chandan Anand, Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Would you like to give some light on what Teachmint is and what are the products and services which you cater to? So, Teachmint was actually evolved during the covid period when our founders were looking for a platform for teachers to communicate with students through our platform where they can interact with students and of course deliver lectures or lessons so that was the base foundation of the entire solution and from then you know it’s been about a two-year journey right now from that particular one platform it is now evolved into an end-to-end digital solution. When I say end-to-end digital solution what I mean is that typically if you see a school ecosystem there are five key stakeholders one is the student, one is the parent we have the teachers the principal and the management body. Each school is associated with at least four to five digital vendors, there is a vendor separately for an LMS solution, there is a vendor for ERP solution there is a vendor for digital classrooms because it’s an era of digital content. It was the time of covid so many had taken the paid subscription of either Zoom or MS Teams, so from a school scenario it was you know too many things to handle for the management, if you have to integrate all these platforms into one solution and connect all the five stakeholders that are there if you have to combine everything that is what Teachmint is basically. It takes care of the entire digital solution for a school. So, when it comes to a digital solution so still I think there is a gap of digital literacy amongst the stakeholders of the education Community, what are the key pointers which one should look when they hire a product or a service or when they enrol a technology partner with them? That’s a very nice question thanks for asking this there are a lot of players in the market I think the key differentiator or the key change maker in such a solution would be a couple of points. One should be ease of use. Now Teachmint you know since it’s been evolved from the ground up we understand all the pain points of a school and you know that’s how the product has actually evolved into an end-to-end solution. Number two since you know India is a very diverse country it is very important that the solution should be available in across the languages, so Teachmint is available for all languages absolutely in India. So, to Zoheb, how does such kind of forums when you get the right stakeholders like academicians, teachers and the EdTech experts the startups and the government, how does such a forum help as overall education community to grow and to learn? I think people have a very different perception about edtech companies. See we are an education infrastructure company we are not an ERP or an LMS or a Content providing company so our aim is to participate in these events and change that perception. So, we are here in this event as integrated school platform partner, technology partner so the idea of integrated school technology is to only tell them that we are going to make it easy for them. So, there is a lot of challenge among educators about how they’re going to be operating these interfaces because every app, every technology has its own interface and you know educators have many other things to do apart from learning our technology so the easiest thing what we could do is to tell them that it’s simple to use and the ease of using and bringing in all their stakeholders together. So, as simple as the parent, teachers, admin and principals all coming together for communication or fee management or content management so that’s the whole idea to tell them that they don’t have to look anywhere else it’s one platform it’s one point of contact for them to do anything whether it’s their own school management or communications or examination, assessments. So, that’s the whole idea of building this product. Krupal says: Also, I would like to add one thing which any school should look at while on boarding such a platform is the service aspect because we are dealing here with a lot of sensitive issues like you know parents, children, a school can never be in a position that they are adapting a platform and that is not being used or it is not working. So, now that is something which Teachmint is very strong at, we have each school comes with a dedicated support system so we ensure that the product is running up and running 24×7 365 days a year and we go all out to make sure that the school is happy using our product. Just to share that so that ArdorComm Media is a growing media organization we have just celebrated our one year of existence, any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? We look forward to being part of more such events and great work and I think excellent yeah. We look forward to participating in every part of the country with ArdorComm Media because I think ArdorComm Media is curating the conversations for the community and bringing the whole industry together and the stakeholders together, the key decision makers of schools coming here and listening to us is also providing us great platform to have these conversations, understand the problem statements of the industry and then going back and building that for them. So, that’s

“We have started a program also like related to multi-disciplinary programs for an example Sports Sciences where we involve Physiotherapy, Engineering and Allied Health Sciences,” says Prof. (Dr.) B. Sendilkumar, VinayakaMissions Research Foundation, Salem in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Welcome Dr B. Sendilkumar in today’s event. Yeah, thank you Chandan, I’m Prof. (Dr.) B. Sendilkumar, Dean & Director, Health Sciences, VinayakaMissions Research Foundation, Salem, Tamil Nadu. We have 23 institutions across Puducherry and Tamil Nadu where we can call it as a multi-disciplinary institution starts from Engineering, Arts and Science, Architecture, Management and four Medical schools and two Dental schools and Pharmacy. We have all 23 institutions of 40 000 students studying in our campuses. As your institute is diversified into mostly the healthcare how research and skill play a role into this regular basis of education? Since we are a multi-disciplinary institution so like for an example we have health sciences stream as well as engineering stream and arts and science so we are able to collaborate among the institutions and we are able to do the lot of research related to technology as well like we have started a program also like related to multi-disciplinary programs for an example Sports Sciences where we involve Physiotherapy, Engineering and Allied Health Sciences. So, we can offer the courses also since we are NAAC accredited A+. So, as we have gathered together at New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what does according to you New Normal is? I think New Normal, I should say like ArdorComm Media because last year first of October New Normal started with ArdorComm so same like no this time I’m able to have a new normal here in Ahmedabad so new normal is Chandan Anand. So, we can witness in this forum where we have the edtech companies the corporates, academicians like you and the representation from government, how does this forum help in development and learning from overall education industry? Actually, I must congratulate you, conducting this kind of events in a new way back from last October so I would like to say like there’s a new education policy also started next last year so the new education policy says dual program, exit program and Industry Academia collaboration and there are so many things are coming up in new education policy where a lot of brainstorming sessions happen from throughout the morning today. So, maybe we can take it forward to the government, maybe we can ask the government to implement this kind of deliberations to the government so this is a really wonderful forum to take it forward. I’m happy to share that we have recently celebrated our first anniversary and this entire one, one and a half year since covid till now has been very exciting thrilling and learning any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? Sure, I’m following in all social media pages of ArdorComm Media and you. It’s a really fantastic job what you’re doing it. So, keep doing it and keep the higher education way forward. I look forward to be a part of your events always, thank you so much.

“Very recently we have decided on one student one skill kind of an initiative so which is equally important that every year they get some skill and they are more industry ready,” says Prof. Sandeep Sancheti, Provost, (Vice-Chancellor), Marwadi University, Rajkot in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad As we witnessed to listen to you in the first panels which talked about the National Education Policy, any initiatives which under your leadership the university has already taken or in plans to take to actually Implement that? Yeah, so NEP is a very important direction for all of us, very open also so I’m sure most of the institutions have done something or else in this direction. So, is the case with the Marwadi University that we have done many of them for example we are now offering programs under ABC Academic Bank of Credit and to offer that we have created committees which will be doing the credit equivalences, credit transfers and other things which will take care of all related activities. We also made sure that we offer three year and four-year programs which are again the order of the NEP in the sense that it should be flexible. So, recently coined programs on BSc have been done three and four years particularly we have converted some of the honours program into four years our student can make an exit after three years and will get non-honours program. We have also rephrased the programs in such a manner that after first year one can make an exit and, in that case, they will have to do a small module which will be of skilling so with that skilling they can also get certification or maybe diploma and things like that so these are all in line. With that very recently we have decided on one student one skill kind of an initiative so which is equally important that every year they get some skill and they are more industry ready and there’s a whole lot of things which we are trying to do when we talk of multi-disciplinary. When we talk of research, when we talk of internationalization Marwadi University anyway is ahead though it’s very young but it’s doing very very well. So, the buzzword of now a times in many of the forums is about the newest technologies so if I ask about the ICT or the edtech implementation in your university? Edtech implementation is most essential for everyone including my university, fortunately we are young so more adoptable more dynamic and we also owe our origin to a finance company called Marwadi shares and finance limited which was purely electronic since inception so we know that in our roots all these things are there. So, as an example we have a system called URP, University Resource Planning which is end to end from admission to alumni everything is taken care nothing is done on paper including every examination result or maybe copy showing or any approval any, event anything is done online only so we have made many IT based or IT support systems to make sure that students in our activities are supported. As an example, if I have to issue a book I have to carry the book go in front of the system it will recognize me with face recognition I have to put the book which I want to get issued, book will be issued to me there is no human interaction or intervention in the process so that much of automation we have done when it comes to teaching learning. Obviously, we are doing things from MOOC so we are partners of Coursera we are doing everything possibly online through a lot of blended mode teaching learning. So, we have trained hundred percent of teachers for that and we also made compulsory in certain cases in engineering and other disciplines that some of the labs and courses will be virtual mode done virtually and some of the courses will be delivered in an online mode so that the students become familiar with that. So, all that whatever can be done to make them more IT savvy and more IT ready in terms of use as well as delivery has been done. So, one very typical and a very old question I will ask is alumni meet important and why? Alumni meet would always be important for the simple reason that alumni are always a growing base every year in that base number of alumni will get added it may be thousands or two thousand or whatever it may be whereas rest of the numbers will grow slowly. So, in a given institution if the strength is five thousand, ten thousand the alumnus may be twenty thousand, thirty thousand and if you are not able to connect with your own people in a right manner then obviously you are not going to grow you are not taking care of them. Alumni is important also because they also give a lot of feedback they also give lot of inputs, they also give you a lot of teaching learning support they also give you a lot of connect with the industry and so on so forth so that you get the projects and all that so that’s the second reason alumni are important. The third thing I would say is alumni themselves continue to remain a student for future today’s education goes for matured students also so every alumni who has graduated from Marwadi will have to learn something new and why shouldn’t we help our own alumni. So, our alumni connect is important we do it in a very formal way in a certain way we award them, reward them we call them and so on so forth but there is no limit what more can be done. Fortunately for us in all formal

“Until and unless the industries come forward in framing the curriculum with the universities then this will not be helpful,” says Prof. Ravikumar K., Director, Bapu Gujarat Knowledge Village, Gandhinagar in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Would like to understand and please give key highlights about your institution? Yeah, my institution is 13 years old institution, we started with engineering and pharmacy now we’ve grown up to we have law, nursing, science and commerce colleges separately and we are affiliated to different universities like the core branches like professional branches are affiliated to Gujarat Technological University and other branches are affiliated to Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. According to you how does the industry-based curriculum helps in a better employability and how skill plays an important role in the current based of curriculums? Until and unless the skill is there nobody can be employed actually. So, only going with the curriculum that has been designed by the university will not be helping the industries to go about. That’s why whenever they appoint anybody they will be having some training of kind of thing what I suggest is the training what they want to give at the industry level if they start at the curriculum level itself, at the University level itself, at the college level itself it will be too good that’s what when the discussion is industry institute the relationship or the gap should be bridged totally. Until and unless the industries come forward in framing the curriculum with the universities then this will not be helpful. So, I am very much about that at least the last year of the curriculum of the universities, industry should take it up and it should train the students whatever maybe it is professional or non-professional whether it is science or commerce. For example, whenever you talk about commerce, a commerce graduate should know tally 100% but there is no tally in the curriculum. I request the industry so that let them come let them come to the college as to the Institute to the universities and tell them this is what we need so that they will have ready-made employees for their institutions. So, as the event name shows that it’s a New Normal Education Leadership Summit what does the word New Normal stands for you? See when we talk about pre-covid and post-covid, New Normal is very much essential because earlier when 10 years back when we talk about the colleges or finishing school they were thinking only about the personal development of the student they were not thinking about the technical. The new normal is whenever an industry is there industry needs a specific information or the specific knowledge of that particular student until and unless the specific knowledge is there the industry cannot employ that particular student or a fresh graduate. So, new normal stands that the specifications, earlier only the soft skills were the requirement of the industry, the technical knowledge was given by the universities but now in the technical or non-technical knowledge they need specificity in this. So, for example when we talk about the computer, some industries need python some industries near artificial intelligence now when we are giving in the curriculum of the university we are talking only about entire thing they will be master of none, that should not be the case. The New Normal is specific knowledge on that particular platform as I was telling you about the commerce thing, until and unless tally is taught to the student he will not be employed he will not be employed by the industries.    

“We do see this is the reason, we keep maintaining that we are not an education institution just for employment but it is for empowerment,” says Prof. M. Muruganant, Provost, Adani University, Ahmedabad in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Would like to understand more about your university, what your university is doing how its multi-disciplinary and in multi divisions you are working? See we being I would say Green Field University we’re fairly new into the university world and so we had the leverage of implementing NEP modules from the very start itself. Multi-disciplinary as we see we have several disciplines which find confluence but we have programs not just as a degree programs but research programs wherein the students can take projects at the boundaries of disciplines so that the disciplinary boundaries can be blurred off and it can be transdisciplinary and the other the best point of our university is that we also get projects live from corporate and so any problem is always transdisciplinary a problem is never a disciplinary problem right and so we find a confluence there. As most of the curriculum or the pedagogy which we see is driving, wants to become a normal a professional employee what about giving an exposure to the students opting for entrepreneurship? We do see this is the reason we keep maintaining that we are not an education institution just for employment but it is for empowerment. Yes, when we say we are for empowering individuals and empowered individuals can be a perfect employee or become a perfect employer and the employers are the ones whom we call as entrepreneurs because they actually take to innovative ways and means to start addressing societal problems right and that is something which from the day one of entering our institution we encourage for them to deal with societal problems and start handling that. So, in that way a new approach of engagement and then contribution happens. In what ways Industry ready curriculum is important and what ways you are implementing that in your university? Okay see what happens is when the student from the time the student is onboarded they start interacting with Industries and they have several engagements it could be internships it could be projects or they could be actually working with real-time projects and that’s a big benefit that we have that we have huge businesses across diverse portfolios and the students can choose which portfolio actually they want to go and work. It could be infrastructure it could be energy it could be technology it could be you know Healthcare or Advanced Manufacturing Systems. We have it all running in businesses including our focus is sustainability and so we are a huge contributor to Green energy right and the renewable energy solar energy so students get to see it all happening whether it is sports or the transport industry everywhere. As the event names also shows that it’s a New Normal Education Leadership Summits and Awards, how would you define new normal? New Normal is not just employment it’s empowerment, all right so I keep maintaining the stand that when we are focused on translating information to implementation and we transcend the silos of disciplines and mental conditionings and we enable transformation of the student as a person and their contribution to the nation through the societal transformation. So, the 3T model which I always advocate which is translation then transcending and transformation. This are the three principal models which is already finding expression in our system and that’s a new normal I would say where technology finds natural confluence in the presence and we have sustainability. I’m happy and glad to share that we recently celebrated our first anniversary and the year of existence of one and a half years has been very thrilling very exciting especially in this covid times, any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group? Well such platforms enable us to come together on the various portfolios, from Industries and Academia or the policy makers now we come together on this platform and we meet greet and not stop there but then we have a joint collaboration happening. The first point here again is cooperation that happens in such platforms and that’s exactly what you guys are creating you know a platform for cooperation to start and then we start collaborating. So, this is a seed place where we start cooperating right and I wish many more such events you make and more focused events also would be great.

“It is rightly said nothing is permanent but change what education was a decade back or two decades back has completely changed,” says Prof. Ami U. Upadhyay, Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Would you like to put some light on the way you are taking the leadership of this University and what are the few important works as a case study which you like to share with us? First of all, when we talk about the leadership, team matters a lot I would say as a leader that I have been blessed with a wonderful team at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar State Open University. I very strongly believe that being in education since more than two decades that education can bring very positive change in the society so when we talk about the social development, economic development or national development education is destined to play very important vital role. When we talk about the role that I played in my Institute or my Institute played a certain role in society in Gujarat State I would say ours is the only State Open University, after 28 years recently we went for the first NAAC cycle and we are the first State Open University in India and First State University in Gujarat to be accredited with A++ and the credit goes to team BOU and a lot of initiatives that we have taken up understanding the true essence of education that I think have played vital role. What’s the blend of digital education and the traditional education in your University? It is rightly said nothing is permanent but change what education was a decade back or two decades back has completely changed. As an open University I would say that digital education plays vital role at a university I’ll give example of our university only that we have our own indigenous MOOC platform named as Omkar E, UGC has Swayam in the same way with four quadrants we have this particular MOOC platform so our courses are available on those platforms also we have a platform all digital books textbooks are available free of cost on that particular platform we have our own community radio working wonderfully for the community around the university. So, we are very active on social media be it be telegram Facebook and Instagram we have been and I think digital is New Normal for learners today so obviously the educational institute will have to understand that aspect of education. So, what does the word new normal for you stands? You see when we say new normal, New Normal is a not a particular milestone or a particular place it is a continuous process. Just think of it that before 20 years, long back pager was a new normal then mobile was a new normal now you know it keeps on changing. So, new normal is today something else tomorrow it will be something else and after tomorrow something else. Obviously after Corona we have understood new normal in particular since then now physically things are possible but I would say this phrase new normal keeps on changing be it be thought process of an individual, be it education system be it technology anything it keeps on changing. We have all gathered here we’ve been witnessing that there are the players from the government fraternity, from the private sector the edtech players the corporate, what should be the outcome of certain forums? From your question I’m reminded of my childhood when all of us used to play with jigsaw puzzle you know there will be a piece we will have a complete picture on a page and then the pieces of that game and we used to put those particular pieces at its right place to create a completely right picture. I think be it be Educational Institute, individual human beings, learners, edtech, government policy makers all of them are very important pieces of this jigsaw puzzle and when all of us become active very focused very result oriented and very importantly work together for the same kind of destination we can create the right picture of education, I very strongly believe. I’m proud to say that we have recently completed our one year of existence and we celebrated our anniversary any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group? When you talk about new normal and we talked about nothing is permanent but change I feel always that ArdorComm should keep on working on continuous communication because at a point of time when communication stops or that order that passion seizes, things will not move forward so I would convey that I would very strongly say that passionately continue this communication. Let there be lot of difference in the means of communication and the messages that are being communicated wish you very all the best.  

“I always tell to the students that don’t ask the question why, ask the question why not and come out with more and more ideas of innovations and it plays a huge role,” says Parth Kotecha, Trustee & Associate Vice President, Noble University, Junagadh in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Would you like to elaborate and give light about your institutes and universities? Yes, Noble University we started way back in 2007 in these 15 years we have achieved many milestones and this year on this 31st March we got an approval of a university. We have 6 000 students in the campus and 350 plus professors, teachers we have in a university we are working day in and day out for the students we want that they should come out they stand on their feet to get a job or to start their new work it’s up to them but we are providing the platform and we are making that practical work which we give them what they study in their textbooks apart from textbooks we are allowing them to go on the field to bring their new ideas and we are always encouraging the new research and innovations. We ask students that you come out with your new ideas we are there for you and will definitely help you for this. In University level especially for higher education how does the research and skilling play a role and how you are implementing that in your University? I always tell to the students with an example that Google was just a PhD project for Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they’re doing their PhD in the Stanford University so if you take such kind of initiatives you don’t know that your PhD project can become your startup. But the thing is that we still go with our old habits of writing assignments one day before submitting from our seniors and each and every one of us knows this and we also accept it. We want you to come out with your ideas, your innovations, your research whatever going through your mind so that’s why I always tell to the students that don’t ask the question why, ask the question why not and come out with more and more ideas of Innovations and it plays a huge role. I always tell that India is being known as The Sleeping Giant of Asia just because of research and innovations. In 2020 top 200 universities of the world in that list we were not there in any of those top 200 universities why because we are not, our research is being for the academic journals which is being there and it is not there in the use. So, research innovations are very much important to develop a nation and an individual. The event name is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards according to you what does the word New Normal stands for? First of all, I would like to thank ArdorComm Media Group because organizing such events bringing this many people at one platform it’s in real a challenging task. They must have been working day in and day out since months or more than a month and new normal for me is to be on your own feet on your own ideas to be an individual with responsibility and come out with our old system and make sure that we give space to each and every student. I just told in the inaugural session that we are not using the cell phone which we used to have 10 years ago so according to me this new normal means that you bring out your idea we give space to the students and they come out with more and more innovations and research. I would also be very happy to share with you that recently we have completed our one year of existence and it has been a wonderful journey, any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media? My message is that keep doing the work that you are doing and you’ve told that you don’t have a physical office that’s a very good idea and the work the staffing which we called in our HR System that the work for which the person is being meant you are giving the same work to them same thing should happen in the education system also. We cannot ask the fish to climb a tree they are made to swim in the water so you have this first year but many more years to go and I wish all the very best to the entire team good luck.

“SAT exam is taken by students across the world we cater to more than 7 million students every year through this particular exam,” says Meenakshi Kachroo Chatta, Senior Director, South and Central Asia, The College Board in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Would you like to highlight a bit more about the services which the organization is having in The College Board? Sure, so College Board is a hundred-year-old organization we started in 1900 and we are headquartered in the US, New York and outside the US, India is the only office that we have. So, College Board is the owner and the makers of the SAT or as we call it in India the SAT exam and the advanced placement program. What has been the USP of the services or the product which you have and do you cater to the school as well as higher education both? Yeah, College Board like I told you is the maker of the SAT exam. SAT exam is taken by students across the world we cater to more than 7 million students every year through this particular exam. SAT is given in grade 11 or 12 by students and this is taken so that they can have a smooth transition to higher ed universities and SAT store is also now acceptable by the Indian University so 54 Indian universities are giving admissions to students based on the SAT score so one SAT test and students can go and get enrolled in either any other universities abroad or in India. What are the criteria of any of the institution when they enrol with any of the technology partners like you? So, we have something called as the attending institution or the AI code. It’s a six-digit code that the schools or the universities need to have so this is free of charge we invite schools and universities to partner with us so that the students can benefit. There’s this very small form that the schools need to fill up once they do it ETSR partner they do the due diligence and they see whether a school is fit for level 1 or level 2 code. In case they are fit for level 2 code the schools can not only conduct the PSAT exam but also become a digital SAT test centre, they can also become an AP test centre. How many schools or higher educations are as in your partner list or you are catering to overall in the India market? So, in India we are working with more than 500 schools who are direct partners with college board and we are working with 54 universities like I said they’re accepting the SAT scores. I want to understand that you have been a part of this event we are seeing the conferences going on we have an exhibition area where the many companies are displaying their products and services, what is an outcome which you think such events and forums should give and what is the learning from such events? Yeah, the event is good we met few school partners and we hope to meet more university partners tomorrow. So, the school groups like Kalorex group or DPS are already our existing partners and it’s great to meet them out here as well in person and similarly other prospective partners that we have. Any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? This is all good and we hope to be with you next year as well thank you.