digitalLEARNING Magazine April issue 2016

ASIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PREMIER MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION

VOLUME 12

I ISSUE 04 I APRIL 2016 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

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What lies beneath some of the leading Brands in Engineering Education? Visit us at

CONFIRM PAYMENT

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Easing the Transaction Hassles

PAYMENT PROCESSOR

ANALYSIS

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WES Special VOLUME ISSUE0404 APRIL APRIL 2016 2015 VOLUME 12 11 ISSUE

Case Study

eduPAYMENT GATEWAYS

Easing the transaction Hassles

PayU

Tete-a-Tete

Sivaramakrishnan V, Managing Editor, Oxford University Press

Interviews

Corporate Speak

Konica Minolta India

Associate VicePresident, Paytm

Director General, International Baccalaureate

Managing Director, BenQ

President,SP Jain School of Global Management

Saloni Malhotra

Dr Siva Kumari

Rajeev Singh

Book Review

Nitish Jain

Building Golden India

Start Up

56 46

Prof Andrew McKenna

Vineet Patawari

Prof (Dr) Deependra Kumar Jha

Converting Ideas into Reality

Dr KJS Anand

Executive Director, IMS Director, Big CEO, History- Macquarie Elearnmarkets.com Pro Vice Chancellor, Noida University, GD Goenka Australia University

What lies beneath some of the leading Brands in Engineering Education? 38

Product Review

Careerline.com

22 ANALYSIS April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

ASIA’S PREMIER MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION Volume 12

Issue 04

April 2016

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr Ravi Gupta EDITORIAL TEAM Managing Editor: Raghav Mittal Associate Editor: T Radha Krishna Senior Assistant Editor: Nirmal Anshu Ranjan Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma, Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy, Priya Yadav Senior Correspondent: Vishwas Dass, Arpit Gupta, Sudheer Goutham B Correspondent: Poulami Chakraborty, Manish Arora

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April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

Editorial Boosting the Enterprise of Education At a time when a number of path breaking decisions are being heralded on the Indian horizon, the focus and emphasis on the enterprise of education is somehow eluding the attention of one and all. The very fact that education at all levels is still considered a social good with tightly held regulatory mechanisms which have been largely ineffective to ensure the quality delivery, need to be amply reviewed in the light of major national initiatives to boost Indian economy. The unavailability of duly trained and oriented manpower across the skill spectrum would scuttle the prospects of these well meaning campaigns of short to medium term. The dismal state of baseline data across educational institutions of all hues came out in the open in the opening remarks of the report on INDIA RANKINGS 2016. Even after having a plethora of regulators, canvassing for credible data across the finest national institutions still remains a challenge. We do provide a candid commentary on NIRF outcomes which in a way give a breather that the data driven eduGOVERNANCE has somewhere taken off. Creating a credible brand, and that too in the domain of education remains an ordeal. Engineering Institutions across the country are experimenting on one paradigm or the other to usher excellence in their teaching-learning processes and create employable graduates. We do present in this issue a compilation of key constituents of some of the leading brands in Engineering Education. This shall be followed by an elaborate issue on Engineering Education Brands, next month. Technological advancements in the domain of eduPAYMENTS are eating away the inefficiencies on educational campuses. The entire burden of fee collection, corroboration etc has been duly addressed by some of the finest, off the shelf technological solutions. You shall find a fine story on this emerging narrative. digitalLEARNING.in has witnessed a major overhaul in these months. Do visit the same and enroll yourself in one or the other forums out there. With a view to summon and share the best practices and transformational initiatives in the domain of Higher Education, we are organizing a National Convention at Bengaluru on 27th-28th of May in collaboration with Government of Karnataka. This is to extend a hearty invitation for the same. We do seek your sustained patronage and support in boosting the enterprise of education.

Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Cover Story

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Easing the Transaction Hassles

PAYMENT PROCESSOR

With online payments becoming the norm for people for every other transaction, these are also becoming a convenient mode for education vertical. A key component required to accept online payments is the payment gateway. Elets News Network (ENN) speaks to key people in the payment gateway industry and finds out the relevance of payment gateways for educational institutions, innovative payment gateway systems, value-added services they are offering, how secure are these payment gateways and more

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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echnology and IT are huge enablers today, potentially capable of covering and connecting all the people around the world. Therefore, online payments are becoming the norm for people as these are making life more convenient overall. The volume of online payments conducted has grown significantly since the introduction of the Internet-based transactions. Acceptance of online payments is also becoming a convenient mode for almost every trade vertical. With the large proliferation of internet in each and every part of India, online payments especially in Educational Sector, is seeing an upward trend. However, a key component required by an Educational Institute to accept online payments is the payment gateway. While traditionally in India, the role of a payment gateway was restricted to only aggregation services, nowadays with online payments market being on an inflection point, the need of value-added services from large as well as small players have increased considerably. These value-added services are analytics, better success rates, faster processing, customised reports, large number of convenient modes of payments like accepting credit cards, debit cards, large number of net banking options, mobile payments, etc. A better Payment Gateway in the market capable of delivering these value-added services, and offering a secure system is crucial in the current times. However, the challenges arise in incorporating the technology in a better way and streamlining processes to drive down costs, increasing product innovation and even more so with raising customer service levels through innovative strategies, mainly in terms of a secure surveillance and systems. Therefore, security is a vital component in terms of technological sharing even in payment systems. However, the questions linger: How corporate,

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Not just payment gateways, many fintech players are contributing in digitising financial transactions for the education sector. Digitisation brings with it a big advantage â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pay anytime, anywhere

SRINIVAS NIDUGONDI

Senior Vice President, Head Mobile Financial Solutions, Mahindra Comviva

Cover Story

Parents can pay fees for their children without the hassle of standing in a queue to arrange for demand drafts or depositing cash at the cashier. On the other side, payment gateways are reducing the pain for educational institutions in collecting and managing the cash

ASHUTOSH PANDE

Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, PaySe™

offering payment gateway systems, ensure to have an optimum payment solution; What are the value-added services they are offering with the gateways; how relevant are the payment gateways for educational institutions; and, how secure are these payment gateways in order to maintain the privacy and security of the crucial financial transactions.

Catalysing the Financial Transactions

Online payments are widely accepted and becoming a convenient mode for compulsive spend verticals like Education. Payment Gateways are suitable for educational institutions who want to collect the fee and to do other financial transactions online. Srinivas Nidugondi, Senior Vice President & Head - Mobile Financial Solutions, Mahindra Comviva, said, “Not just payment gateways, many fintech players are contributing in digitising financial transactions for the education sector. Digitisation brings with it a big advantage – pay anytime, anywhere. So far, schools typically had an associated bank and all school fee submission were done by filling up a form and submitting it along with a deposit slip at the bank. With a digital offering, schools can now enable parents to pay from the convenience of their home even on weekends or bank holidays. Additionally, value-added services such as reminders, standing instructions etc, provide tools which help in planning and timely payments.” Through payment gateways, educational institutes funds are easier to manage and can predict the settlement, mentioned

Rahul Chiddarwar, Head - Payment Gateway Business, DirecPay, at TimesofMoney. He said, “Right from selling the application forms to paying tuition fees and hostel charges, payment gateways act as a catalyst for financial transactions happening in educational institutions. Collection of entire amount can be done in a click. Fund allocations are also easier as institutes can predict the settlement. The transactions are transparent, convenient and it is easy to track and maintain records.” Ashutosh Pande, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, PaySe™, believes that the payment gateways are providing a convenient channel to parents and institutions for payments. He said, “Parents can pay fees for their children without the hassle of standing in a queue to arrange for demand drafts or depositing cash at the cashier. On the other side, payment gateways are reducing the pain for educational institutions in collecting and managing the cash. Though payment gateways have reduced the pain, but still the cost of cash is very high. Payment gateway charges somewhere between 2-5 per cent of transaction amount as fee.” Education sector is catching up on adopting digital payments and converting from manual procedures to cashless, digital ones. Deepak Chandnani, CEO, Worldline South Asia and Middle East, said, “Higher education sector in India is expected to increase to $35.03 billion by 2025 from $6.96 billion in 2015 which will be accelerated by the growth in digital payments. When it comes to education, payment gateways are not merely the instruments of payment collection. With the help of payment gateways, from converting fee collection to electronic payments acts as an identification methods for students and visitors. The university can provide access control in various areas of the campus and monitor cashless payments as well.” “Worldline has recently tied up with Sharda University in Greater Noida, Rajarajeswari Medical College & Hospital, Bangalore and Emerald Heights International School, Indore to provide digital solutions for these institutions,” Chandnani added.

Innovative Solutions for Education Sector

With rapidly expanding market, unprecedented technological innovation and rapidly changing business environment, there is a need to build innovative payment solutions based on a solid architecture and a secure technical infrastructure, in compliance with the high demands of a complex payment system. To meet this demand, various organisations came up the payments gateways to ease the transactions process in education sector. Some of the innovative solutions are: mobiquity® Money: Mahindra Comviva’s flagship mobile financial services platform mobiquity® Money is transforming the payments approach in education sector. It has been deployed by 67 mobile operators and banks in over 45 countries. Many mobile money providers use this platform to offer services for education sector such as pay school or university fee, pay examination fee, pay for books and stationery, send pocket money to children in boarding schools and take micro-loans for paying school fee. DirecPay: DirecPay, of TimesofMoney, offers a gamut of services for education sector. They are: w Special pricing for education sector; w E-invoicing; w Surcharge;

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w Customised turnkey solution; w Ability to integrate with institutes’ ERP solution; w Recurring fees. PaySe™: PaySe™ (पैसे) is the world’s first offline digital cash solution designed and created with an aim to democratise money. PaySe™ delivers the advantage of cash. It enables university/institution campuses to accept digital cash completely offline. Students will be able to use digital cash along multiple touch points – cafeteria, admin, peers, etc. Like cash, there is no need for reconciliation. PaySe™ solution consists of three key components: w PaySe™ Processing Platform, is the interface between the real world and the digital world in accordance with the regulatory guidelines; w PalmATM™ application converts a smartphone into a mobile ATM. This application provides the same access as a conventional ATM including the ability to withdraw and deposit; w PURSE™ is a mobile to carry digital money and is designed to pay or receive digital cash. It empowers over 50 million families living without a mobile to bring the power of JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) trinity to these and beyond to carry money. PURSE™ is just this mobile that securely stores the crypto token. Worldline Payment Services: Worldline provides superior digital solutions for education institutions. It provides end-toend integrated payment services to handle the entire cashless payments in the college, including tuition fee, payments at canteens, shops etc.

The Added Advantage

With the role of payment gateways for simple financial transac-

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

mobiquity® Money is transforming the payments approach in education sector. It has been deployed by 67 mobile operators and banks in over 45 countries. Many mobile money providers use this platform to offer services for education sector such as pay school or university fee, pay examination fee, pay for books and stationery, send pocket money to children in boarding schools tions has increased considerably, there is a need of value-added services for better success. Srinivas Nidugondi provides a brief about the value-added services by Mahindra Comviva’s payment solutions. “For the enterprise, our product offers the flexibility of accepting payments from multiple sources and view all transactions that are made and payments due. For the consumers, it offers the option of setting up standing instructions for automated fee payment, reminders before due date etc,” he informed. Briefing about DirecPay, Rahul Chiddarwar, said, “There are a lot of value-added services offered by DirecPay that include: On demand analysis; Multi bank EMI; Recapturing abandoned

Cover Story transactions; Stored card; and Freedom to choose the look and feel of website.” On the value-added services provided by PaySe™, Ashutosh Pande informed that it offers the facility for: w Connecting online world of e-money (banking through payment gateway) with the offline world of digital cash; w Enabling free peer-to-peer transactions (proximity payments) digitally like cash; w Enabling all activities (cafeteria, admin fees, event fees, fines, petty payments etc) of the institution to accept digital cash offline. Worldline’s payment gateway solutions provide benefits to various parts of the value chain. Deepak Chandnani informed, “Customers get the flexibility to pay from any mode - debit cards, credit cards and internet banking. For the bank and merchant, there is a detailed MIS so they get in-depth transaction information. Merchants can also use the power of analytics, analysing customer behaviour and patterns to aid sales strategies. Beyond this, the solutions can be coupled with a fraud and risk management module to monitor and combat fraudulent transactions.” “Worldline also gives merchants a chance to develop omnichannel commerce for their business, by widening the scope of MIS and analytics, traditionally used for online transactions, to transactions at POS as well,” he added.

Security - a Vital Component

A secure payment gateway is crucial in the current times in

When it comes to education, payment gateways are not merely instruments of payment collection. With the help of payment gateways, converting fee collection to electronic payments acts as an identification methods for students and visitors

DEEPAK CHANDNANI

CEO, Worldline South Asia & Middle East

order to maintain the privacy of the financial transactions and to reduce fraud and increase consumer confidence. Srinivas Nidugondi said, “Mahindra Comviva’s mobile financial solutions make no compromises when it comes to security. We ensure that service and payment implementations are safeguarded with multi-level, bank-grade security in order to reduce fraud and increase consumer confidence. The security framework includes multi-factor authentication for access and transaction control, while all data is encrypted with the industry-standard 3DES algorithm. Our solutions adheres to international Anti-Money Laundering requirements and implement the best practices in PIN and Password management. Over and above this, the entire security approach is strengthened by Mahindra Comviva’s proven knowledge of country-specific regulations.” Security is of prime importance to DirecPay while facilitating financial transactions, informed Chiddarwar. He said that the company take care of the following security parameters: w World class fraud management system; w Real-time volume velocity checks; w Rule based engine for monitoring and flagging of perceived risk transactions; w Double verification checks for enhanced security for multiple forms of payment; w Tracking of IPs and flagging off transactions from high-risk countries; w Dynamically updated global negative databases; w Manual override tools for high risk transactions; w Push and pull reports available across pay modes for better sanity. Ensuring security is the most important part of financial transaction processing. Deepak Chandnani, said, “As one of the biggest players in the acquiring space, we ensure security is the most important part of transaction processing. We have a robust fraud and risk management mechanism that analyses transactions in real time, assigns risk scores and flags off those with high risk. There is constant monitoring of all transactions processed and mapping against negative databases. Our solutions are PCI DSS compliant in order to provide the most secure services to our customers. Apart from this, we are certified by ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System and ISO 27001 Information Security Management System.”

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Cover Story eduPayment Solutions: The Way Ahead

The education sector is going digital. Today, one can purchase books online, access e-libraries, attend lectures virtually (distant learning via internet), do entire course online via webex or videos and even give the exams online. With digitisation of education the payments involved in it are also becoming digital. Digital payments include both online payments and mobile payments. Srinivas Nidugondi said that the digitisation of education, of which digital eduPayment is an important part, will transform the education sector in the following ways: Expanding the Availability of Content: Education content such as books, journals, white papers are costly. Students cannot buy all of them. Moreover, students currently have access to mostly local study material and they are not able to study the global content. The few copies which are available in libraries have high demand and can be accessed by a limited number of students. Digitisation of education is changing this. Students will get global exposure as they will be able to buy books from international authors online. The libraries will become digital, which student will be able to access online and pay for the subscription of journals via digital medium as per their convenience. No longer there will be scarcity of books in libraries. Because of digitisation of content and digital payments, students will be able to just buy the required portion or relevant content and not the entire book. Virtual Learning: Now the students are no longer restricted to by distance, lack of educational institutes or unavailability of courses. Virtual classrooms are making distant learning possible in an efficient manner. Students are able to attend lectures online and listen to guest lecturers from academicians across the globe and and learn skills by looking at videos. Not only this, students can give exams online and the checking of papers will also be done by computer system and result produced in a short time. For end-to-end virtual experience, payments will be made remotely by online or mobile, easing the transaction process. Electronic Payment of Fees: Paying fees for school, university or applying for a course is time consuming, as students or their parents have to visit the educational institutes or nodal centers and stand in queues to make payments. The time and money spent in paying fee can be used more productively. With digital payments, cash based fee payments will be a passé. With online and mobile payments students will be able to pay at their convenience, remotely and in smaller installments. These types of payments are not only restricted to debit and credit card users, but the unbanked people using mobile money services such as Airtel Money, M-PESA, EcoCash, Orange Money and Mobi-

PaySe™ delivers the advantage of cash. It enables university/ institution campuses to accept digital cash completely offline. Students will be able to use digital cash along multiple touch points – cafeteria, admin, peers, etc.

In spite of the digital trend, very few institutions accept online payments these days. But, looking at the payment preferences from students and parents, maximum institutions will start opting for online fees collection over a period of time

RAHUL CHIDDARWAR

Head - Payment Gateway Business, DirecPay, at TimesofMoney

cash are also able to make digital payments using feature phone. Regarding eduPayments transforming educational landscape in times to come, Saloni Malhotra, Associate Vice President, Paytm, says, “India is undergoing rapid change and innovations across the board. As the education sector leverages the new digital tools available, a strong payment option is required to extend convenience. Our presence in 25000 institutions and impacting 10 million students positively by enabling single click payments shows the bright future of eduPAYMENTS.” In coming years, payment will add more value as it is convenient, easy, safe and time saving process with transparency in place. Rahul Chiddarwar, said, “In spite of the digital trend, very few institutions accept online payments these days. But, looking at the payment preferences from students and parents, maximum institutions will start opting for online fees collection over a period of time. Obviously it will add more value as it is convenient, easy, safe and time saving process with transparency in place.” Like any other sector, education also stands to gain from the growth in online payment solutions. Deepak Chandnani, said, “Currently, India has the world’s largest higher education system in the world with 762 universities. The government also plans to open more higher education institutes across India. Fee payments for education helps a university reach out to the parents as well, who are often the payment initiator.” “With more services added onto the plain vanilla offering, a payment gateway helps the institution build a robust system that tracks and identifies student payments, maintains records, reduces mishandling of physical payments like cash and DDs etc. This improves efficiency and helps move towards digitisation of payments for education,” he added.n

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

Interview

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Paytm eduPAYMENTS Bringing in Convenience & Credibility

From a mobile recharge and utility bill payment platform to a full grown marketplace for consumers on their mobiles, Paytm has come across a full cycle. In an exclusive interaction eduPAYMENTS is INR 6.5 Lakh Crore opportunity in India. To what extent Paytm is serving the same? Several institutions still accept cash/ drafts and cheques as modes of payments, whereas parents and students now wish to switch to more convenient digital modes of payment. Paytm has multiple products that allow institutions to make this switch. Our Payment gateway has a tie-up with over 46 banks and allows parents to pay using Credit Card, Debit Card, Net Banking or Paytm Wallet, our flagship product. These instruments can be integrated on the institution’s website and mobile app. For institutes and schools that do not wish to invest significantly in their IT, Paytm brings a simple and effective Fee Collection Widget on paytm.com, that enables a school to allow parents/ students to pay within minutes. Institutions can sign-up and extend a mobile payment facility within 48-72 hours from the time they sign up with Paytm. Using all of the above products and features, Paytm intends to create Cashless Campuses across the country where payments are the most convenient aspect both for the institute and for the payer (student or parent). What are some of the key reasons for which institutes are opting for services like Paytm? Paytm offers multiple options wherein students can pay for admission forms, regular tuition fee and also at the canteens, tuck shops and for other miscellaneous

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Saloni Malhotra,

Associate Vice President, Paytm shares with Elets News Network (ENN), as to how the brand is unleashing a paradigm shift in eduPAYMENTS which transcends from usability, strives to create accessibility, convenience, and credibility in the education sector expenses on campus. Key reasons why institutes are opting for Paytm: n Organising the Fee Management - Institutes often face challenges with lost cheques, cheques without name or enrolment ID of students etc. Moreover, school owners realise the value of early fee collection and the benefits to the cash flows. The easier they make it for parents, the faster they will collect the funds. n Reminder Service - Given the short cycle of collection, typically 10 days at the beginning of the quarter, an automated set-up that pushes a new fee structure saves significant time and make the school more efficient. n EMI Facility - Paytm has tied up with several banks and can offer EMI services across banking instruments. n No recurring cost - Paytm enables all these options in a cost effective manner, where the institutions only have to pay, if the students choose to use Paytm. How is the Paytm eduPAYMENTS network growing? Over 200 institutions are listed actively on Paytm and many more are getting added

each month. From premium institutions like IIT Madras and IIT Mandi, to private colleges like Lovely Professional University, Sharda University, Galgotias, Paytm is a popular choice on several campuses across the country. Schools such as Delhi Public School, CMR’s Ekya Schools, Primus Public School are some that are leading the change in the school segment. Even pre-schools such as Maple Bear and Sanfort are extending convenience as parent’s become busier. How Paytm is different from the conventional Payment Gateways? The solution which Paytm offers is more than a Payment Gateway, which is only one of the products in our offerings. Payment Gateways are implemented on the institutions website, whereas in addition to the Payment Gateway, Paytm offers solutions that help institutions become truly cashless. Our Offline to Online (O2O) enables small vendors across the campus accept digital payment. Our Payment Widget on Paytm.com allows institutions to go live within 48 hours to enable a mobile payment. n

Case Study

PayU Simplifies Fee collection for CCSU

How PayU transformed the Fee Collection process for Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) CCSU’s Pain-points

w Management of various payment channels – offline and online w High level of dependency on a single bank for online fee collection leading to delays w Management of multiple accounts for fee collection w Cumbersome reconciliation process and delayed refunds w Large overheads, accountability issues and cash management

PayU Solution

w Streamlined fee collection process resulting in more than 95% of fees being collected through online mode – resolving cash management issues, overhead issues, and delays w Deployed multiple payment gateways and dynamic routing, ensuring higher transaction success rates without any dependency on a single bank w Put in place checks and customized dashboards to keep track of each transaction resulting in higher accountability, no duplicate payments and faster refunds w The entire solution was integrated and deployed within few hours of effort spread over a week.

About Chaudhary Charan Singh University Chaudhary Charan Singh University (formerly, Meerut University), a premier educational institute in the country, was established in 1965 to cater to the needs of higher education in western Uttar Pradesh. Challenges faced by CCSU CCSU has more than 6,00,000 students enrolled in more than 50 courses. There are more than 400 colleges affiliated to the University. The average annual fee paid per student ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 5000 across various undergraduate and post-graduate courses. The total fees collected by the institute in a year adds up to approximately 100 crores. CCSU collects this fees in five different bank accounts through both online and offline channels, making it a tedious process from accounting and management viewpoint. An issue related to this is the cost of overheads for managing this process and risks associated with cash management. Second problem faced by the institute was related to tracking of duplicate payments and subsequent refunds to students. This problem resulted due to technical issues/limitations of the

website. Further, refund processing used to take as long as six months. In the third scenario, during the fees cycle, when innumerable students were using the bank’s payment gateway, the bank’s website often experienced downtime. This interrupted the fee payment process leading to unwanted delays. CCSU wanted an integrated solution to address all these problems without increasing any overheads. How PayU transformed the Fee Collection process PayU deployed a comprehensive solution at CCSU to efficiently manage the problems faced by CCSU. As a result, more than 95 percent of the fees is collected through online mode and through PayU. A keyword sensitive payment system was introduced which automated the routing of fees to desired bank account. The moment a student enters the name of a course or the year of education, PayU directs the fees to one of the five bank accounts of CCSU as per the pre-determined rules. This enabled faster and hassle-free management of cash in various accounts and also substantially improved the tracking of funds through

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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dashboards and multiple reports. PayU resolved the payment duplication problem by effectively tracking fees paid by each student and streamlined the refund process, reducing the refund cycle from six months to less than a month. To resolve the problem of bank’s website downtime, PayU activated multiple payment gateways with CCSU and developed an intelligent algorithm based software that can detect the health of a payment gateway and dynamically route the payment through the best channel, ensuring high success rates. PayU has also set up a Merchant Relationship Management (MRM) team to help CCSU and its students with their queries, ensuring smooth payment processes. This team resolves more than 90% of the queries or issues over the phone at the same time and the remaining queries including technical issues are resolved within few hours. Additionally, CCSU has been provided with a customizable dashboard to keep a track of each and every online transaction, ensuring much greater accountability and, easy and faster reporting. The integration has had a far reaching impact on both CCSU and the students: Benefits to CCSU w Cashless fee payment reducing the risks associated with cash management w Reduced administrative cost through ready-to-use online reports

w Higher accuracy and hassle-free reconciliation through a comprehensive dashboard w Instant money transfer to the desired bank w Higher success rates and faster refunds Benefits to the students w Easy and quick fee payment at “anytime anywhere” w No need to carry cash w No Branch or University Walk-in w Students save a lot of time and money w MRM team addresses all CCSU and its students’ queries in real time about PayU PayU is India’s leading payment gateway solution provider, authorized by RBI, specializing in education fee collection. It serves more than 140,000 businesses including some of the leading educational institutions in the country. PayU is part of multi-billion dollars NASPERS group which is listed on London and Johannesburg stock exchanges. PayU offers fee collection solution to all types of educational institutions such as pre-schools, schools, colleges, universities, boards, exam conducting bodies, coaching institutes etc. PayU has also helped institutes which do not have any technical team or website to start collecting fees online within few days. ■

Fee Collection Made Easy Pain Points in Collecting Fee Payments Parents pay fees at Cash Counter/through Banks, through Cheques

How PayUmoney Beneﬁts You

Long Queues

Risky Cash Handling

Lost Cheques and Paper Handling

Late Settlement (7 to 8 days)

Manual Data generation and Reconciliations

No Technical Integration

Multiple payment options

Easy & quick onboarding

Delay in accessing funds

24X7 Customer Support

Email & SMS Receipts

Used by Leading Educational Institutes

PayU Payments Pvt. Ltd. 4th Floor, Pearl Tower, Plot No 51 Institutional Area, Sector 32, Gurgaon, Haryana 122001 | Phone:0124 662 4801 For more information, please contact: Atul.Mehta@PayU.in , National Hunting Head

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Tetè-a-Tetè

Fulﬁlling the

University’s Mission Furthering the quest for Reach, Reputation, Impact and Sustainability, Oxford University Press India appointed Sivaramakrishnan V as its Managing Director in November last year

When a publishing behemoth having its genesis in the sprouting of the modern era, hands over its reign of command to a sports enthusiast, you can only expect extreme optimism and electrifying energy into the entire state of affairs. This was probably our experience when we entered the cabin of Sivaramakrishnan V, the Managing Director of Oxford University Press, India which was spartan in visual opulence but as it emerged during the course of conversations was replete with profound wisdom, something which has been the signature of brand Oxford. An impelling speaker having trained his guns in the domain of educational services at Manipal Global, Siva wanted to be down to earth and close to basics in this very ﬁrst media interaction after taking on the charge as OUP India Chief. In a 35 minute interaction which spanned almost the entire galaxy of educational narratives, we are hereby presenting some of the key takeaways from the foremost University Press in the world as to how they see the journey further & forward. April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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On Bi-Lingual Language Programme of Oxford University Press

If Prime Minister Cameroon cheer-led the advent of the Indian era at Wembley, Siva resonated with him at least in spirit mentioning the global linguistic data whereby the demographics of the Indian languages is just but mind-boggling, at least from an astute business sense. OUP has thereby casted a major focus on its Language Learning Programmes from a bi-lingual handle. It’s bi-lingual dictionaries are doing rounds in the market and have emerged as a distinctive market leader in the space. The biggest perspective change which has come at OUP is the co-existence of ‘Bharat’ alongside India. The functional penetration of English as a global transactional language is being championed through this bi-lingual approach. However, much remains to be seen about their tri-lingual learning experiments, which the OUP experts are underway.

Furthering the Cause of English Language Teaching in the Indian Context: From Eminence to Prominence

Siva was unequivocal in admitting the fact that English has evolved from only being a language of superiority to that of a lingua franca of the modern world, primarily from an economic standpoint. Being the language of technology & commerce, the modern economic disciplines need a functional proficiency in the language which is being facilitated by OUP’s Adult ELT (English Language Teaching) Programmes. Sector specific content in the form of dictionaries is being compiled to have a functional command over the subject matter, thereby contributing to the major national thrust on programmes like Skill India and Make in India.

Measuring the learning for Delivering the Same Effectively

Though not the first on the digital bandwagon, OUP is exploiting the power of the digital platforms to devise a unique set of assessment solutions. Still in its beta testing stage, the digital solution christened as Oxford Achiever tend to grade a learner across 36 levels. So gone are the days, when either you know English or you don’t know English. You

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

know some of the English which is certified by none other than the guardians of the language itself who have seen its evolution from the era of papyrus to that of pixels. A learning outcome based pedagogy is doing rounds in the OUP design floors whereby technology is being leveraged smartly to make the continuous gradation possible and thereby design self-paced personalized learning programmes. OUP is on the frontiers of this breakthrough as per Siva.

On Future of Learning Ecosystems

Always been on the frontiers of human advancements, OUP - waited to watch the unfurling of the digital narrative. Siva was candid enough in asserting that the future is of blended learning with digital coming over as a facilitator. The fascinations around the tech need not take away the focus from the teacher. The age-old premise at Oxford revolves around the teacher, which shall continue even in the much hyped digital era. Access to information can’t be considered as a substitute to the knowledge imparting and gaining process. Oxford is coming out with its apps and a host of other digital learning platforms. They are gung-ho on their strong tradition of market feedback which shape up their products and give them their distinctive edge. The vast author network make them a power to reckon with when it comes to producing learning material of high quality. In a growing trend a lot of state board schools are adopting OUP books for the benefit of young learners, something will make them competitive at the highest levels.

Teacher Training:: The core of it all

Humility was perhaps in the air on this first floor of YMCA Library Building when Siva said nonchalantly that they have conducted some 1300 teacher training workshop out of their kitty training around 55-60K of the next age trainers. If it would have been any other enterprise, this alone would have become the single most bragging right for others in the fray. OUP intends to further intensify this very aspect of their market penetration and maintaining a superlative lead. The challenge of getting along the teachers at heart who have passed the half way mark on technology remains high but OUP is happy to work with

Oxford is coming out with its apps and a host of other digital learning platforms. They are gung-ho on their strong tradition of market feedback which shape up their products and give them their distinctive edge. In a growing trend a lot of state board schools are adopting OUP books for the benefit of young learners them. The newer ones on the deck have the skills but the experience in the profession of teaching gained over the years will help them deliver even better. Siva, expressed a stark contrast about the emerging scenario in the teaching space.

The ever changing Publication Landscape at Oxford

The sheer outreach to over 12,000 schools across the country make OUP an enviable force. Their textbooks are upgraded every year through a well set out consultative process. Their newer publishing platforms especially on the digital & mobile are in various stages of testing & review and shall see the light of the day soon. A lot of research & experimentation has gone into designing these newer learning platforms. Veterans have to deliver things in the right way. Sustainability & Impact somehow supersede reach in the Oxford Universe at times. Epilogue Siva, as he likes to be called, enunciated elaborately on the learner-centric strategy - around which he sees his focus getting along at OUP. We wish him all the best at this new stint whereby he has the potential to make a profound impact on India’s learning landscape, something which remains one of OUP’s key objectives. n

Interview

International Baccalaureate

A GLOBAL LEAGUE IN EDUCATION

International Baccalaureate (IB) needs no introduction. In over 4 decades of its existence, IB has gained an enviable reputation for stellar academic standards and preparing students for life.

Dr. Siva Kumari

the first Indian-Asian to have risen to the rank of Director General of International Baccalaureate (IB), in an elaborate interaction with Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN), exhorts as to what makes IB a global league in education

What enumerates the global presence of IB? Founded in 1968, currently there are over 1 million IB students at 3,800 schools in 147 countries across the world. In India, the first World School to offer an IB education started way back in 1976. Today, there are 120 Indian schools offering one or more of the four IB programmes. The IB school-leaving diploma has been recognized for admission to undergraduate courses in 56 Indian universities. However, the number of IB schools in this country is far less than the many thousand schools offering the Indian CBSE curriculum or the various regional/state boards.

In what all ways International Baccalaureate Education empowers its students? Some people just consider IB education as a gateway to continue their higher studies, and also seek for job opportunities abroad. This is true to a limit as universities abroad want well-accomplished applicants. It’s largely a matter of supply and demand. Like everywhere else in the world, it’s considered a big deal to get into globally reputed schools and universities, in India as well. IB education, which is more towards practical teaching and evolving students into responsible and intelligent global citizens, there is a big enabler. With a whopping presence in over 147 countries, how does IB system stands differentiated? IB schools believe in developing creativity and just not learning by following instructions. IB education system nurtures abilities of students and brings out the strength of confidence. In IB schools, students are developed to be good thinkers, their skills are honed with an international understanding. We do not just focus on the child’s marksheet, but our non-rigid, cross-disciplinary structure, focus on an all-round development which goes beyond mechanical learning to impart strong social and interpersonal skills with academic excellence.

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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The cost of IB school education remains a concern for many. What do you have to say about it? It is certainly a concern, but this is how IB works. We need to maintain the standards of our teaching system. People will have to make the choice where they have to spend money. Interest of parents should be to see that their child is truly educated. Education is more than just completing the 24 sheets of math work in the classroom. However, it is a matter of time as the way, Indian economy is changing and by what I understand, a lot of money is planned to be spent on education. With Indian parents getting more interested for better education for their children and many MNCs entering the nation, I would imagine that things are changing where economic conditions would not be a barrier for the IB standard education. Do you have any plans for collaboration with the government in future? We do not have anything as such in our plans. However, if government expresses interest we can work on it the way we are working with the Japan government. In Japan, most public schools have IB education system. With over 150 education programs to offer, at what rate are the schools approaching to get the ‘IB’ tag? We continue to grow at a rate of 5 per cent every year. In the process, the schools are thoroughly screened and then given the IB affiliation. It is a 2-3 years process now, unlike earlier, where it took 5 years. IB has made outstanding contributions in web based programs for education as well. Can you throw more light on it? We have been working on Information Technology since 1993. We started creating online tools, making distance education through an online medium, a possibility. While serving as the Chairperson of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) conferences, I created many online assets. I have created a lot of projects including the Advanced Placement Digital Library (DL). Now, we are thinking at IB to get into online education as we already have a spread across 147 countries. Since the beginning of 2015, we have modified ourselves into a complete digital organization. In future we hope to create

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

In IB schools, students are developed to be good thinkers, their skills are honed with an international understanding. We do not just focus on the child’s marksheet, but our non-rigid, cross-disciplinary structure, focus on an all-round development

intelligent content. We plan to add digital labs and also create a cloud strategy. Our collaborative techniques have been duly identified and we are spending enormous amount of money in making it happen. What are the challenges you see in realizing these IT plans? Our community is very passionate, and we are hoping to communicate with our community using the information technology as a platform. However, here, the challenge is how to take this passion face to face and take this online community to the next level. We are coming up with the project called ‘Agora’ a Greek word. Through this project we want to collect IB knowledge from across the globe. Once we complete this project, we want to open it to all, so that anyone, from across the globe, can reach out to the IB education system.n

Analysis

ANALYSIS

A beginning towards DATA DRIVEN eduGOVERNANCE even as QUALITY DATA eluded the Evaluators

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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nitiated on the behest of the Hon’ble Prime Minister, The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is out with its first round of rankings across Engineering, Management, Pharmacy & Universities across the length and breadth of the country. While the exhaustive ranking framework which outlined the methodology to rank institutions across the country was received quite well, its eventual execution encompassing the entire deck of institutions falling in various categories couldn’t evoke the desired interest amongst the members of the general public and observers alike. However, considering the NIRF outcomes from a different perspective this entire exercise has laid the very foundations of DATA DRIVEN eduGOVERNANCE. digitalLEARNING chose to delve deep into the outcomes of this major national exercise and comment upon the various underlying facets of the same for the consumption of our readers which include the formulators and regulators of NIRF. Hope this analytical commentary would be an interesting & illuminating reading.

Key Departures ONE

While the original ranking framework called for a differentiation between Category A Institutions which have Research & Teaching as twin foci and Category B Institutions which are simply Teaching ones. The eventual rankings seem to have juxtaposed both the Category A and Category B institutions. This seems to be a major departure from the doctrine of not comparing apples with oranges.

TWO

Unavailability of the Computation of Individualized Scores based on the Datasets provided by the participating institutions make it difficult to ascertain the parameterized ranking of institutions beyond top 10 which have been specifically given their rankings on chosen parameters. Incidentally, it’s the institutions lower in the ranking deck who need to know more about their respective category ranking to improvise upon.

THREE

The presentation of the processed and analysed datasets of ranked institutions is quite out of sync with the initial NIRF layout. The order of sequence, denomination of datasets and reported values don’t fall in line. For example, the reported dataset of IIT Madras with Institute ID NIRF-ENGG-INF-77 (Engineering) the following is the name and denomination of the dataset submitted. w Considered Faculty Details w Student Details w Facilities Summaries w Student Events w Publication Details w Perception Details w IPR Summary

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

w Sponsored Research Project Details w Consultancy Project Details w Education Program Details w Graduation Outcome w Student Exam Details w Physical Facilities

Analysis

LAYOUT Teaching, Learning and Resources parameter by NIRF The NIRF layout defines the parameter of Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR) as a mix of 4 components as in a) Faculty-Student Ratio with Emphasis on Permanent Faculty (FSR) b) Combine Metric for Faculty with PhD and Experience (FQE) c) Metric for Library and Laboratory Facilities (LL) d) Metric for Sports and Extra-Curricular Facilities, Activities (SEC)

The parameter on Research, Professional Practice & Collaborative Performance (RPC) entails a) Combined Metric for Publications (PU) b) Combined Metric for Citations (CI) c) IPR and Patents: Granted, Filed, Licensed (IPR) d) Percentage of Collaborative Publications and Patents (CP) e) Footprints of Projects and Professional Practice (FPPP)

Graduation Outcome (GO)

a) Combined Performance in Public and University Examinations (PUE) b) Combined Percentage for Placement, Higher Studies and Entrepreneurship (PHE) c) Mean Salary for Employment (MS)

Outreach and Inclusivity (OI)

a) Outreach Footprint (Continuing Education, Service) (CES) b) Percentage of Students from Other States/Countries (Region Diversity - RD) c) Percentage of Women Students and Faculty (WS) d) Percentage of Economically and Socially e) Disadvantaged Students (ESDS)

Perception (PR)

Process for Peer Rating in Category (PR) Scrutinizing by these two parameters itself, things donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to be falling in a rigorous order. Interestingly, the parameter on perception at number (f) is somehow interspersed between those of Publication Details and IPR Summary. This is a significant departure from the established practice of rigorous data processing whereby the consistency of the framework has to be ensured by all means. Incidentally, Datasets for some of the parameters are missing altogether.

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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Data Analysis & Presentation Framework

The mammoth exercise of India Rankings 2016 based on NIRF somehow lost the opportunity to sync up the various institutional databases in a single repository. The underlying technological engine has chosen to use Excel Workbook as the pre-eminent reporting as well as processing tool. Interestingly, a significant space is devoted in the NIRF report over Online Data Capturing Platform and Data Submission Utility. On a cursory glance, it seems to be an utterly manual process, whereby right from data submission to data processing to data presentation, has been done in a loosely coupled technology ecosystem. An emphasis on adopting an ERP framework to ensure a steady real time flow of the multifaceted datasets from institutions could have helped the cause in a much significant manner. May be in the next iteration of the rankings, the Implementation Core Committee from NBA which has also been bestowed upon the task of accrediting technical institutions would call for the creation of an integrated data foundation across educational institutions powered by an industry grade ERP solution.

wwwwwwww HIGH CORRELATION OF ENGINEERING RANKING WITH ANALYTICAL WEB METRICS Interestingly, the NIRF Rankings have a high degree of correlation with analytical web metrics like Moz. We subjected the URLs of each of the top 100 Engineering Institutions to the Domain Authority Score ( a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. To determine Domain Authority, Moz employs machine learning against Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s algorithm to best model how search engine results are generated. Over 40 signals are included in this calculation. Interestingly the Correlation Coefficient on NIRF Rank and Moz Rank data came out to be a impressive 0.74 which implies that both datasets match-up 75% of the times. Name of Institute

NIRF Score

NIRF Rank

MOZ Score

MOZ Rank

Indian Institute Of Technology, Madras

89.41

72.05

Indian Institute Of Technology, Bombay

87.66

72.55

Indian Institute Of Technology, Kharagpur

83.91

69.13

Indian Institute Of Technology, Delhi

82.02

70.79

Indian Institute Of Technology, Kanpur

81.07

69.49

Indian Institute Of Technology, Roorkee

78.68

58.56

Indian Institute Of Technology, Hyderabad

77.22

53.02

Indian Institute Of Technology, Gandhinagar

75.2

48.95

Indian Institute Of Technology, Ropar-Rupnagar

74.88

38.23

Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna

74.68

42.98

Indian Institute Of Technology, North Guwahati

74.62

54.48

National Institute Of Technology, Tiruchirappalli

74.45

53.05

60.59

Vellore Institute Of Technology

74.4

Indian Institute Of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi

74.39

45.26

Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute Of Technology

73.13

47.27

Indian Institute Of Technology, Indore

45.64

Birla Institute Of Technology

71.8

48.03

Visvesvaraya National Institute Of Technology, Nagpur

71.29

47.65

National Institute Of Technology, Rourkela

70.8

54.77

Indian Institute Of Technology, Mandi

70.32

43.73

College Of Engineering, Pune

69.71

50.38

National Institute Of Technology Karnataka, Mangalore

68.95

52.07

Motilal Nehru National Institute Of Technology, Allahabad

67.94

51.79

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Analysis

Name of Institute

NIRF Score

NIRF Rank

MOZ Score

MOZ Rank

Psg College Of Technology-Coimbatore

67.8

48.37

Indian Institute Of Technology, Jodhpur

67.68

45.04

Indian Institute Of Technology, Bhubaneswar

67.58

44.18

Thapar University-Patiala

67.51

44.39

National Institute Of Technology, Warangal

67.12

48.63

Thiagarajar College Of Engineering, Madurai

66.51

47.32

National Institute Of Technology, Durgapur

65.4

47.08

Amrita School Of Engineering

63.94

55.07

Kalinga Institue Of Industrial Technology

63.4

45.51

M. S. Ramaiah Institute Of Technology, Bangalore

63.39

40.46

Coimbatore Institute Of Technology-Coimbatore

62.58

35.29

National Institute Of Technology, Calicut

62.26

55.04

R.V. College Of Engineering, Bengaluru

62.26

36.18

Malaviya National Institute Of Technology, Jaipur

62.14

47.96

Pec University Of Technology-Chandigarh

61.32

40.92

Manipal Institute Of Technology

61.15

58.79

Shanmugha Arts Science Technology & Research Academy (Sastra)

61.11

51.92

Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University)

60.18

48.42

Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute Of Technology, Jalandhar 59.91

45.62

Indian Institute Of Science Education & Research, Mohali

41.43

59.58

Karunya Institute Of Technology And Sciences

59.29

49.71

Institute Of Technology, Nirma University

59.23

40.71

Kongu Engineering College

59.06

31.19

Sona College Of Technology, Salem

58.97

34.80

National Institute Of Technology, Kurukshetra

58.89

44.78

Pondicherry Engineering College

58.79

39.32

Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham-Amrita Nagar (Po) , Ettimadai

58.78

55.07

National Institute Of Technology, Hamirpur

58.65

46.88

National Institute Of Technology, Agartala

58.63

32.43

Kumaraguru College Of Technology-Coimbatore

58.44

33.54

B.S. Abdur Rahman Institute Of Science And Technology

57.8

31.32

Cochin University Of Science And Technology-Cochin

57.69

55.37

Sant Longowal Institute Of Engineering & Technology, Sangrur

57.52

38.10

National Institute Of Technology, Meghalaya

57.47

32.84

ITM University, Gwalior (School Of Engineering & Technology), Gwalior

57.45

34.03

Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation

57.37

32.66

42.55

Jaypee Institute Of Information Technology

56.79

Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University College Of Engineering-Pune

56.56

24.58

Bannari Amman Institute Of Technology-Sathyamangalam

56.21

33.27

National Institute Of Technology, Raipur

55.93

38.11

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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Name of Institute

NIRF Score

NIRF Rank

MOZ Score

MOZ Rank

Vishwakarma Institute Of Technology-Pune

55.7

36.41

National Institute Of Technology, Silchar

55.49

44.91

Noorul Islam Centre For Higher Education

55.45

28.56

National Institute Of Technology, Srinagar

55.3

40.77

University Institute Of Chemical Technology, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon

54.91

38.88

National Institute Of Science & Technology, Berhampur

54.81

30.51

Siddaganga Institute Of Technology, Tumkur

54.67

35.35

Chaitanya Bharathi Institute Of Technology, Hyderabad

54.66

31.59

Hindustan Institute Of Technology And Science (Hits)

54.32

38.48

Sagi Ramakrishnam Raju Engineering College, Bhimavaram

54.02

22.46

C.V.Raman College Of Engineering, Bhubaneswar

53.91

26.48

Kasegaon Education Societys Rajarambapu Institute Of Technology, Islampur

53.69

29.64

National Institute Of Technology, Goa

53.65

31.66

Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute Of Information Technology, Design And Manufacturing (IIITDM), Jabalpur 53.37

37.20

National Institute Of Technology, Jamshedpur

53.35

42.86

Institute Of Engineering & Management, Kolkata

53.26

23.10

Indian Institute Of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing (Iiitd&M) Kancheepuram-Chennai

52.64

32.71

Centurion Institute Of Technology

52.58

33.00

College Of Technology And Engineering-Udaipur

52.39

21.06

Indian Institute Of Engineering Science & Technology, Shibpur

52.35

43.31

Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute

52.17

35.59

K. K. Wagh Institute Of Engineering Education & Research-Nashik

51.92

27.79

Shri Ramdeobaba College Of Engineering & Management, Nagpur

51.5

29.17

National Institute Of Technology, Patna

51.08

40.90

Vignanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Foundation For Science, Technology & Research

50.65

28.70

Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute Of Engineering & Technology-Nanded

50.64

41.67

Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College-Coimbatore

50.55

27.80

Bengal Institute Of Technology

50.33

18.91

100

National Institute Of Technology, Delhi

50.22

29.24

Yeshwantrao Chavan College Of Engineering, Nagpur

50.14

26.41

Adhiyamaan College Of Engineering (Engineering & Technology)

50.04

28.71

Maharashtra Academy Of Engineering & Educational Research, Mit College Of Engineering, Pune-Pune

49.66

39.30

The National Institute Of Engineering

49.51

32.33

Government College Of Engineering, Aurangabad

49.51

27.82

Anand Institute Of Higher Technology

49.41

27.16

Noida Institute Of Engineering & Technology

49.24

29.69

University Institute Of Chemical Engineering & Technology

49.09

100

60.74

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Analysis

51 20

41 92

79 91

26 32 74

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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59 88

7 71

Manipal Institute of 39 Technology, Manipal Siddaganga Institute of 70 Technology, Tumkur

80 Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai

M. S. Ramaiah Institute of 95 Technology, Bangalore

Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing (Iiitd&M) Kancheepuram, Chennai Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science 72 (Hits), Chennai B.S. Abdur Rahman Institute of Science and 54 Technology, Chennai 1

R. V. College of 33 Engineering, Bengaluru National Institute of Technology 22 Karnataka, Mangalore

98 Anand Institute of Higher Technology, Chennai

The National Institute of 96 Engineering, Mysore

13 Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore

National Institute of 35 Technology, Calicut 94

Cochin University of Science 55 and Technology, Cochin

Adhiyamaan College of Engineering (Engineering & Technology), Hosur 47 Sona College of Technology, Salem

Amrita School of 31 Engineering, Karunagapally

PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 24 Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore 34 Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore 53 Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore 90 Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore 44

Shanmugha Arts Science Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA), Thanjavur 12

Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam

Noorul Islam Centre For Higher Education, Kanyakumari

National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli

29 Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai 46 Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai

Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham, Amrita Nagar (Po), Ettimadai

2 86 84

93 18

89 76

Courtesy: digitalLEARNING Graphics digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Analysis

GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD

State Wise The state of Tamil Nadu hosts the highest number, 20 engineering institutions in top 100 followed closely by Maharashtra having 14 odd top 100 institutions in its kitty. The other states seem to be far behind with Karnataka & Odisha having 6 top ranking institutions. Punjab, West Bengal & Uttar Pradesh have been able to nurture a mere 5 top ranking institutions. Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh & Kerala have 3 top ranking Engineering Institutions. Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Assam & Chandigarh have 2 institutions of engineering falling in top 100 bucket. Pondicherry, Tripura, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Goa & Uttarakhand have one top ranking engineering institutions each. City Wise 76 Cities of India host the top 100 Engineering Institutions of the Country. Out of these 76, 12 have have been selected under the Smart City Campaign of Government of India as well.

eduDESTINATIONS having top ranking engineering institutions chosen as SMART CITIES w CHENNAI w COIMBATORE w PUNE w BHUBANESWAR w AHMEDABAD w NEW DELHI w GUWAHATI w INDORE w JABALPUR w JAIPUR w SURAT w UDAIPUR The cities of Chennai & Coimbatore have 5 top ranking engineering institutions each closely followed by Pune with 4. Bhubaneswar & Nagpur have 3 each while Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Guntur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Patna have 2 top ranking engineering institutions each.

wwwwwwww NIRF Ready Reckoner

w 1,50,000 Votes were cast by 60,000 odd individuals for ascertaining the perception about Institutions across. w 500 Institutions were involved for getting the Peer Perception ratings. w 1438 Engineering Institutions participated in India Rankings 2016 based on NIRF. w 314 of them qualified themselves in Category A Institutions which have a Research Focus along with Teaching. w 1116 classified themselves into Category B Institutions limited to Teaching only w The final ranking was however released as one across the categories. w The Southern part of the country made the highest number of nominations at 737. April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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WHICH ALL GENRES QUALIFIED FOR TOP

RANKING ENGINEERING INSTITUTIONS In the top 100 list of Engineering Institutions, 42 of them fall into the Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTI) category which can be considered to be in the league of Category A institutions. 17 of these top seated institutions fall into the genre of Deemed to Universities. A mere 4 Private Universities have been able to make it to the list of top 100 Engineering Institutions. 15 of these top ranking institutions are affiliated to various State Universities 2 of these institutions are affiliated to the Central Universities 20 odd top ranking engineering institutions are affiliated to the State Technical Universities. Anna University has the highest number of 10 affiliated institutions in the top 100 list. Visvesvaraya Technological University Belgaum has got 4 institutions. Biju Patnaik University of Technology Rourkela, the State Technical University of the state of Odisha has 3 institutions. West Bengal University of Technology has got 2 institutions and Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University has got 1 institution in the top 100 rank.

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Interview

CREATING TECHNOLOGY

to ease Education BenQ is a leader in almost all the categories of projectors and monitors world over. In an interview with Elets News Network (ENN),

Rajeev Singh,

Managing Director, BenQ India speaks about BenQ’s unique proposition, philosophy, smart education solutions, new products, future plans and more With several players offering classroom technologies, what is different about BenQ India? BenQ is No. 1 DLP Projector brand worldwide. DLP is preferred over LCD projection technology with well-established benefits like outstanding readability, precise colour reproduction and unbeatable digital video performance. DLP technology is also most suited for dusty and high ambient temperature scenario which is typical of most of the Indian classrooms. BenQ understood this first and came out with products which are specifically meant for Indian market. We were the first to bring short-throw projectors, projectors that could turn any surface interactive and extra bright projectors for brighter ambient light conditions. This has lead us to become No. 1 projector brand in Indian market continuously for the last three years. We had 22.3 per cent market share in 2015, according to Futursource yearly report. BenQ has a dominant market share in private schools, with over 65 per cent of the market share, which means out of every 3 classrooms 2 have BenQ’s projector. BenQ has total classroom solution which no other competitor has. We have ultra short-throw, short-throw, pen interactive and gesture interactive projectors. We offer large interactive display panels from 65”-85”, a full range of monitors for regular and specialised usage like CAD/CAM etc. We also provide document scanner, touch pen, WiFi solution to make BenQ a comprehensive educational solution provider. Our high quality products with least failure rate in industry and most extensive service support gives us unique distinguishing capabilities from rest of the players. What is the unique philosophy of “Because it matters” all about? In 2013, we introduced our new “Because it matters” slogan, which reflects our broader business scope and communicates the core idea that drives our organisation today. Adapting to changes in the marketplace, we expanded the scope of our products and services, entering several new segments, including education, healthcare, business products, and integrated solutions. Today, BenQ is involved in the areas of LIFE that matter most to people. We remain committed to applying advances in technology to create products and services that

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improve the quality of people’s lives. We know that these things matter to people. And because they matter to people, they matter to us. How your smart display education solutions are beneficial for learners as well as educators? We have complete dedicated educational display solutions which cater to this sector. Advanced technologies like ‘shortthrow technology’ allows presenters to stand in front of the projection while teaching or speaking, hence the teacher is not lost in the background and can be expressive while teaching. We have PointDraw™ and QDraw™— an interactive whiteboard solution that allows any surface/whiteboard to be converted into an interactive surface and to have multiple students to contribute at the same time. SmartEco™ Technology delivers optimum colour and contrast while reducing energy costs by almost 60 per cent and extending light-source life to up to 10,000 lamp hours. BenQ projection solutions offer interactive learning tools that enhance the learning experience, and are not only simple for teachers to use, but also future-proof, making them easier for schools to maintain over a period of time. Our solutions offer the ultimate ease of collaboration which has been identified internationally and has also been

BenQ has total classroom solution which no other competitor has. We have ultra shortthrow, short-throw, pen interactive and gesture interactive projectors. We offer large interactive display panels from 65”-85”, a full range of monitors for regular and specialised usage like CAD/CAM

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

suggested as a part of the US curriculum for the students of computers and information technology. Teachers and tutors are thrilled to use the technology to reach out to their students and make classroom more collaborative and help their students learn fast and retain more. Our products and technology has been evaluated by various teaching communities and they have found these useful in all types of scenarios. According to you, what are the most innovative and adaptive emerging technologies in education space that can transform the teaching/learning experience in the coming years? BenQ offers the most comprehensive projection solutions for educational purposes, covering everything from small & medium to large learning environments. In coming quarter, BenQ is launching a range of new interactive projectors - MW883UST/MX882UST & DX832UST, which comes with many first in India with regards to features. These projectors are mirror-less Extreme Ultra Short-Throw projectors and are based on DLP technology, which is filter-less by design but also comes with an extra filter, specifically developed for countries like India where dust is a major concern. These projectors come with interactive suite where a camera can be inserted in the projector and setup can be done with auto calibration technique to turn any surface into an ultrafast 16ms response time interactive surface in minutes. These projectors support Windows Gesture Support just like smartphone, to zoom in & out or scroll just with intuitive gestures. For bigger classroom, two projectors can be used side-by-side to create Extra Wide Dual screen without any additional cost or software. It also has complete WiFibased connectivity capability with smart devices for a smart classroom without any extra cost. BenQ has launched the widest and most advanced range of Interactive Flat Panels, these new large displays range from 65” to 84”. These new displays are essential to safeguard students’ eye all day long with Anti-Glare Display, and Eye Care technology like Low Blue Light and Flicker Free screen. The schools can today have the best viewing quality with 4K Ultra HD resolution which comes with 55 ppi (pixels per inch). A 79” BenQ display with 4K ultra HD resolution gives three times the pixel density over today’s mainstream interactive whiteboards. You

Our solutions offer the ultimate ease of collaboration which has been identified internationally and has also been suggested as a part of the US curriculum for the students of computers and information technology can also put together two BenQ interactive flat panels and connect them through a single PC to create a super-sized display that is sure to get every student’s attention. These panels also come with teacher mode for dual screen flexibility and student mode for dual screen collaboration. It also has lot of teacher-friendly features and front bezel design like two multitouch ports, protective cover, multimedia I/O interface, hotkeys, wireless content streaming and 10-point multi-touch interactivity. Please share the vision of your company for the next five years? Are you planning any new products in education space? At BenQ, we believe that design and technology function best when they serve the real needs of people. Our peopledriven design and technology has led to over 300 award-winning products and thousands of innovations. BenQ is a leader in almost all the categories of projectors and monitors world over and in India. It will be our endeavour to keep the leadership position through technological advancements and products that impacts the real needs to improve the quality of LIFE. In addition to projectors, we are already a leading brand in professional and gaming monitors. We will continue to strengthen our leadership position in these segments. We have just launched an industry leading range of Interactive Flat Panels and Digital Signage products and solutions. Going forward, we would strive to achieve market leadership in these segments as well.n

Interview

Championing Transnational Business Education

the S P Jain way !!!

Globalization is all about cultural contextualization. Creating incisive and impact creating managers thereby need to sensitize the students with a multi-cultural work environment. S P Jain School of Global Management is attempting something interesting in this regard. In an email interaction with Elets News Network (ENN),

Nitish Jain, President

S P Jain School of Global Management elaborates upon the drive, design and a whole lot of other areas expanding the frontiers of management education

What is the central drive behind the MultiCampus Management Education Model being spearheaded by S P Jain? In an increasingly globalizing world, where geography is no longer a deterrent and migration is part of our everyday biography, the ability to work seamlessly in a multi-cultural environment has to become part of our DNA. The tri-city model, the first in the world has achieved this precisely. Students spend the first year of study in Singapore (or Mumbai) and then proceed to Dubai for the second year and finally, to Sydney for the remaining two years. It is an extraordinary experience and goes way beyond book-knowledge. They end up having friends from different parts of the world. Presently, our Singapore campus has students from over 30 different countries. The way we see the world depends entirely on how we have been ‘taught’ to see the world. It is critical that the youngsters are comfortable in a multicultural space. Our multi-campus model delivers this, which is why our students end up with

global placements. I see it as our USP. What’s more important is that our students love it. It is only when you live for an extended period in a city and have peers from different countries that you are able to expand your horizons and ways of seeing. Has there been a deliberate design behind having set-ups in Australia, Singapore, Mumbai and Dubai for championing the multi-campus model? Yes and no! There is strong justification in having campuses in Dubai, Singapore, Sydney and Mumbai. The Asia Pacific region is seen as the next economic growth driver. International corporates recognize this and are present in each of these cities. As a business school, we are naturally focused on adding value to businesses through our future-ready graduates. At the same time, the School is also looking at other regions and areas of high growth and innovation, which is why the School is likely to enter the US market. You need to be where you can add value and make a difference. Contributing to productivity and decision making is our primary focus. Despite having roots in India, the group is domiciled in the sovereign territories of Australia. Being stuck in one country in our view is out of date. The model of S P Jain Global is to create global business leaders in an

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ever increasing global world where political boundaries have given way to connections. Our model require all our students to study in 3 out of 4 campuses – Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney. In each country, they learn the unique aspects of doing business there and thereby they become global citizens. Being proud of our roots, we have an Indian name but we believe that we must not get bounded by that. Much like the explorers of the 17th and 18th centuries we too must create a pool of talent ready to explore the world and find opportunities in world markets. We have currently 700 alums working in Singapore. Twice that in Dubai. Over a 100 each in UK, USA, Australia, Malaysia and other countries. In an era when Sovereign Nation States are organizing & furthering their causes on the lines of Corporate Management, does S P Jain provide a succor in terms of training & research to its graduates to take on positions in Government Establishments as well? Many of the management principles – whether it is leadership or team-work or negotiations or decision making – are aspects we encounter on daily basis. However, styles of functioning in the bureaucracy are naturally different from the corporate world. Family managed businesses, for instance, are very different from other businesses. Leadership styles also vary hugely. What we achieve through our business education model is to teach our students to think globally and to learn the art of smart decision making. Of course, many of our students would add value to government establishments, at the same time many would add value to corporate enterprises as well. Several civil servants have an MBA degree these days. If one or more of our students joins the civil service, we are confident they would do well. Where they work is not our focus, what they bring to their work space is our responsibility. At a time when India is aspiring to be a global behemoth by leveraging its demographic dividend riding on a number of national initiatives, where do you see the unfurling of the local management education steeped deeply into the Indian grass root realities? The future is rapidly changing and transforming lives. Technology is the game

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

The tri-city model, the first in the world has achieved this precisely. Students spend the first year of study in Singapore (or Mumbai) and then proceed to Dubai for the second year and finally, to Sydney for the remaining two years changer. You simply cannot have a 19th century mind-set while dialoguing with students who are steeped in the 21st century. Sadly, most educators in India and several other countries continue to see technology as a threat. They know that the smartphone ‘knows’ more than them. It is time to embrace the future. In fact, education as we know it now, is already irrelevant. Please remember that education fails unless we engage the students

and the only way to do so is to speak in a vocabulary the students understand. That vocabulary is called ICT. Tomorrow there will be something else. We need to keep up our learning process. What shall be S P Jain’s wishlist to the Indian Policy Envisioners as far as the arena of Private Higher Education is concerned? The demographic dividend can become a demographic drawback unless education and skilling are factored into governmental policy. Gone are the days when governments were expected to deliver on everything. This is a collective responsibility. Furthermore, if India is to emerge as a hub in the services and manufacturing sector, we need to meet international standards. For this, we have to open up to world-class education, so that our students are among the best of the best. Over time our own capabilities will grow. Our School has already demonstrated that it can be done. We are internationally ranked and in the company of Ivy League schools. Once we are clear on what we need to achieve, how we would get there falls into place. At the same time, proper regulations need to be put in place to ensure that fly-by-night operators do not distort the important education space.n

Corporate Speak

CREATING VALUE through Technology

Through innovation and technology, Konica Minolta is creating value for its customers by offering several solutions, speciďŹ cally for the education sector. In an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN),

Yuji Nakata, MD and V Balakrishnan, EGM of

Konica Minolta India, share about Konica Minoltaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey, philosophy, products & solutions for education sector and much more Yuji Nakata, MD, Konica Minolta India

V Balakrishnan, EGM, Konica Minolta India

With several players offering education technologies, what is different about Konica Minolta? VB: As far as the offerings in the education space is concerned, we are today the only one who offer a basket of solutions - from processes to document management. These include the ERP software to the institutions, MFPs and document solutions as well as OMR for conducting the examinations. And all these are integrated into the ERP. Konica Minolta is unique because it is the only brand which caters to more than just an ERP solution. However, this basket of solutions will increase as we go on in this year. In ERP, if a school has to accept the online payment, we offer the facility to accept online payments. For this, they only need a payment gateway, which is automatically integrated into ERP. How your education ERP solution is beneficial for learners as well as educators? VB: There are multiple stakeholders in the institutions: owners/administrators of the school, teachers, students and the parents. If a person who runs the school would like to know, how the results are being deployed, how many students are enrolled, whether the fees has been paid on time, transport buses are running on time or not, we have very configurable ERP process. As it is a cloud-based solution, it is easily configurable for each school according to the way they have designed their fee or transport structure. We can also offer the customisable solution if an institution wants to do onsite implementation. Even we can customise a few processes as per the requirements. Typically, a cloud based solution is already well-structured, based on the best practices available as of that day. There is no need to in-

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vest on the infrastructure. We help you to do the setup and once the setup is done, you just start using it. On part of teachers, they can use the platform to deploy the content or material for the students. Teacher can also communicate to the students and their parents, if they want. Through ERP, students can know about the time table, marksheets, progress report, etc. It also has the ability to have online exam system, which helps in getting the results quickly. In the Educo ERP, every stakeholder has something or the other. Most importantly, they can access it across platforms such as tablets, phones, laptops, mobiles, etc. What is the target market segment for your ERP solutions? YN: Our target is pan India. We are making strategies to penetrate the market. Firstly, our priority is metro cities and surrounding areas. After that, we will expand to the larger geography of India, that is, Tier II & III cities of India. VB: In Tier II & III cities, the challenge is that the schools don’t have the ability to invest in infrastructure. However, more than investment in infrastructure, the main thing is the maintenance of that infrastructure. Therefore, cloud-based solutions are ideally suited for Tier II & III cities. All they need is a good internet connectivity. Please share the primary features of Educo ERP. VB: Our Educo ERP has the following

We are making strategies to penetrate the market. Firstly, our priority is metro cities and surrounding areas. After that, we will expand to the larger geography of India, that is, Tier II & III cities of India

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

salient features that makes it different: F Usability and user experience: The structure is simple, therefore very easy to use. F Cloud-based solution: No infrastructure investment is required. F Captured almost all the functionalities of a school: From student life cycle management to asset management and human resource management. F Expandable: Whether the number of students are less or more, it expands automatically. What would be the estimated cost of implementing the Educo ERP? VB: The cost starts from Rs 100,000 and above, to almost Rs 200,000, depending on the functionalities and elements you buy. Konica Minolta is basically into development, manufacturing and sale of multi-functional peripherals. How is the journey from hardware and technology to software? YN: Our core business of hardware and technological solutions remains unchanged. We want to mix the solutions and hardware in order to help the customers’ programming issues. Therefore, we have transformed ourselves into a customer-centric company. And this Educo ERP is the answer to the transformation. We studied the education market and then bring out this product. In future, our Educo ERP will be integrated into our hardware printing machines. How your peripherals are empowering the education sector? YN: We have an optimised printer service for schools. We have technology and know-how to minimise and optimise the printing cost. We support our customers in schools to manage the printing cost and also the security of confidential information. Do you have products that are specifically designed for education sector? YN: As such we don’t have specifically designed products for education sector but we have printing machines for all verticals. However, we can provide tailormade solutions to educational institutions. VB: For optimised printing solutions, we have a separate package that is tailor-made for education sector. We have a special software solution that is created

As it is a cloudbased solution, it is easily configurable for each school according to the way they have designed their fee or transport structure. We can also offer the customisable solution if an institution wants to do onsite implementation

for education sector only. What is the unique philosophy of “The Creation of New Value” all about? YN: We have transformed ourselves to a customer-centric company. We have produced value by ourselves to cater to the customers by knowing their requirements. Through innovation and technology, which only Konica Minolta can provide, we create value and share it with society for the betterment of people’s lives today and for the generations to come. According to you, can technology in education space diminish the experience of classroom teaching in the coming years? VB: The education is here from a long time. The more technology develop, more the adaption of technology happen to deliver content delivery and also the consumption of the content. Whether it will totally remove classroom teaching, is still a question. I don’t think that the human contact can be avoided in teaching and learning process such as team learning, social participation, etc. Classrooms will remain in some form or the other. Technology is only a supportive tool for teachers and can enable learning. It can enhance the ability to deliver content for learning. I don’t think technology will ever replace the human touch in teaching. n VB = V Balakrishnan, YN = Yuji Nakata

Insights

What lies beneath some of the leading in

Engineering Education?

The release of the first edition of NIRF ranking under the aegis of MHRD has accentuated the saga of differentiating Engineering Education in India even further. Ranking has had been a vital ingredient in constituting an institutional brand. But what after the Top 100 Institutions which the NIRF has catered to?

Considering the existence of this vital gap in signalling the core key differentiator of an Engineering Institution, digitalLEARNING initiated a conversation with the entire milieu of institutions duly governed by one or the other regulatory authorities with the belief that every institution is unique in itself and has some key propositions to offer in the ever expanding engineering education market. Here are some of the interesting learnings as to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;What lies beneath some of the leading brands in Engineering Educationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. We hope that this sharing of ideas would help the entire Engineering Education fraternity.

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Guided by the philosophy that new thinking in the areas of teaching, learning, research and training are pivotal to making students, the future leaders

pRoF (DR) DEEpENDRA kuMAR jHA Pro VC, GD Goenka University, Gurgaon

w School of Engineering has been ranked the 3rd Top Emerging Private Institute in India by Times Engineering 2015 w Engineering labs equipped with world class infrastructure w Students provided with an opportunity to work on the latest and most modern instruments w More focus on the practical and interdisciplinary aspects of engineering education, without diluting the theoretical component w Students introduced to the concept of projects from the very first semester with heartening results w Projects developed by students have won appreciation from top universities from India as well as internationally w In the short span of 3 years, two conferences with an international participation has been held

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

AuToNoMy, AuTHoRITy & ACCouNTABILITy DEFINEs MANIpAL

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NovEL IDEAs DEvELopING sTuDENTs To FuTuRE LEADERs @ GD GoENkA

Autonomy, authority and accountability of the team are the most essential ingredients for any educational institute to ďŹ&#x201A;ourish

pRoF sANDEEp sANCHETI

President, Manipal University- Jaipur

w Zeal to excel and self-belief makes Manipal Group to enjoy the status of one of the most trusted educational brand w Several key aspects are needed in brand building of academic institution of higher learning w Passion and concern for society and ability to work with clear objectives is the foremost key aspect for brand building w Other aspects include proper planning, decision making, timely execution, cohesive working and fiscal efficiency w Additional degree of freedom required for any progressive academic institution, as compared to its industry counterparts w Autonomy, authority and accountability within Manipal Group enables: - Diversity and agility in academic programmes - Ease of hiring faculties - Student centric - Readiness to experiment in terms of emulating best and innovative practices for brand building

Insights

INNovATIoN LEADs THE WAy @ CHITkARA

Innovation is the true spirit behind our brand of Engineering Education

DR MADHu CHITkARA VC, Chitkara University, Chandigarh

w Chitkara University Research and Innovation Network (CURIN) facilitates an innovative culture w Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) help students to take wide variety of courses w Interdisciplinary, applied and outcome based Centres of research in 5 branches of Engineering w University Patent office helps the University innovators be free from legal hassles as well as supports by bearing full patent filing fee w Filed more than 50 patents in last 2 years w Certification courses in collaboration with the industry w Research Induced Fellowship Program for Master of Engineering facilitates engineering educators to learn research-induced teaching. w Train students to become entrepreneurs through the Centre of Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education (CEEE) w Doctoral program in Engineering finds many research scholars being jointly supervised by leading researchers across the world.

wwwwwwww LEADERsHIp DEvELopMENT @ sANGAM w At Sangam, focus is not only on intellectual and cultural values but also on ethical values w Curriculum, not only strong fundamentally and rich analytically, but also focussing on broad based multidisciplinary approach and co-operative work w Enables students to function more effectively, prepare them for adapting to constantly changing circumstances, as well as find innovative ways to encounter and solve unexpected problems w Goal oriented and time bound research being an effective driver of scientific discovery w Words like Dream, Perform and Achieve representing much more than slogans w Successfully brings out the unique transformational experience of students w Road Forward: Strengthening the academic core, deepening the residential experience, enhancing diversity and building bridges with industry and society.

Our aim is to develop leaders, who know the way, go the way and show the way from diverse disciplines in various walks of life

pRoF BR NATARAjAN

President & VC, Sangam University, Rajasthan

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With its vision to provide international exposure to its students, the University has signed MoU with reputed universities in U.S., Europe and Asia PaciďŹ c.

DR. RosHAN LAL RAINA VC, JK Lakshmipat University Jaipur

w Top quality faculty members from IIT, IIM and other national and International institutions w Strong support of JK Organisation w Structured, real life based and industry oriented curriculum with latest inputs from industries and researches w Collaboration with reputed Universities of abroad w Renowned and internationally acknowledged leadership w Well defined internship programmes, named as Practice School for manifestation of theory in practical w International exposure for students w Collaboration with Microsoft IT Academy, Cisco Networking Academy, Bentley Network Community, Indian Society of Geomatics, Solar Energy System of India, etc w Placements in organizations such as HP, Amazon, Bosch, GE, Aon Hewitt, Yodlee, Airtel, JK Lakshmi Cement, JK Tyre, Airtel, Innoeye, etc.

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

GRoWTH, DIGNITy, REspECT AND CoNsTRuCTIvE DEvELopMENT @ ICFAI

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INTERNATIoNAL EXposuRE-THE BuZZ @ jk LAksHMIpAT

At ICFAI we are dedicated to an environment of growth, dignity, respect and constructive development through knowledge

RAMEsH kuMAR LALWANI VC, ICFAI University Dehradun

w Inclusive technology - aided pedagogies to equip students with the requisite professional and life skills w Creating an intellectually stimulating environment for research w Keeping pace with the changing needs and expectations of the society w Successfully performing multiple roles of creating new knowledge, acquiring new capabilities and producing an intelligent human resource pool w Promotion of economic growth, cultural development, social cohesion, equity and justice w Enhanced with value added features to provide a holistic and comprehensive education.

Insights

ToWARDs pRACTICE BAsED ENGINEERING EDuCATIoN @ CAREER poINT

CoL (DR) MITHILEsH DIXIT

President, Career Point University, Kota-Rajasthan

w Authenticating engineering education by conceiving, designing, implementing and operating products, processes and systems w Assessing stakeholder (industry) inputs to identify learning needs of the students w Treating students as technically sound, socially responsible, with a mind to innovate w Leadership team to design and promote the curricular change with a vision w Curriculum designed around mutually supporting inter-disciplinary courses with application based and industry oriented activities w Collaborative education with better links between universities and industry help improve quality and foster innovation w Tie-ups with other quality educational institutions and universities in India and abroad w Enhancing employability of engineering graduates and encouraging technology and skills transfer into industry

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The need of the hour is to transform engineering education from a science based model to practice based curriculum

CREATING AN ECosysTEM oF INNovATIoN @ AMITy GuRGAoN

At Amity, focus is on nurturing culture of innovation to empower our graduates and scholars with the ‘Wings of Knowledge and Power of Innovation’

pRoF. (DR.) p B sHARMA VC, Amity University, Gurgaon

w Engaging students in hands-on-experience beyond class-room w Designed and developed a next generation autonomous aircraft, powered by gyroscopically mounted twin copters w Developed a 3D printer and manufactured a bionic arm using the 3D printing technology w Created a solar hybrid car, a bio-hydrogen reactor and a robotic-industrial arm w Curriculum designed to provide ﬂexibility, nurture interdisciplinary environment of learning w Flexible curriculum offering 32 tracks for ﬂexible choices w One foreign language, besides English to be undertaken by students

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ENTREpRENEuRsHIp THE FoCAL poINT @ uEM jAIpuR w Access to research in cutting edge technology for students w Industry relevant curriculum to explore beyond the boundaries of a prescribed academic syllabus for enriching knowledge w Qualified and experienced faculties for emphasizing state-of-the-art scientific and engineering methods w Enabling a teaching-learning environment where students remain inquisitive, serious, ethical, and creative problem solvers w Project based learning to develop students for corporate jobs w Practical exposure for students by using modern equipped laboratories w Experiments conducted as well as recorded to analyze and interpret data in scientific and engineering aspects w Stressing on research and innovation by students w Focussing on developing soft skills along with domain skills w Quality placements for the students.

Today, being the time for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Entrepreneursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, there is a thrust on developing Entrepreneurship by the institutes

D.N. RAo

CEO, University of Engineering and Management- Jaipur

wwwwwwww ICFAI jAIpuR pRospERING WITH sTuDENT CENTRIC pEDAGoGy

Our pedagogy is student-centric. We deliver quality education, churning out young engineers to face the complex global challenges of the competitive world

DR p B L C CHAuRAsIA

President, ICFAI University- Jaipur

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

w Faculty selection process carried out by an expert panel to ensure high quality education standards w Internship Programs to ensure that linkages are developed and sustained with industrial and other organizations outside the world of academia. Benefitting in the following ways: w For Students: Opportunity to work on real-life problems, developing useful work-related skills, opportunity to earn while learning. w For external organization: Value addition in project work, direct access to expertise available with Institute, access to students who work as temporary employees of the organization w For Institute: Hands-on training facilities to students, faculty development, curriculum updation through feedback from industry w As placement efforts, placement teams visit potential employers and consultants and apprise them of the level of knowledge and practical application skills acquired by the graduates in their respective areas of specialization.

Insights

EMpoWERING WoMEN & uNDERpRIvILEGED vIA EDuCATIoN @ DR kN MoDI uNIvERsITy w Grounded under the guidance of highly qualified and experienced faculty w Rooted in the depth of passion to galvanize the existing methodologies and emerging pedagogy w Adopting greater ﬂexibility with cutting-edge knowledge, change in focus on what to deliver and how to synchronize with rapidly changing situation w Fostering quality leadership through better emotional quotient and providing quality with value based teaching with stress on ethics and better governance w Greater emphasis on design oriented teaching, problem solving approach and exposure to industrial and manufacturing processes w Disseminating relevant career information to students and promoting Technical Educational Research w Monitoring other workforce development initiatives.

Making efforts for the promotion of women education and empowerment, as well as we believe in supporting the underprivileged through the medium of education

pRoF. (DR.) DEvENDRA pATHAk,

VC, Dr. K N Modi University- Newai (Rajasthan)

wwwwwwww opEN souRCE TECHNoLoGy RuLEs digitalLEARNING @ ApEEjAy sTyA w Student Centric Teaching-Learning processes duly aligned to Digital-Ecosystems w Faculty upload their course structures, lecture Notes, evaluation scheme and assignments in digital form on “Moodle” and conduct on-line Quiz tests w It allows faculty to blend their teaching material with knowledge gained from e- Books, White Papers, on-line research publication, e- Journals and IEEE Transitions /proceedings w Faculty are encouraged to take advantage of MOOCs like Coursera, edX of MIT, NPTEL of IIT to enrich themselves for knowledge sharing w Collaborative research, innovative designs and optimal usage of Virtual Instrumentation lab environment also remain a key focus area.

Use of ICT and Open Source Technology has been maximised at Apeejay Stya University

DR sk sALWAN

VC, Apeejay Stya University, Gurgaon

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

Boost your Brand with Engineering Ranking Survey 2016

unravelling Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most trusted brands in Engineering Education

Career Advancement

Enrichment of Learning Experience

Future Ready Academic Infrastructure

Academic Ecosystem & outcomes

Goodwill Legacy & Reputation

17 Deemed & 4 private universities offering Engineering Degrees have made it to the

INDIA RANkING 2016, a survey based on NIRF!

WHAT ABouT THE REsT?

participate in digitalLEARNING Engineering Ranking survey 2016!!! Help us unravel the

Best Brands in Engineering in private & Deemed university space To participate in the survey, you just need to fill in the survey form at: digitallearning.eletsonline.com/ranking/

Interview

Synthesising Knowledge through

BIG HISTORY

Macquarie University pioneered the Big History project to support the teachers and students in acquiring critical skills and to meet the challenges of today. In an interview with Elets News Network (ENN),

Professor Andrew McKenna,

Director, Big History Institute at Macquarie University, Australia, shares about the initiative, its benefits for students & teachers, expansion plans in India and much more Please share the concept and vision behind Big History initiative. Macquarie University is the birthplace of Big History. Professor David Christian coined the term ‘Big History’ and taught the first Big History course at Macquarie University in 1989. Big History is the attempt to understand, in a unified and interdisciplinary way, the history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life and Humanity. Big History is a universal history for the modern era, a science-based origin story for humanity that links human history to the history of the earth and the universe. It synthesises knowledge across the two main cultures, and many disciplines of the sciences and humanities providing a framework to think in fundamentally new ways. In a time of increasing innovation and change, Big History provides perspective on our current and future trajectory. What was the focus of your recent visit to India? The recent visit to India was focused on informing Indian teachers and schools about two separate initiatives, pioneered by Macquarie University to provide Indian students with the opportunity to experience the benefits of engaging with Big History. These initiatives are:

w International Student Scholarship: Macquarie University has announced the Big History International Student Undergraduate Scholarship, which is available to all international students who apply for any undergraduate course at Macquarie University and have verified completion of the Big History: Connecting Knowledge MOOC available through the COURSERA® platform. The scholarships, depending on the programme of study, will cover all tuition fees up to AUD 50,000 per year for an undergraduate degree of 3-4 years duration. This represents a value of `2.5 million (`25 lakhs) per year, potentially over 4 years, for a total value of `10 million (`1 crore). The first ever Big History International Student Scholarship will be awarded in mid-2016. Indian students who enrol in the MOOC and finish the six-week course will be eligible for selection. w Project Indian Pilot Schools Programme: In 2012, Macquarie University partnered with Bill Gates private company bgC3 to develop an online school-based course in Big History for high school students. Based on the work of Professor David Christian, this collaboration produced the Big History Project website https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive. Five schools in Mumbai have been piloting the Big History

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Project website materials in their classrooms (mostly in Grade VIII), in the 2015-16 school year. Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback from these schools, Macquarie University is now working to expand the Big History Project Indian Schools Programme across Mumbai. What is unique about Big History Project? How is it beneficial for students as well as educators? The unique thing about Big History Project website is the specific skills set it provides students to successfully meet the challenges of today. The website provides a wealth of resources that support teachers and students in acquiring these skills. The website is designed to develop student’s critical thinking, critical literacy and problem solving skills, enabling them to be innovative global citizens. It provides teachers and students access to resources anytime, anywhere for use in the classroom, including detailed instructional guides, lesson plans, studentbased activities and supporting resources for teachers. What methodology do you follow to make the students future-ready as well as industry-ready, through the project? Students today live in a world of increasing innovation and change. To be industry-ready and equipped for future, students are required to be innovative, problem-solvers and flexible thinkers. Big History gives students a framework to think and solve problems in fundamentally new ways. This is hugely relevant to the many challenges faced by CEOs, scientific researchers, politicians, and entrepreneurs. Real-world problems are complex, complicated and connected. Big History provides students with multi-domain knowledge, crossdisciplinary critical thinking, and innovative synthesis and problem solving skills required to meet the complex challenges of today’s world. What are your expansion plans and the steps you are taking to promote Big History in India? Macquarie University is committed to bringing Big History to every student, school and country. As India is a global hub for innovation, empowering Indian students with the knowledge and skills that come from studying Big History is

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Real-world problems are complex, complicated and connected. Big History provides students with multidomain knowledge, cross-disciplinary critical thinking, and innovative synthesis and problem solving skills required to meet the complex challenges of today’s world

one of our key priorities. At the ‘in-school’ grade VIII level, Macquarie University is running a pilot programme with Indian teachers and schools in implementing Big History Project website materials. The pilot

programme will be expanding from an initial group of five pioneering Indian schools in 2015-16 to a group of 30 Indian schools in 2016-17. Feedback from our work with this core group of Indian schools will ensure the optimisation of Big History Project website and course materials for Indian students and teachers to facilitate implementation in classrooms across India. A key factor in this process will be ensuring the Big History Project website and resources align with the different curriculums implemented in schools across India. Finally, what are your achievements of the project and what priorities you set for the future? The Big History Project website is currently used in over 3000 classrooms across the world. Macquarie University is committed to bringing Big History to students across India as a global priority. Empowering innovative minds of the future, many of whom will come from India, is our main objective. Ensuring that the talented minds that come from India are equipped with Big History skills to innovatively approach complex problems will make a profound contribution to meeting the challenges of the 21st century for humanity as a whole.n

Interview

Spearheading Financial Literacy the

ELEARNMARKET.COM WAY !!! Aiming to take online financial education to newer heights, Elearnmarkets.com, a young and vibrant company has been established just an year ago in the City of Joy. In an interview with Abha Garyali of Elets News Network (ENN),

Vineet Patawari,

CEO, Elearnmarkets.com shares about his unique venture, its success and how online learning is taking over the traditional frontiers when it comes to specialized areas like Financial Education

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Elearnmarket.com (ELM) seems to be quite a unique business venture. What motivated you to come up with an online portal, especially dedicated to financial aspects? Well, our experience and expertise in the field of financial markets, learning management systems, visualization of learning tools and most importantly our passion for spreading financial literacy makes us the perfect team to take this product to the global scale. E-Learn markets signifies learn markets (financial) online. This was our thought at the time we started. However, post that, it pivoted to financial literacy theme. ELM has been recently launched in 2015. How is the overall response of the portal that you have received? The overall response of the portal has been tremendous! Elearnmarkets was launched just over a year ago, and today it has helped more than 20,000 registered users and 900+ premium users to learn from the 80+ courses that it offers in English, Hindi and other vernacular

In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world technology is more engaging as compared to a typical classroom teacher. In this program, the students can use the convenient environment of the virtual world to learn without being confined within the bounds of classrooms. The biggest advantage of the program is that, they are open 24x7, hence making education available anytime and anywhere

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

languages. It provides the learners with the option to choose from multiple learning formats like Live-Interactive Program and Instructor-Led Recorded Programs which are constantly being enhanced through, regular webinars and various online financial tools including learning games. What are your views about LiveInteractive Program and InstructorLed Recorded Programs offered by ELM, being at par or better than the classroom teaching? Live-Interactive Program and InstructorLed Recorded Program are way more effective than classroom teaching for various reasons. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world technology is more engaging as compared to a typical classroom teacher. In this program, the students can use the convenient environment of the virtual world to learn without being confined within the bounds of classrooms. The biggest advantage of the program is that, they are open 24x7, hence making education available anytime and anywhere. Further, the students can study at their own pace because the course materials are available online. ELM has recently started an online Joint Certification Program on capital Markets, along with National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India. What do you foresee from this venture? We initially started with one course and then NSE gave us a mandate of 10. So as of now, we have 10 NSE certified courses on Elearnmarkets.com. Apart from this, we have recently signed an MoU with MCX for introducing courses on the commodity markets in the near future. Location is an important factor for the success of any venture. What are your views about Kolkata as the hub of your biz venture? We have been fortunate to spot the right kind of people in Kolkata and we have an amazing team today. Moreover since we are an online educational platform, the opportunities have never been limited. According to Arun Mitra, the current Finance, Commerce & Industries Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal, the state has attracted over Rs 83,000 crore of investments, including from leading corporate, during the last four

In 5 years - we want to become the Brand Ambassador of Financial Literacy and want to launch courses in other finance domains like Banking, Insurance, KPO, etc. We will also explore e-Learning opportunities in domains other than finance & financial markets and half years and we can hope for better business prospects in the near future. ELM is considered as the Creator and Curator of Financial Market Courses. How far is this justified by your brand? We provide a platform for finance experts to host their live or recorded courses on ELM on a revenue sharing arrangement. ELM enhances the learning outcome of each course by integrating topic specific Interactive Learning Tools for practical orientation and Market Simulators & Data Analytics for presenting real market scenario. Where do you see ELM in 5 years? What can you say about the other competitors in this segment? In 5 years - we want to become the Brand Ambassador of Financial Literacy and want to launch courses in other finance domains like Banking, Insurance, KPO, etc. We will also explore e-Learning opportunities in domains other than finance & financial markets. We strongly believe in co-opetition and not competition! Hence we are ready to collaborate with different education players, regulators, exchanges, brokers, Government and so on to spread financial literacy and financial education in developing nations, starting with India.n

Interview

LEARNING THROUGH Industry Exposure

Prof (Dr) Deependra Kumar Jha

is a well-versed administrator with years of experience in research, teaching, industry and administration. He is currently working as the Pro Vice Chancellor of GD Goenka University. Dr Jha shares with Elets News Network (ENN) regarding the state of engineering education in India and how it needs to be changed and also discusses GD Goenkaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s methodology to make students future-ready and more April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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How do you see the Higher Education scenario in India (especially in engineering discipline) as compared to other countries? With 140 million students in the collegegoing age group, India’s education system is one of the largest in the world. The programmes that attract most students today are engineering, medical, management and law. Of this, engineering is the most sought after. During the last few decades, hundreds of engineering institutes have mushroomed across the country. But many of them do not evoke confidence. There is one major issue. In the past, much emphasis was given to theoretical knowledge and research in engineering institutes. There was not much emphasis on practical training. Today, one can see a subtle change. Some new age institutes have started focusing more on the practical and interdisciplinary aspects of engineering education, without diluting the theoretical component. At GD Goenka University, students are introduced to the concept of projects from the very first semester and the results have been heartening. The projects developed by students have won appreciation from visitors from top universities from India as well as Europe, America and Asia. I believe that engineering institutes that are adopting project-based learning will produce better engineering graduates.

Our students are encouraged to attend conferences, research seminars etc, so that they imbibe new knowledge. The University has entered into partnerships with some American and European universities to give students international exposure

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How technological transformations and innovative learning tools can change the education landscape in India in the coming decade? Technology has brought about a significant transformation in teaching and learning. Online resources are used extensively by the students. In some cases, these have replaced the personal tutor. However, technology cannot replace vision; it can only help in realising it. We must realise that innovative learning tools can deliver only when the importance of learning centricity is recognised and emphasised upon. The real transformation will happen when learning outcomes are better defined and the teachers and students are provided the best tools to achieve these goals. What methodology you follow to make your students future-ready as well as industry-ready? A key part of our education is interdisciplinary and project-based learning. This helps the students acquire communication, project management, time management and leadership skills. These are the skills desired by the industry but cannot be imparted in a traditional classroom. Another thing that we stress on is learning through exposure. Our students are encouraged to attend conferences, guest lectures, research seminars etc, so that they imbibe new knowledge. The University has entered into partnerships with some American and European universities to give students international exposure. We also believe in sensitising the students towards society by arranging visits to orphanages and old-age homes. This all-round approach to teaching is helping us make our students not only future-ready and industry-ready but also life-ready. According to you, how does a ‘brand’ matters for an educational institution? Brand brings trust and it cannot be built in a day. Brand means quality, and quality has no substitute. Brand in the educational scenario means stability and viability and that’s why it matters a lot. What makes GD Goenka a ‘Trusted Brand in Engineering Education’? The GD Goenka University is guided by the philosophy that new thinking in the areas of teaching, learning, research and training are pivotal to making students the future leaders. The School of En-

Technology has brought about a significant transformation in teaching and learning. Online resources are used extensively by the students. In some cases, these have replaced the personal tutor. However, technology cannot replace vision; it can only help in realising it. We must realise that innovative learning tools can deliver only when the importance of learning centricity is recognised and emphasised upon gineering has been ranked the 3rd Top Emerging Private Institute in India by Times Engineering 2015. We have taken great care in setting up our engineering labs. They are equipped with world class infrastructure and provide the students an opportunity to work on some of the latest and most modern instruments from day one. We are not even three years old, but in this short span, we have held two conferences that had international participation; organised two national level project exhibitions; organised over 30 industrial visits and guest lectures and set up partnerships with leading industries, institutes and top foreign universities. Why do students opt for GD Goenka University as an educational destination? Some of the factors that are building student trust and faith in the GD Goenka University are its world class infrastructure, qualified and dedicated faculty, flexible credit system, industrial and global exposure, and interdisciplinary and project-based learning.n

Interview

TUNING EDUCATION to Stay Ahead IMS Noida, a 18-year-old premier institute, is known for its academic excellence in value-based education.

Dr KJS Anand,

Executive Director, IMS Noida, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN) talks about the education scenario in India, importance of teacher’s training, IMS’ methodology for making students future ready and much more How do you see the education scenario in India as compared to other countries? The present day education system in India has come a long way and the age old traditions have undergone a makeover to produce an ecosystem that is evolving every single day. However, the Indian pattern of education system still has few challenges as compared to other countries that needs to be addressed. Currently, Indian education system across the board strictly follows the culture of classroom teaching. Once considered as an ideal mode, this teaching method has lost its essence at the hands of the need for more practical exposure, to match pace with the industry. Comparatively, other countries have embarked upon the path of out-of-class teaching, where the faculty/teachers engage with students on matters beyond the classroom and encourage their participation into career shaping activities like industry debate & conclave, skill development and incubation, and real-life problem solving. In addition, the students in India are still evaluated on parameters of written examinations compared to the West where the axis of grading and marking is shifted to classroom participation, project work, communication, leadership skills and extracurricular performance. The Indian education system needs to introduce combination courses in which students can opt for a major and a minor subject or set straight into diplomas and certificate courses, in case the conventional format doesn’t fit him/her and get equal mileage in career later. What is the IMS approach of ‘Delivering Next’ all about? No amount of theory will substitute skill tuning and training. And

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this is what the industry seeks from the new age professionals. Through extensive research and industry interaction, IMS Noida has identified the hygiene as well as the High Impact (Next) skill sets for each area of specialisation to proactively sense the challenges and generate the quickest possible solutions. With a radical, cuttingedge curriculum, infrastructure, teaching methodology and industry interface, IMS is focused on creating students ready for delivering the ‘Next’. A part of our core ‘Next’ initiative, is about tuning education to stay ahead of industry needs. The IMS Course offerings have been divided into Industry Agnostic and Specific Courses. While industry-specific courses are seen more frequently as they deal with an industry domain and specialises the student in areas like BFSI, Luxury Retailing & International Business, there is a need for courses that can apply across all industries in today’s context like Data Science, Digital marketing, e-Commerce, Business Economics, Media & Communication and Entrepreneurship which are Industry Agnostic programmes and would be in high demand in the coming years. These

IMS Noida believes in innovating continuously and promoting practical knowledge over the theoretical. The Institute focuses on developing innovative skills like technologybased decision making skills, critical thinking ability, problemsolving skills, etc, among the students, to help them get better position in the industry with maximum industry exposure

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courses are highly adaptable to varied industry requirements and have longer shelf life in terms of career mileage. What methodology you follow to make your students future-ready as well as industry-ready? IMS Noida primarily focuses on training students to groom them to be both efficient and effective. With a pedigree of well-trained faculty that includes scholars and industry stalwarts, IMS Noida offers a lot more. Apart from seminars and workshops executed on different relevant and current subjects, the students are encouraged to participate on social issues through awareness camps. The institution provides practical knowledge to students through comprehensive industrial visits and successful internship programmes with reputed corporate houses in the process of skill enhancement and industry exposure. To make sure that the educational standards are at par with any top management institution, IMS Noida believes in innovating continuously and promoting practical knowledge over the theoretical. The Institute focuses on developing innovative skills like technology-based decision making skills, critical thinking ability, problem-solving skills, etc, among the students, to help them get better position in the industry with maximum industry exposure. Please share the two best practices followed at IMS to manage students in digital age. IMS Noida, fosters technology-led information exchange through its potent and functioning ERP in practice. It supports by helping IMS build, manage and extend its digital campus. It enables individuals, systems and communities to interact seamlessly across campus in an environment where efficiency, service delivery, and personalised educational experiences propel desired outcomes. Students get the services that they want, faculty facilitate teaching and learning in the classroom or online, and departmental staff have the information and support to be more effective. In addition, IMS Noida uses a crossplatform mobile messaging app (WhatsApp Messenger) which allows us to exchange messages/information across departments connecting micro to macro. Google Drive, a file storage and synchronisation service, is also widely used by students and faculties to store files

in the cloud, share and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with collaborators. Another noteworthy initiative by IMS Noida is the embodiment of various Centres of Excellence like digital learning and e-commerce, in creating Techprenuers or technology-based entrepreneurial activities, where technology is imbibed not as an afterthought but as an integral part of strategic decision making process. According to you how important is teacher training in nurturing the future leaders? The new age technology in education can provide students with individualised learning platforms and instant feedback and assessment. It also allows teachers to more easily identify and address particular student needs. However, for the technological benefits to achieve its maximum potential, it must be harnessed and implemented properly. This requires that the facilitator and teacher possesses a certain set of knowledge and skills to understand how and when various tools and study materials best support the curricula. Teaching in a professional school demands high level of intellectual quotient among their instructors and ability to remain in sync with the changing environment around them. Hence, as a part of self evolution process, IMS Noida practices frequent Faculty Development Programmes, which are aimed to chisel the existing skill sets, enhance pedagogy, execution and ramification of knowledge areas, resulting in an excellent engagement model with the students. Finally, what are your professional achievements and what priorities have you set for the future? IMS Noida has attained numerous prestigious rankings in both undergraduate and postgraduate categories in recognition to the quality education it has been imparting over the years. IMS Noida holds notable ranks by India Today, The Week, Outlook, Career 360 and Competition Success, to name a few. IMS has worked hard in terms of its methodologies in teaching and have been consistently producing university toppers and excellent placement records with reputed international placements. As a part of IMS Noida’s futuristic planning, it is extensively working on value-based Management Development Programme (MDP) and other short-term certificate courses.n

Book Review

A Gray Revolution for Transforming India’s Higher Education System Shail Kumar’s anthology on “Building Golden India”

A significant number of technocrats turned management honchos, specially those who have made it big in their professional stints have attempted to give voice to their patriotic fervor in the form of prescriptive as well as descriptive writings. Dwelling deep into their very own life journeys and experiences, drawing vividly from their techno-managerial styles, their writings have created a new category altogether. One such attempt has been from Shail Kumar who wears the badges from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Indiana University, Bloomington. Having being instrumental in building up the Pan-IIT movement in the USA as well as administering UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, Kumar in his 250 pager “Building Golden India,” builds up a case for transforming India’s Higher Education System for unleashing the country’s vast potential. Structured into 4 sections, setting the context of his conversation moving

to enumerate the challenge, which he compares with the peeling of an onion whereby the broken and disconnected system is described elaborately. The author, then attempts at Benchmarking for Learning from the Best in section 3 by citing the case study of United States, Silicon Valley’s two globally acclaimed universities - UC Berkeley & Stanford University. In the final section he prescribes his Solutions for Building a Golden India which entails his characteristic Gray Revolution. The book has been configured with inputs from over 107 eminent personalities which have been duly acknowledged as a numerated list. The rigour & repartee of the conversations contained in a book praised by 17 tech luminaries including Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Motors is a must read for all eduleaders across the deck who intend to make Higher Education as the centroid of national discourse, which in a starkly stellar manner Kumar has tried to position as the panacea for India’s redemption. How much of it gets actually adopted in

practice, would certainly depend on the pro-active activism of the author. n

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Start-up

Converting Ideas

INTO REALITY

In order make the kids convert their ideas into a working model, BiBox (Brain in a Box) came into existence.

Sandeep Senan,

Founder & Director, Evobi Automations Pvt Ltd, shares about the unique idea of BiBox, the challenges faced to make this idea a reality, its advantages, the future plans and more

Sandeep Senan, Founder & Director with Madhusudhan N, Co Founder

When and how did you start BiBox? I have been quite passionate about gadgets since childhood. That’s why, I joined engineering in my graduation. In the second year of engineering, I reconnected with my passion when a professor of mine inspired me to kindle my old passion. Initially, I took forward my passion in the form of workshops to my juniors in college and then later to young kids in schools. Kids used to get very inquisitive on how to build innovative things that pushed me to help them build what they wanted to. That’s when I started exploring how to come out with a solution where a 10-year-old should be able to convert an idea into a working model and then the idea of BiBox (Brain in a Box) originated. Then I got a chance to pitch the idea to DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research). They gave us the initial funding to make the prototype model, which we then took to DST, who seed funded us. We formally incorporated in 2012, and are headquartered in Bangalore. In 2013, Mr Madhusudhan (Co-founder), a Sales and Marketing veteran joined on board. In early 2014, we closed our first round of angel funding. BiBox started as a toolkit which kids could use and then later became a full-fledged curriculum where kids are taken through a journey to become innovators and solve any real world problem which they wanted to solve in any field. What was the most challenging part of setting

up your company? Initially, it was quite difficult to get people believe that hardware start-ups could be built in India. There were also aversions on the capability to deliver. And getting talent when you don’t have much money, was also a challenge. The next big challenge was to sell the product to schools, as we had no background and credibility to prove a new company and concept. We had to hard sell the concept to a lot of them before we saw tractions. Who do you see as your target audience? How are you reaching them? We target children in the age group of 10-15 in schools and run the programme called BiBox Innovation Lab, which is designed to prepare and condition young mind for any future challenges, instilling creative thinking, collaborative efforts, communication and developing a critical mind, through project-based and exploratory learning. This also helps them connect with what they learn inside classrooms. Do you have much competition? What is the advantage you have? BiBox partners with schools and enables them to use its programme ‘BiBox Innovation Lab’ to enhance learning of their students in an enjoyable manner. Our company believes that we have an advantage over our competitors in the way we deliver our service. We took a huge step in giving end-to-end solution to schools, not just focusing at the teaching methods/tools but also at the learning and delivery process. Our programme is for every child and brings out his/her strength. There are design, engineering, automation, communication, collaboration and real life prototyping happening in schools, which is in a way putting a holistic approach to classroom teaching. Where do you see your company in 5 years time? For BiBox Innovation Lab programme, we are planning to close in on 120 schools by year end. We are also in talks and exploring opportunities with some companies outside India. We are looking at an excess of 1 million students to be exposed to the programme in some form in the coming years. We would slowly expand our offerings digitally (online) so that kids worldwide can benefit from our programmes. We would want to contribute our bit in shaping the next set of young innovators who will then shape the future of our planet.n

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

digitallearning.eletsonline.com/events digitallearning.eletsonline.com

Jnana

Sangama NATIONAL CONVENTION ON HIGHER EDUCATION May 27 & 28, 2016, Bengaluru

2016 Chandigarh, May 2016

Mumbai, September 2016

Delhi, August 2016

Bengaluru, October 2016

Indore, December 2016

Early Childhood November 2016

Dubai, February 2017 For Partnership Queries Contact: Seema Gupta | seema@elets.in | +91-8860651643 Elets Technomedia (P) Ltd

www.eletsonline.com digitalLEARNING / April 2016

Stellar IT Park, Office No: 7A/7B, 5th Floor, Annexe Tower, C-25, Sector 62, Uttar Pradesh, India - 201309 Phone: +91-120-4812600, +91-8860651643

Product Review

Helping to unravel & unfurl your inner voice, the Careerline.com way.... What happens when a Royal Navy Engineer turns into a passionate HR professional, wearing on his sleeves a typing speed of 120 WPM having global stints with companies like British Aerospace, DHL, Coco-Cola, Kimberly Clark and Tetra Pak? Probably, it’s a WorkAmmo !!! Richard Cowley, the Founder, WorkAmmo claims it to be a tool which unravels & unfurls the inner voice, which is quite central to epic success in today’s diversified work arena. You define your goals as to where you intend to go; you document your career history; you develop your capabilities in sync with your career goals and you deliver your aspirations with best-fit jobs.

Envisioned as an integrated suite of solutions in the domain of Human Resource Development, CareerLine.com is the ﬂagship tool that is designed to enable individuals to take ownership of their career journey.

Careerline emerges out to be a personalized mentor echo-system which guides and goads you, to achieve what the deepest conﬁnes of your conscience had ever aspired for. Your inner voice gets echoed & empowered within the system which is available closer to you on android and iOS apps.

The interesting part is the process ﬂow whereby the individual is at the center of the narrative taking charge of his/her career choices.

The paradigm shift which the product makes is the absolute ownership of the career journey which has been transferred to the individual, starting as early

as the advent of the teen-age and as late as senior leadership. In an increasingly mechanical world, this ubiquitous product somewhere facilitates career decisions that are informed, objective and result-oriented across the entire careerline of an individual. CareerLine.com allows individuals to plot out their career journey - their history, present, and their future goals - all in one place, allowing them to reflect on where they have been and where they want to go. A private space for life, a place to document your career, receive help to develop your career, and finally help you deliver your career by pushing jobs to you based on your profile and preferences. Seems like a worthwhile try...Mariners are known to be sticklers for performance. ■

April 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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POWER

PACKED MAGAZINES

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON e-GOVERNANCE

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON THE ENTERPRISE OF HEALTHCARE

digitalLEARNING / April 2016

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION

A QUALITY MAGAZINE ON BANKING AND FINANCE

Jnana

Sangama NATIONAL CONVENTION ON HIGHER EDUCATION

SHRI SIDDARAMAIAH, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Govt of Karnataka

The Department of Higher Education, Govt of Karnataka in collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd is organising Jnana Sangama, a two-day conference, which is focusing on the best practices in Higher Education.

EMPLOYABILITY MOOCS, Vocational Courses; Remedial Classes; Placements Monitoring; Seminars, Workshops, Group Discussions; Cyber Security Learning; Foreign Collaborations

Y LIT y BI ult t TA Fac den UN ix; tu gia CO atr ; S -Pla ten t AC s M able Anti c At utpu nal s e T ; tri O er g; Cla m acks me mic ; Int orin ing i T b io e g it at ed ; B ad in on R Fe ism ; Ac itor s M sity r ce on rk er n a v da M M Uni

TRANSPARENCY Grievance Redressal; Afﬁliations; Answer Script Evaluation; Examination Management; Content Sharing & Standardization; Library Networking; Accreditation

SHRI TB JAYACHANDRA Hon’ble Minister for Higher Education, Govt of Karnataka

ICT INITIATIVES

EQUALITY Competitive Examinations Preparation; Scholarship Management; Online Question Paper Delivery; Collaborations; Common Research Centres

FORESIGHTEDNESS Donations & Endowments; Learning & Recording Studios; Teacher Exchange; Research Tracking; Motivational Talks; Academia Industry Interface

A On CCE S li S Te mar ne A SIB l p e t d IL Re us; -Edu Clas miss ITY Q p O c s io Co ues osito nline ation es; ns; nfe tio ry C ; re n B & ert Wifi nc an Ve ific C ing ks rifi at am ; V ca e ide tio o n;

May 27 & 28, 2016

The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru In Collaboration with Organiser

Karnataka State Higher Education Council