The Masterclass Marathon commenced with an insightful session featuring Valerie Pinto, CEO, Weber Shandwick. Speaking about ‘Public Relations in a Global Context’, she said, “Every day is a new day in PR, and it is the only profession where you have to know about everything happening in every industry, especially if you are working with an agency.”

Day 2 of the SMC Masterclass Marathon witnessed the presence of Vaishali Sharma, Head of Marketing & Communications, Sony SAB, and Hindi Movie Cluster, who shared in depth about ‘Keeping Television Relevant in the Era of Digital Content’. “Understanding consumers is all about discerning the sharpest insights that will help you create relevant content and connect with your audiences. Television as a medium will continue to have a strong presence as it unifies the family to bring them together unlike other platforms which are consumed more individually.”

The following day Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals, Prime Video spoke about ‘The Current State of Indian Streaming Content and Where We Go From Here: A Look at the State of Play of the Streaming Market and its Position in the Wider M&E Ambit’ through her professional journey. She said, “Today, the Indian streaming sector is playing a pivotal role within the M&E industry. It is democratising the opportunity for the creators, democratising the experience for the viewer, giving people choice, access to new content across languages and genres. By bringing local, authentic, diverse stories, with multi-layered storylines, and characters with full-fledged story arcs, it has steadily become home for talent, both in-front as well as behind-the-screen.” She also added, “Streaming demonstrates the limitless potential of new-age entertainment in the country.”

Day 4 began with a session by Namrata Singh, Head – Metaverse & Digital, SETVI. This exclusive masterclass shared insights on ‘Emerging Tech for the Changed Media Landscape’. While sharing about the emerging virtual avatars and where India stands in the world of virtual reality (VR), she said, “We are ahead in this space. We as a nation are not a gaming country but an engineering country, hence we could update faster, and our skill sets grew rapidly.”

The concluding session of the 2nd edition of the SMC Masterclass Marathon hosted Manisha Kapoor, CEO & Secretary General, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and VP, Executive Committee, International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS). In the concluding session, Manisha Kapoor discussed ‘How have the Advertising Standards Changed in the Past Two Decades, and Do They Need More Policing or Less?’. “There are several interpretations between the script/storyboard and the actual outcome of the ad. The nuances are very subtle but these subtle kinds of depiction in advertising enable an ad to be remembered over the years and even decades.”

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YUGMA is VANS Skilling and Advisory’s industry-academia collaboration platform. It offers specialised training to college graduates to support their career progression.  In last 13 months, YUGMA has touched lives of 15K+ students from 150+ colleges having 30+ startups, midsized and large organisations collaborating in the process.

Athena Advisors is a boutique consultancy firm promoted by Satish Mehta, a veteran of HDFC Ltd and the founding Managing Director of CIBIL, India’s first Credit Information Bureau, having more than 30 years’ experience in the banking and financial space.

Through its partnership with Athena Advisory, YUGMA will offer specialised courses that will help students understand the nuances of banking and NBFC sectors from industry veterans and be ready to pursue a fruitful career in these sectors. These specialised courses will be a practical add-on to the curriculum, which will give the students an edge in the market that is calling for ‘skilled’ and ‘ready to contribute’ talent.

“With the joint mission to empower young learners, make them learn directly from industry practitioners who ‘have been there and done that’ and bring them the opportunity that helps them to be job ready, we are glad to be partnering with VANS/ YUGMA that is helping young talent explore opportunities in the market with the backing of domain knowledge,” said Satish Mehta, Founder and Director of Athena Advisors.

Former MD and CEO of Shriram Housing Finance, Sujan Sinha, who also mentors this program observed that in the banking and NBFC space, there has been a gap in terms of skills which freshers have and what the industry wants. “The program designed by YUGMA is a well-researched, practical and industry relevant program that will help in relevant placements. This will go a long way in helping students, campuses and companies in the BFSI segment to create a robust talent ecosystem,” he noted.

Commenting on the collaboration, Meenu Bhatia, Co-founder and Director, VANS Skilling and Advisory said, “Our foray into NBFC education is steered by our vision to be a bridge between skills needed in this sector to grow and the current availability of talent who aspires to make a career in this sector.  There is a huge skill gap in this segment which is growing multifold due to various schemes provided by the government to boost financial services in general and housing in particular. The partnership aims to bridge this gap by educating students and organisations on challenges, rules, laws, regulations and technicalities of this sector.  The entire pedagogy is designed by veterans who have grown and are professionally living in this space for many decades.”

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MyLogic in association with BPO and KPO Companies has conducted a research in understanding the skill gaps existing in performing the tasks assigned on the job leading to poor quality of the results delivered by employees without any experience.

To address this issue, MyLogic has developed this Certification Program, which would be guarantee longevity and sustainability in the job.

COpA is a Certification which will make the commerce graduate confidently take up challenges in his/her career front and majorly help to bridge the gap between the Academic Curriculum & Industry requirements & readiness for Today and The Future.

Note: First Batch of COpA classes would commence from 21st April 2021 for more enrolment please do visit: COPA (mylogicvideos.com)

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Over the last four years, Leverage Edu has embarked on the journey of helping students discover the right program, destination and think through college education with an employability lens. Understanding that millions of students struggle with complex applications, VISA, grade conversions, and most importantly making a right choice for themselves, presented a huge opportunity, hence LeverageEdu was founded in early 2017 with Akshay as its first counsellor. The platform helps students match to the right higher education option, with one-touch access to 2500+ personalised mentors and leading global universities.

Outbound student mobility has increased manifolds in the past decade, with certain geographies emerging as clear winners amidst the pandemic, with their government thinking in favor of the global student and launching massive reforms. This has helped the Leverage Edu growth story, the company having served over 3000 students this season.

Leverage Edu has two main parts of its business. First, the company counsels students to select the right program, country based on their mentoring workshops, helping them apply to universities and colleges across the world via its student platform OneView, and then subsequently providing them value-added services like education loan, VISA, forex, accommodation options – making it a one-stop shop for the student.

The second part of Leverage Edu’s business is on the university side, a SaaS-enabled platform called Univalley.com, which helps Universities find best-matched talent for their diverse programs. Plus, it also enables over 500 small-&-medium Study Abroad companies across 35 cities in India, to make the applying-to-college journey easier by giving them access to Leverage Edu’s proprietary tech and access to its 250+ partner universities from world over.

Talking about the investment Rohini Prakash, CEO, Tomorrow Capital, said, “India is one of the largest global suppliers of international students and yet the biggest brands helping students in their admissions come from destination countries like the USA, Canada and Australia, who don’t understand the unique perspectives and problems that the Indian student faces. We believe it is inevitable that the next stellar brand in the global cross-border education space will be a home-grown one. We have a great belief in Akshay as a founder – he has a fantastic roadmap for scaling the business and the passion to build a truly global Indian Edtech brand – and are excited about working with the Leverage Edu team on this journey.”

With focus on solving for students of different parts of the country, from Delhi & Mumbai to Kainth, Ernakulum, Surat, Gurdaspur & Vijaywada, Leverage Edu Founder & CEO, Akshay Chaturvedi says, “In the fast emerging democratised-opportunities world, one’s destiny is not married to where they were born or where they started, but how big can they dream, and where in the world is their talent going to find most respect. It could be culinary arts in Western Europe, or sports management in Sydney, fashion and luxury in Paris, nutrition in Canada – or anything, wherever there is a perfect fit for what a student growing up is best at!”

Akshay added that, “The latest round of funding will be used to accelerate the company’s strategic expansion into newer markets, bring in more product innovation, and deepen our student-first approach with more focus on pedagogy and student-first tools”.

Alongside institutional financing, the company also saw investments come in from an angel consortium led by Karan Khemka which includes Partners of the education consulting firm LEK. Leverage Edu also counts prominent angels like Vishal Gondal of Goqii, Ash Lilani of Saama Capital, Amrish Rau of Pine Labs, Chaitanya Rathi of Sula Wines, among others on its cap table.

“Our immediate goal from here is very clear. We want to focus on a few things and do them really really well. There is also this myth around foreign education being expensive that we’ve now been busting for last four years. 18 months from now, we want to be among the top study abroad companies in India, both by number of students and a roof-hitting NPS – because a happy student is why we are all really motivated everyday to do this!”, said Chaturvedi.

In a country and market where the higher education industry has seen massive fragmentation, Leverage Edu boldly challenges narratives and notions of the old and brings to light its vision of breaking down access to opportunities, and to pursuing dreams to become what you are good at, wherever that be on the map!

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Job prospect of B-schools in 2021?

Amidst the significant disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic, though the companies are still hiring, their expectations from young graduates in terms of skill-sets have increased for obvious reasons. The year 2021 will be the year of recovery in a big way, although top packages might see a hit but the total number of placements and the average package will remain unaffected.

What are the new trends to be seen B-Schools Curriculum in 2021?

The curriculum for all B-schools will undergo transformational changes and will become more rigorous and skill-oriented in a gradual manner in 2021 with the adoption of National Education Policy. Practical knowledge and application-based learning will be the key focus for all the institutions. Blended learning is an important pedagogy for B-Schools; the same has been put forward quite well in the NEP 2020. Blended learning broadens the horizon and develops skill sets, which are essential for the students to succeed in the 21st century’s technologically advanced environment. Also, it offers flexibility to students to enroll in part-time courses so that they have more control over how they choose to structure their personal learning experience. Blended education offers online components to allow increased flexibility, while attending classes and at the same time interacting with cohorts and professors to build a business network in a similar way as in a full-time course which is the need of the hour.

Going forward we at JKBS, betting big on outcome-based approach and problem based learning in order to harness the “higher-order thinking skills” (HOTS). This will foster analytical and critical thinking abilities of students and help them make data-based decisions and inculcate cross-cultural perspectives so they can function seamlessly in a global business environment. Thus, our focus will be majorly on working on real-time projects with industry professionals to give students firsthand experience of the real-world scenarios.

In the last few years, there has been exponential growth in data generated by people and objects has far outpaced the growth in talented resources that can derive value out of it. There is an unusually high gap between the supply and demand of outstanding professionals who can understand the data and derive useful business intelligence from it. Inorder to bridge this gap, Business Analytics is undoubtedly the need of the hour.

Business Analytics will be the core pillar B-School curriculum to achieve growth and competitive advantage. This is also to ensure that upcoming generations are having a strong learning base in one of the most alluring careers in days to come.

What challenges are you facing in providing digital education?

As coronavirus upends the world, we adopted Google Meet under G-Suite as our preferred platform for the delivery of lectures to ensure that students don’t miss a single class of their ongoing trimester. Google Classroom is an excellent platform as a one-stop solution for all course-related activities including examination and evaluation. Therefore, COVID- 19 did not impact our learning pedagogy much. The students were well-acquainted with the online classroom learning during their regular classes too. We ensured that our students stay safe during these unprecedented times and their learning doesn’t stop.

The only disadvantage of online learning is the loneliness of a learner which creeps in when you’re engaging with technology and learning all by yourself. It can cause fatigue. To address that, we facilitated group discussions, joint presentations, and assignments in order to increase interaction among peers in virtual classrooms. In the future, there has to be a judicious mix. B-schools have the responsibility to prepare students for a corporate career. So, teaching students to perform tasks online and work with team members is crucial and inescapable.

Industry-education partnerships have always been an important part of JKBS, digital education has highlighted the need for such support more than ever. As it will augment the research facilities to students and groom them to deal with the challenges arising due to the technological advancements.

What is the scenario of campus placement for the next batch?

At present, companies might be reluctant to hire, but to maintain a relationship with business schools in the future, they will be taking part in the placement process and hiring students. In Spite of the challenges companies are hiring, it will definitely increase from the next batch onwards. Also, placement prospects of business schools aren’t going to be affected in terms of the numbers but in terms of the highest packages given. We are hoping that by the next placement session situations will improve and will come under control.

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What are views on business development and sales coaching market in India?

The sales training market in India has been continuously evolving over the last few years.  Large corporations have always had access to programs from global leaders like Dale Carnegie, Mercuri Goldman and Rain and the smaller firms have relied a lot on in-house talent as well. There are a lot of smaller coaching firms and stand-alone coaches who have also come up over the years and played their respective roles in training and coaching as well. At the Gaurav Bhagat Academy we realised there is a lot of scope of improvement in both the content and the delivery of sales training in particular compared to what is being done globally. Keeping this in mind we tied up with Grant Cardone Enterprises in Miami, Florida, USA.  Grant Cardone has been recognised by Forbes magazine as the world’s best sales trainer and his content has led to the acclaimed 10X movement.  At the GBA, we are curating and delivering this content for businesses in India and helping them take their sales knowledge and systems to the next level.

What is the requirement of Sales Training post Covid?

The Covid-19 pandemic may have started as a health emergency, but it has now bared its face as an economic disaster. During the lockdown period, many young businesses perished and many had to resort to inducing salary cuts. Over 12 crore Indians lost their jobs, and 25% of start-ups are in serious trouble. Consumer behaviour has changed drastically during the pandemic phase and since most businesses do not have a flexible sales strategy, they are witnessing a consistent loss of demand for their products and services. Many have even reported zero sales during Q1 of 2020. At such a time, the importance of sales training cannot be overemphasized. Once the pandemic subsides, a new normal will ensue, and to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves, businesses will need sales training.

Please express your views on employee welfare and work from home.

Like I already mentioned, working professionals were put through the gauntlet during the lockdown period and since many organizations still haven’t recovered from the initial shock, their employees are still facing salary cuts. This is why organizations need to ensure that their employee morale stays high. It can be achieved simply by communicating and being transparent. If the executives are planning to bring in new policies, they should get the employees involved in the decision-making process to make sure they’re not betrayed. They should also focus on arranging training and workshops for their employees to help them acquire new skills that will be needed in the new normal. This will help the employees feel confident and motivate them to be more productive.

Work from home used to be something that was frowned upon, however, during this crisis, this model has emerged as a lifesaver. Some organizations have found it to be so efficient that they’ve permanently switched to it. It is now evident that work from home is here to stay long after the pandemic subsides and it will become an integral part of our lives.

How important is financial independence for businesses?

At the GBA we have a very strong belief that freedom from bad balance sheets is corporate India’s birth right and by delivering the best possible sales training in the country we will achieve it for all our clients.   We have already seen that almost 90% of all participants who have gone through the academy in the past 2 years and achieving break through results and heading to a path of dominating their markets. Sales is the one thing that will be responsible for the bounce back from the COVID-19 recession and we are at the fore front of delivering the best in sales training backed by 35 years of legacy content and signature systems from Grant Cardone.

 What is the future of economy post-COVID -19?

After having contracted by 24% during the April-June quarter, the economy is now gradually beginning to get back on track. However, given how disastrous the pandemic has been, the road to recovery will not be easy. The IMF has predicted that only by the end of 2022 will India’s economy be at pre-Covid levels. In the meantime, businesses need to realize that while the market is tough, there still are opportunities. The demand for some of the products remains low, but there has been a sharp increase in the demand for other products, such as FMCG goods, hand sanitizers, probiotics, immunity boosters, and other types of health supplements.

By being adaptive, innovative, and accepting of change, the businesses can explore new avenues when they open up. This will fast track economic revival and help the businesses to survive during these turbulent times.

Your views on usage of technology in New Normal?

The Covid-19 pandemic has catalysed the adoption of technology. We were forced to switch to the virtual space overnight to safely continue education, business, medical consultations, and whatnot. Now that people have had a taste of what technology can do for them, they have become more reliant on it. Shopping from the comfort of your home is much appealing than going to the market – where you may potentially contract the dreaded Coronavirus. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Blockchain, etc. will find their way into every business domain and make business more efficient and flexible. Entrepreneurs who manage to spot these changes early will be able to leverage these technologies to strengthen their organizations and will gain a definitive edge over their competition.

What are the future Plans of GBA?

At the Gaurav Bhagat Academy we have a very ambitious plan of assisting 100,000 businesses add an average of 100 jobs each and help 900,000 working professionals live the 10X life, which is a life without limitations. In order to achieve this, we are adopting a lot of cutting-edge technology for content delivery, we are also scaling up the number of coaches and trainers that we have at the academy. We have a very aggressive marketing and expansion strategy and have a tie up with several industry bodies and associations.  All in all, it’s a combination of technology, best in industry content and aggressive marketing that will get us to achieve this number.

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By Pankaj Agarwal, Founder &CEO, TagHive

On the 1st of February, the country rose to the much awaited announcement of the annual budget for the year.

To the relief of some and the dismay of others, the numbers were proposed and the budget was executed, leaving plenty of room for debate and conversation. While we would like to discuss the budgetary impact in various sectors, we reserve our attention to the most important conversation at hand : what does the 2021 budget mean for the education sector?

Economic experts have previously fixed the desired government spending on education at 6% of the total GDP. The Economic Survey 20-21, revealed that government expenditure on education had stagnated at 2.8% from 2014-2019 with a promising hike in 20-21 to 3.5%. The new budget reveals a further 6% decline of funds allocated towards education. On a related, but side note, the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020, proposed the need to progressively double budgetary allotment for a period of at least ten years from 2021.

With so many dynamics at play, educators across the country were left with conflicting opinions about the UB education allotment.

Kiran Bhatty of Centre for Policy Research expressed deep concern for the state of education in an article published by the Wire. The policy expert who specialises in elementary education, stated that, “ The budget 2021 utterly disregards the education catastrophe inflicted by Covid-19”.

With millions of Indian children forced out of schools during the pandemic due to the digital divide, she expressed remorse that the government didn’t provide enough to rehabilitate them through much needed stimulus packages. She also called out the government’s lack of proposal  to keep schools safe post pandemic. “As the demand for education from all quarters has increased, the state’s commitment has correspondingly shrunk”, she opined.

The Controller General of Accounts reported that out of the total budget allocation in 20-21, only 41% had been spent, highlighting poor utilization of resources. Experts who share Bhatty’s sentiments cite the need for accountability to make precious public money available where it is needed the most.

Provita Kundu of the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, remarked that the budget is only one aspect of the problem. How much of it we spend, where does the remaining money go, are all questions she urges Public Interest Litigators to actively pursue. In an article with Down to Earth, she also addressed the intersection between the proposed budget and the NEP.  “This would be the proper time to constitute the inclusion funds recommended within the National Education Policy, 2020”, she remarks.

However, there are others who lauded the government’s otherwise perceived shoestring education budget, as a welcome need of the hour.

Professor (Dr) Atmanand, director of Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, called the budget an execution of clear vision. With the budget proposing the adoption of 15,000 schools to run the pilot model under the latest NEP guidelines, Professor stated that it is the most financially viable option given the pandemic. He is of the opinion that it is a smart move to empower 15,000 schools to then onboard and mentor the others as the need emerges. In an article with  BW Education, he called public attention to the proposed central university in Leh, citing it as an example of providing access to information and opportunity even in the remotest parts of the country.

An ex TFI alumni and program coordinator, who wished to remain anonymous, remarked that critics of the Union Budget are not driven by reason but by defiance. NC said, “The pandemic has been a tough time for everybody with job losses and food security taking center stage. When there was no revenue going into the government coffers for an entire year, where should the government scrap up the money to increase expenditure as such?”, she posed.

She acknowledges that there may be flaws in the budget but that doesn’t divert her attention away from the good that UB 21 has proposed. “This tight budget is what is actually needed to foster a more stringent but much needed regulation in the education sector.” She says that with no money and opportunity to waste, this year could earmark the beginning on an education journey driven by purpose over financial gains. “With economic welfare being the way it is, educators across the country will also be held at higher levels of accountability since the government will be forced to weed out underperforming and expensive man-power.”

We also have a third category of observers who are using the budget as an opportunity to manufacture NEP compliant education products. Our company, TagHive is one such, that has risen to the demands expressed by critics and supporters of the budget alike.

With more and more emphasis on the need for equitable technology as per the NEP guidelines, we see absolute value in catering our AI powered classroom solution, Class Saathi, to government education projects. Having already partnered with the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments, we have every reason to believe that our cost effective product will help education goals limber through all perceived budgetary constraints.

All said and done, the criticisms or applause for the budget 2021-2022 are largely premised on assumptions. The education budget will open up more scope for dialogue once it has been executed and analysed. Till then policy hawkers, economists and supporters can only assume from a reasonable distance what the implications of this year’s education budget could really mean.

The post One education fund allotment, opinions many: Union Budget 2021 appeared first on Higher Education Plus.

By Dr Monique Kamat – CEO, Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation

For the first time in history, on Budget Day, the Finance Minister of India was seen carrying a tablet kept inside a red cover with the national emblem embossed in golden color on it. Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman had replaced the ‘Bahi Khata’ with a tablet as the Union Budget this year took the digital route. The entire budget was thus presented from a smart device which reflects the pace at which we as a country are determined to form a digitized India. And amidst COVID, the education sector has been one such ground that has seen a 360-degree shift where technological intervention saw maximum penetration as the lockdown acted like a catalyst for the changing times we aspire for.

There are some noteworthy points that are crafted out carefully in the budget that are commendable while keeping in mind the education portfolio. More than 15,000 schools will be qualitatively strengthened to include all components of the National Education Policy. They shall emerge as exemplar schools in their regions, handholding, and mentoring other schools to achieve the ideals of the policy. In the previous year’s budget, Smt. Sitharaman had mentioned the setting-up of the Higher Education Commission of India. This year, there will be an introduction of legislation in a bid to implement the same. It will be an umbrella body having 4 separate vehicles for standard-setting, accreditation, regulation, and funding.

A National Digital Educational Architecture (NDEAR) will be set up within the context of a “Digital First” mindset where the digital architecture will not only support teaching and learning activities but also educational planning, governance, and administrative activities of the center, states and union territories. It will provide a diverse education eco-system architecture for the development of digital infrastructure, a federated but interoperable system that will ensure the autonomy of all stakeholders, especially all the states and union territories.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 30 lakh elementary school teachers were trained digitally, and in 2021-22, the center will enable the training of 56 lakh school teachers through the National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers for Holistic Advancement (NISTHA). The COVID crisis has led to job losses, pay cuts, and switches in careers for individuals. While every dark cloud has a silver lining, the situation has given rise to an opportunity to one and all to step up the pedal and take the digital route ineffective communication. From web designing, programming languages to data analytics, a series of futuristic online courses have gained much steam in recent times as Ed-Tech companies have successfully gained a wider audience and acceptance.

In schools and colleges, teachers, as well as students, have adopted virtual methods of learning like fish to water. However, there have been certain new challenges that have emerged during this paradigm shift. A lot of teachers and students face difficulty in using multiple apps for different activities. And in a pursuit to ensure that this void is filled, NGOs like Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation are joining hands with tech players who are into the digital learning space to make this transition even more seamless. There are projects like “Project Ignite” which are poised to be instrumental to allow educational institutes to be able to adapt to a blended online and offline format with the help of virtual campus and Learning Management System (LMS) in order to streamline the virtual education system.

Adaptation to novel methods of learning is the only way forward and education institutes, Ed Tech companies, and NGOs have sensed that quite early. This comes at a time when teachers and students have to struggle using multiple apps for various activities right from attending the online lectures to submitting assignments and what is required at the moment is a holistic solution to create a single interface that helps in bringing everyone on one common platform and thus help to improve the overall ecosystem. With physical classrooms closed, technology will be the game-changer in the days to come. And in the Budget 2021-22, the same sentiment has been reiterated for the education sector in India.

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The budget for 2021- the very first since the outbreak of COVID-19 was unveiled by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday. The significance of this budget increases as it comes at a time when our country is trying to bounce back from the unprecedented loss caused by the pandemic. Our goals need to be strong enough to help elevate the economic condition of our country by boosting the spending on the education sector. It is a sector that can promote a country from one economic bracket to another.

The union budget has showcased a positive impact on the education sector but if it is to mention this year allocation, it is less than last year. Finance Minister announced a total expenditure estimate of Rs 93,224 crore for education in this year budget; however, the government allocated Rs 99,300 crore in 2020 budget.

The positive move in this year’s budget is the strengthening of 15000+ schools under National Education Policy (NEP). The announcement will have a positive impact on the country. There are over 15 lakhs schools in the entire nation, which are reportedly three times that of China as per a study conducted by NITI Aayog last year. Out of 15 lakhs schools, nearly four lakhs have less than 50 students each with two teachers. Strengthening 15000+ schools will definitely add fillip to the Indian education system. The education sector whole hearty welcomes the proposal of setting up 100 new Sainik Schools to be established in partnership with NGOs and setting up of 750 Eklavya model residential schools. This clearly highlights the government approach towards making education available and affordable to all, even to the remotest part of the country.

The government allocation of Rs 50,000 crore in the research & development sector clearly shows that our country is heading in its endeavour toward becoming a global tech. Establishing a Higher Education Commission is in keeping with the recommendation in the New Education Policy. The step will push quality education with an overall approach. This will also enable many universities to enter the top 500 rankings. The Finance Minister announcement of allocating Rs 3000 crores for the proposal towards skilling and apprenticeship for students will add wings to the aspiring NextGen leaders of tomorrow. It will open doors of opportunities to them and a promise for a bright future. The proposal for collaborative training and inter-training programmes between India and Japan is an imperative announcement. This will aid the transfer of Japanese vocational and industrial skills, and the partnership with UAE to benchmark skilled qualifications. The informal education led by the EdTech sector had pinned high hopes with the budget 2021 but got nothing in their hands. The EdTech firms had performed very well during the pandemic so expect some positive announcement in the next year budget.

It can be concluded that the overall Budget for the education sector is very progressive and transparent with few hopes for the next year’s budget.

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What is your opinion about the budget?

This has been a very positive union budget announcement for the Education sector. With focus of creating 100 more Sainik schools through a partnership model, universities in underrepresented geographies and ear marking budgets of Rs 50,000 crore over 5 years for research under the NRF, this sector is bound to see positive growth. For higher education, the announcement of creating  a framework and legislation will go a long way to create structural benefits to the higher education space. The focus on education reforms coupled with bold measures to encourage startups will help a lot of Edu-tech companies to grow and emerge.

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