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“We had been Vishwa Guru, we have to be Vishwa Guru, and we will be Vishwa Guru,” says Kunwar Shekhar Vijendra, Chancellor, Shobhit University in an Interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram How are you feeling to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Delhi? It’s wonderful. I must congratulate the organization for the second anniversary as well. Very successful indeed. And this New Normal, actually, this term started during COVID. But today’s New Normal is that people should come together and collaboratively we should start doing a lot of things. And I am happy that Chandan and his team are doing a wonderful job. I was really impressed to see a very diversified audience of speakers, and especially meeting the Honourable Education Minister from Nagaland who is a celebrity on social media. Otherwise also, he’s trying to put Nagaland on the main map of education in the country. So, I congratulate everybody who is associated, and I wish this organization a lot of success. It’s good to see them in Delhi, looking forward to many more such opportunities. Kindly highlight some important initiatives which you are taking in Shobhit University. The main thing today, if we look at, is what is happening in the educational ecosystem in the country. As I was mentioning during my address also, the new education policy has come, and in the last three years, we are trying to reach to the last man. ‘Antyodaya’ the word I used and I’m using it again that up to the last man, education has to be there, holistic development of the youth has to be there, integration with the industry has to be there, and the skill sets have to be changed so that the industry and academy alliance is there. And this is all that in our university is happening, entrepreneurship, skill development, a lot of startups, research, innovation, what not. And I’m really happy that throughout the country, the same thing is happening again and again, and these platforms they gave us a reason to disseminate what is happening and to learn from our peers. According to you, what should be the vision of India for the education sector? The vision has already been set. We had been Vishwa Guru, we have to be Vishwa Guru, and we will be Vishwa Guru. Any message for ArdorComm Media? Keep up the same spirit. Do what you are doing. You are doing really good.

“There are a lot of industry-university interactions which are taking place in the learning process,” says Prof. (Dr.) Arun Garg, Vice Chancellor, MVN University, Palwal in an Interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram How are you feeling to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Delhi? It’s a very wonderful program which you have conducted and it’s all wonderful learning from different panellists and different speakers on how we can improve upon higher education, how we can adopt new technology, how we can interact or collaborate. These are the things which the new normal is about, and which are the different new skills. How we can upskill our teachers as well as upskill our students, and how we can make our students industry-oriented or globally placed professionals. What’s your take on the industry and academia outreaches which are taking place in your university? Any such initiative which is being taken in your university? Yeah, there are a lot of industry-university interactions which are taking place in the learning process. We have Bansal Classes who are themselves coming up and teaching the students with the updated skills which are required by IBM and Samsung. Then we have a few other industries, pharmaceutical industries. Recently, today only, we had an initial talk with Amrita Hospital for our physiotherapy and pharmacy classes. So, the thing which is very new to this area of pharmaceutical science is how to reduce the cost of medication to the patient and how to be more effective. There are a lot of medication errors and a lot of other things. So, we are going to work together with Amrita Hospital, which is going to be one of the biggest hospitals coming up in Faridabad. How important is skill development for students in this present situation? It is very important to have the skills in your respective domain, which is very important. Especially in case of computer science, the skills are being updated every five years or maybe three years. But in all other health sciences and other professions, you need to be updated with computer science, communication, and also the various platforms which are available for upskilling yourself. LinkedIn has several courses, Coursera has several courses. These courses are to be taken up by the students or maybe by working professionals for getting upskilled. As you can see in these kinds of forums where we bring in the education leaders, the ed-tech leaders, as well as the government, how does this kind of forum benefit the education sector? When we interact with all these learning platforms and other education players, we learn from each other. That’s what we discussed in this platform, Interactive learning. So, it’s a great platform for us to interact with the big players as well as with the small and come to know what is happening in this particular feature in the education industry here. So, it’s a great learning from this education summit.

“Today we are shifting from rote-based learning to actually experiential learning, which is more about deeper understanding, clearing the concepts, and processes of the students or the learners,” says Dr. R D Patidar, Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal University, Raigarh in an Interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram How are you feeling to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Delhi? It’s good, really a good platform where all the academicians and industry leaders are here to share their knowledge and thoughts on the New Normal, especially the new National Education Policy. So, this is really a very good platform. How are you implementing technology in your University? We are implementing technology in many ways. OP Jindal University, Raigarh, is a university of Steel technology, and we are using technology for the teaching-learning process. We are using technology for all other activities of the university, and the ultimate purpose is to make the students industry-ready by designing industry curriculum and involving industry experts with the support of technology. What’s your take on skill development? Skill development is the most important part of today’s education, especially the new National Education Policy. They provide more flexibility and freedom, and also holistic development in education to develop the skills of the students, to make them talented, or we can say, to make them employable. So, today we are shifting from rote-based learning to actually experiential learning, which is more about deeper understanding, clearing the concepts, and processes of the students or the learners. So, that’s really very important. In these kinds of forums where we bring in education leaders, the EdTech players, as well as the government, how does this kind of forum benefit the education sector at large? Such kind of events are really very important for all the educational institutions in general, and the technical institutions or higher education institutions in particular, where we can interact with each other, share the issues, challenges, and it is the right platform to discuss the issues faced by various institutions and come to resolve them and provide quality education to the youth of the nation. Any message for ArdorComm Media Group on its 2nd anniversary? I congratulate ArdorComm Media and the entire team for such an excellent program organized in a very short span of time. I also congratulate ArdorComm Media for all their achievements despite being a young organization. So, I congratulate you and the entire team.

“I think this century is going to be the century of skills. Degrees, certificates, and all will have no meaning, it will be basically skills,” says Dr. Sunil Rai, Chancellor of UPES, Dehradun in an Interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram How are you feeling to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Delhi? It’s a wonderfully organized event. Many congratulations to Chandan and all of you, the entire team. And many congratulations for completing two years since inception. It’s a wonderful event, very high quality, and good exchange of thoughts. What according to you, does the word “New Normal” mean? To look at life itself in a new manner, because everything is changing. Everybody is talking about these fast changes. So, this New Normal is not a static situation. This New Normal will keep changing. At today’s rate, it may change every five years, and after five years, it will change every two years, and then maybe every month. So, New Normal is a new way of life, which is a normal way of life. What’s your take on skill development for the 21st-century workforce? I think this century is going to be the century of skills. Degrees, certificates, and all will have no meaning, it will be basically skills. People will not be hired for time, but they will be hired for skills. When I say not be hired for time, today we are hired for time, nine to five one has to come to office and work, so I go and work with my skills in my own office. Tomorrow, it will be that there will be 30 people who will be talking to me, and I will be hired for my skills. So, doing this kind of analysis, it is one Sunil Rai who knows it. So, company A will call me two to three, company B will call me four to five. So, it will be skills. Skills are the way to go. How are you implementing technology or integrating technology in your University? Yeah, so basically, we always keep having the right portfolio mix of technology, which is what I mentioned in my panel also. There will always be a change that is required to your existing portfolio. So, we have our own LMS’s, our own means. We’ve got Blackboard and then there are other tools that we use for attendance, for monitoring, for student life cycle. What we do is either we change the components every about 20 to 30 percent every year, or we change even the software or the complete paradigm every three years. So, I think this is the kind of things working now, but going forward, we will have to see. So, we have to keep looking at what is working, what is not working, keep changing, keep changing in a way that you can digest it. As you can see in these kinds of forums where we bring in education leaders, industry experts, as well as the government, how does this kind of forum benefit the education sector? It definitely benefits all. My suggestion, in particular is that, because you are a media company, I think with this, there has been a phenomenal learning which has come out in today’s and will come out tomorrow as you are doing schools. There should be a complete kind of declaration or a kind of statement which should come out after this effort, and it should remain there next year. So, there could be some 20, 30, or 15 points that we should all as educators and as a society look at. These 15 things to be done next third iteration. You must check those 15, how many of them have worked and how many have not worked. I think then it will have a phenomenal impact. But it’s a very good learning when you listen to different, different thoughts. Any message for ArdorComm Media Group on its 2nd anniversary? You’re doing very well. I mean, in two years, you have made a mark and you are doing extremely well. But I think where you can stand out is basically come up with focused suggestions and monitor them. You have your portals for each of these kinds of things, teaching-learning, administration, accreditations, rankings, benefit to society. So, all these verticals and then there could be some suggestions that are being made and they should remain there on the portal so that you’re reminded of it again and again and so you make your own contributions. You are already doing it very well. I wish you all the best going into your third year.

“We’ve also signed MOUs with industries to train faculty members in advanced technologies,” says Prof. Rajive Kumar, Member Secretary, AICTE, MoE, Govt. of India in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSANewDelhi #ELSAGurugram As you know, the event name is “New Normal: Education Leadership Summit and Awards.” What does the word “New Normal” stand for you? The term “New Normal” emerged after the pandemic. Many new methodologies and ways of teaching emerged after the pandemic. One of them was remote teaching, allowing education to be delivered from remote locations. This became the new normal. Even during challenging times, institutions in remote areas adapted by offering online teaching. This shift has now become routine. So, to me, the new normal in education is the ability for students to learn from home and acquire skills through online methods. What are the new initiatives of AICTE which you would like to highlight? We have taken large number of initiatives. To support the government’s semiconductor initiative, we’ve approved colleges for VLSI, logistics, and advanced telecommunication technologies. We’ve also signed MOUs with industries to train faculty members in advanced technologies. Additionally, we’re working on allowing working professionals to enhance their qualifications through higher education. We’re also launching a scheme where working professionals can study in flexible timings in face-to-face mode. This is in line with the two education modes in the country, regular face-to-face and online. We are aware that with the launch of the NEP, now we are in a position to celebrate the third year of existence of NEP, are there any special announcements you’d like to make? We’re going to use this time to introspect on what we’ve achieved and plan to fill any gaps. It’s an opportunity for policy makers to come together and discuss implementation challenges and solutions. Whenever you are implementing something new, some problems come in implementation. So, basically, we’ll sit during these two-day program, deliberate and find out the solutions. These discussions will help us refine and improve our education system. You witnessed this event where we have the policy makers the academicians even the corporate and the entire education community how does such forums helps overall industry to grow and understand about each other? Yes, that is very important and as in today’s program we saw a large number of Industry people and academicians and people those who are running the academic institutions they are there and such type of programs definitely help to understand the issues challenges and the best practices of others. They can learn from others also and they can share their best practices with others also so this is a very important forum. I hope you will organize many more programs not only in Delhi but also in remote parts of the country as well. Any special message for ArdorComm Media Group on its 2nd anniversary? It was really a pleasure to attend and see large galaxy of the academicians in this conclave and I hope because this is the second anniversary you are celebrating in time to come it will grow like a banyan tree and a large number of academic fraternities will take benefit from this organization.