DigitalLEARNING October 2018 Issue

VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 09 | OCTOBER 2018

’ GIANT LEAP IN

SKILL-ORIENTED HIGHER EDUCATION

Prakash Javadekar

Minister for Human Resource Development Government of India

Vasundhara Raje

Chief Minister of Rajasthan

Kiran Maheshwari

Minister for Higher & Technical Education Sanskrit Education, and Science & Technology Government of Rajasthan

CONTENTS OCTOBER 2018 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 09

COVER STORY

14

RAJASTHAN TAKING LEAP IN SKILL-ORIENTED HIGHER EDUCATION

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

22

26

Minister for Higher & Technical Education Sanskrit Education, and Science & Technology Government of Rajasthan

Additional Chief Secretary, Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan

RAJASTHAN SCALING NEW HEIGHTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION KIRAN MAHESHWARI

‘MAKING GRADUATES EMPLOYABLE IS OUR KEY FOCUS IN RAJASTHAN’ DR SUBODH AGARWAL

SPECIAL INTERVIEW 28

CONFERENCE REPORT

59

ENABLING RAJASTHAN YOUTH TO BE FUTURE-READY ASHUTOSH A T PEDNEKAR

Secretary, Higher Education & Commissioner, College Education, Government of Rajasthan

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dr Ravi Gupta EDITORIAL TEAM: DELHI/NCR Senior Assistant Editors: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy, Sandeep Datta Assistant Editors: Priyanka Sharma, Gopi Krishna Arora, Poulami Chakraborty, Mukul Kumar Mishra Senior Correspondents: Akash Tomer, Rashi Aditi Ghosh Correspondent: Ritika Srivastava LUCKNOW BUREAU Assistant Editor: Arpit Gupta MUMBAI BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma Senior Correspondents: Harshal Yashwant Desai, Rakesh Kumar Roy JAIPUR BUREAU Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma

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EDITORIAL Royal Rajasthan Bolstering Higher Education Ecosystem

Education landscape of Rajasthan is fast expanding these days. The State, long been known for its royal and cultural lifestyle and scenic deserts far and wide, is today steadfastly turning into a major hub of education.

Courtesy the vision of Rajasthan Government, the State’s Higher Education sector in particular is witnessing a growth trajectory. The job-oriented approach of the State administration, especially the education department is laying a solid foundation for Rajasthan’s youth to benefit from in decades to come. Our latest issue of digitalLEARNING magazine has tried to focus on Rajasthan’s higher education and human resource aspect in a comprehensive manner. The idea is to underline all possible angles, consistently developing the State as a hub of knowledge and learning.

Our cover story “Rajasthan’s Leap in Skill-Oriented Higher Education” justifiably tries to explore how the Government of Rajasthan is trying to leverage innovative approach to build a robust education ecosystem here.

A special feature on iStart- the State’s integrated Startup Platform, highlights the very importance of StartUp Culture currently being propagated by the State Government. Another feature on Centre for Electronic Governance (CEG) takes a closer look at its various functions and achievements so far.

We’ve also featured interviews of Kiran Maheshwari, Minister, Technical Education, Higher Education, Sanskrit Education, Science and Technology, Government of Rajasthan; Dr Subodh Aggarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan, Ashutosh A T Pednekar, Commissioner-College Education and Special Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Rajasthan; highlighting varied dimensions of higher education space in the State and spelling out their vision.

We’ve also carried interviews of various edu-leaders and top university officials of Rajasthan, including of Prof N P Kaushik, Vice Chancellor, Rajasthan Technical University, Ngikya Gohain, Managing Director, Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC), Lalit K Panwar, Vice-Chancellor, Rajasthan ILD Skill University, Dr Gopala Krishna Prabhu, President, Manipal University, among others.

This issue also carries congratulatory messages of Hon’ble Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, and MoS Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, C R Chaudhary. They’ve appreciated the Rajasthan’s Department of Higher and Technical Education and the digitalLEARNING magazine for their joint effort to showcase innovations and initiatives being undertaken across higher education landscape of Rajasthan.

The 2nd Annual Higher Education & Human Resource Conclave in Jaipur aims to initiate discussions and deliberations on the finest practices and challenges of the country’s Higher Education landscape. The confluence of top decision makers from government, academia and the corporate is hoped to pave the way for formulating a more effective educational ecosystem needed for employment and harnessing a culture of entrepreneurship.

Hoping this bouquet of special features, articles and interviews would thoroughly highlight the emergence of Rajasthan as a major education hub of the country, we await invaluable feedback of our esteemed readers.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief digitalLEARNING magazine and CEO Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

24-25

24-25

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C. R. CHAUDHARY, IAS (Retd.)

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Minister of State Commerce & Industry And Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Government of India New Delhi-110 107

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MESSAGE I am delighted to learn that Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan, in association with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd, is organizing "Higher Education & Human Resource Conclave" on September, 24-25 at Jaipur.

I am confident that the said Conclave would serve as an ideal platform for all the stakeholders in the education domain for formulating a more effective educational ecosystem that is much needed for creating employment and harnessing a culture of entrepreneurship for student fraternity.

I extend my best wishes to the DepGrtment of Higher and Technical

Education,

Government

of · Rajasthan,

and

Elets

Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. for the success of the Conclave.

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EVENT CALENDAR 2018-19 event name

place

month

urban / smart city Almora Innovation Summit

Almora

21 October

Smart City Summit

Ludhiana

25 October

Smart City Conclave

Chandigarh

17 November

National WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) Summit

New Delhi

19 November

Smart City Innovation Summit, Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow

November

it / governance / tourism / infrastructure Affordable Housing Summit, Maharashtra

Mumbai

8 October

Uttar Pradesh State Road Safety Workshop

Lucknow

October

Power IT Summit

New Delhi

November

PSU Summit

New Delhi

December

technology / bfsi Elets 8th SecureIT Summit

Mumbai

03 October

5 NBFC100 Tech Summit

Mumbai

15 November

Delhi

December

Healthcare Summit, Rajasthan

Jaipur

28 September

Healthcare Summit, Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow

October

th

Elets Digitech Summit health

3 India Global Summit

Boston

3 November

Healthcare Summit, Karnataka

Bengaluru

November

Healthcare Summit, Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal

January 2019

rd

education 8 School Leadership Summit

Indore

22 September

2nd HE-HR (Higher Education-Human Resource) Conclave

Jaipur

24-25 September

13th World Education Summit

Mumbai

30 Nov-01 Dec

9 School Leadership Summit

Hyderabad

22 December

th

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COVER STORY

RAJASTHAN Taking Leap in Skill-Oriented Higher Education The education landscape of Rajasthan has witnessed a big transformation in recent years. With Vasundhara Raje Government laying focus on building a robust education infrastructure for the generations to come, an innovative approach and progressive mindset is bringing the much-needed change, observe Kartik Sharma and Ahmad Shariq Khan of Elets News Network (ENN).

T

he Government of Rajasthanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision is about creating better employment opportunities, harnessing a culture of entrepreneurship, bolstering industry-academia-government connect, and thereby ultimately achieving the objective of developing a joboriented educational ecosystem for youths of the State.

The State, widely known for its sand dunes, majestic forts and havelis, in fact, as per a recent study, Rajasthan has topped the chart for having

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OCTOBER 2018

highest number of universities in the country.

The capital city of Jaipur, also described as the Pink City, has also secured the second position in terms of number of higher educational institutes in the country, as per the same study.

The achievements bespeak volumes about the kind of useful approach having been applied to build a robust education infrastructure in the State.

The city with 635 institutes is next to Bengaluru, which is way ahead with 1,025 institutes. Jaipur may be second in terms of

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overall institutes, but remained on the top when it came to universities. In total, the Pink City, home to over 635 institutions, has left behind the established education cities such as Hyderabad (487), Pune (421) and Mumbai (322).

Asked what’s in the recent times making India’s largest state, famous as a tourism hotspot, also emerge as as a favourite education hub, Ashutosh A T Pednekar, Secretary, Department of Higher Education & Commissioner, College Education, Government of Rajasthan, said: “In recent years, a number of path-breaking initiatives and measures have been introduced to strengthen the educational landscape of the State.

“These include not just creating synergy among industry, academia and Government to best generate employment opportunities and harnessing a culture of entrepreneurship for student fraternity but also employing newer ICT interventions for new knowledge, pedagogies and approaches to harness learning capabilities of State’s students.”

Mentioning many innovative schemes such as creation of ‘E-Repository’, which aims to make quality content easily accessible to students, thereby curbing difficulties in teaching-learning processes while expanding the reach of skillbased educational content to the State’s far-flung areas, Kiran Maheshwari, Minister of Technical Education, Higher Education, Sanskrit Education, Science & Technology, Government of Rajasthan, said: “Today, thanks to an increased focus on harnessing a holistic educational ecosystem, characterised by a culture of promoting industryacademia connect, employing best practices and

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SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS: l In Rajasthan, Agriculture and allied

activities still provide over 60 percent of all jobs, with industry (mainly construction and manufacturing) and services (mainly trade, hospitality, Government and Community Services) accounting for the rest of employment. l Literacy rate in Rajasthan, as per 2011 census stood at 66.11 percent. Of this male literacy stands at 79.19 percent while female literacy is 52.12 percent. l In the academic year 2016-2017, the government colleges of Rajasthan witnessed an enrollment of 3, 80,397 students of which 1, 75,221 were girls.

The last enrollment figure recorded for 2013-14 stood at 3, 29,130. l In total, 9.32 lakh students were enrolled in both government and private colleges.

INCREASED FOCUS OF EDUCATION SECTOR

Under the leadership of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the State government has been steadfastly working towards transforming the educational landscape of Rajasthan.

The State Government increasing the State’s financial outlay on higher education from Rs 1,038.53 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1,380 crore for 2017-18, is a prominent evidence of it.

“

In the recent years, State’s policymakers, edu-leaders and industry stalwarts – all have been working in close coordination to improve the educational ecosystem of the State and bring it at par with global standards.

COVER STORY

innovations and furthering participation of all education stakeholders to enhance synergies across the domain, there has been a marked difference in the quality of educational landscape of the State.”

In the recent years, State’s policymakers, eduleaders and industry stalwarts – all have been working in close coordination to improve the educational ecosystem of the State and bring it at par with global standards.

A look at some of the key initiatives to consolidate the education sector and enable Government and private sector to co-exist as a team shows the kind of vision Vasundhara Raje Government has worked on all these years:

”

Key Initiatives of the Department of Higher Education, Rajasthan l Implementation of e-Governance in Higher

Education through Higher Education Portal

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OCTOBER 2018

15

l Availability of Smart Classroom in colleges l Providing Wi-Fi facilities to students and

followed by many other government colleges subsequently.

Faculty

Youth Employability Skill (YES) Programme

COVER STORY

l To encourage Massive Open Online Courses

(MOOCs) l Library computerisation in higher education institutes (HEIs) l Spoken tutorials for FOSS courses l Digital classrooms in girls colleges under CSR by companies such as CISCO l Establishment of smart science labs l Establishment of Crowdsourced Social Platform for education l Linking colleges with INFLIBNET facility of UGC l Promotion of industry-academia linkages. l Bhamashah Sahyog link at HE Portal l App-based Dishari initiative for guiding students for competitive exams l Learning English through UPER app l To conduct skill-oriented courses in Government colleges with IGNOU.

Some Major Educational Initiatives of Rajasthan’s Department of Higher Education are: Higher Education Leadership Programme (HELP) It is a unique initiative where the whole department has come together under the leadership of the Minister, Higher Education, Kiran Maheshwari, to ponder upon creating a holistic vision for the state in the field of Higher Education. It is seen as start of a process which should be taken up in all the colleges to come together, develop and share vision and strategies to achieve definite goals in future. Also, a two-day seminar-cum-workshop (June 29-30, 2018) was organised on “Excellence in Higher Education in Rajasthan: Planning, Implementation, Success and Prospects’’ by the department to discuss about core areas essential to ensure quality and equity in higher education.

Guru-Shishy Samwad It’s a new initiative of college education to build trio-connect among students-college-government for prompt redressal of student grievances and the problems by the Government officials like higher education minister, commissioner – college education for academic enhancement in the State. The first such initiative was organised in December 2017 at Government College, Jaipur

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“

In the academic session 20172018, the Department has participated as well as organised some major events aimed at establishing better connect between the employers and the academia.

It has resulted in positive visibility and recognition for the initiatives of the department, where the spirit of openness and progress in its journey have been effectively communicated.

”

Youth Employability Skills (YES) Programme was launched by the Department with a two-point agenda — to inculcate employable skills among students; and to provide training to faculty members in order to create a mentor group for the trainee students, for post-training support. A training programme for enhancement of soft skills among students and concurrently their placement drive was organised in association with the ICICI Academy for Skills.

Skill Initiatives Twenty-three Skill and Entrepreneurship based certificate/diploma programmes were launched in association with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) under a special project mode named “Rajasthan Youth Skill Project with IGNOU”. 16,500 students of 106 Colleges have been registered in the first phase. Orientation of faculty members as ‘skill counsellors’ was held in association with IGNOU and Rajasthan ILD Skill University (RISU).

Krishi Vandan (Agro based Skill learning Programme): In a bid to encourage youth to engage with agricultural initiatives, a special mission under “Krishi Vandan” programme has been started by the department. The training to students and faculty members on organic farming in association with Moraraka Foundation has commenced to promote agro-based learning-earning aptitude among students on the basis of training-cumpractice programme. The first training programme was organised on 13th September, 2018 in Jaipur where 25 faculty members and 10 students were invited.

Academia-Industry-Employer Connect In the academic session 2017-2018, the Department has participated as well as organised some major events aimed at establishing better connect between the employers and the academia. It has resulted in positive visibility and recognition for the initiatives of the department, where the spirit of openness and progress in its journey have been effectively communicated.

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Entrepreneurship and Employment Job Fair In recent times, entrepreneurship-cumemployment camps and fairs were organised in 22 government colleges in collaboration with District Industries Centre (DICs) and corporate and private

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enterprises for skill enhancement and providing employment opportunities to the students.

Udymitaavam Rozgaar Mela with placements (Kaladera, Jaipur) It is imperative for an institution of higher education to recognise the changing trends and mould itself to ensure it serves the fundamental purpose of empowering student community. In this wake, Seth R L Sahariya College, Kaladera, Jaipur, has been striving to improve the skill development and employability factor of their students through an effective academic programme, strengthened further by events like Career and Entrepreneurial Fair and ‘Mock Interview’ sessions organised for the benefit of their student community.

Leadership Programme for Faculties It’s a Comprehensive Leadership training programme introduced by the department from June 2018 to ensure quality services, efficient management and effective response to students and society, initiatives have been undertaken, beginning with a rigorous dialogue with principals.

Advance IT Training on Cyber Security To inculcate information technology based advanced skills among faculty members and students, an MoU has been signed with the Center for Electronic Governance, Rajasthan, Jaipur. A training programme on Cyber Security was organised by the centre at Takniki Shiksha Bhawan, Jaipur in September. A total of 29 faculty members attended the programme. It was well

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COVER STORY

The department was a partner in the Edu Fest event, organised by the Government of Rajasthan under ‘Young Rajasthan’ theme on August 5-6, 2017. The department organised Big Data competition where 537 teams submitted nominations and 3 winners were awarded Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 for first, second and third positions respectively.

The award ceremony was graced by Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh; Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje; Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari, and Education Minister Vasudev Devnani. The awards were sponsored by the Elets Technomedia, New Delhi. One special edition of ‘Digital Learning’ magazine covering scenario of Higher Education in Rajasthan was also released by the Chief Minister on this occasion.

The department was host partner in 10th World Education Summit, organised by EletsTechnomedia, New Delhi on August 11-12, 2017. The department also hosted first Higher Education & Human Resource Conclave in Jaipur on December 21-22, 2017 in association with Elets Technomedia, New Delhi, where leaders from academia and industry participated and showed a high level of enthusiasm to connect with youth.

“

In recent times, entrepreneurshipcum-employment camps and fairs were organised in 22 government colleges in collaboration with District Industries Centre (DICs) and corporate and private enterprises for skill enhancement and providing employment opportunities to the students.

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COVER STORY

received and acknowledged by participants.

Internet lease line

Mentoring to programme

l Four-Mbps dedicated lease line available in 115 Government Colleges with IT infrastructure.

Mentors:

Training

To promote team leadership skills, mentoring aptitude and healthy managerial skills among faculty members and institutional heads, a MoU has been signed with the Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur (JIMJ). On the basis of the MoU, the first workshop-cum-training programme for college principals under “Educational Leadership Programme” theme was organised

by JIMJ on June 13-14, 2018 at JIMJ Campus.

The second workshop-cum-training programme for college teachers under the same theme was organised by JIMJ on September 17-18, 2018 at the institute campus.

ICT INTERVENTIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Commissionerate of College Education, Jaipur Implementation of e-Governance in Higher Education through Higher Education Portal: hte. rajasthan.gov.in It was mainly done for actualising the main objectives such as:  To create single database of students and faculties of higher and technical education  Automate Admission, academic processes for college and university  Provision for single gateway for all kinds of academic activities like issue of certificates, mark-sheets, migration certificates etc. l Promotion of Skill and Entrepreneurship Programs through mobile apps like UPER and DISHARI l Online interaction through “Crowd Source Social Platform for Education” will be made available on Portal with Creation of Student Online Community with Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled features l Provision for Facility of e-learning and availability of digital contents and curriculum l NOC application with Higher Education Portal l Provision for Affiliation Management Modules for integrated with HE Portal. It will eliminate the resubmission of affiliation forms by the private colleges for award of affiliation by universities

Creation of Wi-Fi Campuses l Seven government colleges have been provided Wi-Fi facilities in session 2016-17.

Provision for providing Wi-Fi facility to all remaining Government College in 2018-19

“

Rajasthan Government has increased the State’s financial outlay on higher education from the last (201314) amount of Rs 1,038.53 crores to currently applicable (201718) figure of Rs 1,380 crores.

”

ICT infrastructure being developed in RUSA beneficiaries Institutions. l Seminar / Meeting Room (with Audio Visual Equipment installed) l Smart class room l Smart Labs l ICT Labs l CCTV in the campus

Library computerisation Government colleges

in

40

l WEB based library computerisation software is being used l Integration of all Library data with access

e-CLASS Rooms in Govt Colleges l 35 Govt Colleges in first phase l 41 Govt Colleges in Second phase l Online E- Lectures on Higher Education Portal for e-learning repository will be made available.

Digital Classrooms in 44 Govt Girls colleges under (Corporate Social Responsibility) l Under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), 35 Govt Girls colleges have been connected to share online lectures among each other

Smart Science lab at seven division headquarters colleges l In 7 Govt Colleges at Divisional HQs, which shall serve as centres of educational excellence, models for further replication and Nodals for linked Govt Colleges for sharing and disseminating knowledge

SWYAM portal of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India l This is aimed at encouraging Massive Open

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OCTOBER 2018

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RECENT ALLIANCES SCRIPTED WITH INDUSTRY PLAYERS S. No ORGANISATIONS/ INSTITUTIONS

PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMMES

Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi l Entrepreneurship & Skill certificate/ diploma courses.

i.

l These courses are free to SC/ST students. l Girls of all categories were exempted from Fee in January

2018 cycle.

Rajasthan ILD Skill University, Jaipur

l Skill training to students & Faculty

iii.

Center for Electronic Governance, Rajasthan

l IT based orientation to faculty members and students

iv.

Microsoft Corporation India, Pvt. Ltd.

l Free of cost MOS training to 9,500 students and 500 faculty

Morarka Foundation

l Free of cost training to students and faculty members for

members. v.

Organic Farming and value-added products. l Monitoring for hands-on practices at college level. l Assistance in Constructing Demo Farm Units at college level.

vi.

l Free of cost Academic Leadership training to principals and

Bodh Siksha Samiti

faculty members. l Academic skills for students.

vii.

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur

COVER STORY

ii.

l Free of cost Institutional Leadership & managerial training to

principals and faculty members. l Management skills to students.

viii.

ICICI Academy for Skills, Jaipur

l Free of cost Soft Skills training to students. l Connect with employer and placement.

ix.

HIK Vision, Mumbai

l Free of cost Surveillance Camera and NVR to 75 Govt

Colleges under their CSR.

Online Courses (MOOCs)

Big Data Challenge & Hackathon This initiative is aimed at: l Promoting Innovations l Promoting Entrepreneurship l Employability l Enhancing Skills l Promoting Technology l Creating Common Platform of Opportunities l Knowledge Exchange l Recognition and Showcasing of Success Stories l Sharing of Best Global and National Practices

Spoken tutorials for FOSS courses: An initiative powered by MHRD l Part of National Mission On Education Through ICT, available at http://spokentutorial.org l Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay is partner

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l Free of cost audio-video e- learning resource l Tie up in the state with DCE, DTE, RTU, MGS University, MDS University, JNV University including Private Universities. l FOSS software – useful for UG/PG classes, 104 Government Colleges participated and 6000 students benefitted.

Digital Initiatives Redefining Boundaries and Reach E-Class Programme One of the main initiatives of the department has been the creation of E-classrooms for delivering online e-lectures to enhance usage of ICT. Efforts for enhancement in quality of higher education through ICT has been undertaken in 35 government colleges in the first phase; 41 e-classrooms have been planned in second phase with investment of nearly Rs 10 Cr. A comprehensive e-learning repository across subjects is being made available through the higher education portal.

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“

Rajasthan recently topped the chart for having the most number of universities in the country.

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(UPER)’ project, which is available for free to all students belonging to colleges of general and technical education, universities and other institutions. Approximately 30,000 beneficiaries have registered on this app so far.

COVER STORY

Dishari

Smart-Science Lab To augment basic science concepts and skills among college students through use of ITenabled state-of-the-art, techniques like virtual reality, augmented reality and 3D printing, smart science laboratories are being established with an investment of nearly Rs. 4 Cr. in seven selected government colleges, at division level, which serve as Educational Excellence Centre.

On-line Learning In the era of globalisation and information technology, there is immense amount of resources available online which can help students and teachers in their respective capacity building. The academic cell is actively working on developing programs, organising existing online learning resources and improving access for both, students and teachers. Students & faculty members are being encouraged to use digital methods of learning. The department has been advising government colleges regarding some of the best government educational online websites/portals which could be used for digital learning.

UPER (Upskill Proficiency in English for Rajasthan): An English learning initiative English Language Proficiency Programme has been initiated in seven government girls colleges and two polytechnic girls colleges covering 900girls, in association with English Edge Liqvid agency. An android based app is launched under the ‘Upskill Efficiency in English for Rajasthan

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OCTOBER 2018

“

The State is leaving no stone unturned to bring a paradigm shift to the higher education scenario of the State by giving a dedicated focus on nurturing innovations, entrepreneurship and to make State’s youth more employable.

”

It is an effort to provide a structured support for preparing students of government colleges for competitive examinations, enhancing their chances of success in obtaining suitable job in public and/or private sector. Dishari scheme was launched on 5 Sept. 2017 for capacity building and employment enhancement of students.Under the scheme, more than a hundred lectures by competent teachers for mental ability, aptitude and mathematical reasoning have been organised.

In order to increase the accessibility of the scheme, a mobile app “DishariApp” has also been launched on 21st November 2017. Main features of the app are summarised below:

Digital Classrooms: CRS by CISCO Keeping pace with fast-changing digital world and enriching experiences of faculty, digital classrooms sharing online lectures established in all 44 government girls colleges under corporatesocial-responsibility (CRS) of CISCO.

Government’s initiatives for bolstering the HR Ecosystem The State is leaving no stone unturned to bring a paradigm shift to the higher education scenario of the State by giving a dedicated focus on nurturing innovations, entrepreneurship and to make State’s youth more employable. At the same time, the role of Industry becomes all the more important to collaborate with governments to help address the issues related to unemployment.

In this context, aimed at creating a platform for industry-academia-government partnership by bringing together top universities, colleges, corporate and industries from across the country, The Higher Secondary and Human Resource Conclave organised by the Department along with Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd on 24 and 25 September, 2018 is one such event. It was held on similar lines i.e a focus on bolstering the HR ecosystem of the State.

The conclave aimed to serve as a platform for initiating discussions and deliberations on the best practices and challenges of not only

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Bharat Ekbharat Shreshtha To promote the feeling of national integration and

RECENT MOU SIGNED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF COLLEGES

GOVT COLLEGE GUDA, JHUJHUNU Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 18-07-2018 between‘Mani Modi Foundation’, Kolkata as first party and Commissioner, College Education GOR Jaipur as second party for (i) the construction of college building of Govt College, Guda Gaurji, Jhunjhunu at 3.0 Hectare land allotted by Govt .The Double storey of the building is being constructed at Todi, tahsil (Udaipurwati).

The constructions area would be 30,000 sq. ft. constructions 15,000 sq.ft. at each storey.

The cost of building would be around 7 Crore.

GOVT COLLEGE NAWAL GARH, JHUJHUNU Memo of Understanding signed on 16-122017 between “R.R. Morarka Charitable Trust, Nawalgarh, Jhunjhunu as first party and Commissioner, College Education GoR, Jaipur as the second party for the construction of the building of Govt College of Nawalgarh, Jhunjhunu. The Land is allotted by the government.

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COVER STORY

Rajasthan’s edu-ecosystem but also of the entire India’s Higher Education landscape.

Ashutosh A T Pednekar, Commissioner of College Education and Special Secretary of Higher Education, while sharing the statistics of numerous achievements which Rajasthan government have taken in the last five years, highlighted said that issues pertaining to Faculty, Infrastructure and Human Resources are being taken care of.

It was revealed that to create employment opportunities and harnessing a culture of entrepreneurship for student fraternity, create a platform to best integrate academicians, students, researchers, administrators to create synergy and harness learning capabilities of students, the Rajasthan Higher and Technical Education Department has plans to set up a placement cell in all government colleges to help graduate and post-graduate students in getting employment.

Under the direction of Rajasthan Higher and Technical Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari, the initiative is now being implemented in all the government colleges of the State.

to bring two states close to each other, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a unique concept “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat”. Assam is the partner state of Rajasthan. According to MoU signed by both the states on 10 October 2017, following major activities have been organised in the institutions of Higher Education in Rajasthan.

The ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ activities are being organised in thousands of educational institutions in all districts of Rajasthan even in the Institutions belonging to very remote areas.

Admission Provisions in Rajasthan State for Assamese Students According to MoU signed between both the States and Action Plan submitted to the MHRD, New Delhi, Department of College Education, Rajasthan has created provision of two seats in all courses and Faculties for students from Assam in its Admission Policy released on 25th May 2018 for Government and Private colleges. More than 10,000 students from Assam may be benefitted if they desire to get admission in the Rajasthan.

Conclusively saying, a look at the vast dimensions in which the Government of Rajasthan has undertaken several initiatives, guided by the vision of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, one develops a strong hope of a bright future for the youth at large. The State certainly looks well poised to emerge as a key educational hub on the lines of being an abode of tourism for people in India and abroad.

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In recent times, entrepreneurshipcum-employment camps and fairs were organised in 22 Government colleges.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

RAJASTHAN SCALING NEW HEIGHTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION In the recent times, Rajasthan, the State long been known for its sand dunes and majestic forts, has also made rapid strides on the education front. The State’s numerous ongoing measures aimed at strengthening education sector and enhancing students’ employability are certainly bearing fruits, says Kiran Maheshwari, Minister, Technical Education, Higher Education, Sanskrit Education, Science and Technology, Government of Rajasthan, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

What are the measures being undertaken by the Government of Rajasthan to promote higher education in the State.

The Rajasthan Government has been at the forefront in implementing all Central government policies. A total of 62 new colleges were started in Rajasthan last year. Many more are in the offing. Concerted efforts have been made to initiate entrepreneurship and skill development programmes for students to create better placement and career-oriented opportunities.

In all the deliberations and meetings conducted, establishing

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Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Cells across colleges approved and facilitated by competent authorities, has been proposed as a key initiative. With an intense focus on developing Generation Next leaders, numerous entrepreneurship and skill development programmes for students are currently underway in colleges across the State.

Universities across the State have been directed to upgrade their curricula to include skill development courses. Alongside, a proposal has been made for establishing ‘Kalpana Swarnim Udaan Kendras’ in colleges for girls to offer them training in self-defence, skill development and also to act as help centres for career prospects.

How

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technology

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empowering educational initiatives?

What is the vision in terms of using ICT interventions to impart knowledge and develop new approaches among students?

been designed to make quality content easily accessible to the students. Under this initiative, a lab having minimum five desktop computers and IT peripherals to provide quality contents to students free of cost has been proposed for 33 colleges in the first phase. This model can be replicated in the rest of the colleges after successful implementation. This will help enhance academic quality in our colleges.

In order to address the challenges of teachinglearning process in science, especially in the Zoology subject, a virtual lab facility has been proposed for 33 colleges. Under this, virtual labs in at last two subjects are to be established in each college, and of the two subjects one is Zoology.

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I believe technology can play a great role in speeding up educational initiatives. In fact, it could be the most effective enabler for this cause.

The government is taking a number of Information Communication Technology (ICT)-based initiatives to improve the teaching-learning process in the State. The dynamic ‘e-Classroom’ initiative has facilitated students across the State to get curriculum-based online academic support and avail contents to prepare for various competitive exams. The programme’s first phase is in the final stage of implementation, as the Department of Information Technology and Communication is installing equipment in the colleges. A total of 34 colleges have been identified in the first phase, which have been selected from each district headquarters. The proposal is to expand this programme to other colleges as well.

Telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is providing dedicated lease line for Internet connectivity to all government colleges in Rajasthan. To enhance the teaching-learning capabilities of students as well as the faculty, various smart initiatives have been taken up by the State government.

Considering the challenges of teachinglearning process in the State, especially in the remote areas, a unique effort – E-Repository – has

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Telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is providing dedicated lease line for Internet connectivity to all government colleges in Rajasthan.

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The other subjects are Chemistry, Physics and Botany.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

What are your current focus areas in higher education sector?

Rajasthan has the highest number of universities in the country. However, we are currently focusing on improving the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of students in our universities and institutions of higher learning and resolving the various issues relating to unemployment. Another area that we are currently focusing on is enhancing the soft skills of our students. For getting employment, this aspect has now emerged as an important differentiator, as due to lack of it many students are unable to secure good jobs. Hence, the Government of Rajasthan is now proactively working on this aspect. A number of workshops, training sessions are being organised by experts across colleges and universities in the State.

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Which projects and initiatives are in the pipeline to benefit the student fraternity?

A number of measures and initiatives are currently being explored for spreading technical education.

A number of mutually beneficial win-wins are being explored with leading global players. I am pleased to share that IT major Microsoft will impart technical skills training to about 9,500 students and 500 teachers in the coming year.

We are also delighted to share that our five universities and 100 colleges have received Central government grants for infrastructure development. In addition, the State government

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Rajasthan has the highest number of universities in the country.

However, we are currently focusing on improving the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of students in our universities and institutions of higher learning and resolving the various issues relating to unemployment.

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has several plans to boost the higher education sector. The government has proposed to establish ‘Kalpana Swarnim Udaan Kendras’ in 10 government girls’ colleges in the State. Similarly, establishing ‘Janjatiya Yuva Unnayan Kendras in colleges dominated by Scheduled Tribe students has also been proposed to train the students in skill development and entrepreneurship. Such centres are also supposed to act as help desk in their career making. Currently, it is proposed for 32 government colleges in the State. The State Higher Education Plan has been submitted to Ministry of Human Resource Development to receive more grants for research, innovation, quality improvement and vocationalisation of higher education in the State.

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POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

‘MAKING GRADUATES EMPLOYABLE IS OUR KEY FOCUS IN RAJASTHAN’ A number of initiatives for enhancing industry-academia connect, employing best practices, innovations and furthering participation of all education stakeholders to enhance synergies across the domain are currently being facilitated across the State of Rajasthan, says Dr Subodh Agarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

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The Government of Rajasthan has created a vast infrastructure under the education sector for schools, colleges and technical institutions. The government has also come up with initiatives for enhancing the employability quotient.

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Tell us about some of the initiatives being undertaken to make students more skilled and employable.

The Government of Rajasthan is taking various initiatives for the benefit of students in the State.

Nowadays the government is focusing more on equipping students with the vocational and entrepreneurial skills. These skills will make our students more job-ready for corporate sector and the industries of their respective streams.

In order to make the skill-based learning more effective, the Government has encouraged to strengthen the vocational education at college level. In their efforts, the respective departments of government are trying to attract more students to skill-based courses at polytechnics through aggressive marketing and appropriate counselling.

On similar lines, curriculum revision has been done for universities to make their regular courses more flexible. Skills-oriented add-on courses in colleges to be taken by students while pursuing degree education in Arts, Commerce and Science. Through industry-university interaction, the universities have to identify subjects in high demand areas and diversify their courses.

The State Government has emphasised on educating the rural population and people of economically weaker sections of the society.

Therefore, the Government of Rajasthan has created a vast infrastructure under the education sector for schools, colleges and technical institutions. The government has also come up

with initiatives for enhancing the employability quotient. Rajasthan Skill & Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC) is the main agency for skill development across the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for ‘Digital India’ and ‘Skill India’, how is the Department contributing to it?

These days ICT is playing the role of a game

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Is there a need for more collaborations, aimed at win-wins with other players in the educational space?

Certainly. Joining hands with like-minded partners to help harness, update and improve the educational landscape of the State is the need of the hour. And, I am pleased to share that a number of mutually beneficial win-wins have not only already taken place across the State but many of them are in the pipeline too.

It’s worth mentioning here is that the Government of Rajasthan in a joint venture with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL), Pune; University of Rajasthan, Jaipur; Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur; Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota; Rajcomp Info Services Ltd, and Centre for e-governance has set up Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Limited. It is a public limited company with an objective to develop

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a new educational framework that can plan, implement, supervise and regulate the developing needs for IT skills in the 21st century in the State.

Many more such success stories are being written across the nook and corners of the State.

How is your department ensuring the education reaches people on the last-mile?

Certainly, we are aware of this issue, and to address this serious concern, numerous focused measures have now been put in place.

These measures are surely making a difference on the ground.

With a view to make the education easily accessible to every section of the State, the Government of Rajasthan is trying to remove all bottlenecks currently being faced by Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) women, rural students and other financially –deprived students in this regard.

These days, the Government is laying special emphasis on access to Higher Education and also to increase the enrollment of SC/ST, women, poor and rural students by providing them generous scholarships and books. Further, proactive steps such as subsidised Higher Eucation for low-income families, subsidised education to girls in rural areas, free education to SC/ST girls and encourage donor participation in girls’ SC and ST education, have been taken to achieve the above goal. In addition to such initiatives, merging of schools, staffing pattern and teachers’ accountability measures have also been introduced in the last two-three years. I believe these have resulted in significant improvement in the education scenario among the rural masses of the State.

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Going forward, the Rajasthan government is committed to digitally empower the people of the State, especially women, farmers, youth, and children, while changing the face of healthcare, education, agriculture, SMEs and other important pillars of the State’s economy.

POLICYMAKER’S PERSPECTIVE

changer in many domains and realising this, the department is fully committed to harnessing the capabilities of digital technology in speeding up educational initiatives and in skilling of our youth.

Undoubtedly, the ICT and digital technology can play an enabling role in all our initiatives. Thus, all our transactions, be it related to approval, finance, educational content, courseware, admission processes, or degrees are all now digitallyenabled. Thus, the Higher Education Department, Government of Rajasthan, is working very much in consonance with the true spirit of Digital India.

Going forward, the Rajasthan Government is committed to digitally empower the people of the State, especially women, farmers, youth, and children, while changing the face of healthcare, education, agriculture, SMEs and other important pillars of the State’s economy.

Further, on the ‘Skill India’ front, Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC) was established by the Government of Rajasthan to address the challenges of unemployment among the youths of the State.

The mission ensures sustainable employment amongst youth by formulating appropriate and innovative strategies for the poor and vulnerable people. In view of the importance regarding skill development for enhancing the employability of the working population, the government has formulated specific action plans to provide further impetus to the skill trainings.

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SPECIAL INTERVIEW

ENABLING RAJASTHAN YOUTH TO BE FUTURE-READY A number of initiatives aimed at not only promoting an environment of innovations, employability and entrepreneurship but also for employing ICT for accelerating Skill-based endeavours are being implemented across the State of Rajasthan, says Ashutosh A T Pednekar, Secretary, Higher Education & Commissioner, College Education, Government of Rajasthan, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Please share with us your vision for enhancing the higher education space of Rajasthan.

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A number of initiatives for promoting an environment of innovations, employability and entrepreneurship are being implemented across the State of Rajasthan.

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During the last five years, a number of initiatives for bolstering the higher education space of Rajasthan have been undertaken by the Department of College Education. This year itself, more than 17,000 students have been enrolled in various institutions of higher learning in Rajasthan. Further, to create synergy among students, corporate, government researchers and various other educational stakeholders, a number of initiatives are being implemented. Various best practices, at par with global standards, are also being followed upon at institutions across the length and breadth of the State. These new measures would certainly help students on the path of excellence.

At present, the Rajasthan Government’s educational mobile Dishari App that contains a rich collection of educational videos, ranks and leader board, online live tests news and updates is being downloaded by more than 1,000 people on a daily basis.

This is a testimony of our efforts in this direction. Further, bottlenecks concerning faculty, infrastructure and human resources are also now being proactively taken care of.

Please tell us a bit about Bhamashah Sahyog Yojna envisaged by the Department of Higher Education.

Rajasthan has a glorious tradition of philanthropic assistance in the field of education leading to the growth and development of the State. To harness this generosity and benevolence for development of State’s higher education space, Bhamashah Sahyog Yojna has now been launched with a view to curb

deficiencies in infrastructure and other facilities in government colleges, thereby overcoming the pitfalls in the field of higher education.

This scheme is a platform to meet educational, vocational, social, infrastructure and welfare needs of government colleges of the State. The scheme envisages soliciting philanthropic assistance of Bhamashah (Donors), support of corporate houses, industries under CSR, Individual contributors, NGO, NRIs, alumni of the institutions and anyone who is willing to contribute to remove the shortcomings of the infrastructure facilities in government colleges and to fulfill other requirements for imparting quality higher education leading to increase in Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER).

As part of the initiative, institutions will register and upload their requirement of essential needs

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What is the vision in terms of formulating new-age ICT interventions and approaches?

A number of ICT-led initiatives and measures are currently being introduced for the benefit of student fraternity in the State. Some of the major initiatives that I wish to share, include: Higher and Technical Education Portal: Through the web portal i.e www.hte.rajasthan. gov.in, in addition to useful information for the student fraternity, currently, the hassle-free, userfriendly online procedure for admission process has successfully been implemented in all Government Colleges for UG and PG classes. This is aimed at creating a single database of students. Automation of academic processes for college and university is being made in it along with integration of NOC application of Private colleges with affiliation management process of Universities.

Smart Class/E-Class Programme: Under this initiative, we have so far established classrooms in 35 Government Colleges in the first phase. Going forward, plans are to establish 41 Government Colleges in the second phase. Online ELectures on Higher Education Portal for e-learning repository will now be made available under this ambitious project.

Smart Science Labs at Seven Division Headquarters Colleges: In seven selected Government Colleges at Divisional HQ, smart science lab will soon be established, which shall serve as centres of educational excellence that will showcase the Virtual reality, Augmented Reality experiments to help students visualise the scientific content.

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Crowdsourced Social Platform for Education: To expand the horizon of sharing knowledge with students and teachers on the same online education platform, use of Artificial Intelligence for the resource of knowledge sharing as a virtual repository is also being enhanced. This will also serve as Quick Response System (QRS) for students.

Bolstering the Idea of WI-FI Campuses: To increase the access of digital content among students of all government colleges, free Wi-fi facility is being provided to students. This will not only enhance the e-learning habits in the students but will also give a boost to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to be given to students.

BSNL Internet Lease Line Facility to Colleges: To provide high-speed Internet facility in Government colleges, four Mbps dedicated lease-line is being provided by BSNL in about 115 government colleges.

Library Automation: In selected 40 Govt colleges, initially, the library is being computerised using web-based library computerisation software and through it, integration of all the libraries will be carried out in a phased manner.

Aadhar-enabled Biometric Attendance System: The attendance of all teaching and non-teaching employees of the Government Colleges is now being made on Aadhar-Enabled Biometric Attendance System which is integrated with “Raj Upasthiti” online module. This will bring in increased transparency in the overall attendance system.

Digital Classroom by CISCO under CSR: A number of Digital Classrooms are being established in all 44 Govt Girls colleges by CISCO under CSR to share online lectures among each other.

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SPECIAL INTERVIEW

along with the tentative cost. On the other hand, the donors, interested to extend financial support, will get themselves registered on the portal, from any part of the globe, duly mentioning quantum of support, geographical area of their preference and type of support they wish to extend. This provision will provide a common platform creating a link between philanthropists and institutions, thus helping to develop essential facilities required without any additional burden on the state exchequer. Further, no cash support will be taken.

However, donors will help by providing the required facilities to the institutions of their choice.

Bottlenecks concerning faculty, infrastructure and human resources are also now being proactively taken care of.

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Spoken Tutorials for Free or Open Source Software (FOSS) Courses: An initiative (available at http://spoken-tutorial.org), powered by MHRD Part of NMEICT through Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay as a partner to about 104 Government colleges was identified to encourage students to use free of cost audio-video e-learning resource to learn FOSS software – useful for UG/PG classes.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

RSLDC SKILLING YOUTH FOR FUTURE The basic idea behind the creation of Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC) is to formulate appropriate and innovative strategies to promote and facilitate large-scale livelihoods for the underprivileged people of the State, says Ngikya Gohain, Manging Director, RSLDC in an interview with Ahmad Shariq Khan of Elets News Network (ENN).

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RSLDC has expanded its horizon by providing training in newer sectors such as Phad Paintings, Heritage Mistri Trade, Purohitya Prashikshan, Ornamental Fisheries, etc.

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Please give us a brief description about RSLDC’s mission and objectives.

The Mission of RSLDC is to address the needs of rising unemployment in Rajasthan through formulating and promoting appropriate livelihood strategies for the State’s economically weak working population and fulfilling Government’s larger vision of attaining inclusive economic growth. RSLDC seeks to provide an impetus to skill training and livelihoods initiatives for disadvantaged groups like women, SC, ST, migrants, persons with special ability etc. RSLDC is overcoming the challenges by disseminating knowledge, experimenting with alternative ideas, designing more effective livelihoods promotion strategies and advocating policy reforms. By facilitating convergence and coordination among

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stakeholders and enhancing capacities of existing livelihoods intervention agencies, RSLDC is expanding and improving accessibility of services.

Over a period of time, RSLDC has consolidated its skill training framework and has standardised the skill ecosystem of Rajasthan. RSLDC also plays an important role in approval of schemes, preparation of training guidelines and selection of training partners. RSLDC also decides parameters of establishment of Skill Development Centres (SDCs), their inspection and approval, methods and reporting of sudden inspections, assessment and certification and placement norms.

These processes are now well defined and have been made consistent by the State Skill Mission to ascertain better outcome. In last five years, RSLDC has seen a phenomenal growth as a result of its skill-based endeavours that have benefitted more than 2.75 lakh youth and rising.

As part of its endeavour RSLDC offers a bouquet of courses to choose from including National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) aligned courses. RSLDC has expanded its horizon by providing training in newer sectors such as Phad Paintings, Heritage Mistri Trade, Purohitya Prashikshan, Ornamental Fisheries, etc. It leads to dropping conventional courses and making space for the industry-relevant trades.

In its attempt to reach out to the different sections of the society, RSLDC is laying special emphasis on empowering special sections of the society with quality training and placement opportunities. RSLDC is providing skill training to women, transgender, persons with special ability, juveniles and jail inmates, ex-army servicemen, Pak migrants, and other such sections.

How is RSLDC working towards nurturing industry-ready skill sets among students?

RSLDC is working with over 250 training partners who have partnered with industries and potential employers for arranging post-training placements. These partnerships with training partners and industries are critical in ascertaining

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The challenge of ensuring gainful and sustainable employment to Rajasthan’s youth is a major area of concern for policymakers, what measures have been taken by RSLDC in this regard?

The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) scheme since its inception has the placement based incentive mechanism.

After the adoption of Common Cost Notification (CNN) by RSLDC, the Employment linked Skill Training Programme (ELSTP) and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) schemes also have incentive parameters to encourage better placement opportunities for the trained youth.

All these trainings are provided as per the NSQF aligned courses of level 1-4.

The State Government has also established the country’s first Government Skill University (RISU) with Bachelor of Vocation (B Voc) and Diploma of Vocation (D Voc) trainings of level five and above.

This will boost the skills and employability levels of the youth. Another private skill university – Bhartiya Skill Development University (BSDU) has been also established under facilitation from the State Government. The university is conducting Swiss dual model of training with major focus on hands-on experience and is conducting B Voc and D Voc courses and is also providing an opportunity for PhD programme. All these courses

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The Mission of RSLDC is to address the needs of rising unemployment in Rajasthan through formulating and promoting appropriate livelihood strategies for the State’s economically weak working population and fulfilling Government’s larger vision of attaining inclusive economic growth.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

How RSLDC established skill training mechanism by involving training partner agencies to execute the training programme across the State?

the industries’ skill requirements. The training partners are encouraged to submit their proposed courses when they submit their proposal for empanelment with RSLDC, considering the employability factor of a particular sector. They accordingly do mobilisation and counselling of suitable youth based on their proposed courses and ensuring the inculcation of right skill sets among candidates. The 10 convergence departments with whom RSLDC has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) also do mobilisation of youth for the training programmes.

Further, RSLDC also publishes industry-specific Expression of Interest (EOIs), wherein interested industries are encouraged to participate in the training programmes and provide in-house training as per candidates, needs. The provision of on-the-Job training (OJT) is also available in RSLDC courses, whereby training partners ensure youth’s participation.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

are designed to make a significant difference for the youth, helping them take up a better and sustainable employment in the times to come.

RSLDC has also tied up with many industry players for better training and placement. In this direction, MoUs were signed during Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit – 2015 with prominent industries like Caterpillar, BOSCH, Schneider, Asian Paints, Uber, Ola, Glass Academy etc. RSLDC also helped in the establishment of BOSCH BRIDGE Academy in 33 district level Government ITIs. RSLDC has played a major role in the establishment of Centre of Excellence for Tourism Training (CETT), Udaipur in 2016 with the support of ITEES, Singapore. This Centre of Excellence is a state-of-art Institution and is mandated to focus on training youth in hospitality sector courses.

The trained youth of RSLDC are also being linked with suitable apprenticeship to augment their skills and create better job opportunities for them.

How is RSLDC making education accessible to remote areas of Rajasthan?

RSLDC is putting special focus on tribal areas, border districts and aspirational districts of Rajasthan. Looking into the skill training requirements of tribal areas, RSLDC has prepared a sub-scheme under its Regular Skill Training Programme (RSTP). Relaxation is given in certain terms and conditions to enable training partners in scaling up training in these areas and benefitting youth.

Similarly, for Pak Migrants, located majorly in the border districts of Jodhpur, Barmer and Jaisalmer, special circular has been issued under RSTP scheme and training partners have been directed to take up the training programmes for

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RSLDC has played a major role in the establishment of Centre of Excellence for Tourism Training (CETT), Udaipur in 2016 with the support of ITEES, Singapore.

This Centre of Excellence is a state-of-art Institution and is mandated to focus on training youth in hospitality sector courses.

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their livelihood enhancement.

The remote areas lack availability of suitable infrastructure to conduct skill development trainings. To take up this matter, the TAD department is creating infrastructure and would hand over these buildings to RSLDC for training programmes. RSLDC is also planning to establish ‘Mega Skill Malls’. These malls will accommodate at least 4-5 sector specific courses and will also have residential facilities and would train youth in large numbers. The sectors would be demanddriven with high employability courses. RSLDC is also planning to resume the mobile van-based skill training programmes to fetch the needs of far-off and remote areas.

How can a platform be created to integrate academicians, students, researchers and administrators?

The State Government already has a policymaking body, which is Rajasthan Mission on Livelihoods (RMOL) being chaired by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje. Additional Chief Secretaries, Public Relations Secretaries and Secretaries of major departments are the member of RMOL. It also has representation from industry bodies and sector-specific national level experts.

There is another platform – Chief Minister Advisory Council headed by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. There are three sub-groups under it and one of them is education sub-group.

This sub-group works under the leadership of Education Minister of Rajasthan and has the representation of policymakers, education experts, and international NGOs working in the field of education and skill development and other representatives. Thus, I believe the existing framework in the regard is already doing an excellent job and is rightly directed.

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SPOTLIGHT

CENTRE FOR ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE — BOOSTING IT ECOSYSTEM IN RAJASTHAN Centre for Electronic Governance (CEG) has been established to provide an excellent environment for creating industry-ready IT professionals through vocational training, seminars, lectures, and relevant software training. It lso acts as a readymade knowledge-exchange forum between the industry and the trained workforce, Elets News Network (ENN) takes a close look at its various functions and achievements in the recent past.

C

entre for Electronic Governance (CEG) is an autonomous body established under the aegis of Department of Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan. The foundation stone of CEG was laid down on 8th December 2006 with a sole aim to provide a conducive environment for creating industry employable IT professionals through industry relevant software and hardware training. At the same time, CEG also plays the role of a bridge between the industry and the trained IT workforce that is readily available to be absorbed into the industry. Rajasthan is also the second State in the country that is running this programme after the highly acclaimed and

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successful programme “Jawahar Centre” in Andhra Pradesh.

Knowledge

CEG Training Programs Training programmes available at CEG are approved by Technical Education Department, Government of Rajasthan. The autonomous body of Government of Rajasthan under the Department of Technical Education provides certification in IT Training programmes like Big data, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Python, Cyber security, Ethical hacking, Android, IOS, 3D printing & Robotics, Oracle training programs, Mean Stack development, Cloud Computing, CCNA, Microsoft.

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Department of Information Technology and Communication, Government of Rajasthan. This training programme is mandatory for various ITrelated jobs in the Government sector.

Other Training Programs and Partners

Further, CEG also has a Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC) Skill Development Centre. The objective of creation of RSLDC centre is to provide a joboriented training programme for the unemployed youth to promote and facilitate large-scale livelihoods for the poor and vulnerable people.

Contributing to the skill development in IT

sector, CEG provides RS-CIT (Rajasthan State Certificate Course in Information Technology) training approved by Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Limited (RKCL). RS-CIT has been approved by

TRAINED STUDENTS BY CEG S.No

Training

No. of Trained Candidates

1

Regular Training & Industrial Trainings

6,642

2

RSLDC- Account assistant using Tally

184

3 RKCL-RSCIT

800

4

Faculty development programs(FDP)

153

5

In-house Training

786

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SPOTLIGHT

Net, PHP, Auto CAD, Red Hat Certification training, C, C++, Linux training program, embedded training programs and other relevant IT programmes. CEG is an authorised education partner of CISCO, Red Hat and Autodesk. syllabus of all training programs are designed as per the changing requirements of industry trends. In addition, CEG also facilitates Summer Training Programs and internship for M.Sc., M.Tech, MBA, MCA, B.Sc., B.Tech and Diploma students. At present, CEG provides Six-Months MCA industrial-oriented training too. More than 6642 students have been trained by CEG till now under various kinds of training programs. CEG also organise faculty development program for Engineering/Diploma/ College Education faculty members. Furthermore, CEG is also associated with Department of Higher Education, Rajasthan, for faculty development programmes and online learning platform for students.

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Through the placement drives organised by CEG, more than 1,500 students got employed in more than 20 renowned companies and MNCs.

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SPOTLIGHT

In addition, the CEG is also associated with various industries to understand students’ skills and industry requirements. At present, it is associated with 3edge technology, Praganik, candid infotech, forsk, RSLDC, RKCL and project labs - all of which are its educational partners.

CEG’s Software Development and other Initiatives l In

Software development field, CEG successfully developed online admission software for Maharani College, BHMCT, B.Arch and developed android app for University of Rajasthan. l In recent years, CEG has been successfully organising centralised admissions of MBA, MCA, B.Tech, B.Arch and BHMCT.

l CEG was awarded by CISCO for providing

CCNA training to the largest number of students in Jaipur. l CEG is also a programme study Centre for IGNOU for BCA, MCA, CIT, PGDIS and CCITSK. l CEG is also handling key projects of Government of Rajasthan, for instance, establishment of Technology Business Incubation Centre, among others. An

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CEG aims to provide a conducive environment for creating industry employable IT professionals through industry relevant software and hardware training.

”

incubation centre with 2000 sq feet are equipped with all facilities has also been established in CEG in collaboration with IIM Ahmedabad. l A state-of-the art 3D printing & robotics lab has been also been established by CEG. This is aimed at providing concurrent training for engineering students and teachers of Rajasthan. l CEG organised one-day workshop on ITenabled and capacity enhancement (cyber security) on date 14th September 2018. This workshop was attended by 29 participants of 27 different Government Colleges including professors, lecturers of different discipline and college principals of the Department of Higher Education.

Placement Presently the issue of employability and a mismatch in skillset of our youth and industry’s expectations is a major issue facing country’s policymakers. While it is also true that a majority of our graduates have skills but many times they do not have any platform where they can show their skills and get placed. The Government of Rajasthan handed over this responsibility to CEG to provide a centralised placement platform where all Rajasthan students will have placement opportunities. CEG takes this initiative quite proactively. This is evident from the fact that through the placement drives organised by CEG, more than 1,500 students got mployed in more than 20 renowned companies and MNCs within a year.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

iStart

INDIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ONLY INTEGRATED START-UP PLATFORM Rajasthan, in many ways, is the home for entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers.

Millions of young minds with brilliant ideas, new-age thinking and extraordinary skills are ready to take ahead the start-up drive. Leveraging this quality of the business-brains of the State, the State conceptualised an integrated startup platform called iStart, writes Elets News Network (ENN). iStart Rajasthan is a one-of-its-kind, end-to-end startup development platform to foster innovation, create jobs and facilitate investment. The unique initiative aims to nurture entrepreneurship. It not only provides a prodigious platform to the investors but has also created a competitive environment among the youngsters working for startup initiatives. The platform also provides easy access to knowledge exchange and funding to new ideas. l Platform Launch: August 18, 2017 l Start-ups registered so far: 700+ Services to help the Start-ups reach new heights: l Act as a one-stop solution for Start-ups,

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Incubators, and VCs for ease of doing business and assessing all benefits & offers by the Government l Help Start-ups connect with investors, accelerators, and incubators l Helping investors, accelerators and incubators discover curated, high-potential Start-ups l Mentoring to help Start-ups improve their chances of success l Content, workshops, and resources to help entrepreneurs l Help Start-ups to connect with the Government for seed funding or larger capital investments l Provision of 500 crores by State Government

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for Matching funds to Start-ups; including separate provision for Women & Green IT Start-ups

Programmes under Rajasthan Startup Ecosystem QRate - Qrate is the only startup rating mechanism in the country, accepted by all leading venture capitalists and investors. It is an assessment programme which provides a detailed report on the start-up’s potential and investment worthiness. Much like a health report from a diagnostic lab helps you identify problem areas and take steps to improve your health, the scorecard and assessment report provides start-up founders actionable insights to help them strengthen their business plan, and

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improve their chances of getting funded. Under the programme, boot-camps are organised to refine product, strategy, business plans, and market position of start-ups and enhance their limitations. Worth mentioning here is all start-ups in Rajasthan are Q-Rated.

SPECIAL FEATURE

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Qrate is the only startup rating mechanism in the country, accepted by all leading venture capitalists and investors. It is an assessment programme which provides a detailed report on the startup’s potential and investment worthiness.

”

Categories of QRate cards l Bronze l Silver l Gold l Platinum l Signature

iStart Nest: Government of Rajasthan’s incubation centres are the only incubators in the country providing free incubation to emerging Startups. iStart Nest is designed to help start-ups gain traction

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Categories of QRate Cards

OCTOBER 2018

39

SPECIAL FEATURE

through deep mentor engagement, rapid iteration cycles, and fundraising preparation. iStart Nest offers stateof-the art facilities at its incubation centre with a wide range of resources and mentoring from industry tycoons. iStart Nest works with an extensive network of investors, accelerators and mentors to help entrepreneurs launch and grow the innovative companies that are building Rajasthan’s future.

Challenge for Change: Challenge for Change is an initiative wherein organisations are provided with an opportunity to partner with the Government of Rajasthan and play an important role in empowering the State to be the Digital-sthan of the country.

The youth, working professionals and start-ups can share their innovative idea or can provide an ingenious solution for existing challenges floated by the Government and bring change that will benefit the masses. It’s a dream come true for young entrepreneurs to have direct order of up to Rs one Crore. In this one of a kind initiative, the young entrepreneurs can directly work with the Government without following the traditional tendering process. Start-ups are neither required to furnish any EMD, nor any minimum years of prior experience or minimum turnover is required.

The major objective of this initiative is to invite IT solutions for various citizen-centric services by the Government and recognising & promote the potential of the young brains.

Rajasthan Stack: Rajasthan Stack is essentially an integrated platform which offers multiple services to sort out the technology requirements of start-ups. It is a one-stop destination for all the e-governance and technological requirements for the residents of the state as well as for budding entrepreneurs.

Each service, resource, application, and infrastructure offered by the Government of

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“

iStart Nest offers state-of-the art facilities at its incubation centre with a wide range of resources and mentoring from industry tycoons. iStart Nest works with an extensive network of investors, accelerators and mentors to help entrepreneurs launch and grow the innovative companies that are building Rajasthan’s future.

”

Rajasthan can be accessed for free. The idea is to encourage start-ups and provide them ease of doing business, thereby paving the path for a concrete startup infrastructure in the State. The platform is open for start-ups at the national level and offers a stack of APIs that would otherwise require much hassle to get access to and work through.

Bhamashah Techno Hub: Bhamashah Techno Hub is country’s largest incubation centre which will house more than 700 emerging start-ups of Rajasthan. This world-class incubation centre will be a one-stopsolution for all the entrepreneurs to get amenities like free space, connectivity, easier funding, mentorship and exposure & much more.

The incubation centre does not charge any kind of fee from start-ups as well as entrepreneurs and provides free facilities unlike other incubation centres of different cities. It will be the biggest incubation centre as compared to existing operational hubs of India. Bhamashah Techno Hub will provide a complete support system to emerging entrepreneurs. From assisting them to pitch their ideas, to providing mentorship and connecting them to potential investors and venture capitalists, Bhamashah Techno Hub will act as a launching pad for innovators. This 1,50,000 sq ft of incubation space will be entirely dedicated to entrepreneurs and for their development and coordination with the world-class facilities such co-working space, connectivity, easy funding, mentoring and advisory support all under one roof.

Bhamashah Techno Fund: Bhamashah Techno Fund of Rs 500 Crores for start-ups has been introduced to give an open sky to the potential start-ups of the state. The fund would be used for start-ups of the State for their growth and all-round development and to levitate the start-up community of Rajasthan to the highest pinnacle in the Country.

Out of the 500 crore, Rs 100 crore is dedicated

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towards women entrepreneurs and RS 50 crore for Green Startups. The launch of Bhamashah Techno Fund has motivated the start-up generation of the state to initiate their own ventures with the support of Government. Bhamashah Techno Fund has been disbursed to eight start-ups within 10 days of its launch and 15 more Startups have been funded recently in May 2018.

Student Start-up Exposure Programme: Student Start-up Exposure Programme was implemented to create a strong entrepreneurship pipeline among the youth of Rajathan. Through the exposure programme, the State Government aims to send 100 selected students from the state to an allexpense paid residential learning programme in Silicon Valley.

The programme is open to any student pursuing higher education in any college of the State of Rajasthan. The top 100 selected students from the State will be hosted by Menlo College in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley.

Over the course of two weeks, they will learn various aspects of building a tech product startup from renowned experts in the global start-up ecosystem. The participants will receive mentorship to build their prototype and pitch it to prospective investors in the

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Silicon Valley and gain feedback from them.

During the tenure of the two-week programme, students will also get a chance to acquire on the job training at some eminent organisations and interact with successful founders and other key professionals.

Number of applications received so far: 10,000+ Such recent initiatives by the Department of IT & Communications, Government of Rajasthan certainly open the doors for budding entrepreneurs and students to make their entrepreneurship dream come true. These programmes will not only prove to be an excellent learning experience but will also motivate participants to become a job creator by starting their own venture and not lure behind corporate jobs.

Undoubtedly, with the launch of all these initiatives, Government of Rajasthan is developing a digital infrastructure to promote & facilitate entrepreneurship in the State. These technological insertions are boosting the economic standards of the state and boosting emerging Startups.

Rajasthan has transformed into a “Start-up Leader” of the country with the robust, effective, efficient and active digital infrastructure – paving the way for truly transforming the Rajasthan State to a DigiSthan.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

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Student Startup Exposure Programme was implemented to create a strong entrepreneurship pipeline among the youth of Rajathan.

Through the exposure programme, the State Government aims to send 100 selected students from the state to an all-expense paid residential learning programme in Silicon Valley.

” OCTOBER 2018

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SKILL PERSPECTIVE

RISU – IMAPARTING INDUSTRY DRIVEN HOLISTIC SKILL EDUCATION With a vision to emerge as one amongst the foremost institutions of quality in Skill Education recognised at National and International arena, our university focuses on fostering excellence in skill Education in an integrated and holistic manner, says Dr Lalit K Panwar, Vice Chancellor , Rajasthan ILD Skill University, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).

“

RISU is an effective institutional intervention to implement National Skills Qualification Framework in the State.

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OCTOBER 2018

Please describe about the important measures being undertaken by Rajasthan ILD Skill University (RISU) for enhancing skilling and employability of youth?

RISU is an effective institutional intervention to implement National Skills Qualification Framework in the State. Being a Government University, RISU is the affiliating body for a large number of institutions operating in skill and vocational training.

Twenty-two skill related institutions have been affiliated so far and more than 4000 students are pursuing skill based studies in these institutions.

The affiliated institutions have commenced first session from July, 2018.

The first Academic session of Rajasthan ILD Skills University (RISU) has commenced from July 2018 through 40 affiliated colleges/institutes offering over 150 Certificate/Diploma/Degree

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courses in more than 20 sectors of skill.

How is RSLDC making education accessible in remote areas of Rajasthan?

SKILL PERSPECTIVE

RISU would affiliate high-quality ITIs and Polytechnic colleges managed by Private sector/ State government and located in far rural areas of Rajasthan.

How are collaborations helpful for RISU in implementing innovative ideas to deliver higher education at par with global standards?

We would have the active collaboration with private/ government colleges to manage academic courses concurrently with skill development certificate and diploma courses as per UGC norms by ensuring pragmatic blending of academic learning along with the acquisition of employable skills simultaneously in a practical industry-driven hybrid-module.

What practices should be followed by the Indian institutes to nurture global citizens?

RISU is trying to collaborate with best skill development universities across the world like those in Singapore, Australia, Canada, Korea, Germany, English, and the US. Agencies of the Government of India like National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) are helping us in the efforts.

How can the gap between industry relevant skill training and academia be bridged to nurture industry-ready professionals?

There is a huge gap between the students’ skillsets and industries’ requirement and we will make extra efforts to bridge the gap by forming academiaindustry matrix (AIM) as a dynamic-interactive permanent forum. It will ensure that the courses developed by RISU are as per the need of the industry and 60 percent of the syllabus should be focussed on the job and practical training.

Is Rajasthan ILD Skill University (RISU) joining hands with other global players to enhance Skill base/ technical knowledge of students? Please tell us about some recent endeavours in this regard.

Being a strong supporter of global academic

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collaboration, I always encourage the process of finalizing the modalities of collaboration with the best universities of Singapore, the US, and Australia.

NSDC and the Ministry of Skill Development (MSDE) is actively helping and supporting us. In addition to the universities, we would join hands with global brands like Google, Microsoft, TCS, Infosys, HCL, and others to promote skill development courses which are in tune with latest technologies and best global practices.

Please give an overview of skill development centres.

RISU would be opening skill development centres (SDC) adopting the following options: Institutional SDC, where centers would be located and developed ‘in-situ’ meaning on the campus of workshops/factories, etc. At Individual SDC, the master craftsman would be requested and motivated to adopt students in the old-age Indian tradition of “Guru Shishya Parampara”.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL): The RPL tools and practices would be deployed to formally assess the master trainers and then co-opt them as members of ‘guest faculty’ of the Skills University and SDCs. RISU would also promote digital skill development centres/courses so that theory part of the syllabus could be taught online and practical/onthe-job training could be provided in the laboratories/ factories/workshops.

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“

RISU is trying to collaborate with best skill development universities across the world like those in Singapore, Australia, Canada, Korea, Germany, English, and the US.

”

OCTOBER 2018

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EDU-LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

RTU HARNESSING GRADUATES’ SKILLSETS Established in 2006, located in Kota, Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) aims to empower State’s youth with quality technical education, says Prof N P Kaushik, Vice Chancellor, Rajasthan Technical University in conversation with Ahmad Shariq Khan of Elets News Network (ENN).

Please give a brief description about Rajasthan’s Technical Education Space. What are the major challenges of it and what initiatives have been taken to overcome those?

“

The opening of engineering colleges in remote areas like Barmer, Baran, Karauli and Dholpur are the good initiatives of the Government.

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OCTOBER 2018

Rajasthan, the largest State in India (in terms of area), due to its geographical need and available natural resources, has a large scope of expansion of engineering education. At present, three-tier technical education system exists in Rajasthan.

Rajasthan has institutes like IIT Jodhpur, MNIT Jaipur, two state technical universities – RTU and BTU and their 112 affiliated engineering colleges.

Apart from this, about 50 private universities in the state are also running engineering courses. Further, the BITS Pilani, Manipal University, JKLU, LMNIT are the examples of private deemed universities currently operational in the State.

The maximum intake capacity of Rajasthan Technical University in engineering courses was 63,000 in 2014-15. The maximum enrolled strength was 29,500 in 2013-14 which is 48.2 percent of actual intake capacity. In 2017-18, the intake capacity reduced and it was about 48,000. The current enrolled strength is 14,663 which is 30.29 percent of actual intake capacity.

The intake capacity (16.32 to 14.76 from 2015-16 to 2017-18) and enrolled strength (8.37 to 7.5 from 2015-16 to 2017-18) at the national level is also decreasing every year and at present, the enrolled strength in engineering courses is only about 50 percent. This shows an overall decreasing trend of intake and enrollment in engineering courses throughout the country. Also, due to the lack of good quality faculty and infrastructure facilities in institutes, lack of learning attitude in students are the constraints in producing good engineers.

The placement of engineering graduates is around 25-30 percent. The quality of placement is also a big question. Further, there is a huge gap between academia and indutry. This gap needs to be bridged by systematic planning to enhance the skills of students and industry institute interaction.

What are the important measures undertaken by RTU for enhancing skilling and employability of youth?

Curriculum revision and the subject content as per the need of industry is one of the key factors in improving technical education. The curriculum as per the model curriculum of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has been revised and implemented for all engineering courses from session 2018-19 in Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) affiliated colleges. The Induction programme for first year B. Tech students has been made compulsory along with industrial internship of 12 to 24 weeks during the course.

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With regard to Technical Education, do you think there is a need for more collaborations? Is RTU also joining hands with other global players to enhance technical know-how of students?

Yes, there is a need to collaborate with premier learning institutes and make student or faculty exchange programme effective. It is also necessary to study the best practices of such institutes and implement the same for skill enhancement of students.

With a view to provide opportunities to students for skill enhancement and internship, RTU has made Memorandum of Understandings with CBRI Roorkee, BHU Varanasi, Employer Association of Rajasthan (EAR), CIDC, Engineering Council of India (ECI), Intershala, CADD Centre, CAD Desk and many such organisations. RTU is also exploring opportunities to make MOUs with some international organisations.

good core employability qualities and good communication skills. Therefore, there is a big gap between the needs of industries and the graduates.

It is possible to bridge this gap by continuous industry-institute interaction, proactive role of industry to come forward and work for betterment of institutes.

To promote soft skill training in institutes, Rajasthan Technical University has introduced human values as compulsory subject, induction programme as mandatory, emphasis on entrepreneurship etc. RTU has also organised many programmes of Industry Institute Interaction in collaboration with EAR, Bhardwaj Foundation, BSDU Colleges, to generate awareness on mutual benefits.

RTU has also set up two incubation, innovation and start-up centres at two places in Jaipur to develop an innovative approach among students.

Reach of education to the far-flung areas is still an issue, what plans do you have to tackle it?

The opening of new institutes is in the purview of State Government, university is not involved in this matter directly. However, recently the opening of engineering colleges in remote areas like Barmer, Baran, Karauli and Dholpur are the good initiatives of the Government to reach in far-flung areas. Still, some areas like Churu, Jhunjhnu, Jalore, and Sirohi districts should also be considered. Instead of conducting educational programmes in conventional branches of engineering, courses in the engineering branches as per local needs will be of more help to the students.

What are the steps taken by RTU to bridge the industry-academia gap in the field of technical education?

The existing divide between rural and urban areas is still a major issue. Please tell us about some of your measures taken to bridge this gap.

An engineering graduate must have qualities to make application of fundamentals of science and mathematics in solving engineering problems, ability to identify, formulate and solve problems, ability to interpret and analyse data, skills to use modern tools, softwares, and equipments. Also, they must understand the importance of engineering for society. They must have good leadership qualities, entrepreneurship qualities, self-discipline, integrity and flexibility in behaviour. An engineering graduate should also have good communication skills. Our graduates lack in these qualities. Industries look for graduates who have good technical competence,

One of the important initiatives of AICTE is to introduce Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) courses through SWAYAM portal. RTU is also promoting this in affiliated institutes by organising workshops on MOOCs courses. We have also tried to make “SwayamPrabha” channels available in all institutes. With this, we believe, faculty will also be motivated to prepare digital courses and make available for students. Also, the engineering graduates earning 20 credits through MOOCs courses, in addition to minimum credit requirements for passing B Tech programme, will be awarded the B Tech Honours degree.

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There is a need to collaborate with premier learning institutes and make student or faculty exchange programme effective. It is also necessary to study the best practices of such institutes and implement the same for skill enhancement of students.

EDU-LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

RTU organised its first Hackathon on 22-23 September in line with the AICTE. In the Hackathon, more than 100 teams participated. The students will be tasked to provide solutions to real-life problems from industries within 48 hours. Another such Hackathon is expected to be organised in November.

RTU is also organising the training and orientation programmes for GATE examination in many affiliated colleges. The objective is to motivate students to appear in this exam and also to clear it so that a quality certification is with them when they complete their B Tech programmmes. RTU is also conducting programmes to make its students industry-ready.

” OCTOBER 2018

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ADVERTORIAL 48

OCTOBER 2018

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UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE

MJRP INCULCATING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole University is an ideal combination of opportunities and experiences to prepare students for a better life in the 21st century, says Nirmal Panwar, Chairperson, Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole University, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Please give a brief description about the vision behind Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole University.

With a mission to impart women education, in 1993, Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole emerged as an educational institution in Jaipur Rajasthan. The name of the organisation was given in the memory of social reformer Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole who worked for the emancipation of women.

He always advocated for women education and worked tirelessly to bring social changes for alienated and deprived sections of the society. The organisation is working on the same principle of women education and empowerment.

Please give an overview about the key academic departments housed at the MJRP. Today, MJRP aims for the advancement of knowledge and education through excellence and leadership in Engineering, Architecture, Science, Arts, Commerce, Management, Information Technology, Law, Agriculture, Home Science, Fashion Designing, Education, Health Care Science, Allied Sciences Journalism and related areas.

Under the guidance of faculty, students can explore both theoretical and practical courses that prepare them to meet the needs of an increasingly complex society. The infrastructure is dynamic as we are constantly striving to pace with the latest technology. The university is famous for its Bio-Technology/Biotech, Ph D, postgraduate and undergraduate Programmes, M Sc Agriculture Science and Technology, B Sc Agriculture (Honours), MBA Agribusiness, Pharmacy, LLB, LLM, B Tech and Fashion Designing Courses in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

What are the key features of the university that makes it stand away from its competitors?

The teaching and research faculties of the university have highly qualified and trained professionals. The University keeps the students informed about potential job opportunities and helps them in making prudent decisions for their career.

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The university maintains and promotes close linkages and active contact with potential employers while involving their executives and facilitating their interaction with the students. Lectures, discussions and classroom participation from industry persons lead to innovations in university’s education pedagogy, netter teaching-learning practices, and integral development of students’ personality.

MJRP is Rajasthan’s first private University which is recognised by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) as Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO). Our University also has collaboration with Macmillan Research Group (UK) for providing international scholarship opportunities and co-publication.

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13th

MUMBAI 7-8 DECEMBER

EDU-LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

MUJ FOCUSED ON BOLSTERING INDUSTRY-ACADEMIA CONNECT Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ) has emerged as a renowned name in higher education space of Jaipur. The university uses the latest innovative methods and technologies to offer career-oriented courses at all levels, says Dr G K Prabhu, President, Manipal University Jaipur, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

Please give details about measures being undertaken by Manipal University for enhancing skills and employability of youth.

Achieving “Academic Excellence” is the key feature of Manipal University. Constant effort is done in curriculum revision with an emphasis to design competent, relevant and flexible curriculum. “Curriculum Conclave” is organised in the university to develop “Dream Curriculum” by inviting all the important stakeholders including senior academicians, teachers, industry personnel, alumni and campus students.

The university encourages experiential learning by making students participate in various practical projects.

How can the higher education be curriculum improved and developed to nurture the industry –ready professionals?

Curriculum needs to be designed with an emphasis of interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary concepts. Students have the benefit of interacting with the faculty of other disciplines in university set-up. Flexible curriculum is designed to accommodate “open-elective” subjects from other disciplines.

This will help us in producing “the best and finest” of graduates.

How does the university help its students to become globally competitive professionals?

Student mobility is an important factor in the higher education. Our university has a partnership with more than 50 universities around the globe. There is a provision of spending one semester in any of the partner university under the “Study Abroad Program” with full credit transfer mode. Students exchange scheme is also very helpful for the technical and cultural experience.

With regards to Skill Education, there is a gap between students’ skill set and the industry’s requirements, how the university is working towards bridging the gap?

Experiential learning is encouraged in the university by allowing students to work on or participate in major projects.

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The university encourages and also sponsors students to take part in national/international competitions. Seed money was given to drive the innovative projects. Good ideas with business models are encouraged to incubate the startups in the campus through Government supported “Atal Incubation Center”.

Is Manipal University also joining hands with other global players to enhance skill base and technical know-how of its students?

To improve employability among students, the university has collaborated with premier universities/institutions for “Study Abroad Program” and designed the industry-specific postgraduate programmes under the collaborations. In other initiatives, the university has appointed adjunct faculty from industry for delivering knowledge on industry relevant topics, deputed faculty to the industry on sabbatical and encouraged online courses to bridge industry-academia gap.

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When Edu-leaders Pondered Road Ahead for Rajasthan CONFERENCE REPORT

R

ajasthan recently witnessed a grand confluence of countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top academicians and industry leaders during a two-day Higher Education & Human Resource Conclave held in Jaipur on 2122 December 2017.

Organised by Rajasthan Higher and Technical Education Department in collaboration in association with Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, the education conclave held in mid-December witnessed discussions on ways to increase the employability quotient and understanding the core of doing business.

The event was graced by Rajasthan Minister of Technical Education, Higher Education, Sanskrit Education, Science & Technology, Kiran Maheshwari in the presence of All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe and other distinguished dignitaries from both Government and private sectors.

The Day-1 of the conclave highlighted the initiatives being taken by the Rajasthan Government to fulfil the broad agendas to equip students with knowledge and skill to enable them become an entrepreneur or seek a successful career. It is to be noted that Rajasthan is among the first States in the country to set up a placement cell in all its Government colleges to help graduate and postgraduate students in getting direct employment.

The Day-2 witnessed Human Resources managers from across India discuss the demands and criterias required while hiring candidates for top-notch organisations and industry.

The special event brought together industry-academia along with HRs while exploring discussions on eradicating the burgeoning unemployment in the country. Moreover, the conclave witnessed exhibitors and students display an array of innovative solutions for the education sector.

Here are the glimpses of this extravaganza:

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OCTOBER 2018

59

CONFERENCE REPORT

PRAKASH JAVADEKAR Minister, Human Resource Development Government of India

I am very happy to be with you through this video link on the occassion of a conclave organised by Rajasthan on Higher Education and Human Resource. This is very important. It is a major reform period and therefore we need detailed deliberations and various suggestions. The Modi Government with a vision has coined four words which is the basis of reforms in Higher Education: Quality, Accountability, Innovation and Autonomy. So if we deal one by one, the steps taken are numerous and very important.

Unless we improve the quality of education, we cannot reach the goal we destined and envisioned for India in next 2-3 decades.

India lacks in innovation and we have to accomplish many things. We have various regulatory regimes which make the environment rigid so there are numerous challenges and there has to be accountability.

Therefore in the quest of quality, for the first time we come out with learning outcomes, we have brought the bill to bring back school examinations at the standard of fifth and eighth which will be the choice of the States to implement. We have started giving diploma to more than 14 lakh teachers which were not trained and had no diploma in education. We have also started the board examinations in class 10. These are the four major reforms in school education which we have started to improve the quality.

At the same time we have started Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) in 1,000 schools and this year we likely to reach 2,000 schools. In this labs school students get an opportunity to learn and experiment on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, 3D Printing and various other new technologies. I am very happy that this year which is the first year of ATL Marathon, over 24,000 students participated in it and the students of class 9 and 10 came out with innovative and original solutions to various problems. This is what we want to inculcate among students when we talk aboout innovation.

At the college level we have started research parks, incubation centres, improving the curriculum. Many universities are teaching the curriculum older than 20 years or more. They must change it every year to keep the study relevant. Therefore, from this year, University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education will bring out model curriculum for each subject in advance before the start academic year.

In our quest to improve the education sector of India, we want suggestions and I hope this conclave would help us to give those suggestions. I convey my best wishes to this conclave.

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KIRAN MAHESHWARI

Minister for Technical Education, Higher Education, Sanskrit Education, Science & Technology, Government of Rajasthan

“Rajasthan achieved a milestone when it included skill development in the college studies. The move is in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create ‘job creators’. Under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, Rajasthan Government in collaboration with AICTE has implemented 25 different skill courses in 128 colleges with around 13,500 student registrations.

This (HE & HR Conclave) is the first initiative from where we will take the platform to the district-level and organise industry-student entrepreneur fair to provide guidance, courses, training to students. Our Chief Minister already sanctioned a budget for setting up of incubation centres three years ago. The State now has incubation centres in all its seven divisional headquarters. So far we have trained about 30,000 students, of which around 50 Start-ups are being provided financial and mentoring help. I urge Mission Director Ramanan Ramanathan to support our students under Atal Innovation Mission.

We have also started Industry Institute Interaction (IIC) cell that facilitates interaction between industry and students to help them understand the core of doing business along with increasing their employability quotient.

Rajasthan is a progressive State that provides an ease-of-doing business availing relevant resources, manpower. The conclave like this should create commitments, discussions on courses, ways to support innovators, assistance to be provided through CSR, etc.

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Professor Anil Sahasrabudhe

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Chairman All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE)

“We all boast about demographic dividend. We say out of 1.3 billion population more than 50 per cent are aged under 25 which is a great human resource for us. But unless this human resource is tooled properly it can also become a disaster. When we say that this particular summit is essentially meant for how to innovate, how to create employable graduates and also develop their skill sets, it all boils down to education. Only education can bring out human excellence. When we talk about any education institution whether primary school, high school, higher and technical education and university education, three important things happen: knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination. But often knowledge application is lacking. The conferences like this should focus on how do we engage ourselves to do all these three things in right proportion.”

Ashutosh A T Pednekar

Commissioner College Education and Special Secretary Higher Education, Government of Rajasthan

“The idea behind the conference is to bring industry and academia on one platform. The idea to bring the two on one platform is to have deeper interactions between them. Every college in Rajasthan and in the country conducts placement drives for their students but for HR managers, its a occupational hazard if candidates are not fit for the job or if their retention rate is low.

As HR managers are well aware about the skills required for a candidate, the partnership between them and higher education institutes will be beneficial in many ways. It will help the institutions to invest and train students as per the requirements. Moreover, Being in direct touch with the HR managers, institutes conduct courses on behavioural training and boost the investment for better training of teachers, and update their programmes for better employability of the students.”

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SPEAKERS

Sandeep Sancheti

“Education is about finding out from the children: What are they good at? How good they are at the things they are good at? When it comes to good education, you really do need to keep the idea of ‘good elitism’ in mind. In the form of global collaboration, particularly Guyana and India partnership is in the area of offshore medical schools with providence in India operating in Guyana.”

“Institutions both in India and world over are a testimony that the private or self-financed sector is very well-received and very well-acknowledged. International universities like Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge come from the self-financed sector. In India, though the private sector is relatively new, examples are of no difference. If the self-financed sector is properly functioning, supported, nurtured, established, enabled, a major chunk of professional education can be taken care of and brought to a much higher and better level.”

President Manipal University Jaipur

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Dr David Goldwin Pollard

High Commissioner, High Commission of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana

Ramanan Ramanathan Mission Director Atal Innovation Mission

“We are living in the times of extraordinary change where technology is making rapid advances. We talk about cloud services, IoT devices, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain technologies, digital transformations, biometric Ids, high-speed transportations that are changing the way world is experienced. The question is in this fast-changing landscape of technology driven world, how well the 1.3 billion people in India are using technologies to their advantage?

Are 150 million students entering into the workplace, over the next 10 years, in a position to leverage this advantage for themselves and become the job creators of tomorrow?”

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Akhil Pandey

Registrar Rajasthan Technical University (RTU)

“It is a challenge for engineering colleges to bridge the Industry-Academia gap. Industries are evolving at such a rapid pace that it is difficult for colleges to keep up with that pace. Here comes the role of Human Resource managers. With their help and guidance, colleges can inculcate latest industry related skills and boost employability among them.”

“Knowledge is a vital component of what makes a student employable. By knowledge we mean to apply the learning for practical purposes. Along with IT awareness, knowledge it also includes potentially more tacit awareness of matters such as Importance of customer care.”

BP Sharma

Ashok Sadhwani

Station Director All India Radio

Vice President, International Electronics & Communication Systems (IECS) Pvt Ltd

“Irrespective of a student’s graduation is in commerce, arts or technology, media is a great platform for every youngster to work with. Though we are talking about developing skilled persons, toppers, brilliant students and recruiting the best talent, it is also very important to nurture good human beings.”

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Dr Sanjeev Mishra

Member Rajasthan Engineering Colleges Society (RECS)

OCTOBER 2018

“A large amount of information is available on internet that can be accessed with a single click. Technology has made imparting education easier and at the same time it has made learning effective and interactive. In last two decades reading habits has not grown significantly learning through audio-visual has affected the processes considerably.”

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Panel Discussion: Insightful talks on Higher Education: National, International & Industry Perspective

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PR Swarup

Sanjay Sharma

AVP HR Hindustan Zinc Limited

Member Secretary Engineering Council of India

“Hindustan Zinc has a lot of machines and equipments but we don’t have skilled people to operate it. We have manpower shortage. Even the diploma institutes do not produce people who can operate such a heavy machines equipments. We have been hiring experts from different countries to operate such machines as of now. But in the last 2-3 years, we have started a concept of Mining Academy to impart training and placement.”

“All that is being done in the colleges: the placements that are happening there and areas where youngsters can go and get jobs are something they need to review it seriously, and see where the opportunities lie. ECI interacts and identifies the technologies and takes it to schools and colleges for students to learn and get employed.”

Mahesh Soni

Chris Cobb

Pro Vice Chancellor University of London

National Business Manager BenQ

“Prestigious universities like Tomsk State University in Russia teach our degrees alongside their own where students end up taking two exams and obtain two degrees as a parallel degree. We want to do similar operations in India -- operate with on-campus students in India, with teachings done in India, students studying in India and getting employed in India by having a degree recognised by international companies.”

“BenQ is a company that specialises on projection systems and display solutions. For India, the core business of BenQ is categorised into projection systems. We contribute in terms of interactivity. We refer interactivity at every stage.”

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Karanpreet Kaur

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Senior Policy Officer (Education) Embassy of Netherlands “An important byproduct of globalisation has been the internationalisation of education, particularly higher education, has made it easy for anybody to study, work and live anywhere in the world thereby resulting in the interconnectedness among individuals from diverse backgrounds and making them truly global citizens.”

Panel Discussion: Best Practices and Innovations in Higher & Technical Education

Akshay Malhotra Collegedunia

“Collegedunia was started with the vision to give students information on what is happening in the industry. We present a platform where student can digitally view a university to get information on what are the things happening in the industry, what kind of campuses are there, what are the faculties, services that are provided and even the details of the placements giving more clarity to both technical and higher education students.”

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Prashant Madan

Principal Maheshwari College of Commerce and Art “In higher studies, the generalised course for students is missing the technical part. For students taking general courses in humanities, commerce some technical courses should be mandatory. It should be part-and-parcel of the curriculum. Then only the concepts like ‘Make in India’ will reach the people and can be implemented in a better manner.”

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Arvind

Director, Hindustan Institutes of Management and Computer Studies

Member, Rajasthan Engineering College Society (RECS)

“I understand that in the era of artificial intelligence, the emotional intelligence is going down. As a result, a lot of depression, psychosomatic problems and rude behaviour at the job take place -- they are not emotional. I think we need to focus on that as well.

It should be the responsibility of all the educational institutions to make student more emotionally intelligent.”

“Innovation is the most used, misused and abused word. Innovation is a one inadequate phenomena.

The best we can do is improve, improvise and innovate a product in a way that is more productive and more useful to the society.”

Brigadier (Retd.) Pratap Singh

Professor HN Verma

“Our university believes in innovation in education by reaching out to the masses, especially the rural mass. The aim of education is either to get a job or provide jobs.”

“First and foremost requirement is to strengthen the primary education because many students don’t have a basic knowledge of the subjects. It is a harsh fact that one faces when dealing with the higher education and various innovative and best practices in education.”

Vice Chancellor Sridhar University

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Dr Navin Gupta

Vice Chancellor Jaipur National University

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Panel Discussion: Enhancing Employability Importance of Effective Skill Development Initiatives & Higher & Technical Education in India: The Way Forward

Atul Wadegaonkar

General Manager- Educational e-Governance, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd

Vice Chairman, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)

“We have initiated two courses for 12th pass students, for BBA and BSC students, in collaboration with open universities. It is typically industry, institute and Government collaboration. We train students on Soft skill and IT & Digital skill offered in a blended learning mode to prepare students for employment.”

“Teacher-taught relationship is on a declining trend. Students don’t have the confidence to raise questions and don’t get solution. I appreciate the efforts of the Government and the commissionerate of technical education implement innovative programmes, including soft skills for the children. I am in favour of starting vocational courses from school-level.”

Rajesh Kumar

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MC Sharma

Biswajit Sharma

Principal, DAV College, Amritsar

Director, College Development Council, Guwahati University

“Enhancing employability of students is the need of the hour. If they are not getting jobs, it is because of the lack of employment-based skills. If we want to fulfil the dream of ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’, many more universities are required in the country where we can increase students’ employability scale.”

“Education brings knowledge and both lead to employability. Whenever an engineer comes out of an institute, we expect him to be well-versed with the technology and practical skills. Our curriculum is designed in that way and revised from time to time.”

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Brigadier (Retd) Dr PS Siwach

“Our university has partnered with Google. We have included all the 12 modules of Google in our curriculum. We also have tie-up ups with Amazon, BSE, as well. It is being done in an academic mode.

They train both our students and teachers. We are enhancing students’ employability by involving industries in the curriculum.”

“If I club both the topics, it involves understanding and forecasting the environment which means we should find out where we are today and where we have to go in terms of time, as the way forward.”

Dr S Nabi

Lalit K Panwar

Dean (Academics) Suresh Gyan Vihar University

Vice Chancellor Mangalayatan University, Lucknow

Director Infoplus Technologies Limited

Vice Chancellor Rajasthan Skill ILD University

“In technical education, we always want relevant education, real-world skills and an entry to a successful career or employability for the students. In reality, the technical education is driven by marks and ranking. We have to bring in skill development within our curriculum.”

“If you look at India’s 10,000 years of history and culture, there has never been a separation of skill with education. We have a strong heritage of unity between skill and education. I think we have to relaunch vocational education as skill education.

This would be a remix version of vocational education with stigma and skill education with aspiration.”

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Dinesh Goyal

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Panel Discussion: Developing & Ensuring Corporate Culture through Innovation

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Samriti Malhotra

Shubhendu Kumar

“Corporate culture is very important for any organisations these days. Corporate culture impacts the bottomline of any organisation.

Nowadays, as we have diversified workforce and millennials as employees, it is very important to maintain their interest in the organisation and work.”

“To ensure corporate culture in any organisation, it is important for employees to be aligned with the company’s vision. Once the alignment is done, everything works effectively and that’s the role of HR. It is very important for the employees who are facing customers to be aligned, as it gives customers the feeling that the company delivers everything said by it.”

Shailaja Sharma

Nikhil Mathur

Global HRD Denave

Senior Partner HR Lighthouse Partners

Head HR Euronet Services India Pvt Ltd

HR Talent Management Eco

“Culture in any company is neither good nor bad. It becomes stronger when employees of the organisation work with each other for each other. In traditional cultures, we need to allow creativity and innovation to make it better, appreciating efforts, achievements, and success is also one part of it.”

“For transformation of culture, we can have the examples of drivers working for OLA and UBER. They have transformed themselves completely by adopting the technology for their different day-to-day tasks and leaving behind the culture of paper-based working style. These are the people who represent an organisation and its culture.”

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Indra Mal Sethiya

CEO “Upohan Management Consultants

Founder & Chairman- Chittorgarh Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd

“When it comes to define culture, several words come into my mind like belief, values, character etc. One simple definition of character - an essential part of the culture is how do you behave when you think that nobody is looking at you. As we are talking about organisational culture, so we are also talking about business. Business is driven by behaviour and behaviour is driven by belief so it is very important for companies to strengthen its employees belief in the organisation.”

“Role of HR is very important for developing a good culture in any organisation. HR managers must help the new employees in making them aware about the organisation’s culture, policies, way of working and vision. It will help them to get aligned.”

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Advait Kurlekar

Naresh Taneja

Group President, HR & Admin IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd “Culture varies from place to place and organisation to organisation. Culture acts as a guiding mechanism for an organisation. Culture defines rules and limits for the organisation. As far as innovation is concerned, it is associated with a company’s culture in a way that without innovation, the culture is a burden. Innovation rejuvenates culture positively.”

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Panel Discussion: HR’s Role in the Changing Scenario of Employment, Innovation & Entrepreneurship in New India

Jitender Panihar Head HR HealthKart

“To define the role of HR, I would like to give the example of Lord Krishna. In Mahabharat, the way Krishna helped Arjun in fighting the battle and taking the necessary decisions, the same role HR managers play in any organisation. HR in an organisation is like a guiding force to its employees.”

Shubhankar Malakar

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Ajay Bakshi

Managing Director - HR Metamorphosis Unlimited “One of the important roles of HR in driving the country’s economy or building New India is to hire the best talent for any organisation. Hiring the right person for the right job with the right skills is the role of HR managers. The second role of HRs is to develop the right culture in an organisation.”

Paras Mittal

Head - HR & Admin Telecom Network Solution Pvt Ltd

Director - HR PNJ Antiques Pvt Ltd

“By 2035 we are expecting that the population in India would be between the age group of 15-60.

Being an HR, I am concerned as well as excited at the same time. Excited to have such a huge pool of workforce and concerned as how this pool will be nurtured with skills to get employment.”

“Entrepreneurship journey of an individual is not possible without good HR managers. These managers handle the human capital which takes bold decisions, implement them, takes various risks and develops an innovative environment within the organisation.”

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Head HR Kurlon

Lead - Human Capital Management Accenture

“While managing a big organisation with statture like Kurlon, HR managers have to lead from the front. Company owners and CEOs are looking at HRs to lead from the front to make a responsive organisation to handle the chlleneges.”

“According to a survey conducted by Aspiring Minds, only seven per cent of the engineers in India are employable. It is very much needed not only on institute’s end but also on corporate’s and industry’s end to bridge the skill gap among graduates to boost employability.”

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Agniwesh Thakur

Shilpi Saxena

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Panel Discussion: Addressing Challenges Faced by HR: The Present & Future Solutions

Rajesh Tripathi

VP Head Corporate HR GHCL Limited “One of the challenges is that the education system along with industries is breeding “Silo Working”.

Due to it, employees don’t understand business, they only understand its function. Hence the team building and collaboration among different departments are missing. We have to change this mindset at academia as well as at industry level.”

Kiran Bhatia Tandon Head Talent Acquisition Stryker

“One of the major challenges I faced in one of my previous organisations was that people were not interested to get hired for the organisations. At that time, it was my job to develop the interest of jobseekers in the vacancies available in the organisation, and is called “Employer Branding”.

Ashu Goswami Sharma Head HR Swiss Military Lifestyle Products

“While recruiting a candidate we have to go through his/her job history. If a candidate spent very less time with his/her previous organisations, I have to understand the reasons and at the same time also figure out whether or not that will he stay with my organisation.”

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Panel Discussion: Industry Academia Collaboration to Bridge Skill Gap

“Industries have evolved due to revolutions in different years. The technologies we were using then are now obsolete. Nowadays, technologies and processes are evolving at a rapid rate.

So the collaboration between industry and academia is very much required to bridge the skill gap.”

Saurabh Sharma

Senior Manager Talent Acquisition, Ericsson India Pvt Ltd “By 2020, the average age of Indian workforce would be 29. In next couple of years, 50 per cent of India’s population would be millennial which is unique. To hire them, skills cannot be generalised. We have to look for individuals with technical skills, soft skills and professional skills which is a challenge.”

Anjali Khanna

Rajesh Choudhary

“In order to bridge the industry-academia gap, we hired directors who are from the industry and are very passionate about academics. We also constituted an academic council including academicians and industrialists who help us in revamping the curriculum as per the latest industry trends.”

“Along with collaboration with industries for summer internships and better placements, institutes must focus on inculcating competency, right set of skills and knowledge in their students. It will help the students to choose the job and organisation of their choice.”

Vice President HR Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions

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Sushant Routray

Head Talent Acquisition (Employer Branding & Industry Academia Relations), Tata Motors

Head HR Fortis Healthcare, Jaipur

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Panel Discussion: Redefining HR Spectrum by Leveraging Technology

Shilpa Kabra

Group Director - HR Emerson Automation Solutions

“The fear due to the digital interference in corporate is that the technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are going to take up the jobs of many individuals which is not a reality. In a report

by Gartner, it has been predicted that in next couple of years, 1.8 million jobs will be lost but in turn 2.3 million jobs will be created; only the nature of jobs will be changed.”

“At the very beginning of industries, we all were taught that we need three resources: man, material and machine. Later on, two elements were added to it: Leadership and Technology. Now the first three are available in abundance but the rest are yet to be nurtured.”

Prasad Kulkarni

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Aniruddha Khekale

VP & Head HR National Engineering Industries Ltd

Vijay Sinha

Head HR Shared Services - Compensation & Benefits, Raymond Ltd

Senior Vice President - HR JSW Energy

“Along with every industry revolution, the workforce across the world has evolved itself by learning new skills and adopting latest technologies.

As we are on the verge of fourth industrial revolution rather than being afraid of losing the job, we must learn new skills to become relevant for the upcoming jobs.”

“The major challenge, we are facing nowadays is that the capability or talent is not evolving at the pace technology evolution. It is happening because industries are not well integrated with the academia. The learning of a youth is not completed at college level rather it starts after he/ she gets into a job.”

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ROUNDTABLE

Academia-Industry-HR Discussion

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FELICITATION CEREMONY

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Accenture

Chittorgarh Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd

Denave India Private Limited

Eco Rent A Car

Ericsson India Pvt Ltd

Euronet Services India Pvt Ltd

Fortis Healthcare, Jaipur

GHCL Limited

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IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd

Jaipuria Group of Educational Institutions

Lighthouse Partners

Metamorphosis Unlimited

People Talent International

PNJ Antiques Pvt Ltd

Raymond Ltd

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HealthKart

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FELICITATION CEREMONY

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Stryker

Sushant Rautray

Swiss Military Lifestyle Products

Telecom Network Solution Pvt Ltd

Vijay Sinha

Department of Higher & Technical Education, Govt of Rajasthan

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AUDIENCE SPEAK CONFERENCE REPORT

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EXPO

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CULTURAL SHOW

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MEDIA BUZZ CONFERENCE REPORT

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DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION GOVERNMENT OF RAJASTHAN

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& Jaipur, raJasthan 21-22 December 2017

Hotel Marriott, Jaipur

Thank You All

The two-day conclave on Higher Education and Human Resource was organised in Jaipur to inculcate partnership between academia and industry.

Thank You!

Radio Partner

World of Holistic Development