Higher Education Digest - Research and Innovation Special

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION SPECIAL

INDIA EDITION

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MANIPAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

APRIL 2019

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

April 2019

Vol - 1 Issue - 1

Research & Innovation Special (India Edition) Chief Editor

Dr. Kuldeep Nagi

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Manoj Varghese Rachita S Rose M

Jessica Jo Stanly Lui Emma James

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Art and Design Ajay K Das

Sales & Marketing Rahul Visakh Prathyoosh K Shaji

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Higher Education Digest March 2019

CHIEF EDITOR’S NOTE

Indian Innovation System Needs a Paradigm Shift

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s the second most populous country in the world with 15 million youngsters to enter the workforce annually for the next five years, India is an increasingly important locus point of innovation. Unfortunately, the country has not been able to completely harness the potential of its young brains, as India’s general education system still drenched in Markism-marks, percentages, merit list and careers. Orienting students towards research and innovation is completely missing from the curricula.

It is a high time for India’s policy makers to work hard to transform the current educational system from cram-jam-and pass the exam, to a culture of innovation and research.

Corporate companies also have a major role to play here. They need to collaborate with the hardcore academic research institutions and bring innovation to the market. That means, the industry must consider investing in the area of research and innovation for a better ROI. The long-term benefits

5 of this will be phenomenal, as academic research is one of the most powerful methods for R&D. In return, India’s premier colleges and universities should be fully aware of what is happening in the industry, so that they can align their research machinery with it.

This maiden edition of the Higher Education Digest focuses on Research and Innovation for this very reason – to understand India’s potential to become a dominant knowledge based economy. After conducting rigorous studies on the Indian higher education sector, we have identified ‘25 Must Watch Campuses in India for Research and Innovation,’ which are continuously striving to produce latest knowledge. We hope that the future of disruptive innovation in India will be very bright and we will continue to bring you more stories of this thriving ecosystem in the coming days.

Happy Reading.

Dr. Kuldeep Nagi

Higher Education Digest March April 2019

ADVISORY BOARD Assoc. Prof. Dr.Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Researcher and Data Analyst in Social Science

Major General (Rtd.) Dr. Sunil Chandra, VSM (Vishishta Seva Medal), Ph.D, M. Phil, MA, M.Ed, PGBDA Ex-M D Army Welfare Education Society, ExCOO GEMS Education - India, Ex- Addl Dir Gen - Army Education, Mentor - Adventure-Pulse

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

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Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi) Senior Director HR. Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Dr. Manoj Varghese, Ph.D, MS, MBA, BE. Senior Technology, Education Technology & Innovation leader, EdTech & STEM Researcher and Traveler

Asst. Prof. Dr.Suramya Mathai, Ph.D,M.Ed,MA,BA. Teachers Training Expert, Writer, Author, Speaker & Social Worker

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

In a Country of Billion Brains

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nterviewing Yogesh Nagar, who made a driverless tractor even before he joined an engineering college, was the toughest task in my entire career.

Hailing from Kagla Bambori village in Baran district of Rajasthan, Yogesh would only speak Hindi. On the other side, being a typical South Indian, Hindi was not my strong point. However, hardly five minutes into the conversation, I realized that a passionate brain does not necessarily need to talk the Queen’s Language. This young lad with full of ideas is now planning to make an autonomous vehicle for Indian Army.

Down south, Vetrivel Anand, a final year Aeronautical Engineering student from Tamil Nadu who found an excellent solution to make electricity from living plants, had a different story to tell.

Aspired to become a Volleyball player, Anand is now a patent holder. We have covered these amazing stories in this inaugural edition of the Higher Education Digest. We believe that our country has so many talented students like Anand and Yogesh, who deserve the nation’s attention.

To celebrate the success of India’s brilliant brains and to help young innovators looking for an unmatchable educational experience, we have come up with a list of ’25 Must Watch Campuses in India for Research and Innovation’ in this issue. On the cover, we feature, Manipal Institute of Technology, one of the premier engineering colleges in India imparting excellence in technical education through innovation and teamwork. We have also included opinions of senior academicians and industry professionals to give our audience a comprehensive reading experience.

We sincerely hope that our efforts will help the stakeholders of higher education to make informed decisions.

Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

C O N T E N T S

Cover Story

MANIPAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

RACING AHEAD OF

TIME

10 MENTOR’S MANTRA

HR TALKS

14 - 17

18 - 21

The Imperatives of Imbibing a Culture of Research and Innovation in Indian Campuses

Recruitmentin the Era of Industry 4.0

Dr. V.S. Rao, President, NIIT University

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Shamna Libu, HR Business Manager, Unimoni Global Business Services

BOOK REVIEW

110 Understanding the Right Signals to Live the Life of a Leader

ACADEMIC VIEW

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

66 - 68

MUST WATCH YOUNG TALENTS

Stay as a Student to Survive in this World of Dynamic Technologies

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Shweta Gugnani Kapoor, Global Director - Office of CIO, CSC

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102 - 104

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54

82 - 84

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Blockchain: The Next Disruptive Technology. Can India Win This Time?

K Sridhar, Chief Business Officer, TalentSprint

Rethink Generic MBA

70 - 72

Prof. Aslam Hirani, CEO, UAssess

22 - 24 What Really Stops India from Reaching the Zenith of Excellence in Education?

Major General Dr. Sunil Chandra

98 Power of Plants: An Aeronautical Engineering 11 Student’s Saga of Generating Electricity from Living Plants

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98 - 100 Driverless Tractor: When a Farmer’s Son Delivered Solution Much Ahead of Automobile Giants

36 - 40 MUST WATCH EDU-TECH SOLUTION PROVIDER

Design Institutions Need to Reevaluate the Way Design Education Delivered Currently Mookesh Patel, Design Education Consultant and Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University

42 - 44 Fourth Ambit: Making Meaningful Partnerships that Last Lifetime

54 - 56 India -Towards Becoming the Global Destination for Higher Education Dr. Jitendra Kumar Mishra, Director, MATS Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship

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C O N T E N T S

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

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RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

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ARMY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

BMS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

Training the Tech-Force for Industry 4.0

The Gateway to New Age Innovation

62 - 65

74 - 77

LM THAPAR SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

PSG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Developing Internationally Savvy Leaders

Instilling a Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

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74

92

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78 78 - 81 RV COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

A Thriving Ecosystem for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation

86 - 90 SSN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

To Win the Battle of Success

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92 - 96

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T.A. PAI MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

THIAGARAJAR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

The Smile of Success

Where Quality Technical Education Meets Strong Ethical Values

Higher Education Digest April 2019

MENTOR’S MANTRA

The

Imperatives of Imbibing

a Culture of Research and Innovation

in

Indian Campuses Dr. V.S. Rao, President, NIIT University

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Born on 21 January 1953 in a village named Thullur, situated in the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Vajja Sambasiva Rao began his academic career in 1980 as an Assistant Lecturer at BITS-Pilani, Pilani Campus, Rajasthan. In a career spanning 38 years, Prof. Rao has held various faculty positions at BITS Pilani. As an Administrator he has held positions including Acting Vice Chancellor & Director BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus; Deputy Director, Off-campus Programmes & Dean, Practice School Division amongst others. After working with BITS Pilani for more than four decades in various capacities, Dr. Rao is currently working as the President of NIIT University, which inherits three decades of rich expertise and global knowhow of its principal sponsor, the NIIT Group.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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he Top 200 list of various global ranking agencies continue elude Indian institutes due to our poor performance in research and innovation. Except a few premier colleges like IISc and IITs, a culture of research is missing across the board. Be it in private universities or public universities, lack of incentives for research is one of the major reasons why we are not able to imbibe research culture in our campuses. It is high time that we should talk about introducing outcome-based research funding, like the way we did it for outcome-based learning. Both faculty members and students who are doing quality research should receive adequate funding and rewards, which will help us to elevate our status as a knowledge economy.

On the other hand, our scholars should conduct mission-oriented, deliverable and robust researches that are relevant to the society. Today, most of our researches are stereotyped, as they are conducted for the sake of counting the number of publications. Conducting relevant and markable research comes with a lot of responsibilities.

Unfortunately, not many Indian research aspirants are not ready embark on this journey of responsible research. How many of our research publications have a good impact factor and citation index? How many of these researches are patentable? How many of these researches have created intellectual property? How many of these research findings have been converted into successful businesses?

We need to evaluate our work in this backdrop, so that research and innovation culture in our institutions will take prime position.

Institutes like NIIT University have centers for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship to promote researches that can not only solve the real-life problems but also can be viable in the market. In fact, if we care about our research and do things that matters to the society and world at large, we can circulate a culture of research down to the undergraduate level. We have seen it in premier institutions across the globe; when students are sent to industries for internships, they put in a lot of hard work irrespective of their academic performance. We should also integrate and empower women in this direction to reap more benefits.

If we care about our research and do things that matters to the society and world at large, we can circulate a culture of research down to the undergraduate level

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Just because we do not have enough faculty strength in staffrooms, we cannot wait eternally to build the much-needed research culture in the campus.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Dr. V.S. Rao

Challenges in Developing a Qualified Faculty Pool Dearth of qualified faculty members who can lead the research activities remain as one of the major roadblocks for Indian institutions, especially for those who fall into the category of tier II and tier III colleges. Just because we do not have enough faculty strength in staffrooms, we cannot wait eternally to build the much-needed research culture in the campus. Unlike IITs and other premier institutions who have qualified academicians at their disposal, faulty members and students of tier II and tier III colleges need to work together to improve the research activities inside the campus.

Fundamentally, administrators of these colleges need to work on creating a research mindset among the students and faculty members by giving them proper incentives. At NIIT University, we give research assistance to relevant projects taken up by the students and faculty members. Similarly, by creating effective processes and platforms to improve research, tier II and tier III colleges can eventually become tier I colleges. The moment we start operating academic intuitions by focusing on research, we can see a good amount of research-oriented faculty members coming out from our institutions. These faculty members will inspire the students to look at the problems prevailing in the society, instead of loading them with information written in the text books.

Collaborating with foreign universities will help Indian institutions in a big way to create such a research ecosystem. Unfortunately, most of our MoUs with international universities are passive, as they are there only for the sake of publicity. We should consider making active relationship with global and premier Indian institutions as the way forward. Through these MoUs, our faculty members will get to experience a different culture of education and it will bring a lot of improvement in their

thought process. It will also broaden their perspective, especially in the field of research. Similarly, we should also consider making a provision for sending our PhD students to experience the research culture of global universities.

Leaders in the areas like Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley and many more can teach our students a few lessons that we may not be able to do right now.

Making Leaders and Talent for the Future In this era of industry 4.0, we can call our young generation digital natives.

In the light of emerging technologies, we should ponder on how better the education transaction can be conducted.

However, many of our universities are still preparing our students for the past.

The curriculum must be completely reoriented from education 2.0 to education 4.0, to serve the needs of industry 4.0.

We should understand that knowledge is going to rule the world. Be it Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Cyber Security or any other digital technologies, we need to prepare our students to face the challenges of Industry 4.0. In that way, I will appreciate the efforts of NIIT University. Because of our deep industry engagements, we get feedbacks from the industry rapidly and make dynamic changes in the curriculum, as responsiveness of the institute is so high.

The presence of a strong leadership is also imperative to achieve all the goals that we set to achieve in our journey ahead. The leaders should be able to communicate and generate solutions with the involvement of people around them. It should not be from the top to bottom, it should be from the bottom to top. My advice is to take the best practice. Whether it is from the past or the present, or whether it is available with you or outside, try to follow the best practices and continuously strive to improve upon those. (As told to the editor)

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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HR TALKS

Recruitment in the

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Era of Industry

4.0

Shamna Libu, HR Business Manager, Unimoni Global Business Services Shamna is an accomplished Senior HR Professional working with Unimoni Global Business Services leading the Business HR front and is responsible for all Human Resources and Talent Management Programs. She holds a post-graduation in HR and a bachelor’s degree in law.

Unimoni Global Business Services, the Shared Services of Unimoni, complements the worldwide operations of Unimoni, a leading global provider of money transfer, foreign exchange, payments & credit solutions.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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ndustrialization has seen revolution after revolutions in every decade since its evolution in the 18th century. Industry 4.0, commonly known as Fourth Industrial Revolution is a recent technological advance where automation, data exchange, cyber-physical systems, Internet of things, cloud, Big Data and cognitive computing replace the inefficiencies of traditional automation.

The efficiency gain is large enough that, in a few short years, the adoption of technologies such as the IoT, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and cyber-physical computing will be a matter of survival for many companies.

These new technologies will impact all disciplines, economies, and industries, and even challenge our ideas about what it means to be human. Indeed, Human Resource professional needs to become even more strategic and creative in this age of industry 4.0, as more routine and administrative HR tasks will fall away due to automation.

As this smart assistance will take over all the routine task, HR leaders will have to focus on identifying the new skills and capabilities required for the business in future. The current employees’ willingness to adapt and ability to upskill will have to be identified. New talent will need to be attracted, retained and integrated into the business. HR Leaders should be prepared for redefining sourcing & recruitment, integrate virtual reality in onboarding, remove redundancy in HR and redefining learning and making it more relevant to the Industry 4.0. And, all the while, the business needs to keep operating and the business will need to keep growing.

HR should make everyone understand the opportunity and power to shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution and direct it towards a future that reflects the organization’s values and success.

Recruiter’s Challenges Attracting right candidates has been the biggest challenge of recruiters and HR managers ever. In this era of low

unemployment rate coupled with everchanging needs of the job market, talented candidates are very difficult to be onboarded. Today, candidates have the upper hand of selecting the organization they want to work for as they have multiple offers in hand. This creates an atmosphere of intense competition all around among recruiters to pitch in the best candidates for their business.

Millennials are starting to dominate the work sphere and one peculiar thing about millennials is that they love technology and tend to favor their personal needs more than that of the organization they work for.

The challenge for the recruiters is that these Millennials have the tendency to do job hopping that increases their workload

The coming years will see vast amounts of HR teams relying heavily on machine learning and AI to take care of much of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into talent acquisition as recruiters have to search for candidates for the same positions more frequently.

Digital Literacy is the Key With the ever-increasing pace of technological innovation, education – about new skills or professional traits – is becoming a crucial differentiator in organizations. The technological advancement has changed the demands of the recruiters, one of the skill-sets that a recruiter will look for in a fresher is Digital literacy other than the soft skills.

In Industry 4.0, ways of working have changed with Digitization, which indeed has changed the demand of recruiters. If candidate is not familiar with the nucleus

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Shamna Libu

Higher Education Digest April 2019

HR should make everyone understand the opportunity and power to shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution and direct it towards a future that reflects the organization’s values and success

of the digital framework, he will be obsolete for the recruiter. Therefore, it becomes vital for any candidate to have an understanding of this forte along with basic knowledge of using various social media tools.

Great communication skill is the most essential tool for success and is regarded highly by the employers. Employers also prefer candidates who are proactive, good team players, one who is ready to accept challenges and grasp things quickly. Other skills which recruiters look in a candidate include openness to learning, problem solving and presentation skills.

Organizations function in a dynamic environment and hence look for candidates who are flexible and can quickly adapt to changes.

Opportunities in the Fintech Industry Fintech Industry has evolved rapidly over the last few years, with start-ups and other new market entrants offering innovative solutions and disrupting the entire financial services industry along the way. As a result, it has generated a lot of interest among job seekers, who are keen to pursue exciting roles in the FinTech space.

The industry trend shows that many jobs are up for grabs in the financial technology or fintech sector with companies planning to ramp up hiring in the next few months. Startups will be adding to their technology and product teams following recent funding rounds and studies says that most of the hiring will be in technology and data science roles.

A graduate/post-graduate with the right attitude and ability to communicate and excellent analytical skills can get through the KPO divisions of FinTech companies.

Engaging Employees in the Digital Era Employee engagement is no longer limited to fun activities but has a wider scope and it includes all talent management efforts, which strengthen the relationship of an employee with the employer. Companies where employees are scattered at different locations or are mostly working from home, creating a common engagement program is difficult. This is where digitization helps, people from across the globe gets connected through the social media tools customized for the internal communication between the employees, collaboration starts here.

There’s a significant use of internet of technology (IoT) in engagement health and fitness tracking. With the help of fitness apps and virtual fitness coaches, companies are preparing engagement programs where people could compete with each other and stay engaged through these apps. Lose to win contest,

step challenges, etc., are some examples which we could see getting common as engagement programs.

Performance management is also run with the help of digital tools, technologies, and intelligent machines which transform people development, enabling supervisors to trace contributions from individuals and teams with more accuracy and solid data. The coach is no longer just another human being who offers advice but also an artificial intelligence-enhanced app that works alongside you.

The Future of Talent Acquisition One of the most exciting shifts we will witness in future is Artificial Intelligence leading the change in recruiting from data- driven to Intelligence- driven.

Artificial intelligence-powered technology opens nearly limitless possibilities, and future is poised to be a time of innovation and high adoption across thousands of industries. HR, recruiting and talent acquisition are no exception and will benefit greatly as the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more evident.

The coming years will see vast amounts of HR teams relying heavily on machine learning and AI to take care of much of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into talent acquisition. The whole workflow and process will be reshaped as HR efforts become dramatically more proactive as they are enhanced by AI. The future will bring upgrades to infrastructure, software and operations as TA teams are retrained and processes redefined.

Advice to the Students The notion of a 9-to-5, 40-year career is a thing of the past. Today, work is flexible and fluid. Begin working towards entry-level career early in the game. Try the below proactive tips to prepare for your career.

Expand your skills and knowledge. Companies look for team members with the ability to work in diverse settings.

While some entry-level careers are more competitive than others, all jobs require work and preparation. Staying current on technology and industry trends gives you an advantage over other applicants. Most students are more up-to-date with technology than seasoned professionals, giving them the upper hand.

Even though graduates will enter the workforce with a shiny diploma, they have a lot left to learn.

“Always remember how much you don’t know, play down what you do know, and listen to others who know things.” (As told to the editor)

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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ACADEMIC VIEW

What Really Stops India

Reaching the Zenith of Excellence from

in Education?

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Major General Dr. Sunil Chandra is the recipient of Vishisht Seva Medal, a decoration of the Indian armed forces that is awarded to recognize “distinguished service of an exceptional order� to all ranks of the Indian Armed forces. An exemplary result-oriented professional with 36 years of Military Service, Dr. Chandra has worked in various capacities for the development of Indian education system. He has held position of Managing Director, Army Welfare Education Society, and his last profile held in active service was Additional Director General - Army Educational Corps. In an exclusive conversation with the editorial team of Higher Education Digest, Dr. Chandra expresses his views and concerns regarding the quality of education in India.

Major General Dr. Sunil Chandra

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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n 2007, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India, was addressing the crowd gathered to celebrate 150th Anniversary of Mumbai University. He said, “Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair. The quality of governance of many state educational institutions is a cause for concern. I am concerned that in many States, university appointments, including that of Vice-Chancellors, have been politicized and have become subject to caste and communal considerations. There are complaints of favouritism and corruption. This is not as it should be.”

Twelve years passed since then, new Governments have been formed, new Vice Chancellors have taken charge in various universities, however, our state and central universities are still not free from unnecessary interventions.

Our education experts and industry leaders eternally complain about the quality and employability of the graduates being considerably low. But we hardly address the real issues of our dysfunctional educational system that has been producing dysfunctional citizens all these years. “Leadership of our universities are still a major concern,” says Major General Dr. Sunil Chandra VSM, a result-oriented professional with 36 years of Military Service having served in Army and tri-services training establishments and operational areas. “Many of our universities have gone into the hands of industries who consider education as another area of business they can invest. Their children in some cases hardly have exposure

to universities and yet are the Chancellors of these universities. Education leadership should be in the hands of people who are educationally oriented. Today, people who have money are managing our academic institutions.”

Indeed, the 3rd largest education system in the world after the U.S. and China struggles to make universities that can compete with their global counterparts. Every year, when global rankings are announced, we discuss about the absence Indian universities in the Top 100 list. Every such discussions would reach in a conclusion that Indian universities do not take research seriously. Dr. Chandra opines, “We cannot blindly say that a research culture is missing in the Indian institutions. There are many reputed universities in the country that have taken up research in a big way. We can also see many important research publications and patents are being filed by these institutions.” Certainly, we cannot be a hopeless community of education aspirants. With more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35, India’s major strength is its youngsters who can run the world by their rules.

But, do we have adequate number of qualified people in our academic institutions who can guide these young talents in the right direction?

“We do have quality faculty members in our universities who can lead the research activities. However, our students are oblivious about their own future. They try to focus on multiple things

If w e care about our research and do things that matters to the society and world at large, we can circulate a culture of research down to the undergraduate level

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Major General Dr. Sunil Chandra

24 Today’s industry wants people who can start working from the day one

Higher Education Digest April 2019

during their higher education. Some students prepare to write exams, some of them go for jobs, but none of them are fully devoted to take up research as a career,” states Dr. Chandra, who has vast experience in dealing with top universities, running end to end operations of educational institutes and setting up processes from the scratch. At this point, it is important to have a relook of what Dr. Manmohan Singh said in his speech at Mumbai University, “We also need to move away from routine approaches to overcome quality bottlenecks in our university system. We should look at alternative ways of improving the remuneration of professors, at ways of tapping into the large pool of Indian origin teaching manpower spread today across the world’s universities, and of linking up with the best universities across the world to promote cross-fertilization of ideas.”

Collaborating with foreign universities will be the key for many Indian universities. Dr. Chandra says, “Collaborations will bring quality, which is missing in totality. It will give a good desirable exposure and we will also be able to enrich our curriculum through these tie-ups.” It is true that the curriculum of many state and central universities has not been changed for so many years. We still educate our students to work for the past. “The current education system misses the application part of it. Today’s industry wants people who can start working from the day one. Unfortunately, many courses offered in our universities are still generic in nature and active collaborations with global education establishments can bring lot of changes in our education system,” adds Dr. Chandra.

Today, we are fortunate to see the government and universities taking positives strides to bring foreign collaborations in our education system. In fact, the doors are now open for foreign investment in Indian education system. Many Indian universities have also opened their campuses abroad. Students will get benefited a lot from these activities. “Our students need more international exposure through exchange programs with global universities. More than everything, we need to inculcate the spirit of country first. Now, it is the individual first, because of the unemployment prevailing in our society.

Ultimately, we need to define certain core values that will help us to make good citizens for our nation,” concludes Dr. Chandra.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

COVER STORY

Cover Story

MANIPAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

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RACING AHEAD OF

TIME

By Sarath Shyam

Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Be it Satya Nadella, Rajeev Suri or many such global CEOs, Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) has been nurturing global leaders for more than 62 years. Today, the institute receives about 52,000 applications for a total intake of 2220, which means there are 24 applicants waiting for a single seat. Getting into MIT is literally a race! Why not to race, if the destination is worth reaching for?

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

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anipal Institute of Technology (MIT) is undoubtedly a place to experience the education.

In fact, the vision of MIT “Excellence in Technical Education through Innovation and Teamwork” clearly articulates its way forward. “We at MIT believe that a creative mind is the net outcome of conducive environment, which facilitates experiential learning. We have some of the best technical and cultural clubs run by students. This gives them an additional technical, cultural and managerial experience beyond the curriculum,” says Dr. D Srikanth Rao, Director, Manipal Institute of Technology.

At MIT, there are technical clubs for the academically inclined; there are cultural clubs that give a student the opportunity to dabble in the fine arts, music, dance, theatre – everything that feeds the mind and spirit. In a nutshell, every student has more than one thing to do at MIT. “The student bodies work like a corporate company here. They generate and manage funds, design, and test the product and participate in the competitions at international level. In many cases, they won laurels as well,” shares Dr. Rao.

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MIT campus is spread over an area of 188 acres housing 10 academic buildings, and 21 residential buildings, with a total capacity of 6,080 inhabitants.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

The technical clubs of MIT work in design and development of futuristic products. Mostly they are topics of the open challenge posed by the various organizations at the international level.

Formula cars, solar cars, all-terrain vehicles and mini-satellites are some of the examples. “Manipal has something for everyone. Now, we are working on a driverless car, which will be ready by next year,” says Rithwik Srinivas, a fourth-year Mechanical student of MIT, who is also the Team Manager of MIT’s one of the most successful students’ club, Formula Manipal.

Inside the MIT’s Student Clubs “In India, entry into engineering Institutions is highly competitive, due to which at the entry level all the students have a built-in competitive spirit.

Keeping this in mind, as an experiment, in 2007, we came up with an idea of Major Student Projects, wherein, we will provide infrastructure to build a technical project to compete at an international competition,” says Dr. Rao. MIT’s one such initiative in 2007 was ‘Formula Manipal’, a student engineering project

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Dr. D Srikanth Rao, Director Dr. Rao, a Professor, Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, is an Alumnus of Manipal Institute of Technology, obtained his B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Mysore, in 1984; M.Tech. and PhD degrees from Manipal University in 1991 and 2009 respectively. After graduating from MIT, Manipal, worked with M/s Hindustan Dorr-Oliver Ltd, a Stanford Oil Subsidiary then, for 5 years of useful industrial exposure, in the area of Operations, Installation and Troubleshooting of Filtration, sedimentation and other pollution control equipment’s for major mining industries, sugar and other refining industries.

Before taking charge as the Director of MIT-Manipal, he was assigned the challenging responsibility of looking after the Admissions at Manipal University, Manipal, as its Director (Admissions). Before this, he had also served as the Joint Director of MIT, Manipal. He is also a sports enthusiast with keen interest playing Shuttle Badminton & Cricket.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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The MIT Innovation Centre facilitates inter-disciplinary research and provides incubation facilities to start ups and budding entrepreneurs.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

comprising of a group of undergraduate students aiming to design, conceptualize, fabricate, test and race a single seater, open-wheel Formula Style race car. Since its first competition in 2008, the team has participated in competitions in Italy, UK, Austria, Germany and Czech Republic.

“Recently, we did very well in the Formula Bharat, an Engineering Design Competition held at Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. We participated with two cars - Combustion Car FMX8 and Electric Vehicle FMX8e.

The Combustion Car finished first in the dynamic event ‘Acceleration’ with an acceleration of 4.288 second and first in the static event ‘Business Plan Presentation’. At the end, we finished third in the overall competition,” shares Rithwik. Till now, the team Formula Manipal has produced eight cars. FMX8e, the electric car that made its debut in the Formula Bharat also did well, securing the second position in the Design Event and came third in the overall competition.

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The success of Formula Manipal was the beginning of many more student teams. 2008 saw the start of ‘Team Manipal Racing’, off-road racing club to design and fabricate All-Terrain Vehicles according to the rules laid by SAE BAJA. Year 2009, AeroMIT was initiated to design, manufacture, and fly a complex, stable, and portable model aircraft with minimal empty weight, maximum payload carrying capacity; RoboManipal was started with an aim of taking part in robotics competitions like Robocon.

Parikshit Student Satellite Team started in 2010 aims to build nanosatellites. The year 2011 was the beginning of ‘Solar Mobil’ with an aim of research & development of the solar powered electric vehicle. Project Manas, aiming to develop an ‘autonomous drive system for vehicles’ optimized for Indian road and traffic conditions; Mars Rover Manipal, with a primary objective of building a Rover for University Rover Challenge was established in the year 2014. Altogether, at present, the institute houses about 17 major project teams run by students.

Dr. Rao says, “All these teams are interdisciplinary in nature, having student representation from first to final year. In the process of getting into the team, and selecting the members to the team, students learn to face and conduct interviews.” With the team size ranging from 25 to 50, students learn to work in groups. By working under tight deadlines, they learn to meet deadlines. By submitting weekly progress report, by presenting a weekly progress and scheduling the task, they hone their documentation, presentation, and planning skills. To generate the financial support, they need to sell their idea to possible sponsors.

In the process, they learn the marketing, budgeting, and accounting skills. “It feels proud when you win major competitions after putting all the hard-work. In fact, working in these clubs will help you to find your true potential,” says Rithwik, who is planning to become an entrepreneur after completing his graduation.

Be it a driverless car or mini satellite, every student project of MIT is innovative in nature. As a result, MIT

Higher Education Digest April 2019

MIT encourages students to be actively involved in extracurricular activities

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has seen many publications and start-ups coming out of these projects. “We also see more scope for publication and IPs. With these in mind, we have come up with a ‘Student Project Scrutiny Board (SPSB)’. Students need to present their project and the progress to the committee for the potential funding support, possible publications, and IPs,” shares Dr. Rao.

Creating Leaders and Innovators MIT has an excellent track record of nurturing global leaders. This may be mainly attributed to multidisciplinary, multinational, pan India, multicultural environment in the MIT campus enabling

ThrustMIT, one of the first rocketry teams of India, intends to take part in the Spaceport America Cup, organized by Experimental Sounding Rocket Association and held in the United States every June.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

all-round development of the student. In addition, the institute gives ample freedom to the students to have self-discipline, openness to come up with new ideas, to take ownership of their decisions and actions.

“Being innovative and creative, every student has some innovative ideas to solve some stressing issues of the society. Also, most of the students have the potential to be an entrepreneur,” pinpoints Dr. Rao. Always a forward-looking Institution, MIT felt the need to nurture creative and entrepreneurial qualities of the students and started the Innovation Center in 2007.

Further, to take innovative projects to society, Manipal University Technology

Business Incubator (MUTBI) came into existence in 2009. Till now, more than 19 companies have been graduated with more than 50 percent of survival success from MUTBI. Fracktal Works Pvt. Ltd., Manipal Printronics Pvt. Ltd., Isa Technologies Pvt. Ltd., are the few successful companies to name among them. “The very nature of atmosphere at MIT encourages students to become entrepreneurs. By encouraging various club activities, major student projects, participation in institute/university/ corporate/national level business plan competition/hackathons, MIT has always encouraged entrepreneurs,” pinpoints Dr. Rao. As an annual event, Innovation Center conducts an Innovation Day where faculty and students exhibit their prototype solutions. Selected solutions are awarded with the prize money and are also introduced to selected industries for probable partnership or to acquire the idea. These teams are also encouraged to come up with business plans and

participate in ‘Provenance’ – a business plan competition, organized by MUTBI. Winners in this competition are awarded with office space and a sum of Rs. 3 Lakh to start and Incubate their start-up.

These start-ups are also introduced to the alumni and angel investors for further support.

Industry’s Favorite “Top ranking universities and institutes have some tie-ups and collaborations with the industry, and hence their position is much better compared to the other institutes. The industry is even willing to collaborate with such institutions as the venture is a win-win situation for both,” opines Dr. Rao. At MIT, industry plays a crucial role in finetuning the students as well as faculty members. The institute has initiated faculty sabbatical for a short period in industries, so that they can transfer the knowledge back to the institute. Elective courses are also offered by industries or jointly by industry experts and faculty

RoboManipal, the official robotics team of MIT, has represented and won laurels for the college at various technical fests, innovation challenges and robotics competitions at the national level.

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at the institute. Infosys, CISCO, EMC2, TCS, Bosch and Schneider are some examples of such initiatives at MIT. “We are also offering PG courses for the industry employees based on MoUs. Because of this assured quality and quantity, our internships and placements are quite good,” claims Dr. Rao. Every student pursuing graduation in engineering at MIT, should undergo a minimum of four-week internship in a related industry and present his/her learning by way of a report and oral presentation. Dr. Rao adds, “At MIT, we allow them to undertake an internship during the vacation starting from the fifth semester. This gives them multiple chances, and moreover, the crowd gets distributed over a longer period.”

Generating Knowledge “In the past, the research culture in Indian Institutions was behind reputed international institutes. However, in the recent years, the trend has shifted with enhanced emphasis on research. At MIT, we have seen tremendous growth in the numbers of publications and grants in the last three years,” states Dr. Rao. MIT regularly conducts research orientation seminar/workshop highlighting the research facilities and incentives available to all students and faculties. Besides, the institute has worldclass research facilities and labs supported by various government agencies and corporate companies.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

TEAM MANIPAL RACING is involved with the Design, Manufacture and Racing of the All-Terrain Vehicle at BAJA SAE INDIA and BAJA STUDENT INDIA events being conducted yearly.

Project MANAS, the official AI Robotics student team of Manipal University, is currently working towards building India’s first driverless car.

“The number of PhD research scholar’s intake is increasing year on year. To motivate faculty and students, the university provides administrative, HR and financial support for research projects,” says Dr. Rao. To foster research culture among early career researchers, Manipal Academy of Higher Education has signed an agreement with Wiley Research Academy, in addition to the working relationship the university has with several foreign universities in research collaborations.

MIT gives the students a unique opportunity to join the research scholars in the faculty research through a program called Hobby Research Project. The students will get to learn research methods and can carry out experiments under the guidance of the faculty mentor. Consequently, students can successfully publish their findings in the Scopus indexed journals and present their work in reputed conferences.

The institute also provides students IPR related guidance for patenting their works. In 2018, MIT students actively participated in research activities, publishing around 200 papers.

On the other side, MIT encourages international collaboration and consultancy with reputed institutes/ organizations. The institute has active research collaborations with international universities such as University of Milwaukee, University of Strathclyde, Wright State University and University of Dayton in USA; Deakin University, University of New Castle & UNSW in Australia, Cranfield University & City University in United Kingdom; University of New Brunswick, Canada, University of Groningen, Netherland and University of Antwerp, Belgium; Tel Aviv University, Israel to name a few. In addition to that, MIT has MoU’s for faculty/student exchange with about 90 prominent universities worldwide.

“Our students can opt for semester abroad program in any international University and get their credits transferred. This provides a new learning opportunity with best of facilities available at these institutes,” shares Dr. Rao. Besides, students from these international universities also visit MIT and the shared learning provides them exposure to technical and cultural learning. Some Universities also provide short internship, which is also a great opportunity for technical education.

“From research point of view, students will be actively involved in various interdisciplinary/ research projects.

Gaining managerial and research skills. The overall development will make them good employee, researcher or entrepreneur in the future,” pinpoints Dr. Rao. Going ahead, MIT has bigger and better things to do. Paperless examination through E-pads, Techshop to host major student projects, a futuristic library and classrooms with lecture capture facility with the aim of producing online learning materials are the few immediate ones.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Design Institutions Need to Reevaluate the Way

Design Education Delivered Currently 36 Mookesh Patel, Design Education Consultant and Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University Prof. Mookesh Patel has been the Chair of Visual Communication at Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University – ranked in the Top 5 design schools in the United States of America.

He received his MFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design and holds a diploma in Visual Communication from the National Institute of Design.

He is the recipient of a Fullbright Research Scholar Grant, United Nations Development Program Grant, and other awards. A highly experienced design education guru, Prof. Patel enjoys teaching and developing student-centered learning environments

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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e are busier than ever with little or no time for our children, parents or grandparents. We prefer to eat unhealthy meals at a restaurant and less inclined for a healthy home cooked meal with family. We desire to live and work in an unsustainable atmosphere. We waste resources and have little respect for the environment.

Design must be inclusive and not exclusive.

Unfathomable technological advances have influenced our design capabilities. Is design driving technology or is technology driving design is the big question. Until designers are willing to comprehend the driving force — data — and integrate data analysis as a large part of their design processes focused on the wellbeing of the population at large, technology will continue driving design for the benefit of the wealthy few. Hence, it is the responsibility of all design institutions to reevaluate the way design education delivered currently.

In recent TEDTalk, Eduardo Briceño grieved over the time spent by design professionals at the best of their abilities — a state of the Performance Zone wherein there is no scope for failure for the sake of the return of the investment. Hence, it is also the Comfort Zone wherein there is no risk taking — a critical ingredient for innovation and concern for a healthy world.

On the other hand, students at a design school have a chance to be in the Learning Zone. They enjoy the time and space to experiment, fail until they succeed and discover their own Zone with immense possibilities and opportunities.

Their newfound zone may be adequately comfortable to adapt in the technologically transforming and environmentally challenged world.

Design as a noun is temporary. Design as a verb is constant and evolving.

Global Perspective Global design trends Internationally, design education is continue unwavering focus being questioned and its value and Indian design institutions on economic gains. India has validity investigated. The design done well, and the economic still lack the appropriate growth is immense. Ironically, industry is transforming rapidly and feels that the universities and design students and parents can now systems, infrastructure schools are far behind the curve. afford expensive private design As tuition costs are significantly schools and these graduates may and facilities high, the students begin to wonder also continue to concentrate on about the return on their investment further economic gains. It is by no (ROI). (Unlike India, students means a bad scenario. However, in the developed nations borrow what we internationally lack funds from financial institutions or is the desirable balance of government institutions to furnish economic growth and an equal their education.) The design industry or greater concern for our looks for adequate soft skills besides fellow beings, animals, birds, the design skills. However, most insects, environment and overall design schools do not focus on soft wellbeing. skills and positioned only to deliver India has a different set of traditional design skills that have challenges than the developed roots in mid twentieth century. The world. Design education in the dilemma for the design academicians is choosing the developed world is systemic. Most design institutions right avenue. One avenue emphasizes the importance of secure accreditation (every three to five years) through education in terms of employment preparedness. The other a national agency (such as the National Association of avenue focuses on building a foundation for adaption in Schools of Art and Design — NASAD in the US) and are this technologically driven world. required to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations. Full Is the role of design education to tailor the growing time faculty members are hired through a rigorous process economic needs or is it to nurture a tenacious mindset for and are highly qualified. Students exercise their free will in a healthy world? selecting an institute that serves their disciplinary interests

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Mookesh Patel

The design industry is transforming rapidly and feels that the universities and design schools are far behind the curve

Higher Education Digest April 2019

and fund their own education. Hence, they are motivated to perform well in their respective studies.

Students in the developed nations are not alien to the concept of receiving a failing grade if they do not perform well. They pay by the credit hours for the class they opt to study and thus it is affordable to retake the class if they fail. There is little interference from their parents and the sole responsibility to succeed is always on the shoulders of the student.

Students work hard and secure their own future as design institutions do not guarantee any placement upon their graduation.

Most design institutions are well equipped with infrastructure and facilities. Students are able to access design labs and studios anytime they wish. At times they are able to consult with their respective faculty members and mentors beyond regular class and office hours as the faculty members too are working on their individual research projects in the same design labs and studios. On an average, faculty members are required to devote 40% of their time on teaching, 40% on their individual publishable research and 20% on institutional service.

The challenge that these institutions in the developed nations face is to keep the curriculum relevant considering the advancement in technology and the economic growth.

Indian design institutions still lack the appropriate systems, infrastructure and facilities. In most private design institutions faculty members are not required to conduct any research. They are randomly hired at the last minute based on institutional needs.

Considerable number of faculty members are not qualified to teach, as they do not have a graduate and/or postgraduate degree from a reputed institution, nor do they have adequate professional experience.

Entrance exams at most private institutions are questionable. The prime motivation for these institutions is to enroll a large number of students and hence the process is meaningless.

This approach leads to design studios filled with more than 25 students. It is impossible for any studio faculty to interact productively with so many students in a design studio. The curriculum is mostly unstructured and poorly

delivered if at all. A large number of these design institutions are not governed by any national or international regulatory body.

Grades (as a measure of performance) are meaningless at these private design institutions. Students are guaranteed to graduate in four years and subsequent industry placement also promised. No wonder there is significantly low attendance record in the design classrooms across the board and subsequently below par performance and expertise.

Making Multi-Disciplinary Thinkers Design is multi-disciplinary in its nature to begin with. Irrespective of the design discipline, any design project will involve aspects of science, engineering, programming, fine arts, psychology, commerce and many others. Most design schools continue to work within the studio-based environment with a faculty member enacting as a client.

Students go through ideation and prototyping phases. Through the process of trial and error, they assume the success of a hypothetical project based on the implementation of their creative, aesthetic and technical expertise.

Student and faculty alike wear the hats of various experts without much endorsement by real experts. Thus, the effectiveness of their design solutions is not realized. Involvement of students in a project from other than design disciples legitimately address the unresolved and unanswered questions and fosters creative, unexpected and innovative results.

Few public as well as most private institutes are not equipped to house multi disciplines under one roof. Thus, it is difficult to nurture the multi-disciplinary creative environment necessary to educate creative and imaginative multi-disciplinary thinkers.

From that perspective, universities are better suited for design education. Various disciplines reside under one roof and faculty members frequently collaborate on their own research projects providing opportunities for students to work with them on real world projects. In my experience, creativity and imagination rise to a much higher level when students and faculty members from various disciples work together on a single project.

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Traditional design facilitators must keep themselves up to date with technology and design research

4040 Teaching Challenges Though the growth in design education is encouraging, lack of adequate and qualified faculty members is discouraging. Most designers with excellent portfolio, soft skills and work ethics have no difficulty in securing lucrative industry jobs. However, industry unemployed designers seek to teach design. As the number of academic design programs increase, these designers wanting to teach easily find teaching positions and have no difficulty in securing a permanent place at these newborn design institutions.

As these designers with less than excellent portfolios, inadequate soft skills and undesirable work ethics begin to teach, they prepare even less appropriate graduates. CII India Design Report 2015 mentions that 50% of the design industry representatives were not very satisfied with current graduates.

Traditional design facilitators must keep themselves up to date with technology and design research. Comprehending the role that digital data plays in design development is the key to future design successes. Their rigorous design research must include

Higher Education Digest April 2019

data analytics. Integration of new technologies in their pedagogy and curriculum is unavoidable and must not be resisted.

Wise Words for Students Current era driven by technology make the design profession much more lucrative and therefore attractive compared with other professional disciplines.

However, design students must be clear in their minds of what kind of a designer they would like to be. Design for commerce or design for wellbeing. Both avenues will demand creativity and imagination coupled with full understanding of how digital data works. Future designers will need to know how to analyze data and appropriately code to realize their projects regionally, nationally and internationally.

If a student is not interested in understanding systems and how they work, then design may not be for her or him. Future designers will have to broaden their horizons by learning skills from other than design disciplines to make themselves valuable within a collaborative environment. (As told to the editor)

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH EDU-TECH SOLUTION PROVIDER

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Co-Founders of Fourth Ambit: (from left) Shyam Menon (CMO), Ruby Peethambaran (CSO), Jikku Jolly (CTO) and Rahul Das (CEO)

FOURTH AMBIT MAKING MEANINGFUL

PARTNERSHIPS THAT

LAST LIFETIME Higher Education Digest April 2019

Founded in 2013, Fourth Ambit is a specialist online platform for colleges to build and nurture active student - alumni communities.

With more than 1900 colleges on board and a network of 220, 000 users, Fourth Ambit is on a mission to build one of the largest student-centric platforms in the world.

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our friends went apart after their college days. So many years passed. One fine day, all four of them came back to that old classroom, only to talk about those good old days and changes happened in their life afterwards. At the end of that get-together, four friends again went apart to wherever they came from.

It is a story of most of us as alumni of our alma mater. But, for Rahul Das, Jikku Jolly, Ruby Peethambaran and Shyam Menon, four batchmates of Model Engineering College, Kerala, being an alumni member means much more than just coming back to the old campus for a get-together. “Our college had an active alumni network, which was a great help for us during the placement time as well as when we entered the professional arena. This is not true for every other college in the country. Even the prestigious IITs are struggling to bring back their alumni to help ongoing students,” says Shyam Menon.

Believing that the alumni can make a considerable difference in the life of a student, Shyam and his friends, after spending more than 40 years between them in the corporate world, united once again to launch Fourth Ambit, a specialist networking platform to create value across stakeholders in the education ecosystem. “In 2013, We started our operations in Kerala, where we made a customized community portal for Government Engineering College, Thrissur, which has an alumni network of the past 60 years. By the mid of 2014, we had on-boarded many prestigious institutes like NIT Trichy, Manipal University, NMIMS, XIM Bhubaneshwar, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Bangalore and many more,” shares Shyam.

Fourth Ambit, as the name suggests, helps the institutes to extend opportunities for the students by bringing their successful alumni members back in the action. In fact, building online communities that will engage alumni, parents, corporate partners and other well-wishers, thereby facilitating value for their students and faculty members, is the core of Fourth Ambit’s vibrant platform. “Our community platforms can be used for skilling, promoting entrepreneurship, networking, jobs, internships, faculty capability building, higher education, social causes, technology evangelism and many more. We do it online as well as offline mode with an experienced team capable of working on the ground. This makes us unique and a trusted entity among the stakeholders of education sector,” pinpoints Shyam.

Fourth Ambit, as the name suggests, helps the institutes to extend opportunities for the students by bringing their successful alumni members back in the action

Building an Ecosystem Until 2016, Fourth Ambit’s focus was on building customized online community portals for institute across the country.

However, the company soon became a partner in Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), an initiative by Government of Kerala for creating a vibrant start up ecosystem in the state primarily to foster the growth of innovation lead technology

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Fourth Ambit has a large network of over 220, 000 users, including students, alumni members and other stakeholders of the higher education system

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entrepreneurship. “As a part of KSUM, the government wanted to conduct various workshops in colleges to make awareness among students about the importance entrepreneurship. We suggested an online solution for them, which was more convenient,” remembers Shyam.

KSUM was a game changer for Fourth Ambit, as their community platform saw a mass on-boarding of 120 colleges from Kerala alone.

“We started thinking big at that time, as we needed to build an entire ecosystem to support the institutions that are coming on board,” states Shyam. Since then, Fourth Ambit hardly had to look back. In 2017, the company signed MoU with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). As a part of this MoU, Fourth Ambit got the opportunity to work with the AICTE and its member institutions to leverage its online platform and technical infrastructure to setup

Higher Education Digest April 2019

private online community portals for AICTE approved institutions.

“Signing a pact with AICTE for setting up online community portals for over 10,000 technical institutions across the length and breadth of the country was perhaps the biggest contract we won. We knew that we have become one of most trusted technology partners for government agencies,” says Shyam.

AICTE – Fourth Ambit collaboration was an absolute turnaround for Shyam and his team. In 2018, Fourth Ambit and AICTE jointly launched the Kerala leg of their Internship Fair via Fourth Ambit’s online platform.

ASAP (Additional Skill Acquisition Programme), an initiative by the Government of Kerala for improving employability skills of students across Kerala, was also a partner in this campaign. “We have continued our partnerships with AICTE and the Department of Higher Education, Government of Kerala, to improve

the employability of students. This year, we have collaborated with them for the Grand Kerala Internship Drive, which will offer at least 10, 000 internship opportunities for students in the coming academic year,” shares Shyam.

Today, Fourth Ambit has a large network of over 220, 000 users, including students, alumni members and other stakeholders of the higher education system.

Backed by a robust tech platform, led by an inspired team, supported by corporate partners, enabled by AICTE and State Universities, the team behind Fourth Ambit is confident of creating history and nurturing a self-fulfilling valuebased ecosystem. “We want to build the largest student centric platform in the world. Considering the size of the Indian higher education system and the growing numbers students in the country, we do not think it is an impossible task,” concludes Shyam.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

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MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Higher Education Digest April 2019

I

n schools, most of us have been reproducing textbooks without applying critical thinking. This did not change much when we reached college. We carried the culture of rote learning all the way to our higher education. In fact, it is hard to blame the student community for not having critical thinking ability, as the research has always been segregated from teaching in our country. The result of such traditional way of learning was an entire generation of students who graduated from the university system without producing even a single original research. In the recent years, however, we have seen a considerable shift in the focus of Indian institutions.

Most of the premier institutions now emphasize a lot on generating new knowledge and they have been collaborating with global universities and industries to foster the much-needed research culture in the campus. As per the market reports, India ranks 6th position for scientific publications and ranks at 10th for patents which included only resident applications.

The number of patent applications filed by the Indian scientists and inventors has

gone up to 47,857 in FY18 from 46,904 in FY16. It is also fascinating to see India’s improvement in the Global Innovation Index for the second year consecutively.

From being ranked at the 66th position in 2016, India improved its ranking to 60th in 2017 and further to 57th in 2018. At present, the engineering R&D and product development market in India is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 20.55 per cent to reach US$ 45 billion by 2020 from US$ 28 billion in FY18.

The inaugural edition of the Higher Education Digest celebrates the success of Indian institutions that have been striving to bring the research and innovation culture in their campuses. With the help of our advisory panel consisting of senior academicians and practicing industry professionals, we have come up with a list of 25 Must Watch Campuses in India for Research and Innovation. We sincerely hope that our efforts to feature the premier institutions imparting best facilities for research and innovation will help students and faculty members from all over the country in their educational journey.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Institute Name

City, State

Amity University

Noida, Uttar Pradesh

Private University

Amrita College of Pharmacy

Cochin, Kerala

Pharmacy

Army Institute of Technology

Pune, Maharashtra

Engineering

Ashoka University

Sonipat, Haryana

Private University

Birla Institute of Technology and Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

Engineering

BMS Institute of Technology and Management

Bengaluru, Karnataka

Engineering

Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth

Pune, Maharashtra

Private University

Great Lakes Institute of Management

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Management

Indian School of Business

Hyderabad, Telangana

Management

International Management Institute

Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Management

JSS College of Pharmacy

Mysore, Karnataka

Pharmacy

LM Thapar School of Management

Behra, Punjab

Management

Management Development Institute

Gurgaon, Haryana

Management

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Specialization

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Institute Name

City, State

Specialization

Manipal Institute of Technology

Manipal, Karnataka

Engineering

MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad)

Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Marketing and Communication

Prin. L.N.Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research

Mumbai, Maharashtra

Management

PSG College Of Technology

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Engineering

R. V. College of Engineering

Bengaluru, Karnataka

Engineering

Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences

Bengaluru, Karnataka

Private University

SASTRA Deemed University

Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

Private University

SSN College of Engineering

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Engineering

Symbiosis School of Banking and Finance

Pune, Maharashtra

Banking and Finance

Great Lakes Institute of Management

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Management

T.A. Pai Management Institute

Manipal, Karnataka

Management

Thiagarajar College of Engineering

Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Engineering

Xavier School of Management

Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

Management

Higher Education Digest April 2019

ARMY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Training the

Tech-Force for Industry 4.0

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Established in 1994, Army Institute of Technology (AIT), Pune is a unique institution where only wards of army personnel are allowed admission. This year, AIT is celebrating its Silver Jubilee with some memorable events such as hackathons, Industry-AIT conclave, special Alumni get together and many more.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

F

ounded by General Bipin Chandra Joshi, a great leader who served the nation as the Chief of Army Staff, Army Institute of Technology was established primarily for taking care of the needs of higher education of Army wards. Until a few years ago, AIT was structured more as a teaching institute. However, in recent times, there has been substantial efforts to foster a culture of research and innovation inside the AIT campus. “It is true that most of the Indian institutes, especially private colleges are essentially teaching colleges. The basic objective of these colleges when they were established was to provide an engineering degree to students and meet the growing demand of technically skilled manpower of the society.

At AIT, we have taken many out-of-box initiatives to inculcate this culture of research and innovation,” opines Brig. Abhay A. Bhat (Retd), Director, Army Institute of Technology.

The institute has established various special labs in the campus, such as Product Innovation lab, IoT lab, Robotics and AI lab, Special Cyber security and AI lab in collaboration with industry partners. “We have been motivating and incentivizing faculty for attaining the PhD as well as presenting research papers in various conferences. Establishment of IIT Bombay remote center and the Institute Innovation Council, under the guidelines of MHRD and interbranch and intercollege technical competitions, including events such as Ideathons and paper presentations have also been a great encouragement for students and faculty members to take up innovative projects,” explains Brig. Bhat.

Today, AIT faculty and students are actively engaged in various research projects and outcome of these research projects are quality publications and patents.

Investigation of blind source separation approaches for MIMO communication systems, design and development of wireless power transfer charging system

AIT offers 300 seats for Engineering Course commencing in July 2019 (120 seats in Computer Engineering, 60 seats each in Mechanical Engineering, Information Technology and Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering).

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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The lawn in front of the Academic Block is the first view that visitors to the campus have and it is one of the preferred spots for a sit-down in the evenings.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

for active implantable medical devices, cost effective solution for solar panel cleaning system, development of innovative ball milling machine and design and development of new energy storage for HEV are some of the innovative projects taken up by AIT students and faculty members.

Connecting with the Industry “Challenges in engineering education are huge. Strong industry institute interaction, industry on campus, one faculty - one industry, internships and projects, sponsored labs are some meaningful ways to keep ourselves abreast,” shares Brig. Bhat. AIT has a robust partnership model with leading top industries and has a strong linkage in the form of sponsored labs, hackathons, model making events, Techno Utsav and MOOC implementation. The institute also a preferred destination for almost all top MNCs. TCS, Infosys, Deloitte, Dassault Systemes, INA Bearings, Forbes Marshall, NVidia, IBM, FT 42 Labs, Amdocs, Sigma Electric and

many more have strong partnership modules with AIT from last decade.

The consulting organizations like Deloitte, ZS Associates and Mu Sigma have established a strong linkage with AIT through technical competitions, cyber security competitions and data science competitions. The financial industries like Barclays has started finishing schools and hackathon for AIT candidates. Manufacturing industries like INA Bearings, John Deere, Dassault Systemes have dedicated technology challenges and industry sponsored labs. Pure IT service organizations like TCS, Infosys, Capgemini have involved AIT candidates through their online portals and competitions like CodeVita, EnginX, TESTimony.

Infosys has also shortlisted AIT for their new Technology and Engagement App – Infy TQ. “Recently, our students have won the prestigious KPIT Sparkle Innovation Challenge by bagging the prize of Rs 10 lakh,” adds Brig. Bhat. Apart from these industries, AIT candidates are constantly getting ranked in open events like IT Olympiad

Brig. Abhay A. Bhat (Retd), Director

by NASSCOM, IET India Scholarship, Chhatra Vishwakarma Award, NSE Hackathon, TEDx and Tech Next (CSI).

“Many of our alumni are working across the globe. Some of them have launched their own companies and are regularly recruiting from AIT. These include Mr. Preetpal Singh, CEO and founder of Hashmap Inc, USA, Mr. Vikram Sareen, CEO and founder of Blue Bricks group of companies (Australia) and many others. These mentors also visit AIT and guide the students on their future career paths. Many such alumni working in top MNCS abroad and in India ensure partnership and strong bonding with AIT,” explains Brig. Bhat. Many AIT alumni are entrepreneurs, who regularly interact and mentor students with such passion.

AIT’s objective is to produce students who have well developed physical, mental, technical and spiritual quotients. On completing the Engineering course from AIT, the students develop many qualities which provide them a great foundation for their future. “We do not have any immediate grand plans, except consolidating on our gains in immediate future. However, if approved by our Society, we plan to increase the intake to 360, by adding one more division in E&TC. We are also working towards getting approval for Academic Autonomy,” concludes Brig. Bhat.

Brig Abhay A. Bhat (Retd), an alumnus of National Defence Academy (NDA), was commissioned into the Corps of Signals in December 1982. He has done his B.Tech. in Electronics and Telecommunications from Military College of Telecommunications Engineering, Mhow (MCTE).

Brig. Bhat has graduated from the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, where Army officers are trained in the nuances of staff function of various operations. Due to his professional caliber, he was sponsored by the Army to attain M Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT, Kanpur. The officer has also acquired a Master’s degree in Personnel Management from Pune University.

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ACADEMIC VIEW

India

:

Towards Becoming the Global Destination for

Higher Education 54

By Dr. Jitendra Kumar Mishra, Director, MATS Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship A PhD holder in Economics, Dr. Jitendra’s experience spread over a period of two decades in various facets of Academia. He has published 40 research papers in reputed national and international journals, and has delivered the Invited Talks, Keynote Talks and functioned as a Resource Person for different programmes, conferences and seminars organized by reputed management institutes, Universities; and professional bodies such as ISTD, AICTE and NHRD. Presently, he is rendering his services as Director of MATS Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bengaluru. He is also serving as the Regional Vice-President of AIMS for Southern Region.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

H

igher education is the engine of growth in the knowledge economy. The scope and speed of the prosperity and progress is determined by the quality and scale of higher education in the countries world over.

The changing world economic order coupled with the advancement of information technology has created new set of opportunities for the talent across the globe. All these developments have changed the landscape of higher education to match the post globalization requirements including the distribution of demand and sources of supply. These changes have led to emergence of the new streams of programmes, impact/outcome-based approach in teaching-learning, more of domain specific programmes and programmes of shorter duration. Thus, the policy framework and the regulatory framework should change accordingly to cater to the changed requirements of the higher education.

demand for the higher education is fueled by the increasing income, and demographic change leading to increase in population in the college going age bracket. Contrary to India, in the western countries the conventional institutions are getting closed because of declining enrolments led by the decline in the population in the college going age bracket. The demographic changes clearly indicate that in coming years the largest number of enrolments in higher education world over will be of Indian students.

Obstacles to Overcome Although, India has a glorious past of higher education wherein the modern concept of University style education centres were established as back as around 6 BC at Nalanda and Takshila, after the British rule, the quality of higher education failed to maintain its distinction and the quality of higher education in the country kept deteriorating. PostIndependence, governments have been trying to address

The demographic changes clearly indicate

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that in coming years the largest number of enrolments in higher education world over will be of Indian students

Unfolding Opportunities Indian higher education is one of the largest and it is growing even larger. According to EY “Higher education in India: Vision 2030� report, India will be one of the youngest nations in the world by 2030 with approximately 140 million people in the college-going age group. It offers a distinct opportunity for higher education in India. India would thus be one of the largest pools of talent in the world provided it could create world class higher education institutions According to the reports of All India Survey on Higher Education 2017-18, there were 903 Universities, 39,051 Colleges and 10,011 Stand Alone Institutions spread across the country. Also, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education has increased from 24.5% in 2015-16 to 25.8% in 2017-18 which is marginally higher than the GER target of 12th Plan Document. Further, the growth in

the issue of quality in education across the institutions and streams by multiple initiatives. In this direction, the University Grants Commission (UGC), a statutory body was established in 1956 through a Parliament Act and it was followed by the constitution of a number of councils such as, AICTE, DEC, NCTE, Medical Council, Bar Council, Architecture Council and other regulatory bodies to ensure quality of education in the respective domain of education. In spite of the best of intensions behind constituting these regulatory bodies to give direction to the higher education in the country and ensure worldclass standards of quality, there has been complexity and ambiguity on account of independent rules and regulations but overlap in functions of each of these regulatory bodies.

The regulators have been perceived to be a hurdle in development of institutions, restricting the autonomy of the respective institutions in innovating the programmes

Higher Education Digest April 2019

and courses, raising funds for improving the quality and so on rather than facilitating them to innovate and grow.

Additionally, the lack of financial grants for research, absence of culture of a collaborative research, lack of rigorous research training, and research-based career tracks in academics, constraints due to inadequate infrastructure and facilities in institutions of higher education have resulted in the emergence of islands of excellence and continents of mediocrity.

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During the last five years, quality of education has drawn significant attention in government as well as in the general public

Over last two decades India has focused on transforming the higher education landscape in the country. It has followed a differentiated three-tiered university system wherein each tier has a distinct strategic objective based on its strengths. Also, the institutions in each category are designed to cater to the different categories of educational needs. Further, considering the socio-economic diversity of the population, technology is being used to ensure

Higher Education Digest April 2019

access and build balance between excellence and equity.

The higher education reform also focuses on creating a student-centric learning-driven (outcome-based learning) model of education, making teaching an attractive career path, expanding capacity for doctoral students for research at universities etc.

During the last five years, quality of education has drawn significant attention in government as well as in the general public. The initiative has been taken to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) with the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) and separate the functions of funding and regulation. Also, Institutions of Eminence Scheme was launched to develop 10 private and ten government institutions to match the best of the institutions in the world in respect of teaching and research.

These institutions are provided with greater autonomy and dedicated funds to develop requisite capabilities and adapt the highest standards in teaching, research and innovation.

The efforts of reforms are reflected in the fact that Indian institutions are gradually recognizing the need for global recognition for the quality of education and are actively participating in the global rankings. India has been the second most represented nation after China among the 43 countries in the Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings 2019 conducted across four continents. There were total 49 Indian Institutions having participated in the ranking out of which 25 institutions secured place in Top 200 in the list.

Way Forward Presently, India is standing at a pivotal juncture with a potential of becoming an affordable and quality higher education destination for the world. To leverage this opportunity, the country needs to have an integrated long-term Education Policy defining the standards of quality right from the school level to tertiary level of education. The policy should incorporate the opportunities arising from the globally changing socio-economic and demographic order and address the issue of quality across all the levels of education to ensure that the relevant and responsive professional are developed. It needs to make the higher education institutions free from the bureaucratic clutches and government control by fast-paced and sustainable reforms focusing on creating world class institutions of higher education. The issues of equity, access and affordability could be addressed by a separate model of education based on technology, and the focus on quality research and innovation across the institutions should not be jeopardized. A value driven high quality higher education can provide an unparalleled advantage for economic growth and prosperity to the country.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

BMS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

Established in 2002, BMS Institute of Technology and Management (BMSIT&M) is an offshoot of BMS College of Engineering, the first private engineering college in India founded by late B.M. Sreenivasaiah, a philanthropist and a great visionary who realized the necessity of technical education even before the country got independence. Having all its eligible educational programs accredited by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA), and accredited by National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) with ‘A’ grade, BMSIT&M is pursuing Outcome Based Education (OBE) in its true spirit to make students capable of solving any industrial or societal problems.

Higher Education Digest March 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

A

ttending workshops and reading trade journals will help educators to gain some knowledge of advances in the technology. A working engineer, however, will often have firsthand knowledge and experience with latest devices, techniques and material relating to his/her field. So, should an educator try to keep up with a working engineer? The answer is a resounding yes and proving it to the world is Bangalore-based BMS Institute of Technology and Management (BMSIT&M), one of a very few engineering colleges in the country where all the faculty members have been undergoing industry internships, year after year.

“As a forward-looking institution, we are pursuing all the possible ways to leverage the ecosystem around us to achieve our vision. Bangalore being one of the commercial hubs in the country helps us a lot in making a strong industry connect”, says Dr. Mohan Babu G. N., Principal, BMS Institute of Technology and Management. At BMSIT&M, faculty members are not the only community that actively seeks the much-needed industry connect. BMSIT&M facilitates its students to undergo industry internship right from the first year to enhance their skills and be industry ready. In the last 18 months, close to 2000 students of BMSIT&M have completed internships in over 530 companies.

“Now, you can imagine the quality of discussion that happens in the classroom when you have students and faculty members with industry exposure meeting face to face. The interactions are largely based on the industrial problems, rather than academic and textbook knowledge,” adds Dr. Mohan Babu. The institute has signed several MoU with reputed industry players to offer employability enhancement courses, facilitate project based learning, and set up labs in the campus which enable its students to carry out research projects and avail training on emerging technologies to be more valuable to industry. MOU with NAL, GTRE, KPIT, Valluri Technology Accelerators, Tata Elxsi, Texas Instruments - Edgate, Volvo, and Federal Mogul are few names to mention from that list.

An active industry-institute relation support by cuttingedge research facilities has helped BMSIT&M to establish collaborations with many foreign entities. Recently, a team of delegates from Czech Republic led by Mr. Milan Havorka, Czech Ambassador to India, had visited the BMSIT&M campus. “We will be having an MoU with Czech Republic for a faculty and student exchange program. We will also help them to solve certain practical problems in the project they are planning to do in India,” shares Dr. Mohan Babu.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

By successfully implementing bold and innovative initiatives to improve the quality of learning, this 17-yearold institution has cemented its position among the premier engineering colleges in the country. Despite being an affiliated college of Visvesvaraya Technological University, BMSIT&M was ranked 95th best engineering college by NIRF in 2017, overtaking many autonomous colleges in the list.

Facilitating the Creation of Knowledge

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When it comes to the qualification required for people to be a part of the institute’s faculty team, BMSIT&M has set the bar so high compared to the AICTE norms. “A Ph.D degree from a reputed institution is mandatory to join our institution as a faculty member. The ones who have joined earlier with an M.Tech degree need to complete their Ph.D by 2021. We also give a lot of incentives and encouragement for faculty members who are actively participating in the research activities,” claims Dr. Mohan Babu. At present, 35 percent of the faculty members hold Ph.D and remaining 65 percent are pursuing research at BMSIT&M. Dr. Mohan Babu pinpoints, “Most of the institutions in India are traditional in thinking. To break this barrier, we should allow our faculty members to experiment on teaching and research.

Sometimes, we may fail. Here, we are open to failure and we encourage new methodologies of teaching and learning.” A team of highly innovative and experienced faculty members headed by the Principal is one of the major strengths of BMSIT&M. The institute conducts a weekly one-hour meeting named ‘Gyanvardhan,’ where one of the professors will present his/ her research work before all other senior faculty members.

This interaction has helped exploring possibilities of looking at problems from a multidisciplinary perspective in the pursuit of more effective solutions. Isn’t it that every engineering problem is multidisciplinary in nature?” questions Dr. Mohan Babu.

Dr. Mohan Babu G.N., Principal Dr. Mohan Babu G.N., a Ph.D degree holder in Technology Management from IIT Madras, has been working in the engineering education sector for 33 years now. He has served institutions of repute namely, Malnad College of Engineering, Hassan, and M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, before taking over as the Principal of BMSIT&M in July 2015. His specializations include Industrial Engineering, Business Management, Strategic planning, Technology Management, and Creative Design of Engineering Systems. He is known in the education circle as a leader with clarity of vision and commitment to build institutions. Under his leadership BMSIT&M is growing from height to height.

BMSIT&M has created tech forums and clubs across the departments in the campus to foster technical interest among students.

Higher Education Digest April 2019 March 2019

Delegations from Czech Republic led by Mr. Milan Havorka, Czech Ambassador to India, visiting BMS campus.

Turning Intellectual Capital into Marketable Products Today, BMSIT&M is not only strong in the area of applied and developmental research, but also making positive strides in promoting basic research which is lacking in many Indian institutions. “Developmental research is all about refining practical solutions for problems into products/processes that are marketable at a large scale. However, it is the cutting-edge basic research that holds the key to economic supremacy of a nation.

While, foreign universities focus more on such basic research, most of the Indian institutions are finding it difficult dig deeper than applied and developmental research” states Dr. Mohan Babu.

To encourage students and faculty members to make viable products, BMSIT&M has created innovation cells and incubation center in the campus. Dr. Mohan Babu says, “We have tied-up with many industry consultants to identify commercial value of the projects that we do here.” At present, BMSIT&M has more than 15 students running their businesses from within the campus.

Most of them are into IT sector. “A few of our students have already taken off from the incubation center and built their own enterprises outside,” adds Dr. Mohan Babu.

Now, BMSIT&M is on the verge of achieving an important milestone in its journey – the autonomous status. Dr. Mohan Babu and his team are gearing up for the challenge. “We have made all the necessary arrangements to apply for autonomous status.

However, as autonomy is a double-edged sword, only meticulous planning and committed execution would help raise the quality of education.” pinpoints Dr. Mohan Babu. BMSIT&M is also introducing an undergraduate program in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from the academic year 2019-20 to prepare students to face the challenges of Industry 4.0. Once that happens, BMSIT&M would become the first engineering college under AICTE to offer this UG program in the country.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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LM THAPAR SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Developing Internationally

Savvy Leaders 62

Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Under the flagship of Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (Deemedto be-University), a 61-year-old academic institution, LM Thapar School of Management (LMTSM) was established in 2007 in the erstwhile princely state of Patiala, Punjab. As a business education pioneer in Northern India, the institute transforms graduates into professionals with a unique platform of global exposure with experiential learning.

T

he current management education system in India was designed when standardized learning and testing aimed to prepare young people to succeed in standardized jobs and homogeneous communities. Considering that the world is becoming more interconnected and interdependent, this outdated system will not be able to prepare all students for success. With an excellent education approach that goes beyond global awareness, LM Thapar School of Management (LMTSM) is ready to take up that challenges of the modern world. The institute courageously stands not only to change the way world conducts business, but also the way business schools engage the world. “We are convinced that creating a new world business order must start at home and an old nation like India is the right place to start this revolution.

We have collaborated with many international universities in this regards to give our students a global-edge over others,� Dr. Padmakumar Nair, Director of LMTSM, who is enriched with an experience of more than 32 years and formerly worked as Clinical Professor and Academic Director at The Leadership Center, SOM, University of Texas, Dallas. LMTSM has active collaborations with universities in

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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With students from across India, the techsavvy campus of LMTSM has a residential facility for over 500 students.

Dr. Padmakumar Nair, Director Dr. Padmakumar Nair, prior to his current position as the Director & Dean at LM

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Thapar School of Management, has been a Clinical Professor of organisation, strategy and international management and the Academic Director of the Leadership Centre at the University of Texas, Dallas, USA. Having worked both in academia and industry, he has an illustrious experience of over 32 years in diverse industries from oil and gas (Shell in Amsterdam) and education (Denmark, US, Japan, Netherlands, China) to consultancy (Price Waterhouse Coopers, Japan, UK and US) and advanced R&D (Netherlands, Japan and US). Dr. Padmakumar specializes in organizational leadership, entrepreneurship and nanotechnology and is a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge (UK), University of Twente (Netherlands), Chonnam National University (South Korea) and Wuhan University (China).

Higher Education Digest April 2019

countries such as the US, Netherlands, Italy, Malta (EU), Austria, Denmark, Ireland and Israel, which help them to remain at the forefront of global management practice and provide global exposure to the students and faculty.

“At LMTSM, we practice a strong collaborative culture with our partner universities which helps facilitate development of joint academic programs, collaborative research and student and academic staff exchange. It offers our graduates an opportunity to undergo internships and scholastic programs at various foreign universities,” adds Dr. Padmakumar. LMTSM’s global initiatives like the Global Immersion Program is another feather in its cap, which gives its graduates a unique opportunity for summer internship outside India.

Along with exposure to business and markets in a different country, this provides a window to the host country’s culture as well.

At present, LMTSM has nine academic units with six centers-of-excellence. In addition to the core courses and doctoral programs, there are various open electives which are offered to students catering to the dynamic business trends. “The centers-of-excellence are established with a view to strengthening teaching, research, consulting and community engagement. Each center is created around a contemporary management theme with the primary goal of creating, disseminating and applying knowledge,” pinpoints Dr. Padmakumar.

At LMTSM, all faculty members of the school

have at least one primary affiliation and multiple secondary affiliations to various centers. Indeed, these centers are interdisciplinary abode for collaboration among faculty, scholars, students and industry for research and interaction through seminars, workshops, projects, conferences, conclaves, summits, student competitions, and development and training programs.

On the other side, LMTSM aspires to nurture and develop GLOCAL graduates - MBA Graduates who appreciate the interconnections between global and local issues. Dr. Padmakumar shares, “We strongly believes in and practices sustainability. For really infusing the philosophy of sustainability in students and society, we have introduced a Year-long course on sustainability in our MBA Program.” The course named Sustainability-In-Practice is a cross-year team-based course and runs for two semesters. It focuses on the interdisciplinary aspects related to sustainability such as Energy, Environment, Ethics, Economics, and use of Natural Resources. “The course exposes students to the challenges of human existence and then focuses on developing sustainable solutions. In

teams, students design and execute real-life projects which are topical and relevant to businesses’ and society,” adds Dr. Padmakumar.

With the successful implementation of groundbreaking ideas in the management educations sector, over the years, the brand ‘Thapar’ has created a niche for itself in the business world.

This has resulted in best organizations offering challenging profiles to our students through the campus placement process. “Our graduates are known for their disciplined approach and strong fundamentals. The unique ‘Thapar’ culture is such that it invigorates the students’ passion for achieving excellence in everything they do,” opines Dr. Padmakumar. In fact, Thapar students are always eager to take up bold tasks, create new benchmarks and be the first to respond to the needs of the society. “In would where most of the jobs are replaced by intelligent systems, we want to prepare our students for the Industrial Revolution 4.0. This year, we are starting new MBA in Business Analytics and Big Data. We also want to uberize our business school by digitizing and automating the functions to get the optimum results,” concludes Dr. Padmakumar.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Stay as a

Student to Survive in this World of

Dynamic Technologies Shweta Gugnani Kapoor, Global Director - Office of CIO, CSC

66 Shweta Gugnani Kapoor, in her role as Global Director of CSC, works with the Office of CIO and she is responsible for running IT Strategy, Governance, Portfolio, Communication and Org Change Management for global CSC IT. She has established from zero base a strong policy and process for Portfolio Management which evaluates projects from ideation stage, through to funding, approval, execution tracking up to transition to Service Management.

D

irectionally, we are moving rapidly towards experiential optimization. In every industry around, the already arrived need is to improve the experience across all touchpoints - whether with customers, with employees or with communities. Any leader who wishes to make an impact must provide continuous experience delight. To power these experiences, companies are working to build seamless data banks, analytics capability to interpret this data and build multiple channels to touch

Higher Education Digest April 2019

their target audience. Another big wave that is gaining momentum is personalized B2C marketing. Tapping potential mindshare is no longer about broad-brush marketing; it is a tailored assessment of how share of wallet per individual can be redirected. Companies are investing heavily in marketing technology that helps them go down to the individuals and help them make loyalty choices or collateral purchases (buying products in the same value circles).

Challenges in Recruiting Indian Talents

Opportunities for Fresh Graduates

The Indian talent pool has the superlative ability to quickly adapt to industry requirement waves and as such provides a very strong advantage to companies recruiting. Having said that, globally education is going through a re-think.

How often does a new recruit start employment and wonder what use he put his/ her studies to? So, there is a strong learn-on-the-job phenomenon across many roles.

Recruiting in India very often helps acquire generalist skills. For value generation however, deep specialist skills are better suited. Often, only on the job learning creates the high skill resource but at a high cost. With more availability of specialist skills at entry levels, India could be a more attractive destination for value-based job roles.

Given the pace at which industry is moving towards digital and artificial intelligence, we have a strong need for education to provide business understanding and equip students with skills to deploy this appreciation through technological intelligence.

Technology is an industry that thrives on fresh graduates.

Not just because of the cost proposition, but also because there is a continued need for infusion of new skills, newer abilities. There is a strong need for fresh graduates in all areas of cloud, analytics and data scientists, robotics and AI, blockchain. Along with these, there is a need to build a workforce that is able govern and secure this evolving technology landscape. So cyber & digital security is an area of huge need.

Some trends are gaining momentum and here skills supply is grappling to keep pace with the demand.

Precision technology is finding uses in multiple industries specially in healthcare. Marketing technology is evolving to better engage the end customer and Martech/ Adtech are also opportunity spaces in IT companies that support healthcare, hospitality, retail sectors. Money tech or the codification of money has been gaining strength for a while now. No longer does anyone carry money in the wallet, now just tap and transact, swipe and pay. Another certain area of focus is Digital Cities. So, Digital town planning and urban infrastructure management is quickly becoming very relevant.

Skills Required Survive in Today’s Industry Education performance is only one metric of a student’s potential to perform. Between a higher graded fresher and one with higher ability to work out-of-the-box, I would prefer the latter.

In today’s context, companies must consider three key skills:

How to Keep the Employees Engaged and Motivated

Just as companies are going all out to delight customers, it is as important to be a workplace of choice to delight • Does the candidate have a good business understanding employees. Some of the most crucial engagements with supported by technical competence or vice versa (strong our employees is when they are hired or when they retire. technical capability supported by business appreciation)?

At both events, it is extremely crucial to have processes Being digital natives, coding in Python & languages of that simplify and provide the employee a comfortable the now, working with BI, chatbot development have now experience. As a new joiner comes in, seamless integration become as necessary as the 3R’s of yore. within a company allows HR, Finance, IT, facilities to work together and have his welcome pack ready with his • Can the candidate hold up to aptitude tests? Assessing email ID/ access set up, space allocated and so on. potential recruits for their ability to work with unknown set Recently, there have been Virtual Reality tours set of variables; perform under up for new joiners to stress; think out-of-thetour the company beyond box would come extremely geographic borders, meet handy. the leadership and get inducted into the culture • Does the candidate and values of the company.

Between a higher have the appropriate soft This in fact has been so skills to support careers in successful, even existing graded fresher and one corporates/ startups? Key employees are signing among these are teaming up. Unlike the impersonal with higher ability to and collaboration skills. induction packs or Are his interpersonal skills leadership sound bites on work out-of-the-box, I and linguistic abilities intranet, VR technology is appropriate for the role? allowing people to literally would prefer the latter

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Developing a core

roam the Global HQ, have a tete-a-tete with some leaders, observe a client interaction or even join in on the monthly birthday celebration of the team counterparts in California office.

Supporting this, is the backbone of end user services - technology that allows employees to more efficiently conduct their daily jobs.

Collaboration tools for communication; teaming technology for program management across virtual teams; strong and standard processes across payroll, performance appraisal and so on. Employees who feel fairly treated are able to deliver the job roles they are in. Employees who have visibility to the company’s vision & successes, and growth opportunities for themselves are likely to be more engaged and motivated to perform.

Since a large number of careers of the future are technology driven businesses; Fintech, Agritech, Precisiontech, Paymentech and many more. I would advise students who pick any area of interest to specialize and work also on automation technologies around it. Developing a core industry understanding gives a strong business appreciation, but enabling technologies are a certain future. For students in technology, coding the new codes, digital technologies around data, Analytics, cloud, robotics are inevitable skill needs. As important also is the need to have a business understanding and customer/ client centric approach.

Technologists of today cannot afford to build technologies to which the world adapts. They must be agile, directed to business outcomes and have to provide delightful user experience.

Another key advise from me is to stay a student. It was always a valued skill but now more than ever, this will help keep you relevant. Just passing out of college and getting the dream job no longer provides a career. Skill asks are ever evolving and it is as important to keep in tune with this evolution. Re-skilling is not a bonus, it is a necessity to continuously upskill, reskill and multi-skill. Careers are no longer linear and so use the talent cloud to stay aware of newer opportunities and gain skills that align with emerging demands. Last food for thought advice - a big brand no longer represents the last word in innovation, given the start-ups and incubations the world over. So, choose your employer wisely - check for the services they provide, how those have evolved in the recent past, investments that company has made in new age technologies/ industries, what are the key skilling and innovation opportunities you have access to. Make these factors as much a part of the placement assessment to find the right place for beginning your career. (As told to the editor)

industry understanding

gives a strong business appreciation, but

enabling technologies are a certain future

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The Road Ahead in Talent Acquisition So far, many companies created pyramids by fresh hiring, typically going to colleges to hire graduates. As talent sourcing is developing and digital technologies are enabling in-source and co-source models, many companies are finding pockets of skills within the company/ partner ecosystems. Given the virtual collaboration technology option, talent can be sourced from any location too. So, in some ways, while talent pool has increased, it is also a great opportunity for talent in India to find roles and opportunities with global projects.

Incidentally, many large IT organizations and large IT captives have their own university/college where fresh hires are inducted and trained for the specific roles that they will be employed in. This shifts weightage of talent acquisition parameters from technical expertise to competence and aptitude.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Advice to the Students

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH YOUNG TALENTS

Vetrivel Anand

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POWER OF

PLANTS An Aeronautical Engineering Student’s Saga of

Generating

Electricity from Living Plants Higher Education Digest April 2019

Vetrivel Anand, a final year Aeronautical Engineering student of Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, lives with his father and sister in a rented apartment in Chennai. Aspired to become a volleyball player in his school days, Anand is now turning kitchen gardens into electric powerhouses using a scalable plantbased microbial fuel cell technology.

T

he summer is here and the power cuts too. What if we can switch on the fan using the electricity that we generated through our rooftop garden? It is not a science fiction, but a reality. Vetrivel Anand, who is in his final year of Aeronautical Engineering at Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, has found a solution to create electricity from living plants. Anand has designed a scalable plant-based microbial fuel cell technology, which will generate electricity in the same area where the food is produced, or where the nature is protected. In the KPIT Sparkle 2019, an annual national design and development innovation contest conducted by KPIT, Anand’s innovation received second prize of worth Rs. 2, 50, 000. He has also applied for provisional patent for his groundbreaking innovation.

Today, Anand not only possesses the brilliance of a technology student but also has the determination of a

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sportsman who thinks of winning every game that he plays.

“Millions of people around the world do not have access to electricity. In our country, many villages are not yet connected to the electric grid due to the infrastructure challenges. But we have plants everywhere and using microbial fuel cell technology, we can generate electricity at a lower cost compared to solar and wind energies. This green electricity is absolutely renewable and sustainable,” explains Anand. Although, World Bank figures show that around 200 million people in India still lack access to electricity, India is doing a good job on electrification by connecting 30 million people to the grid every year. While we are aiming to achieve the target of universal access to electricity before the 2030, Anand’s idea of generating green electricity will not only help us in the electrification of remote parts of the country, but also will make our homes green again.

How does it Work?

Anand’s innovation works on a simple and straightforward principle.

He says, “Plants excrete organic matter into the soil, which is broken down by bacteria. In this process, electrons are released. We can harvest them using inert electrodes and turn them into electricity, without affecting the plant’s growth in any way.” The electricity

Higher Education Digest April 2019

generated from roots of the plants can be stored into a Microbial fuel cell, a bio-electrochemical device that harnesses the power of respiring microbes to convert organic substrates directly into electrical energy.

However, Microbial fuel cell was not Anand’s first choice when he started his research in second year of Aeronautical Engineering. “I was working on a solution based on Hydrogen Fuel Cells. But too many people were working on the same topic and I wanted to do something unique. After a few months of contemplation, I figured it out and started my research on Microbial fuel cell,” shares Anand.

Waiting for the confirmation on his patent application, Anand’s innovation is unparallel in our nation. Apart from a few researches that are happening in the northern part of the US, not many are working on generating electricity from plants, as there is a challenge in realistic scale up of this technology. But Anand is confident on its industrial use. He says, “It is possible to generate large amount of electricity, if we could use this technology effectively in the huge agriculture landscapes like rice paddy fields. Like, windmills and solar panels, we do not have climate dependency issues in making green electricity.”

Everything Happens for a Reason

Apart from a few

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researches that are happening in the northern part of the US, not many are working on generating electricity from plants, as there is a challenge in realistic scale up of this technology.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Anand’s efforts in the realm of science and technology are now equally appreciated by the industry leaders and academic community.

But there was time when Anand was cheered for his athletic abilities.

As a volleyball player and an athlete who had participated in national level school games, Anand gained his admission in Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research as a sportsman. Since education for sports quota students was free of cost at Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Anand’s father, a tractor driver, did not contemplate much on moving to rented house in Chennai from his native in Tuticorin (known officially as Thoothukudi).

But, life in Chennai had something else to offer for Anand. “My volleyball coach moved from our college five months after I joined. I did not know what to do and started focusing on my studies instead of sports, as I did not see any progress in my career as an athlete,” says Anand. Today, he not only possesses the brilliance of a technology student, but also has the determination of a sportsman who thinks of winning every game that he plays. “The college management supports me very well in my research. They have given me all the facilities including laptop and workspace to continue my work inside the campus,” shares Anand.

Now, Anand is about to finish his Aeronautical Engineering and he expects three things to happen in his life before he comes out from the college; a job to take care of his family, a provision to continue his research, and a ‘Yes’ from ‘Gravity.’ “I have a one-side love story and I call her Gravity,” blushes Anand. In fact, when Anand participated in KPIT Sparkle 2019, Gravity was the name he had given for his team.

He adds, “She knows that I call her by the name Gravity, but I never had the courage to talk to her about this.” But we are sure that with the kind of determination and never give up attitude, Anand will win this game too. We wish him all the best.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

PSG COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Instilling a Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

PSG College of Technology, fondly known as PSG Tech, is an educational landmark of Coimbatore, the textile city of India. Since its inception in 1951, PSG Tech has been attracting the best expertise in science, technology and management to train students effectively in various domains and to instill in them a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.

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Dr. R. Rudramoorthy, Principal

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hen PSG & Sons’ Charities Trust (1926), one of the oldest charitable organizations in the country, decided to set up an engineering institute in Coimbatore, the founders had only one vision in mind; an effective industryinstitute interaction. They wisely placed PSG College of Technology (PSG Tech) in the same campus of the PSG Industrial Institute, a pioneer in the manufacture of Machine Tools in India. “Be it teaching, research or any other activities, we always try to connect it with the industry and through them, to the society. In fact, PSG Tech from the inception has been focusing on doing things that are relevant to the industry,” says Dr. R. Rudramoorthy, Principal, PSG College of Technology.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

A cross fertilization of theory with practice through a close collaboration of educational institution and industry is one of the unique features of PSG Tech

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The presence of a thriving industry like the PSG Industrial Institute, which manufactures several engineering products, like process and agricultural pumps, industrial motors, high quality specialty castings and so on, offers an unparalleled experience of learning for the students of PSG Tech. This close industry connection enables students to study the actual production processes and gives them an opportunity to observe the working of industry. In fact, for the past few years, AICTE and CII have consistently ranked PSG Tech as the Institution with Best Industry Linkage.

“At PSG Tech, we focus more on the industry related applied research. We work very closely with the industry to understand their issues and help them to find solution through our research activities. It also increases our chances of taking up a good number of consultancy projects too,” shares Dr. Rudramoorthy. PSG Tech has an army of faculty members. “We have more than 600 faculty members in our institution and more 350 of them are PhD holders,” adds Dr. Rudramoorthy. It is indeed mandatory for faculty members to indulge in some form of research activities at the PSG Tech. The management also promotes research and innovation of both students and faculty members through various incentive schemes.

“More than 20 percentage of our students are interested in pursuing higher education and research, for which a research experience is mandatory. So, the faculty members always involve students in their research projects.

We also have an exclusive Research Council to help students with necessary guidance and funding,” explains Dr. Rudramoorthy. Currently, PSG Tech has a student strength of over 9100 and among them over 500 are

Higher Education Digest April 2019

research scholars. “Several of our students across various years and branches opt to attend a Summer School at overseas Universities that offer such programs. Students also take up a one-semester study abroad program as part of their curriculum,” adds Dr. Rudramoorthy.

PSG Tech has a long-term relationship with many global universities, including the University of South Australia, University of New South Wales, University of Taylors Engineering and University of Flinders-Australia, University of HoF Applied Sciences and University Hochschule Esslingen of Applied Sciences - Germany, University of Colorado State, USA, Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom. On the other side, PSG Tech maintains close interaction with several R&D Institutions and institutions of higher learning in India and abroad, through institutional network programs and collaborative research programs. They have also set up several advanced centres with financial support from the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Ministry of Science and Technology and other agencies.

Making Entrepreneurs Since 1980s A cross fertilization of theory with practice through a close collaboration of educational institution and industry is one of the unique features of PSG Tech. “As an institute that closely work with industry, entrepreneurship support has always been a hallmark of PSG Tech,” mentions Dr. Rudramoorthy. While, a startup culture slowing picking in the campuses all over the country, PSG Tech had started an Entrepreneurship Development Center as early as the

Students of PSG Tech, Cadet Parambveer Shringa and Cadet V Mounikha attended Republic Day 2019 Camp at Delhi and took part in Rajpath March past and Prime Minister Rally.

Currently, PSG Tech has a student strength of over 9100 and among them over 500 are research scholars

1980s. Later in 1998, the center has been coveted to PSG-Science & Technology Entrepreneurial Park (PSGSTEP) with the support from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, IDBI and ICICI. Ever since its inception, PSG-STEP has been playing a critical role in creating an enabling eco-system to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among the students, faculty, and researchers and for the people from the community. PSG-STEP has also been identified as the nodal agency by various government departments to implement the schemes and programs to promote innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship in the region.

“Over 150 companies have already been graduated from the PSG-STEP, most of them are founded by our alumni members. Right now, we have incubated more than 75 companies, which means, the opportunities of doing internships and gaining some hand-on experience are very high here,” shares Dr. Rudramoorthy.

Today, PSG Tech is extremely proud of its alumni, a considerable number of them being entrepreneurs or senior executives in industries both within India and abroad; and a few of them having established their own educational institutions. The growth and development of the college owes much to the untiring efforts of Dr. G.R. Damodaran, Founder Principal of PSG College of Technology. “We already have a couple of companies to do business with the outside word. In the coming years, we will have more such companies where our faculty member will be involved,” concludes Dr. Rudramoorthy, an instrumental personality in the modernization of PSG Tech and one of the longest serving principals of the institution.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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RV COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

A Thriving Ecosystem for Interdisciplinary

Research and Innovation

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Established in 1963, RV College of Engineering (RVCE) is on a mission to achieve excellence in technical education, research and consulting through an outcome-based curriculum focusing on continues improvement and innovation by benchmarking with global practices. Today, RVCE focuses on creating transformative opportunities, strengthening collaborative partnerships and maximizing the societal impact through cutting-edge research and innovation.

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hetan D Kabade was getting ready to go for a vacation at the end of his first year of Electronics and Communication, when he heard the news of recruiting new members to the Astra Robotics, a freshly minted students’ club of RV College of Engineering. Being a robotic enthusiast from high schools, Chetan could not resist himself and stayed back at the campus to be a part of Astra. After several rounds of interviews, he became a club member, which changed his student life at RVCE forever.

“RVCE has more than 16 student clubs, each of them working like a startup. Astra Robotics, though a new club, is no different. From raising funds to managing teams for different competitions and projects, students oversee everything,” says Chetan, who is in his final year and heads the activities of Astra Robotics. Recently, Chetan and his had been Shanghai, China to participate in Delta Cup – a global competition on Advanced Automation Design Contest conducted by Delta Electronics. The team that made a 3D Scanning and Printing Machine emerged as winners competing against 76 teams from 73 colleges and universities in China, Taiwan, Thailand, India and Vietnam.

“Being a part of technical clubs like Astra Robotics gives everyone an opportunity to participate in big events like Delta Cup. I think, that is what makes RVCE different from other colleges. Here, the exposure you get is unparallel,” pinpoints Chetan. At present, RVCE has more than 1500 students working in various clubs like RV Solar Car Team, Jatayu (Autonomous Aerial Vehicle), Antariksh (Student Nano Satellite Builder), Krushi (Agriculture Tractor), Garuda (Super Mileage Cars), Vyoma (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), Ashwa Racing (Formula Style Cars) and many more. Every club has its own workplace and faculty in-charge to guide students.

Dr. K.N. Subramanya, Principal, RV College of Engineering opines, “Astra Robotics is now working on a futuristic mars rover concept vehicle, which will be able to traverse though any sort of terrains. That is the beauty of all the students’ clubs, they are assertive and innovative.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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The current annual student intake for UG & PG Programs in Engineering at RVCE is in excess of 1200.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

In fact, innovation should come from the youngsters of our nation. As academicians, our job is to make sure that the students have enough infrastructure and guidance available in the institute.� RVCE has created an excellent innovation ecosystem, which brings together education, research, industry, and government with a focus on creating transformative opportunities, strengthening collaborative partnerships and positively impacting the economy and society. “It is important for institutes to look at the societal problems and try to find solutions through research activities inside the campus. This is the methodology followed by most of the reputed western universities and we have started imbibing that culture here,� says Dr. Subramanya. The management of RVCE has always been proactive in building necessary infrastructure for conducting advanced research activities. The institute has

Dr. K.N. Subramanya, Principal Dr. K.N. Subramanya had early education in Acharya High School and AES National CollegeGauribidanur. Then he pursued B.E in Industrial and Production Engineering from Bangalore University, M.Tech in Industrial Management from IITM-Chennai, MBA from Karnataka State Open University-Mysuru, with HR specialization (5th Rank) and Ph.D. from Avinashilingam University-Coimbatore. He did his Proficiency Courses on ‘Engineering Consultancy Practice and Non-Destructive Testing’ from Indian Institute of Science, NPTEL online Certification course on ‘Educational Leadership’. Has total 27 years of experience in Teaching, Training & Consultancy, Research and Administration.

Having Strong communication and presentation skills, effective collaboration & team building capabilities with zeal to adapt to latest technological and leadership concepts & utilize the same in a productive and effective manner for the progress of the institution.

four centers-of-excellence including Microelectronic (Large Area and Microelectronic), Internet of Things (IoT), Center of Computational Genomics and Smart Antenna and its Measurements in the campus, which are worth the investment of over Rs. 70 Crores. “In the last three years, we have filed around 42 patents. In this, 60 to 70 percent are student related projects,” claims Dr. Subramanya. The institute also has 10 ongoing projects that are on the verge of commercialization.

“Entrepreneurship is an importance area of focus for us now. We offer more than 20 courses covering most of the areas related to entrepreneurship, besides providing incubation center and other related facilities,” shares Dr. Subramanya. Though, the startup fever is slowly picking up among the ongoing students, RVCE’s has large number of alumni members who are running their own enterprises all over the world. They regularly help the institute to promote entrepreneurship in the campus. Recently, Kaushik Mudda and Navin Jain who graduated from RVCE Bangalore in 2014, were on the news. Their three-year-old startup, the three-year-old startup has won the CES ‘Best of Innovation’ prize in the 3D printing category with their Ethereal Halo, a unique five-axis machine, has won the CES ‘Best of Innovation’ prize in the 3D printing category with their Ethereal Halo, a unique five-axis machine.

“As one of the earliest private engineering colleges in the country, which has been operating for about 66 years, we have more than 30, 000 alumni now.

Around 20 percent of them are entrepreneurs,” sates Dr. Subramanya. RVCE, which became autonomous in 2007, has achieved the coveted private university status now. The institute believes that the private university status will help them to improve the quality of education they have been imparting to the students across the country.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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ACADEMIC VIEW

Rethink

Generic

MBA

By Prof. Aslam Hirani, CEO, UAssess

82 Prof. Aslam is currently the CEO of UAssess, a new-age skill benchmarking app and faculty at the Institute of Product Leadership. In the past he has been an Enterprise Agile Coach who has consulted for organizations like IBM, Target, Nokia, Cisco, Philips and many more.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

A

ccording to the Digital Reinvention report published

by Mckinsey, “Over the next five years, large companies will invest, on average, hundreds of millions of dollars—and some more than a billion dollars— to transform their business to digital.”

The tech revolution has undoubtedly brought IT at the core of the modern business, even for the industries which never predicted disruption. This sudden shift of focus on technology has created a huge demand for tech-literate managers which has further widened the existing skill gap.

According to the Global Information Security Workforce Study (GISWS), 2017, it is predicted that about 1.8 million IT positions will remain vacant by 2022. The number has already increased by about 20% from the anticipated 1.5 million in a span of just two years. The two significant factors widening the skill gap across the globe are; the increasing pace of digital transformation and the impact of IT on the functional aspects of the business.

What does this mean for future careers?

With digital disruption hitting the global business, technology is evolving at a lightning speed. Not only are organizations failing to align themselves with the speed, but educational institutes are also unable to keep up with the pace. Professional education providers are lagging behind in creating programs which can accommodate the rapidly changing technology.

According to a PwC report, about 72% of companies across industries are expected to be going through digital transformation which has created a need for managers who understand technology in the context of business and customer requirements. While traditional institutions are still stuck in the silos, progressive institutes like University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University and UC Davis Graduate School of Management are offering Technology Management programs to produce new age digital managers

who have an understanding of both technology and business operations.

Recently, California School of Management & Leadership, through its alliance with SAP, incorporated the SAP software into many of its business graduate programs.

Technology management programs are gaining popularity because unlike the general MBA programs, it produces digital managers who understand the relevant technology and are capable of managing people along with innovation and the business process as a whole.

“72% of companies across all industries are going through digital transformation & hence what we need are leaders and managers who can understand the context of a customer, technology, and business,” says Amit Phadnis, Office of CTO, GE Healthcare

MBA in Technology Management/ MBA in Data Science vs. Generic MBA A general MBA offers the same age-old curriculum which is gradually losing its relevance in the market. Out of the 5,500 B-schools in the country, thousands graduate with an MBA but only 7 % turn out to be employable according to a study conducted by ASSOCHAM. MBA in Technology Management and an MBA in Data Science provides new age skills along with the general understanding of the business, management, and leadership. Technology Management focuses on cross-functional skills such as IT management and leadership. It helps in acquiring demonstrable abilities which are relevant across the globe. The curriculum also offers certifications on the latest technology, integrated with the course, which keeps professionals a step ahead of their counterparts who have a generic MBA or a simple engineering degree.

The silos between the IT department and business units is a perennial issue faced by many companies in recent times. To overcome the lags in decision making, an agile environment through improved interaction between IT and

The two significant factors widening the skill gap across the globe are; the increasing pace of digital transformation and the impact of IT on the functional aspects of the business

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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MBA in Technology Management and an MBA in Data Science provides new age skills along with the general understanding of the business, management, and leadership

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

business has become a present-day necessity for organizational success.

To achieve this, business leaders will have to “understand and capture IT’s strategic value”. To become a digital-ready IT professional one has to work closely with all other parts of the business. The combined expertise of the cross-functional domain is required by business leaders to understand the potential as well as limitations of IT. The degree in Technology Management is, therefore, gaining popularity among students, professionals and companies alike.

What is the industry looking for?

Atul Batra, CTO, Manthan Systems and industry coach at Institute of Product Leadership stated, “The industry wants to hire professionals who not only understand the depth of data science but can leverage that to business outcomes.”

Beyond the general skills of quick decision making, timed reactions, and solid central steering, companies today need the digital leaders who possess the capabilities of integrating the engineering concepts with the various functional and operational aspects of a business.

MBA in Technology Management inculcates leadership skills in working professionals as well as fresh engineering graduates. It fosters an “executive-level perspective” and an impressive portfolio for the management of various business disciplines. Technology management not only provides fresh graduates with a relevant degree but also gives a competitive edge to the professional looking for a mid-career transition.

In a world where economic and social advancement is increasingly dependent on integrating technology and business, tech management programmes provide the opportunity

to make a career with a difference.

MBA in Technology Management is designed to create digital managers with a prospective career as Agile Product Managers, Data Analysts, Engineering Leads, Business Analysts, Project Managers, Cloud & Dev Ops Architects, and Digital Marketing Managers who are high in demand in the era of digital transformation.

The demand for good administrative and leadership skills is growing in technology departments due to digital disruption. Being an advanced professional degree, MBA in Technology Management helps in upgrading a working professional to a Computer and Information Systems Manager, Chief Technology Officer, or Information Technology Director.

These digital managers connect the dot between IT and the business for greater efficiency and profitability.

Being a technology professional who has insight into cost structure, current industry trends, and consumer behavior, with an ability to liaison between departments, individuals with technology management skills prove to be an invaluable asset to a company.

In the current age of digital transformation, companies are looking for technical depth along with the business breadth in techsavvy leaders. For a successful tech leadership career, therefore, an engineering degree is not enough, one also needs to have an understanding of the business.

MBA in Technology Management provides this intersection between generic management and advanced engineering skills.

It equips professionals with the ability to speak the dual language of engineering as well as business thereby assuring compensation premium, placement guarantee, live industry experience, and an unmatched business-oriented technical expertise.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

SSN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

To Win the Battle of Success

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Founded in 1996 by Shiv Nadar, a great industrialist, philanthropist, and the Chairman of HCL Technologies, SSN College of Engineering has been focusing on seamlessly integrating research in teaching right since its inception.

The institutions, with their diverse and dynamic community of students offer a distinctive combination of some of the finest graduate, undergraduate and research programs, accomplished faculty, world class facilities and a residential campus set on a sprawling 250 acres of sylvan surroundings.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

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esearch is the buzzword of SSN College of Engineering, Chennai. The last three years have seen faculty members of SSN publishing more than 1500 papers in reputed journals. “Research should be one of the key cornerstones of educational institutions. Effective teaching can only take place when there is new knowledge creation and effective dissemination of this knowledge. Institutions should not only encourage research activities among its faculty, but also should strive to give a flavor of research to its students at all levels.” opines Kala Vijayakumar, President, SSN Institutions. Be it in academics, research, sports, co-curricular or extra-curricular activities, SSN students are well rounded with holistic development and shine across various fields.

“In research alone, over 220 students from SSN published 198 papers in reputed international journals in the year 2017-18. In the last three years over 600 papers have been published by our undergraduate students in various reputed international journals. Nowhere in the Indian context are such large number of papers being published by undergraduate students,” says Kala Vijayakumar. One of the outcomes of focusing on research is the performance of SSN students in the in the Smart India Hackathon, the world’s biggest Hackathon organized by the Ministry of Human Resource Department. SSN students have won first prize in this contest for the past three years. In 2018-19, as many as 7 teams won the first prize from across 48 centers in the country.

At SSN, faculty members and students have filed for 11 patents in the last one year and over 41 patents in the last three years. Kala Vijayakumar proudly adds, “Till date our faculty members have received external funding of Rs. 28 crores from various reputed agencies for their research projects for over 100 projects.” The institute has established a dedicated and independent SSN Research Centre helmed by senior scientists and doyens in their field to work on cutting edge research programs. In addition to that, six centers of excellence have been set up in SSN College of Engineering to encourage interdepartmental research and

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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SSN follows an admission policy that strongly favors merit, even as it enables access to education for students from all strata of society through appropriate scholarships.

collaborations. Eleven departments of SSN have also been recognized as research centres to offer PhD degrees.

At present, SSN has around 275 faculty members and among them 225 are PhD holders.

“Prototype of a Bionic Arm developed by the researchers from Biomedical department and a unique Solar charging vehicle by using DC converter developed by researchers from the Electrical department are a few examples of popular products we

have developed. Both are in advanced stages of commercialization now,” says Kala Vijayakumar. SSN provides seed money to its faculty for innovative research proposals and around Rs. 1 crore funding was provided to them in the year 2018-19. “For students, we have unique schemes to encourage them to undertake research projects. One such scheme is STIRS (Stimuli for Technological Innovation & Research for Students),” shares Kala Vijayakumar.

SSN has a 250 acre state-of-the-art campus with world class infrastructure and excellent student amenities.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Under the STIRS scheme, SSN funds students’ potential research projects, which are over and beyond the academic projects that the students must complete.

While, the students’ projects are expected to either result in a publication in an international journal or a prototype which can be patented, in 2018-19 over 197 such projects were funded by SSN amounting to Rs. 30 lakhs under the STIRS scheme. “We also have an Innovation Centre dedicated to creating prototypes by encouraging students to work on their ideas. The motto of the center is “Walk-in with an idea and Walk-out with a product.” This is a space open 24X7 for students to give shape to their ideas and creativity,” says Kala Vijayakumar.

To support the entrepreneurial spirit of the students further, SSN has collaborated with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India. The institute also has dedicated Incubation Centre inside the campus to provide facility and mentorship to the students.

“Till date, four projects have applied for entrepreneurship support from MSME for incubation. These include such varied areas as Sign Language to Speech Device for hearing impaired, Ozonized water processing, Biofuels from waste plastics, Degradable bags from Shrimp waste among others,” shares Kala Vijayakumar.

On the other side, SSN has made strong collaborations with industry players as well as universities across the globe. Kala Vijayakumar pinpoints, “Global partnerships are essential to bring in international best practices and perspectives to Indian educational institutions. We have actively sought out collaborations with reputed global institutions in India and abroad. In fact, SSN is the longest international partner of Carnegie Mellon University. The collaboration was firmed up way back in 2001. Apart from offering a joint program for students, this collaboration

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While students at SSN immerse themselves in academics, the college has a lot in store for them outside the classroom.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Kala Vijayakumar, President Kala Vijayakumar obtained her Master of Science degree with specialization in Mathematics with honors from Stella Maris College,

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Madras University. She has a mix of Entrepreneur, IT profession and Academic Management experience. She worked in the software development projects in HCL technologies, playing roles like programmer and team leader.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

has been immensely beneficial in shaping various aspects of SSN. Among other important global collaboration of SSN include the Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, Sri Ramachandra Medical College among others.

“We have also tied up with various industries for mutually beneficial activities in research and innovation.

Till date we have signed research collaborations with over 52 industry partners,” adds Kala Vijayakumar. The areas of collaborations include joint research, projects and contests for students, research internships for postgraduate students, product development, consulting and training, setting up joint research labs and many more. Some of the very successful collaborations of SSN have been with Danfoss, Caterpillar, Intel, Cognizant, Redington, HCL among others.

Today, every graduate coming out SSN campus is well rounded and multifaceted individuals, who are also aware of their responsibilities to the society and nation. SSN alumni are now at top positions in corporate world, civil services, entrepreneurship, sports, music, film industry, are reputed authors and are contributing back to the society and their Alma Mater. “We will continue to offer innovative and unique programs to create active, lifelong learners and encourage its faculty to keep working on cutting edge research technologies,” pinpoints Kala Vijayakumar. The immediate goal of the institution is to strengthen the research, innovation and incubation ecosystem to create and commercialize new knowledge, nurture entrepreneurs and encourage them to build companies and create jobs for the betterment of society and the nation.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

T.A. PAI MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

T.A. Pai Management Institute, fondly known as TAPMI, is one among the 10 institutes in India and 5 percent of the top business schools worldwide to have been accredited with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the oldest and toughest accreditation in the world of business education. TAPMI is also the 5th institution in India to have both the AACSB as well as Association of MBAs (AMBA) accreditation. Since its establishment in 1980, TAPMI has evolved as a center of excellence for academics, research and executive education.

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or the past three years, January has been one of the busiest months for students, faculty members and administrators of T. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI). This is when TAPMI would host a Winter School program on Bounded Rationality in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung or MPIB) and the University of Southampton (Soton) Business School. For about one week during the Winter School program, TAMPI would host around 35 – 40 PhD scholars from different countries and offer them a unique forum to share their approaches, discuss their research, and inspire each other.

A one-of-its-kind weeklong program on Bounded Rationality, TAPMI-Max Planck-Soton Winter School aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for sharing knowledge, discussing the importance and applications of simple solutions to complex problems, and fostering research collaborations between participating scholars and students.

“Many activities like seminars, talks, panel discussions, workshops, poster sessions, and social events will take place during the Winter School program. It will allow participants to learn and develop new ideas in their respective research fields facilitated by frequent interactions with the teaching faculty members,” explains Prof. Madhu Veeraraghavan, Director & T.A. Pai Chair Professor of Finance, TAPMI. The Winter School that brings enthusiastic researchers of different nationalities under one roof is an excellent opportunity for TAPMI to extend its collaboration with global universities. “I want TAPMI Faculty to have global exposure. The Winter School has increased our chances to do joint research activities with scholars across the globe,” says Prof. Veeraraghavan. In fact, the results are evident in the TAPMI’s research output that has jumped smartly over the past few years. Today, TAPMI is ranked among the top 5 private management schools in the country in research output.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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Focusing on Quality

Prof. Madhu Veeraraghavan, Director & T.A. Pai Chair Professor of Finance

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Prof. Veeraraghavan, who joined TAPMI in June 2013, obtained his B. Com from University of Mumbai and an MBA (Finance & Investments) and PhD (Finance –Asset Pricing) from Australia. Prof. Veeraraghavan was instrumental in setting up the Largest Finance Lab at TAPMI with 16 Bloomberg and 7 Reuters terminals.

He has held positions at The University of Auckland Business School and Monash University, Melbourne before joining TAPMI. He has published over 60 papers in international journals and has presented his work in top conferences in finance and accounting.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

To augment the quality of research papers published in the reputed journals, TAPMI follows the ranking system of Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC), which is considered as one of the best in the world. Currently, TAPMI encourages faculty members to publish only in A*, A, and B category journals listed in the ABDC Journal Quality List. Apart from promoting high quality research, TAPMI provides a very strong infrastructural support to develop an enabling ecosystem.

“We have an excellent incentive system where we compensate faculty members for publishing papers in higher level journals. It has been encouraging faculty members to take up research activities in collaboration with global universities as well as leading industry bodies and government agencies. At TAPMI, the job of the faculty members is to create knowledge, then disseminate it and finally practice that knowledge,” claims Prof. Veeraraghavan. The involvement of industry in the process of knowledge creation is what makes TAPMI a notch above of its peers. “Industry people have a lot of important questions, which they want academicians to answer. academically. We are actively collaborating with them to see what we can do to address research questions that are relevant to the investment community,” states Prof. Veeraraghavan.

TAPMI’s collaborations with the CFA Society of India and Global Association of Risk Professionals to give Finance professionals an extra edge in the market is one example of its strong industry connect. Similarly, joining hands with Mu Sigma, an Indian management consulting firm that primarily offers data analytics services, TAPMI has developed a Post Graduate Certificate program in Leadership through Analytics and Decision Sciences (L.E.A.D.). The program envisions the creation of global leaders in the world of decision sciences and analytics who can create value for Fortune 500 customers.

TAPMI has a 44.11 acres and a Rs.100 crore fully residential sprawling campus, which one of the most beautiful and modern campuses among the B-schools in India.

PGDM 2.0 and Industry Ready Workforce While, most of the business schools in the private sector are turning into teaching shops by adding a surplus number of students in their classrooms, TAPMI has considerably reduced its PGDM intake.

Prof. Veeraraghavan shares, “We are no longer going to take 420 people for our PDGM program. TAPMI is all about quality and I want every aspirant who joins TAPMI to get a holistic experience.”

TAPMI is now rewriting its PGDM flagship program, which has been there for about 35 years. “We are in on the process of producing PGDM 2.0 to create leadership through value creation. The program will have global immersion, extended leadership opportunities and a

lot of space of experiential learning,” adds Prof. Veeraraghavan.

TAPMI is known for going an extra mile to instill leadership qualities in its students. Prof. Veeraraghavan himself runs a program called Student Managed Investment Course (SMIC), where the college management would give Rs. 10 Lakhs to the student whom he picks.

“These students will invest the money in the market. 30 percent of the grade is based on the performance of the portfolio, 70 percent is based on the investment diary and weekly presentations that they do. At the end of the course, they have to make a final presentation in front of a very senior industry captain like portfolio managers and analysts and they grade them,” explains Prof. Veeraraghavan.

TAPMI offers excellent facilities through its class rooms, seminar halls, library and reading rooms, hostels, food and mess and good facilities for recreation.

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TAPMI is home to the largest Bloomberg Finance Lab in India with 16 terminals that give live data feed from national and international stock exchanges.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Supporting students with the knowledge and insight into real market situations while bridging the gap between financial theory and practice is TAPMI’s state-of-the-Art Finance Lab, which is powered by 16 Bloomberg and 7 Thomson Reuters terminals. The lab gives students hands-on experience in Investments and Portfolio Management, Forecasting, Risk Management, and understanding of Global Financial Management. Some of the exciting initiatives TAPMI has undertaken in the area of Finance are the TAPMI Journal of Economics and Finance (TJEF), a leading student-run journal in the areas of banking, economics and finance and Samnidhy, the only legally registered Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) in India.

“Our objective is simple; no recruiter should spend time on mentoring TAPMIans at workspace. When a TAPMIan is hired, everybody should know that they have a great head on their shoulders,” pinpoints Prof. Veeraraghavan. He adds, “At the end of the day, TAPMIans are global citizens with great ethics, values, integrity and committed to the community in which they live. They understand that they not only have to play roles in corporate India, but also must serve in NGOs and other social structures.”

TAPMI is an advanced signatory of the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) which is a United Nations (UN) - supported initiative and the largest organized relationship between the UN and business schools across the world. Being a signatory to PRME, TAPMI has made a commitment to advancing values such as sustainability, responsibility, and ethics in teaching, research and thought leadership. “We have introduced a new course called SEVA (Society, Environment, Values and Attitude). As a part of this program, every TAPMIan needs to go to villages and do a social project and address the social problem by giving a business solution. Indeed, leadership is also about humility. I want every TAPMIan to be assertive and humble,” summarizes Prof. Veeraraghavan.

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MUST WATCH YOUNG TALENTS

Yogesh Nagar

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DRIVERLESS

TRACTOR WHEN A FARMER’S SON DELIVERED SOLUTION

MUCH AHEAD OF

AUTOMOBILE GIANTS

Higher Education Digest April 2019

In College of Engineering, Indore, Yogesh Nagar is like any other student, toggling his time between classrooms, labs and library. Except a few faculty members and college administrators, hardly anyone knows that he has made a Driverless Tractor that has the capability to change the way we look at the farming in our nation.

His story is an inspiring one for any technology aspirants.

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ouple of years ago, natives of Kagla Bambori village in Baran district of Rajasthan saw something that they have never seen in their life - a tractor navigating through the streets without a driver. For a moment, villagers thought that the driver has abandoned the tractor and ran away for some reason. But, soon, they saw a teenager with a remote-control walking behind the vehicle, which was slowly progressing towards the farm land owned by Rambabu Nagar.

The news spread like a wildfire and people from Kagla Bambori village and nearby areas came in huge numbers to have a glimpse of this wonder tractor made by Rambabu’s 19-year-old son, Yogesh Nagar. Some of them were amazed and some were apprehensive. Some people even warned Yogesh and Rambabu for driving the tractor on road without a driver.

However, Yogesh and his father were determined to go ahead. They started creating awareness among the illiterate community of farmers about the importance of integration latest technologies in agriculture like driverless tractors, which can save a lot of cost and time in farming.

An Experiment of Rs. 2000 Yogesh was in first year of his college when his father, Rambabu, fell sick and doctors advised him to take bedrest.

Yogesh did not have any other options than coming back home to take care of his dad’s farming. “When I was driving tractor in the fields, I realized that it can be driven without a driver too. In fact, autonomous vehicles have already been tested in other countries,” says Yogesh.

With a natural curiosity to figure out how things work, Yogesh started thinking about developing a driverless tractor.

Materials available in the internet were his references. “I asked my dad to give to give me Rs. 2000 to make prototype of tractor that can be driven without a driver. But he could not believe that a tractor can be operated without a driver in it.”

However, Yogesh persuaded Rambabu to get his first seed funding of Rs. 2000. Yogesh adds, “I collected all the materials to build a tractor that can go forward and backward using a remote control. With the help of a mechanic, I installed everything in our tractor, and it worked.”

Now, Rambabu was convinced and he wanted his son to make it better and bigger. “I needed around Rs. 50, 000 to make this tractor completely autonomous. My dad took money from his friends and relatives, so that I can continue working on my dream project.”

The next six months were very crucial in Yogesh’s life. He worked day and night to make his tractor ready to go to work without a driver. “It will take around Rs. 1, 50, 000 to make a tractor completely autonomous. But many people are ready to pay Rs. 2, 00, 000 if I make one for them too,” says Yogesh.

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Yogesh is now planning make vehicles that can help the Indian Army to navigate challenging areas like deserts and mountains.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Yogesh’s father, Ram Babu Nagar is a farmer, while his mother, Shila Nagar, is a housewife.

Recently, Yogesh won Silver prize of worth Rs. 2, 50, 000 in the KPIT Sparkle 2019, an annual national design and

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development innovation contest conducted

by KPIT.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Now, Yogesh can operate his tractor from a distance of 1.5 km using a remote control that has 4.5 inch screen to see what’s happening on the field.

Recently, Yogesh won Silver prize of worth Rs. 2, 50, 000 in the KPIT Sparkle 2019, an annual national design and development innovation contest conducted

by KPIT. “I am now talking to various tractor manufactures to understand whether my ideas can be incorporated to their design and produce new-age tractors on an industrial scale,” shares Yogesh.

Some of the Indian and global automobile companies have already developed concepts of autonomous tractors. But, Yogesh, who developed and operated it much before than they did, deserves a lot of appreciation and support. “My biggest dream is to make something for Indian Army. If I can help our country’s army by making vehicles that can navigate challenging terrains without human intervention, that will be my biggest achievement,” concludes Yogesh.

Sandipani

Investing in the future of the

BFSI INDUSTRY With the BFSI industry in India evolving at an accelerated speed, the demand for well-trained management professionals keeps rising.

Established in 2010, the Symbiosis School of Banking and Finance (SSBF) has been providing the industry with professionals who are equipped with relevant knowledge and managerial skills through a niche two-year, full-time residential MBA programme in Banking and Finance.

With an eye on the future, where upskilling and reskilling will be critical, SSBF under the aegis of Symbiosis International (Deemed University), (SIU), is now launching a dedicated training centre — Sandipani. Organisations in the BFSI sector will now be able to avail the facilities available at Sandipani for regular and critical skill-enhancement, through customised training modules designed to meet specific industry requirements. Situated on the picturesque hill-top campus of SIU Lavale, Pune, Sandipani will commence from the 2019-20 academic year.

With state of the art infrastructure, industry-curated modules and experienced faculty, Sandipani will be the starting point for future BFSI growth drivers.

FACILITATORS

CONTENT

Accomplished academicians

Industry aligned

Industry professionals

Tailor made

International certified trainers

Well researched

PEDAGOGY

INFRASTRUCTURE

Simulations

9 Digital classrooms

Case studies

Accommodation for

Situational analyses

250 participants

Management games

Wi-Fi Enabled campus Fully equipped library Dining and cafeteria

For more information visit our website www.ssbf.edu.in or call us on +91-20-28116879 Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (Established under section 3 of the UGC Act 1956)

Higher Education Digest

Re-accredited by NAAC with “A” Grade (3.58/4) | Awarded Category - I2019

by UGC April

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Blockchain: The Next

Disruptive Technology.

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Can India Win This Time?

By K Sridhar, Chief Business Officer, TalentSprint Sridhar is responsible for the executive and graduate education programs at TalentSprint. He has strong industry experience and is well connected with the academia. Sridhar graduated in B.Sc in Mathematics from Loyola College, Chennai. He is a member of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) and Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ACS) as well as a Certified Financial Planner.

Higher Education Digest April 2019

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bank manager of the 90s would have had sleepless nights if he was told that transactions on bank accounts can happen after he closed the books for the day. Fast forward to today, we have seamless movement of money, any time of the day or night, from any bank branch to any other bank branch in every nook and corner of the country and the bank manager hardly knows that, leave alone approve the transaction.

The Internet has changed banking forever. The servers of each bank are talking to the servers of other banks. A transaction originating from one customer is hitting the account of another in a fraction of seconds across branches, across banks and locations. We are close to realizing the 1997 quote of Bill Gates “We need Banking. We do not need Banks anymore”.

Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, Digital Wallets, Automated Loan and Insurance Underwriting, Arbitrage Trading and Algorithmic Investments have redefined the banking and wealth management beyond recognition.

However, just when we thought, we have come a long way, we have arrived, not much needs to happen anymore - Enter Blockchain, the next disruptor.

There are still frictions left in the system, which are now being addressed. Be it cybersecurity, the problem of single point of failure and in fact, a new way of bookkeeping moving from double entry to triple entry. Most of these are being addressed by blockchain as a new disruptive technology which will take us to solve these frictions.

Blockchain is a ledger which cannot be tampered with. It is used by organizations as well as counter-parties for stepping up the level of transparency and security while storing data on all financial transactions. Smart contracts that are built on Blockchain architecture serve the purpose of transparency, consensus, and safety thereby preventing frauds in commercial trade, banking, and finance spheres.

World Economic Forum report predicts that 10% of global GDP will be stored on blockchains by 2025. Coming home, while our regulations have not favoured cryptocurrencies, they have backed blockchain technology and are taking steps to enable India being an early adopter in this disruptive technology. NASSCOM believes that Blockchain can add $5 bn to Indian economy in 5 years. In his budget speech, Jaitley proposed use of blockchain technology to encourage digital payments. The NITI

The demand for Blockchain experts is bound to grow, however, the supply side of the equation is disappointing

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AAYOG on its part has taken the initiative of interacting with multiple industry stakeholders to explore the use of Blockchain in sectors such as pharma, healthcare and education.

Human Resources are Key to the Success of Blockchain

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While Banks & Financial Institutions and other sectors are eager to use Blockchain and move to the next level of disruption, lack of skilled talent is seen as a major hurdle in implementing Blockchain projects

Here is the dichotomy. While Banks & Financial Institutions and other sectors are eager to use Blockchain and move to the next level of disruption, lack of skilled talent is seen as a major hurdle in implementing Blockchain projects.

Globally, Blockchain is the most in-demand skill as per Upwork, a popular professional platform that provides freelancers with jobs. Â In its quarterly report released for Q1 2018, Blockchain witnessed a year-on-year growth of over 60x placing blockchain on the top spot. Apart from this, a research study conducted by Glassdoor reported a 3x upsurge in jobs related to Blockchain, Bitcoin or Cryptocurrencies across a twelve-month period.

When it comes to the trends in India, as per a recent survey conducted by outbound recruitment firm Belong Technologies India Pvt Ltd., a meagre 5,000 (0.25%) of India’s estimated two million software developers have skills to work on Blockchain platforms.

How to bridge this gap?

The demand for Blockchain experts is bound to grow, however, the supply side of the equation is disappointing.

There are only a very few institutions focusing on blockchain as a research area. Developments in the market

Higher Education Digest April 2019

outpace academic research in labs. Hence, for the first time, we are seeing the industry going ahead and developing a technology which is yet to find a secure place in the research labs of academic institutions.

These trends suggest that if software developers equip themselves with skills on Blockchain, their practical knowledge will be in massive demand in the times to come.

The only way forward in bridging this skills gap lies in partnerships with all stakeholders from educational institutions, academia, the government and technology companies.

The partnerships will have to focus on creating an education ecosystem, by introducing the right curriculum which will equip students with practical skills in solving real-world problems at the foundational levels.

Academic Institutes have started playing their role in this deep tech space. IIIT-H Blockchain Center of Excellence, funded by Ripple, a blockchain based global money transfer player, in association with TalentSprint, launched a weekend contact program on Blockchain Technologies and Solutions. Infact, the first cohort of Blockchain experts from this Program are graduating in December end.

IIIT-B also offers an online program on Blockchain.

India has a great opportunity in being a frontrunner in Blockchain technology, provided focus on creating talent is high, and the same is implemented with rigor. Our talent pool can feed the global talent requirement which has so far been focused on generic technology skills.

KEEP GOING 105

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

THIAGARAJAR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

MUST WATCH CAMPUSES IN INDIA FOR

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Established in 1957, Thiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE), a government-aided autonomous institution located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, has already produced four Padma awardees in its 62 years of illustrious journey. Known for its excellence in teaching, the institute has deliberately changed its direction since the beginning of the 21st century. Today, TCE focuses on teaching, research and entrepreneurship.

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e know that single-use or disposable plastics such as carry bags, wrappers and bottles are harmful to our environment. However, ask Dr. Rajagopalan Vasudevan, a recipient of Padma Sri and a professor of Chemistry at Thiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE), he would claim that Plastic is an important invention and a great resource. In fact, Dr. Vasudevan has already shown us how can we effectively manage the so-called plastic waste. Known as the ‘Plastic Man of India,’ Dr. Vasudevan has invented a method to reuse plastic waste to construct better, more durable and very cost-effective roads. So far, 1,00,000 kms of plastic roads have been laid across the country using his technology, for which the college got a patent in 2006.

“We have two categories of research here; advanced research and appropriate research. Dr. Vasudevan Sir’s work is an example of appropriate research, as it directly impacts the betterment of the world we live in,” says Dr. V. Abhaikumar, Principal, Thiagarajar College of Engineering. As a result of Dr. Vasudevan’s research works, TCE has three important things in the campus; India’s only Centre for Plastic Waste Management funded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, stretches of plastic road on campus, and a quake-bullet-water-proof model of a toilet made with ‘plastone’ (plastic plus stone). “When it comes to research, we always look at the society to identify the problems. The possibilities of innovation are so high here, as we know that there is somebody waiting for us to find a solution to their problem. This way, the research will become more meaning full,” opines Dr. Abhaikumar.

At present, TCE has around 45 ongoing research projects that are relevant to the society. Indeed, fulfilling the expectation of the society and industry by equipping students with stateof-the-art resources for developing sustainable solutions is the one of the missions of TCE. “We have given different themes for departments to work on. For example, Civil Engineering Department is working on Ecofriendly Structures. Similarly, every department has an important area to focus,” says Dr. Abhaikumar. Being an autonomous college since 1987 also

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TCE hosting 5th International Conference on Transformation in Engineering Education (ICTIEE) 2018.

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helps TCE to introduce such innovative practices in the campus.

“We were known as a teaching-oriented institution till 2000. But we changed our direction and now we focus more on creating knowledge,” adds Dr. Abhaikumar. The institute’s research activities have paved ways for many cutting-edge programs. A master training course on “Waste Management” under the Green Skill Development Programme introduced by Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Centre at TCE is one such initiative. The course is aimed at making jobless graduates employable and around 20 students had joined in the first batch, which started in 2018.

The Perks of Having an Active Alumni Network Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, father of BRAHMOS – India’s supersonic cruise missile, was a student of the 1964-69 batch at TCE. Nambi Narayanan, a scientist and aerospace engineer who was incharge of the Cryogenics division at ISRO, was another student of TCE. Shankar Narayanan (an Indian born American entrepreneur), Murugan Pal (a serial entrepreneur based the US), Karthik Subbaraj, (a south Indian film director, writer and producer) and the list of TCE’s notables hardly gets an end. “Many of our old students are now handling senior positions in topnotch companies and government organization. They always stay connected with us and advocate us in achieving our goals,” sates Dr. Abhaikumar.

With the help its alumni members who are working in the industry, TCE conducts courses on subjects that are beyond the scope of regular curriculum. “This happens on every weekend, where industry professionals will

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Dr. V. Abhaikumar, Principal Dr. Abhaikumar completed his B.E in Electronics and Communication Engineering and M.E in Communication systems from the P.S.G College of Technology in the year 1977 and 1979 respectively. He obtained his PhD in the area of Computational Electromagnetics in the year 1986 from the Indian Institute of Technology. His areas of research interest include the use of computational electromagnetic methods for the modeling and analysis of wireless antennas. He has coauthored twenty technical papers in international and national journals. and published more than hundred papers in international and national conferences.

TCE has an excellent Student Supportive System that facilitates students to take up co-curricular and extracurricular activities. come teach our students some of the latest technologies. It has picked really well, and we have now companies like Intel, IBM, TCS, Honeywell and many more coming to the campus to teach students,” claims Dr. Abhaikumar. The weekend classes by industry professionals is an excellent opportunity for students to find internships and placements. “Most of the time, these companies will offer internships to our students after seeing their performance in the classroom,” mentions Dr. Abhaikumar.

Industry has always been a part TCE’s curricular activities. From curriculum design to content delivery and assessment, the institute involve industry professionals to inculcate the latest trends of the workplace. “For Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, we have cocreated a curriculum with TVS Motors.

Every year, the company will select around 15 first year students and will pay the entire fee for next four years. These students will work with TVS during the vacation time. At the end of their course, they get absorbed in TVS. Five such batches have gone out till now,” shares Dr. Abhaikumar.

Today, TCE has everything that takes to offer a quality technical education; excellent infrastructure, strong industryinstitute interaction, active alumni network and so on. More than 65 percent of its faculty members are PhD holders, which is excellent in non-IIT environment. “We are now promoting entrepreneurship in the campus, which was missing in our yesteryears. Now, the goal is to be known globally for our excellence in education,” concludes Dr. Abhaikumar.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019

BOOK REVIEW

Understanding the Right Signals to Live the Life of a Leader

By Sarath Shyam

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eople like Chetan Bhagat, Amish Tripathi and Reshmi Bansal would have carried on with their lives as one of the many IIM graduates, if they had not quit their high paying jobs to follow their passion of becoming a writer. Ever wondered how these business graduates became authors of India’s bestselling books and inspired many more aspiring writers to follow their suit? The answer is perhaps simple; they made their own choices at the right time and took actions that justified their decision of making those choices. If it is so simple, why can’t we do it and become a leader? Written by Sreedhar Bevara, an IIM graduate and General Manager at Panasonic Corporation, Moment of Signal (MoS) explores the importance of identifying signals that can change our life and eventually make us a better leader.

Published in December 2018, Bevara’s Moment of Signal is already a bestseller in countries like the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany. In India too, there are many takers for Bevara’s MoS.

There is a Story Behind Every Decision Born in South India, Bevera’s life story is a remarkable one – a quintessential rags to riches tale. Grew up in extreme poverty, young Bevara knew that getting a proper education is the only way to get his family out of the difficulties. In fact, deciding to move away from his birth place for education was the first moment of signal in his life. However, in his journey to become the General Manager of Panasonic Corporation, Bevara had to do many jobs; he was a street vendor, a waiter, a milk delivery boy and a door-to-door salesman. He has also held key positions in LG Electronics, Domestic, The Hindu and the Tata Group.

As a leader who has seen many ups and downs in his life, Bevara could have easily written an autobiography that would still help people around the globe to make better decisions. However, Bevera has taken a different narrative style in his maiden book. In this creative nonfiction work, a labor of love that took more than seven

Higher Education Digest April 2019

Sreedhar Bevara years to complete, Bevara talks about his life in bits and pieces, only when he finds it is necessary to mention.

The occasional entry of his life experiences works as a glue between the serious subjects that Bevara tries to explore in the MoS. The narration of MoS not only keeps the reader indulged, but also simplifies the concepts, which otherwise would have been a complicated subject for us to digest.

The Big Brother Talking In the introduction to the book, Bevara tells the readers about his elder brother, Murali, who has been a great mentor for him. Now, from the beginning of MoS, Bevara talks to us like our big brother, without allowing the narration to take a conversation tone. That is where MoS becomes a page turner; you pick it up, read cover to cover, then you think about it. Indeed, it is always a challenge for non-fiction writers to keep the readers connected with their thoughts. A complicated passage can take the reader’s attention away and eventually, the book will remain untouched for a long time. MoS does not have any such complications, as Bevara has managed to find a perfect balance between stories and theories.

To put it in a way Bevara says it, “Whoever thinks that paying attention to MoS is science, magic, or spiritual and too overwhelming to be aware of, the simplest answer is to be ‘attentive to the subject’ in the full scope, dimension, and depth. The art of sensing signals is in fact at your fingertip and that can set you ahead of the course.” Surely, MoS is a must read for leaners and leaders, and Bevara is a writer to watch out for.

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Higher Education Digest April 2019