Interviews

“Our platform name is Möbius and it is helping faculties and reducing their efforts and changing the learning experience of a student,” says Ujjwal Joshi, AVP Sales, DigitalEd India 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 your organization? We are a Canada based EdTech company who is transforming digital education in India. So, in India digital education has been perceived as an online education or live classes but that’s not exact what does it mean, it actually means you are engaging student and student can have day-to-day lectures with them till the end day of the semester and it can enhance student performance. So, that’s what we’re bringing in, we are changing the entire ecosystem of Indian academic culture which is very popular outside India, so this is a new technology in India and that’s what we are doing with our platform. Our platform name is Möbius and it is helping faculties and reducing their efforts and changing the learning experience of a student. So, this is a sort of shift we are bringing in India. What’s the application of this learning, is it an AI based or a video-based learning? If we go little ahead of AI and video based it has everything, it is concentrating on student learning regardless of what student expect from an institution. I give you an example, an engineering student when he goes to an engineering institute he thinks he’ll change the world, but he ends up memorizing everything that’s not the point, his learning should be very high. So, AI is of course helping but we are focusing on student perspective and helping him to learn more and of course our platform has a math engine working behind so this math engine has AI inbuilt and it also helps students to know where he is heading wrong to understand a concept, so we are targeting a small point and taking it to a bigger wherein he can actually contribute with it through his branch to the country, so that’s what we are doing. Which kind of educational institutions are your target customers, whom are you looking to tie up with? We are targeting K7 to K12 so we want to strengthen the concepts of a student and Science and Engineering from that level and Higher ed of course engineering colleges, science-based courses and research-based courses so all technology-based courses we have our strong hand. Any plans going ahead may be three years down the line? Our plan is to approach and enhance the distance education program down the line in three years because in India distance education program are perceived as less effective than regular programs, their importance is little lower. So, what we are planning is to increase the effectiveness with our digital notes, dynamic testing assessment. So, this is our long run plan also coaching institutes so coaching institutes are playing vital role what they’re doing is they are preparing student for this higher education but a student has a very less material online available. So, we are giving all power to the student on their mobile so that they can practice more, they can learn higher and they can contribute more to the country. What are your takeaways in these last two days event? This is a beautiful event I will surely give a thumbs up to you guys because I have had a great chance to listen to the most prominent people from the industry and speak to them and I would like to contribute more in such events wherein the sort of people we are targeting, they’re coming here and getting engaged to each other. Also, we got a chance to interact with other EdTech companies how they are contributing and how we can collaborate with each other and create a win-win situation in the market and create a value for the customer also because creating value for the customer is more important for us. Any message for ArdorComm Media Group? You guys are doing great job, first of all you are creating an ecospace wherein people like us can directly meet to our customer in a lesser value. I mean if I hire a team there so it will get me a higher cost, but I get to meet more than 100 people in two days, get a bigger funnel and get a collaboration around also, so in a two days’ time we have achieved a lot. So, I really appreciate the effort you guys are putting and I would like to contribute more in such events.

“It is playing a very vital role and it is in fact transforming the education scenario and giving a great learning experience as well for the students,” says Prof Dr. Ankit Gandhi, Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Technology, 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 forum Dr Ankit. Thank you so much, I am Dr Ankit Gandhi and I am working as a pro Vice Chancellor with University of Technology, it is a new University I would rather say we started functioning in 2017, though the group which is supporting our University that is into education domain for the last 46 years but the university is the latest venture and it started functioning in 2017 with the name of University of Technology. Would you like to highlight a bit more about your University, how many students are there and what special initiatives in technology which your University is doing? Currently we are running in the University, we call different schools, so we currently have eight different schools in our University, alphabetically I’ll come to, number one is School of Agriculture this is the first and we are a university wherein students who are admitted in agriculture courses that we are running is BSC in agriculture MSC and PhD courses and they are all admitted through JET this is joint entrance examination which is conducted by a state university for agriculture admissions. The second is we have School of Commerce and Management wherein we are running BCom and MBA programs so we have commerce and management at both undergraduate, postgraduate and at PhD level. Third we have School of Engineering and Technology wherein we are running a BTech, MTech and PhD program, fourth we have School of Law in which we are running BALLB, LLB and another program. Next, we have we call it Department because we have got two faculties or two different schools for the pharmacy so we have Department of Pharmacy with an intake of 60 student and another we have started with this academic year with the name of Faculty of Pharmacy with department of Pharmacy we are offering BPharm courses and with faculty of Pharmacy we are offering Pharmacy courses. We have School of Humanities and Social Sciences wherein we are offering BA, MA and Library Sciences courses. We have very recently added School of Education and we have started courses in special education so we are offering special education courses mainly into HI and last but not the least we have Department of Vocational Studies wherein we are offering BVoc and MVoc courses. So, these are the eight different schools wherein we are offering a right from undergraduate to PHD programs. How does the EdTech collaboration helps in making a digital infrastructure of your University? When we talk about EdTech collaboration so this education technology plays a very crucial role both into academics and into administration. For academics in our University as well we have got a collaboration with certain EdTech companies that helps in delivering us a wonderful content and that is delivered in a way which is very student friendly, they learn the things in a way which is like we generally say it for KG students in the fun loving activity, so in a mode of animation and some sort of a dynamics that they play, students are able to learn more and more things in their classroom at the same time as I mentioned we use this EdTech collaboration into administration as well so for ERP implementation, for admissions and even we are in a conversation with EdTech company for digitalizing our degrees and diploma as well using the blockchain technology. So, that is into administration part, so whether it is education or it is administration in both part we are taking help from the EdTech collaboration and it is playing a very vital role and it is in fact transforming the education scenario and giving a great learning experience as well for the students. What are the takeaways of this forum for you? Great, it has been a wonderful opportunity and thank you so much to the organizers for giving this platform to all the conglomerate of education industry to this platform. Rajasthan and especially Jaipur is a hub of Education institutions but still maybe for certain conventional reasons professors they generally do not move out of this place. So, I think this platform is going to give a great opportunity for the professors and the leaders of the universities as well so that they can collaborate with these companies and pass on the benefit of this collaboration to the one who is at the bottom of this pyramid, that is students so they can all be benefited by this collaboration. Any message for ArdorComm Media Group? I would like to say thank you so much Chandan ji for this wonderful platform that you have provided and the simple message is please keep organizing these sorts of events in future and we look forward to meeting you once again.  

“We are running 11 schools right now starting from the manufacturing, electrical, renewable energy and automobile,” says Dr. Sandeep Tomar, Registrar, Bhartiya Skill Development 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 Would like to understand and know more about Bhartiya Skill Development University? Bhartiya Skill Development University is a totally different type of University you can say this is not a conventional one, it is based on skill education and it is a great platform for the youth of India just to understand how we can have a real education system because every time we are talking about a gap that the industries are saying the youth from the conventional industry after the graduation or the post-graduation they are not employable. So, there is a big gap every time we are talking there is a big gap in the industry and the academia, so several things happen but still the industries are in the same sake that there is a big gap and what this big gap can be filled by is through the skill education I think, because if you’re asking that in the foreign countries like Germany, Japan and everywhere they have a more than 60 to 70 percent of the Skill education, but in India it is hardly five to ten percent. Even Prime Minister Modi also emphasizes that we have some skill education as India is going to be the next youth country for that we need skilled manpower everywhere. So, that’s why this University is totally a different setup and we can say in the starting of 2017 only with the vision of Swiss industrialist who was associated with Rajasthan, Rajendra and Ursula Joshi Foundation. This is the foundation and we have a Swiss dual system of the education, so we are running the B. Voc. and M. Voc. courses in our University and B. Voc. is a three-year degree course and M. Voc. is of two-year degree course. So, the uniqueness of this course is that in B. Voc. alternate semester students are sent for the industrial training. So, in the first semester if they are on a campus the second semester they will spend in the industry then again third semester they will be here at the campus fourth semester like this alternate. So, you can see in a three-year degree course they will have a one and a half year of industrial experience and the course is designed in such a way, that it focuses on the industry need. So, this is one of the kinds of education, within a three year the student is ready directly as a skilled Manpower for the industries. So, we are running 11 schools right now starting from the manufacturing, electrical, renewable energy and automobile. It is now the time to change the mindset of students and parents because in conventional if you are asking me that most of the universities are talking about the computer science only rest of the core branches are going down. But the need of the hour or the future of the universities are lying in somehow with the skill education. So, even the government is doing every state government is trying to start something for this skill, National Skill Development Council. Many efforts are taken by every state government but the university is a role model for all the new universities those are coming in the states and most of the people are visiting the BSDU first and they are just trying to set up their University in their state and the second most important thing is how to connect with the industry even we are running the courses for the training of the trainers which we call the TOT programs. So, in the TOT programs most of the universities are saying or even you can say that most of the industries want that their employees should be upscaled on that one. So, for the upskilling or you can say that an education system most of the ITs they are running right now the employees also need to be upskilled on that one. So, this program is uniquely designed for as per the requirement of the industry and as per the requirement of the educational institution. So, right now if we are talking that BSDU have a good connection of all the type of the industries and we are running the courses for the JCB and for Hilti and for Mazak they are the big companies, so their employees are coming to the university and they have a one month to three-month courses for them. So, first they will be trained here and they are just going back to the plant after that one so Mazak is a Japanese company which is going to have the plant here in India and they are they are recruiting the employee first one and a half month they spent here in BSDU and the one half month in the Japan and then they will go to the plant like that in the same way the Hilti is doing that well so Hilti is coming with a big plant in Gujarat and they are going to recruit the people so the people first they recruited they will send to the BSDU for one and a half month and later on they will just join the plant so like that this good industry connect is required. How does certain forums help as overall education community where we see the technology partners, startup companies, academicians, educators, even some of the representations from the government? As the execution system is going to completely change now, we have seen the two years was too bad for everybody but somehow this is just a new learning for that one. This covid time every time we are thinking how the education system will survive but these

“This industry advisory board meets every six months to review our curriculum, to review our pedagogy, to give us feedback on the types of program we should introduce,” says Prof Amit Jain, President (Vice Chancellor), Amity 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 I would like to understand more about your University, what they are doing in Jaipur, Rajasthan? In Amit University, Rajasthan we have a beautiful 150-acre campus and we are offering more than 65 programs so anything that you can think of in terms of management, architecture, design, law, fashion we have everything under our umbrella, we have 200 plus faculty members. How has the traditional education got transformed into digital education, until what level it is implemented in your universities? We believe in technology adoption and in terms of our curriculum and programs also we were the first one to introduce a cyber security program, we were the first one to introduce MBA with a full specialization in digital marketing. We have our specializations in AI, machine learning, clouds in our Btech programs. So, we always believe in remaining at the forefront of the technology and utilize the best advantage. What are the initiatives which is been taken in your University for industry engagements? For every school or every program, we have our industry advisory board and the composition is very interesting the board is chaired by a senior industry person not the academic director the director happens to be the co-chair. There is an alumni as member of that board who is already in the industry and there are a couple of members from the industry and this industry advisory board meets every six months to review our curriculum, to review our pedagogy, to give us feedback on the types of program we should introduce and the kind of programs that I talked about in terms of cyber security, data science, AI-ML, digital marketing, most of these programs were result of feedback from the industry. We have gathered at the event New Normal Education Leadership Summit what does the word new normal for you stands? I must congratulate ArdorComm for organizing this because you are redefining lot of things and you are redefining this new normal in education. As I can see many edutech companies are here because these companies are the backbone of modern education now, because the new normal definitely will be a blended approach towards learning which is independent of time, location, space constraints and more a demand driven education rather than a supply driven education. I’m a professor of marketing and we believe in sense and respond philosophy and I believe new normal talks about sensing what the market needs and then responding to it through your programs, through your courses and curriculum. What should be an outcome of forums like this where we have the technology partners, academia, industry leaders and even the government representation, how does certain program help the community? Definitely these kinds of deliberations are very important to chart out a way to visualize the future and to create a roadmap for all of us who are the stakeholders in the education system be it the media companies, be it the education service providers, be it technology platforms we all have to come together in this new normal and then only we will be able to deliver full satisfaction to the students. ArdorComm Media Group is a media startup and it has been one and a half years of successful existence, any message or advice would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? Good wishes to you Chandan ji and Ashish ji for this wonderful initiative and I’m sure your company will grow by leaps and bounds and you’ve done a good job by bringing all these stakeholders together in form of this particular ELSA Summit, congratulations and best wishes to you.  

“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

“I think for each one of us as educators it’s important that they come in live forums like this and interact, share their insight and share it with the whole world because it’s all about learning from each other,” says Dr. Harshita Sharma, Founder & Director, Brainstorm International, Pune in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAJaipur #ELSARajasthan You have been witnessing this event since morning, what is your experience and an outcome of the endeavour? I think first of all I should thank Chandan ji and the entire ArdorComm team for connecting so many educators which is very important, because its educators coming from different domains and then sharing their knowledge which is very important. Since morning it has been a really brainstorming sessions, so that is one thing and a lot to take away from all the sessions all the panellists in each session which is fabulous the way the things are organized and managed and the delivery. I think it was just amazing so kudos to the entire team and yes lot of takeaways since morning with the new NEP implementation I think there has been a lot of discussions going on all around how to do it where to start, what need to bring in change and everybody coming with their life experiences, the school sharing their best practices I think that was amazing. How much and how more like in the tech part now the technology would be enabled in the school I think that’s again a thought process which is going on and how do we bring in that balanced approach, how do we make sure that the NEP in the true sense in the real world it can be implemented because right now it’s all in the paper and that can be done if you have such events where everybody brainstorm together and everybody shares their best practice and see that how we can learn from each other because that’s one angle which would be the only way forward. I think for each one of us as educators it’s important that they come in live forums like this and interact, share their insight and share it with the whole world because it’s all about learning from each other, it is all about experiential learning, it’s all about inquiry based, it’s all about the new normal and the new normal will never happen and it’s enacting, if we come together and brainstorm at this. What according to you does new normal stands for? The new normal actually stands from where I begin my journey. So, the new normal would be again for whom it is a new normal, for me, is it for children, is it for parents, for whom? So, being into the education fraternity I think the children become the center and everything falls around with the children. So, if we keep that center always and we revolve around I think we can bring in that change unless and until we do that otherwise I’m doing something, a teacher is doing something but they’re all doing. So, the new normal everything comes with advantages disadvantages so if you even have the technology, how much little or how much more that the balance has to come. Similarly, in the foundational literacy skills also so when you’re talking about the balanced approach which is very important the language and literacy communication. So, when we’re talking about effective communicators also where and how that is something which is very important and that has to be bringing from the best pedagogies. It should be how we do it and how simple we can make it there. What should be the outcome of this event, when we see the edtech players are also here the academicians are here even the government fraternity is there, what should be the benefit from this entire amalgamation? So, instead of blaming, justifying and complaining, I think each one of us if we take 100 percent responsibility of what I can do for my organization that would be like adding value to the nation. Where we are looking ahead at the bigger picture which is there so it starts with me and how can I do even if I can do just say maybe 10 percent, I think that adds, every drop in the ocean matters. I would be glad to share that ArdorComm Media Group has recently completed its one and a half years and we’ve celebrated our anniversary recently, any message or advice would you like to share or give to ArdorComm Media Group? Every challenge is a new opportunity and I think actually every day we learn new things so that’s the message I would give that as a team I think you’re doing a wonderful job, connecting educators because that is where we are talking about shaping the future of children. I think you’re doing a wonderful job and stay blessed and wish you all the best and just amazing to be here and I know, I have seen you for so many years, the kind of work what you’re doing, it comes from heart and not from mind.