Interviews

“Along with the qualification they are getting real time industrial experience that makes them productive from day one and it is also giving the industry what they need,” says Prof. (Dr.) Avani Umatt, Provost, TeamLease Skills University, Vadodara in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad We would like to have some more light on what TeamLease Skills University is actually doing? So, TeamLease Skills University is India’s first skills University and it was established as a public private partnership with the government of Gujarat and the motto of the university is putting India to work. So, what we are focusing on is making our students readily employable with the required skill sets that is required by the industry so we have a very close bond with the industry to understand their needs and to ensure that what we are giving as a part of education meets the needs of the industry. So, we basically focus on three E’s one is the education, education which will cater to the requirement of the domain skills and the practical skills that are required. Employability which is the major gap between education and employment so we focus on ensuring that the candidates get all the employability skills that are required to be readily absorbed and to be productive from day one and the third is employment to ensure that the candidates that have moved out from our University are employable and productive from day one. So, this is what we are working around and we work on a different model where we have a four classroom four qualification corridor where we look at the four classrooms is on campus, on-site, on job training and online and the four qualification that we look are, look at our certificate, diploma, advanced diploma and degree. We acknowledge that every candidate and we emphasize that every candidate goes through on job training to give them so that is one compulsory classroom so the rest of the programs may be offered in a combination of minimum of two or more classrooms where on job training is one of the mandatory classrooms and recognizing that we need to have a provision for lifelong learning. We look at a lot of upskilling also it is not only skilling but we’re also looking at the adult learner on the job who needs upskilling as well so we have a variety of models or variety of programs divided into our regular campus programs, work integrated learning programs and work-based learning programs. The work integrated learning program which forms a majority of our strength is focusing on the apprenticeship model where we have apprentices that are enrolled into higher education. So, along with the qualification they are getting real time industrial experience that makes them productive from day one and it is also giving the industry what they need, trained by the industry partially to ensure that their needs are met. As we have all gathered today in New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what does new normal for you stand? I think new normal is a word which has been coined after the pandemic but new normal is something that every institute, higher education institute and industry faces every day because of the changing technology, because of the pace at which industry is also changing the requirements are changing. Catering to the needs of the industry is what is the new normal. You have to accept that technology has become a major part of everybody’s life be it the student, be it the employer, be it any of the stakeholders of Education which I personally consider, the student the parent the industry the society, government all of these are the important stakeholders of education and society as a large. So, the New Normal doesn’t only affect a Higher Education Institute it also affects every single one of the stakeholders. So, you have to be in touch with reality understand what is happening in the outside world to incorporate it back into the education and to ensure that our youth is ready for the challenge that they are set out to face the moment they set step out of a sheltered education organization or institution into the real world. So, new normal is a changing every day. What has been the outcome of today’s symposium for you? I think this is a wonderful platform, ArdorComm Media has really taken pain to get the various stakeholders together to have good deliberations where we have been able to understand what other higher education institutes think, what challenges we face and when one or one Institute comes out with a possible solution then the same thing is replicated or can be taken up by other organizations without having to wait for them to face that difficulty. So, you are providing a lot of solutions, this platform has provided excellent networking for the various stakeholders and that is what is needed today. It’s not about now having your own ideas only it’s about being able to learn from other people’s experience and innovate to take your own organization to an elevated state. So, I think it’s a wonderful initiative and I’d like to congratulate the entire team on this initiative.  

“Time has come where we need to evolve, adapt the technology,” says Dr. Saurabh Shah, Provost (I/C) & Dean, School of Technology, GSFC University, Vadodara in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad We welcome you in today’s forum, what are your takeaway from this? Thanks for the opportunity given and first of all please accept my heartiest congratulations for hosting such a grand event where it was a wonderful platform for all the leaders to share their experience and in spite being young but the way it was organized it’s commendable and it’s very apt like you talk about New Normal technology interventions and it’s a great opportunity for Ed Tech and Senior leaders to collaborate so it was wonderful experience. In fact a lot of learning and takeaways and you deserve many congratulations thank you. As the event name is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, according to you what does the word New Normal stands for? Now New Normal is not the buzzword, time has come where we need to evolve, adapt the technology. In fact, we need to evolve new ecosystem where education is re-envisioned and we need to add up new strategies. In fact, many edtech companies are coming up and the way knowledge is delivered is also the entire definition is changed so we see a lot of transformation in the education system and in coming years you will see entirely different education system. So, all are working very hard even we are very keen and surely it will come out with flying colours where learners are at centre and I see a lot of value out of all these initiatives.

“We are investing heavily now on to the training of our teachers because that’s what the key success factors for implementing NEP 2020,” says Dr. Parag Sanghani, Provost, P. P. Savani University, Surat 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 are aware that a very beautiful policy by Ministry has come to us in 2020, what is the way forward and initiative from your University under your leadership how are we going to implement it? We have done lot of them, you know initiatives on that like one of the initiatives called Gujjalish where Gujarati and English combined for our diploma programs we have started on that. We are trying to have a language studies different language we have introduced with our universities minor and major specialization has been introduced so many things. We have started a blended learning also, we are the initial few universities from the Gujarat who as part of digital India movement and we have digitized all our examination records and the certificates and we are on the Digi Locker or a national Digital Library so all these has been started and we will now having more pace with the commitment of creating awareness among the stakeholders that’s the parents and students and we are investing heavily now on to the training of our teachers because that’s what the key success factors for implementing NEP 2020. What is your five-year plan going further post pandemics? Post pandemic the New Normal is Blended so we are moving towards that and we are trying to see that how we will able to integrate the various online resources into our curriculums. We try to involve the edtech companies in our education deliveries and we try to enhance the quality of our education and that’s how we will try to improve our rankings, our overall contributions in terms of research and everything to the society so that’s what our plan. As we are aware that the event name today is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Award, what is the word new normal stands for you? New normal means new thinking, new preparations a new way of delivering the educations and adapting the changing environment quickly to deliver the academic excellence for the betterment of the society and betterment of our country. When we see the kind of gathering which we have today the representation from the government sector from the private sector and even the corporate and edtech companies, how does certain forums help as overall education community? See education it means debating and deliberating so this kind of events, became a catalyst for the deliberations and coming out with the new ideas understanding what the other colleagues are doing in their fields which we generally not do in our normal course so my compliment for organizing these events and it’s a wonderful event.  

“CollPoll is a digital campus platform the goal is anything and everything that happens physically in the campus needs to be supported by a digital environment as well,” says Hemant Sahal, Founder & CEO, CollPoll 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 some of your case studies or any achievement or milestone pre-pandemic and post pandemic which you have achieved? Yeah so covid did help in establishing the value of technology to higher education institutions but there are also other factors that were driving technology adoption things like the competition has been rising the complexity, for example new education policy brings some reforms which are well awaited but with those reforms also come the complexity change. So, I think the complexity, compliance and then the covid came so technology became a key enabler and a facilitator in higher education. At CollPoll we were prepared for it and we were been working on the platform and the technology for a while and we have the insights, so we scaled up very aggressively. We almost grew by 10 times on terms of the number of Institutions we are working in the last two years. We work with some of the best institutions as well as we work with institutions in the city, in rural areas tier 3 cities. So, you work with a very eclectic set of Institutions and we’re very happy to see the response from education institutions. Would you highlight the services which you offer in CollPoll? So, CollPoll is a digital campus platform the goal is anything and everything that happens physically in the campus needs to be supported by a digital environment as well. So, whether it is an administrative activity which typically we call as ERP or is it a learning activity which you call as Learning Management systems or any workflows in the campus like a student needs a permission from the parent to get out of the campus or a faculty has a problem in the Wi-Fi or the IT. So, we automate thousand plus workflows with the platform and finally we also have a campus engagement platform which helps different stakeholders come together and interact and engage. There are many questions in your mind for any academicians or an educator when they try to finalize any of the edtech players to enroll in their kitty, what are the few pointers which an institution should think before enrolling the major technology partner? So, see it totally depends first of all on what is the institution’s vision and aspirations. Technology can only play a role when you are very clear as an institution what are your goals what are your aspirations right so I think institutions need to sit down and first define what their vision and aspirations are that’s number one. Second, they need to be very clear what are their budgets and then take it because most institutions make a mistake of having a lens of cost when they look at technology rather than a lens of return on investment. So, that mindset change of looking at the returns rather than the cost is very important because you might spend 100 rupees and get a return of like 150 but if you invest let’s say a thousand rupee and you’re getting a return of 10,000 then it’s far better to invest thousand and get the return on Ten Thousand. So, that’s a change so we do spend a lot of time helping our partner institutions get more aware of how they can look at technology in the long term. So, you’re not just looking down at your feet you’re actually looking far beyond. If you make wrong technology decisions then within a year or two you realize oh it was wrong to all the investment and time that has gone gets wasted and that’s where I think we help institutions in saying be clear about your vision your aspirations be clear about your budgets and then you take a phase wise decision on the technology that you want to take. Would you like to share your five years plan? For us see the 5 years plan is very simple, straight forward, we keep our ears and eyes open and we want to continue to have engagement and interactions with our partner institutions to understand what are the top requirements, how can technology play a better role in improving learning outcomes in improving student success, in improving research output, in bringing an efficiency in administration and whatever are the new opportunities that come our way we want to continue to solve them with technology so that’s the goal. As you know the event name which we are branding is a New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what is the word New Normal for you stands for? So, I think this is a perpetual process that new normal keeps changing so the one thing that we all have to keep in our mind is that education especially higher education is going through extremely fast-paced transformation. So, the New Normal will keep changing, there is no point defining the New Normal what is very important is to keep your ears, eyes open. Stay true to yourself and be very cognizant of what’s happening and be clear that there is never going to be a permanent New Normal and the New Normal will keep changing and you also need to be that agile and flexible to keep evolving with it. I am proud to share that we successfully celebrated our one years of existence and we celebrated recently our first anniversary, so any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group? Congratulations Chandan and it’s always tough to you know start up and build an organization and I’ve been looking at ArdorComm and I am very inspired that from where you

“Our both the universities and the institutions are working continuously on the research programs,” says Dr. Minal Saxena, Dy. Director, Sagar Institute of Research and Technology, Bhopal in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad I would like to understand and know more about your institution if you can throw us some light on it? Our institution is actually a pool of institutions in central India with our very former Institute of Sagar, Institute of Research and Technology in which I am a part since last 20 years and where I have two leading universities Sage University, Indore and Sage University, Bhopal which are the leading universities of central India with their USPs of experiential learning and a research focused curriculum. So, as your Institute name includes the words Research and Technology how important is in today’s era, research plays a role and why skill development is important along with the regular curriculum? Research definitely plays a very important role; our both the universities and the institutions are working continuously on the research programs. We have the AICTE sponsored labs for the advanced computing in both of the universities and our students and faculty members are continuously working on IPR, copyright and patents and the students of SIRT have been a good startup entrepreneurs with government funding in 2018 and 19 and a large number of startup units are there in Bhopal, in Indore so I think our alumnus speaks it all. In this forum when we can witness we have the industry leaders the startups, the corporate, academicians and even the government representatives what has been your experience overall and how does this kind of symposiums helps to the industry? This is wonderful actually post covid challenges towards students, new strategies for students new Ed Tech startups and the New Normal actually it’s the new thing which is coming up and it was a wonderful session starting with the new education policy. So, I think as academicians we are going to witness the change of and transformation of education with these tech tools so thank you very much for inviting me here and making me aware of many things which definitely will be a growing tool for us for the future tomorrow.  

“Because of not having the basic knowledge they are sometimes not getting employment,” says Dr. H.N. Shah, Director (GIT), Gandhinagar 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 you like to throw some light on the initiatives which Gandhinagar university has recently taken? Gandhinagar University campus actually it was established in 2006 as a standalone institutive like Gandhinagar Institute of Technology but in 2022 with the Private University Act 2009 Amendment 2022 we got the status of a State private university as a Gandhinagar university. So, it is spread across 11 acres land and we have a six institutions right now we are offering a program in Engineering, Management, Commerce, Science and latest trending BSc courses like BSc in data science, BSc in IT, Bsc in computer science and apart from that we are more focusing on the skill development programs so we have another vertical, skilled development so under this institute we are offering a skill programs which is industry required. So, ultimately our aim is to just provide the industry ready workforce so ultimately this industry gets the benefit. How is industry ready curriculum important and how skills are important to be a part of the main course curriculum? See up till now what we observed that these students are running behind just A4 size paper, after graduation they are just entering in their professional life. Because of not having the basic knowledge they are sometimes not getting employment. So, here this skill development plays important role in fact in the previous days it was there but because of now in the modern technology, modern technology tools it is available, they are adopting by all the fraternity maybe MSME or industry or teaching faculty so these today’s youth are very creative. So, just we have to give them platform and we have to direct them so we are just identifying their skill their inclination on which they are, we can give them the direction for the other future. So, skilled program based on that we are just offering them as skill programs and we are just preparing them for the industry. As we have gathered together at a New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards according to you how would you define new normal? Yes, new normal word came after covid, new word it was just normal initially so new normal means what after covid, after pandemic because of this pandemic it was worsely affected in all sectors not only in industry education even in particular health also even thought process is also mentally change. Now we are coming up slowly we are coming up in a normal position so that is why we are just saying that it is a new normal. So, now how we can survive for the longer period of time and for that we have to think for the different society of ourselves our development also right so new normal is nothing it’s just new thinking, and for our survival how we can accommodate all the things which is adversely affecting in our life. I’m happy to share with you that we have successfully completed our one year of existence this last one and a half years since covid till now has been very exciting thrilling and learning opportunities, any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? Yes, first of all I’m very much thankful and happy that you are organizing such kind of things in Gujarat. So, again I’m wishing you all the best, I just came across one poster even you are going to organize in Rajasthan also so yes you have a tremendous scope right now and because of your team is very dedicated what I observed throughout the day right, so wish you all the best for your future.  

“We have to work out and bring the changes in our curriculum system because what we are teaching, there is a huge mismatch between what industry is required,” says Dr. Gangadhar G. Hugar, Director, Laxmi Vidyapeeth Institute of Management, Valsad 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 some initiatives about your institutions which you have done pre-pandemic and post-pandemic now? I have recently changed the institution, I have shifted to Laxmi Vidyapeeth Institute of Management Studies. I can focus much about pre-pandemic situation where we had used ICT tools for educating the students those who are from the remote areas, giving them and getting a more clarification about their courses, how best we can ensure and educate and transform their knowledge and upgrade their knowledge during the pandemic. With the help of the technology, with the help of the different platforms through which we used to conduct the classes online classes and that has worked out very well for us but the thing is you know the other way around the students at the receiving end are having or faced a lot of difficulties in terms of receiving the sessions. So, sometimes it was very indiscipline one, time management was a challenge for the students and technology was a challenge and network was a challenge. These are all the issues which were faced but you know gradually we worked and we worked together, students and the management and then it was resolved. Would you like to highlight how the industry ready curriculum should be there and what skill sets would be required so that the employability outcomes increase? It is like a very interesting subject for me and I’m the panel speaker for that, like when we talk about the industry related curriculum design my heartfelt feeling is industrialist has to come one step ahead and then associate with all the educational institutions irrespective of only focusing towards the tier one city or tier two cities. They should also, approach come down to the tier three cities and below level also because you know now the student’s fraternity which are having spread across the country in India they are facing a lack of employability skills and what do we teach in the institution and what do they learn and then when they are dumped into their job market they are unable to match their knowledge with the skills which are expected in the industry. So, henceforth what I request is some of the local small level or large level industrial associations has to have tie up and we also as an educationalist and the leaders in education segment we also would like to go ahead and then tie up with them so that in what level we can provide the employment opportunity for the students for which we have to work out and bring the changes in our curriculum system because what we are teaching is absolutely there is a huge mismatch between what industry is required. So, if for example if I take up an example of our present BO course introduced by GTU you know we have started giving the training to the students in each semester minimum one month they have to take a offline physical training. So, this is a beautiful thing what I have planned and you know like they will be observed by the end of the course itself and they are getting trained practically on the real platform it is not a dummy, it is not a duplication. They are given an opportunity to work on the real platform and really, we have worked out within a small span of time that is hardly three months it is really working out for me and I’m with which you know I have encouraged myself and my team of faculty members to do more so that because we are getting a positive response from the industry as well. So, see always when we talk about the industry it is not only the big players in the industries we should also focus on the small concerns small entrepreneurs you know individual, entrepreneurs, public company, private company whatever it is. We should have some kind of an association locally as well because our institutions when we talk about tier two cities or the tier three cities our students as well are requirement of a job opportunities so how to make employable to them at that level regionally tire two, tire three level so it helps a lot for us to have a local partners local associations so with whom we can make it possible and for that we have to design the curriculum which matches to ensure our student should start working from the day one itself. The name of the event is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what is the word New Normal stands for you? New normal for me is you know doing something which is totally different and that different word has to have a catchy, meaning that for the present generation how we can enlighten, empower and transform the knowledge so that they could do something different things it is not one among the ten it has to be at the 11th one. By living one to ten he should or she should do the 11th one which is totally different, see doing the similar things anybody can do it any institution students can do it but every institution has to aspire the development of the students to come out with the kind of a creativity which is really acceptable in the industry segment. I’m happy to share that we recently celebrated our one year of existence and anniversary has been celebrated any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media? It’s really a proud moment for me personally and professionally and I’m representing Lakshmi Vidyapeeth

“We have to have the proper content prepared in order to establish this research-based learning for the future,” says Dr. D. J. Shah, Provost, Sankalchand Patel University, Mehsana in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Dr Shah would you like to throw some light on the subjects or the streams which your university is into? Ours is basically an only university in the north Gujarat region where we offer Engineering, Medical, Paramedical, Dental Sciences, Ayurvedic everything in a single campus. We are basically based in Visnagar in Mehsana district and because of this multi-disciplinary education available in the campus our students get benefit on the topic that you already have taken into consideration. There is multi-disciplinary education so we have an engineering student an engineering faculty supporting dental faculty and students in building up their projects in their denture related issues so that indirectly helps even during the covid time our team helped Medical College and hospital to set up oxygen set units so that they help the society from the floor whereas we are outside managing all oxygen requirements. So, technically both are helping each other and probably in the future no single degree is going to be used there is going to be a multi-discipline education and knowledge which is going to be the key. How important is research-based learning and where does skill play a role in the regular curriculum of academia? Research based education in today’s context is important but at the same time we have to have the proper content prepared in order to establish this research-based learning for the future. Once we prepare a content then the next important thing is to train the faculty members because see faculties are the key. If my faculties are not good enough to take care of that content forward then all this idea has gone. I gave an example during my panel discussion that one of my faculty when he was teaching me like constant acceleration motion he explained me by saying that can you write down a mechanical equation for a cover, a blank cover which I am falling it freely from the top and second time he put a pencil inside a cover and said now you write an equation see both the motions are different then he gave me certain examples and then based on that example I went to the library studied on something and so these kind of faculty members are also required otherwise this whole concept will fail. Skilling today is important but again when it comes to the skill people always talk about the soft skills but it’s not a soft skill but at the same time a technology related skills today are key along with the value based education because if I have the skill I have the knowledge but I don’t have the value or ethical practices in fact right then also I’m not going to be useful to the society so all this all in all needs to be a single package. We are here together to be a part of New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Award, according to you what is New Normal? See before covid I think we were all reluctant that how online education is going to be, nobody was ready to accept but post covid probably we have seen the advantages of online learning also. So, probably New Normal is going to be the hybrid mode of learning along with the required skills and technology utility for the future generation. If that happens things are going to be different. I’m happy to share that we recently celebrated our first anniversary and this exciting journey was full of excitement, learning and experience since covid till now, any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Group? Yeah let me first congratulate ArdorComm for completing one year and I’m sure that kind of activities that right now we are doing with this kind of gathering also first time in Gujarat you’ve been able to pick up good officials as well as leaders from higher education as well as schools. So, I’m sure that ArdorComm Media will be able to deliver better things for the society by combination of higher education, societal needs as well as industry need you can do a lot of things.

“Ultimately education has to lead to enlightenment and that enlightenment comes only when you are socially acceptable all across the world,” says Dr. CA Achyut Dani, Director, General & Provost, J.G. University, Gandhinagar in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad As you have been moderating the NEP session today what is the initiative under your leadership, how is your University going to implement it? So, the NEP is basically about enabling people or enabling students and basically University’s job is to see that whosoever comes to the university is either able to self-employ himself or is able to get into the industry seamlessly. So, as JG University what I would like to say is we have a benchmark program called M. Com honours program which is in US accounting and taxation, which is absolutely based on the NEP guidelines and which says that you study for first six months and the second semester onwards you are really on the job. You are on the job at a salary of 25,000 rupees a month for the second, third and fourth semester so just imagine the beauty of the new education policy that it brings what to the student at the end of two years, at the end of the two years student will have a full-time job, 4,50 000 rupees in his bank account and M. Com honours degree so that’s the best thing which we can achieve from NEP. This is just a single program which I’m talking about there are lot many things which we can do using the benefits which are given by the NEP for the educational arena. How important is the industry ready curriculum and skills important apart from the regular education which is going in the system? Industry has to be the focus if you do not focus the industry no education would mean anything to anybody because we have seen that there’s a lot of gap, there’s a big gap between what industry demands and what kind of skill set is available with the students who are studying in the traditional education system. So, there is a gap and we need to bridge that gap until and unless the industries involved, industry orientation is brought in, Industry oriented curriculum has come into the practice we will not be able to solve the problem of unemployment which we are currently facing. So, industry adoption is the basic thing which every University, every higher education institution must look for. Would you like to highlight something about the alliances internationally and it could be led to a student exchange program or a faculty exchange program? So, that has become an integral part of the new education policy now because any good university would need to give an amazing exposure to the students who have come to the university to develop skill. Now it is not about the hard skill, it is about hard skill, soft skill, formal education, informal education too and the kind of exposure a student will get when he travels to other countries, meets other people, comes in the conjunction with other cultural backgrounds and people from different arenas would definitely help him evolve as a better human being. Ultimately education has to lead to enlightenment and that enlightenment comes only when you are socially acceptable all across the world. So, the new education policy has made its way and we are also there to see that this is achieved. So, you are aware that the event name is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what does the word new normal stands for you? New Normal is that anything which comes our way has to find its destination, new education policy or anything coming to the education arena now is not new so we have to forget the world new and we have to talk about normal. It is a normal thing that we behave in a way where education is available to all, education is more affordable, it is more open-ended and it is more student-centric. It is more faculty-centric and it is more employment centric. So, that’s the normal thing, that is the part and parcel of education which everyone must understand and implement. You have been witnessing that we have the representation from the government, the private players from the universities, institutions and the edtech players and startup, how does certain forums and symposiums help overall the industries? I’ll be very honest with you, first of all let me congratulate you for arranging this amazing symposium this amazing conclave wherein there was a platform for people like us who wants to talk to people and you know give the message of what is required to be done. It is an opportunity to all of us to express our views, to get it validated from the people. So, let it be the startup ecosystem, let it be the investment, venture capital ecosystem, let it be education ecosystem, let it be administrative ecosystem at all these places we need to come together and these kind of activities, symposium and these kind of panel discussions will definitely prove to be the most fatal in actual and effective implementation of the new education policy as also achieving the educational targets which we have. As you are also a qualified and a senior CA how is a financial planning especially for the academicians like chancellors, vice chancellors should be in implementing or how should they educate themselves to have a good financial planner for a better infrastructure? Not as a chartered accountant but otherwise as a normal human being when I think about this particular question I have to mend my finances before I do anything. So, budgeting is a very important part which every institution, every university everyone should look into before starting or venturing into anything. Finances now as we are most of the

“The adaptability is going to be the life factor for anybody to survive,” says CA Utpal Shah, Director, Amity School, Bharuch; Amicus International School, Vadodara in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad Under your leadership how it has been taking the education and implementing the newest technology in the schools which you are leading? See the phase of pandemic has given us absolutely new dimension to the field of Education as far as the classroom teaching is concerned. Lots of emphasis has been given on the use of technology and internet connectivity. The school did well just because we could adapt ourselves during this pandemic time. With respect to the use of technology and bringing it to the from the classroom to the residences of each and every child. When we talk about the implementation of newest technology in the institute a very important factor which comes to the mind is the financial knowledge of investing right amount into right product, having a finance background how do you manage to inculcate or adopt a technology? I think it is always like whether ‘egg came first or hen’ so I think as an Institute we should invest first in the technology and then we should think about the returns. I am sure once the parents are satisfied with your services they never mind paying the fees. So, cost factor maybe yes initially we might have to invest something but in the long run it pays. Any of the case studies would you like to share during this tough time of two years, how did you manage and sailed off across taking teachers, faculties, parents and students? I must say thanks to the God that we could envisage such a critical situation in the first week of pandemic. We started our online classes on the 1st of April itself that was I think around 23rd of March the lockdown was announced and we could start the online classes within seven days of its announcement so that was the one thing which clicked almost in the right direction for us. We took the Reliance Broadband connections we made the laptop compulsory for all the teachers and classrooms were converted into the studios. So, each classroom was having a 65-inch Smart TV the teachers were bringing their laptops the connectivity was given and somehow, we could reach to the students despite having offline classes within seven days that was I think a crux of the issue. So today we have been gathered where we can see so many schools are here, teachers, academicians are here we can see the edtech players and the startups are here even the government is coming, how does such kind of forums or symposiums help overall education sector to grow and learn? I think over the period of time it has been very transparently clear that one thing which is going to happen is one has to change the way we think. The adaptability is going to be the life factor for anybody to survive. I think the way these people who are coming here and displaying their products is going to be the future of the education. For example, the first presentation which was given was of a classroom acoustic, it has clicked us right so this is something where probably you know the future of classroom or future of school education is going to be so I think it immensely helps all the participants. Sir to share with you we have recently completed our one year of existence, ArdorComm Media was started as a startup and we have celebrated our anniversary, any message or any guidance would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group? I can’t give you any guidance but I can wish you best of luck you are doing a fantastic job for the school education and maybe for the higher education my best wishes to you.