Higher Education Digest - Tamil Nadu Education

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GREAT LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

MAKING THE LEADERS GREAT AGAIN

SEPTEMBER 2019

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

Connecta

September 2019

Vol - 1 Issue - 7

Tamil Nadu Colleges Special (India Edition) Editor in Chief

Dr. Manoj Varghese

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Anjana K Shyam S

Jessica Jo Stanly Lui Emma James

Editorial Enquiry: editor@highereducationdigest.com

Art and Design Ajay K Das

Sales & Marketing

Rahul Visakh Prathyoosh K Shaji

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Divya M Milan Bharati

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Higher Education Digest September March 20192019

EDITOR IN CHIEF’S NOTE

Tamil Nadu: The Land of Opportunities

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n recent times, the Indian education sector has seen a multitude of changes. If it was operated as a philanthropic or a nation-building activity during its primitive years, now the education industry in India has transformed into a ‘sector in its own right.’ Since 2003, India has been adding more than 1,000 colleges per year. The peak was the period between 2007 and 2009, when the country added 7,206 colleges, about one-fifth of the total number. Today, with an extensive network of more than 1.4 million schools, 850 universities and 40,000 higher education institutes, the education sector in India is now a complex mix of government-operated and privately-operated educational institutions and allied education products and services providers. Increase in the competition for quality education and positive learning outcomes has also helped this sector to slowly but steadily move on the reforms track.

Among the states with a large number of educational institutions in India, Tamil Nadu takes a prime spot. There are several colleges in this South Indian state, which boasts of not only the best curriculum and facilities but

also the best teachers. Unlike many other states in India, Tamil Nadu is at an advantage due to the presence of over 21 universities and more than 500 engineering colleges.

This has led to IT and manufacturing corporates setting up their base in Chennai, Coimbatore and other major cities in Tamil Nadu. Today, the state has the potential to further enhance this by supporting the knowledge and capability of individuals to create new technology-driven enterprises to address challenges and take advantage of the opportunities present.

In this issue of Higher Education Digest, we have identified ’10 Must-Watch Colleges in Tamil Nadu’ where students can study special courses on the subject of their choice, continue with higher studies in the subject chosen at the college level or take up research or doctorate studies.

We hope that the hard work we have done to feature the premier institutions in Tamil Nadu will help education aspirants from all over the country in their journey.

Happy Reading.

Dr. Manoj Varghese

Higher Education Digest September 2019

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ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc. Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

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

6 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)

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.

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

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

Higher Education Digest September 2019

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

Tamil is More than a Cultural Identity

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“K

etil Vizhuchchelvam Kalvi Yoruvarku, Maatalla Matrai Yavai.” This couplet from the classic Tamil text, Thirkural, highlights the importance of learning. It says that the only wealth that is long lasting and eternal for a person is his learning and other material wealth is not true in comparison to the wealth of knowledge a person acquires through learning. These profound thoughts written by Thiruvalluvar, a legendary Tamil poet, are as relevant today as they were around 2000 years ago. Followers of this great poet and philosopher are no ordinary people too. From Mahatma Gandhi to Leo Tolstoy and APJ Abdul Kalam, world leaders of past and present have embraced this greatest work ever written on ethics and morality.

Thirkural is one of the many things that Tamilians are proud about. In fact, the existence of Thirkural shows the importance Tamilians had been giving to education in their lives. No wonder, some of the brilliant minds India had seen are from Tamil Nadu. Srinivasa Ramanujan, APJ Abdul Kalam,

CV Raman, Venkatraman Radhakrishnan, MS Swaminathan, the list will hardly get an end when we talk about Tamilians who changed the world.

The credit of making such change-makers must go the educational institutions in Tamil Nadu and this South Indian society that considers education as the foundation to bring wealth, social prosperity and political stability.

In this issue, we celebrate the success of Tamil Nadu’s education system by identifying ’10 MustWatch Colleges in Tamil Nadu.’ These colleges have not only challenged the conservative philosophies of education, but also have created extra-ordinary results. On the cover, we feature, Great Lakes Institute of Management, which is now among India’s leading Business Schools with campuses in Chennai and Delhi-NCR. Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

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10 GREAT LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

MAKING THE LEADERS GREAT AGAIN BOOK REVIEW

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Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat

Higher Education Digest September 2019

MUST WATCH COLLEGES IN TAMIL NADU

MENTOR’S MANTRA

12 - 15 32 - 37 CHENNAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Bridging the Skill-Gap in Finance Sector Pankaj R Mandhane, Co-founder, ITAP

To Live the Life of a Real Engineer INDUSTRY PERCPECTIVE

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24 - 26 44 - 49 ANNAPOORANA ENGINEERING COLLEGE

Building World-Class Technocrats

Be Prepared for the Transition in the World of Work Neeti Sharma, Senior Vice President, Teamlease Services

COUNSELER’S TAKE

50 - 53 Why India Needs about 1.5 million Career Counselors?

Prateek Bhargava, CEO, Mindler

40 - 42 Indian Education in the Digital Age Dr. Hari Krishna Maram, Chairman Vision Digital India

Higher Education Digest September 2019

MENTOR’S MANTRA

Bridging the Skill-Gap in Finance Sector Pankaj R Mandhane, Co-founder, ITAP

A chartered accountant with more than 18 years of proven experience in accounting & finance and mentor of many corporates, Pankaj Mandhane is one of the founders of ITAP (Institute of Taxation & Accounting Professionals), an ISO 9008-2015 certified financial and technical training institute founded in 2008. An author of several critically acclaimed articles, Pankaj a Chartered Accountant and Postgraduate in Commerce from Pune University, currently oversees overall operations at ITAP. During his time off, Pankaj likes to pen down his thoughts and apprehend skills that would help students build their career. Pankaj also offers counseling sessions to juveniles in an effort to motivate them to be a part of the mainstream society.

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

There is a need to build a strong foundation of training institutes and trainers to work on the skill mismatch issue

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oday’s education system is slanted towards the teaching of just professional skills, posing serious challenges over the coming years.

As the demands of the job market are continuously evolving, education needs to keep pace with these changes to prepare students for jobs in the years to come.

There will be more focus on developing soft skills along with the professional skillset. In terms of accounting and taxation, we do not see jobs becoming redundant but up-to-date technology expertise will be a pre-requisite.

Education 4.0 is the perfect solution to meet the skill gap. It encourages a trained workforce that is ready to meet the demands of a globalized, digital workplace. In line with this thinking, ITAP’s mission is to focus on academically marginal students from semi-urban and rural areas with an aim to equip them with skills in accountancy, taxation and finance that can make them industry ready. There is a huge demand for trained accounting professionals, especially post GST, and ITAP hopes to bridge this gap.

Importance of Upskilling Skill development is paramount for economic and social development. India has thousands of job vacancies but a lot of unemployed youth too. Students spend almost three to five crucial years of their life in completing graduation and despite such a long investment of time, they do not get relevant jobs. The problem here is the skill gap.

Shortage of talent and skilled workforce across almost every sector is the reason behind the shallow employability status of young Indian students. There is a need to build a strong foundation of training institutes and trainers to work on the skill mismatch issue. We need to do our bit to give a helping hand to the students to advance their employability skills.

Accounting, finance and management is a very dynamic and practical occupation.

There are continuous changes and upgradation in this practice. Therefore, professionals in pursuit of these careers need to constantly update themselves.

Upskilling will open up a world of better

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Recruiters today place a lot of emphasis on candidates with a proactive approach, good judgement and working knowledge in addition to subject knowledge

Higher Education Digest September 2019

career prospects for working professionals. Many a times, professionals cannot devote two-three years again for training or education once they start their career. This makes short-term courses helpful for professionals to upgrade their skills.

At present, there is a huge demand supply gap for sure in finance education. India is reinventing itself with the introduction of hundreds of new laws such as GST, Ind AS, IFRS, digital accounting, Sebi changes, rating changes, IBC and many more. The financial instruments have witnessed changed substantially, and therefore there is a discernible gap. That apart, the advent of new business models by start-ups such as Swiggy, Dunzo, Practo, Amazon and so on do not follow just the traditional practices. As accountants and finance professionals, we will have to reinvent the practices with a more practical approach. Having said that, we need a large number of credible and skilled accountants to give the market a boost.

Recruiters today place a lot of emphasis on candidates with a proactive approach, good judgement and working knowledge in addition to subject knowledge. Practical knowledge is what they look for. To give an example, employers these days expect fresh commerce graduates to file the GST return or a PF return on the first day of joining without much hand holding, but most students find it difficult to accomplish such tasks assigned to them due to lack of hands-on training in classrooms.

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Challenges for Academicians Academicians have an important role to play in the society and they are here to stay. However, the medium of communication is undergoing a lot of change. In a country plagued by shortage of teachers and disproportionate student-teacher ratio, digitization of education has been doing wonders.

While there is a certain amount of regulation that comes into play with a traditional classroom, lack of discipline is a major challenge with digital education. Having said that, academicians have faced these challenges all along right from gurukuls to traditional schooling, from black boards to PPTs, from face-to-face interactions with students to WhatsApp communication and so forth and traversed the path successfully. However, the shrinking attention span of students is a major challenge for academicians these days.

Students can barely concentrate for about 15 minutes. We need to constantly evolve and adapt our teaching methodologies to keep up with these changes.

Content certainly is crucial in our line of work because the entire process of accounting and compliances relates to law. This content can be delivered only as per the legal process, through government websites, set protocol and so on. There cannot be modifications whatsoever to suit individual teaching methodologies but on a brighter side, our approach towards content creation could be made more interesting and creative to engage the students.

Today, along with subject knowledge, it is important to get your attitude right. Subject knowledge might give them a start but only the right attitude will take them to the heights of success. (As told to the Editor)

Higher Education Digest September 2019

COVER 16

Higher Education Digest September 2019

STORY

MUST WATCH COLLEGES IN TAMIL NADU

GREAT LAKES INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

MAKING THE LEADERS GREAT AGAIN

By Sarath Shyam

Higher Education Digest September 2019

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tarting from Adyar and covering a long distance along the Bay of Bengal, Chennai’s East-Cost-Road or ECR is one of the most scenic routes in the state of Tamil Nadu and it has been a favorite for those who wish to go for an impulsive ride. However, what many fails to realize is that, ECR is a lot more than just beautiful straight road along the beaches, instead, it leads the travelers to some of the iconic institutions in the country.

Great Lakes Institute of Management is one such institution set on the scenic ECR, just 9 kms away from the UNESCO heritage site, Mahabalipuram.

Great Lakes 27-acre green campus, which has received LEED Platinum rating, is one of the most beautiful educational campuses in the country, providing a serene and tranquil environment with ideal setting for pursuing extremely rigorous and intellectually challenging programs. Be it in the middle of day or night, the campus is lively 24 x 7. Established in 2004 by Padmashree awardee, Dr. Bala V Balachandran, Professor Emeritus at Kellogg School of Management, Great Lakes Institute of Management is now among India’s leading Business Schools with campuses in Chennai and Delhi-NCR. Great Lakes is Prof. Bala V Balachandran’s dream project of putting Chennai on the international management education map. Prof. Bala V Balachandran has been a key player in revamping the management education landscape in India since the early nineties. He was a part of the team that recruited the first set of faculty members for IIM Bangalore in the late 60’s and has been instrumental in designing the MBA Program at MDI, Gurgaon which was a collaborative effort between the Indian Government, Kellogg School of Management and the UNDP. He was also in the founding team of the ISB at Hyderabad and chaired the Curriculum and Dean Search committees. Setting up Great Lakes Institute of Management in 2004 in his hometown was the logical next step for the professor turned edu-preneur.

“The millennials are a very focused and they know what they want. We at Great Lakes, act as a liaison between them and the industry. Our efforts are best spent in picking and choosing roles that

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

19 Dr. Bala V Balachandran, Founder & Chairman, Dean (Emeritus), Great Lakes Institute of Management, India A teacher by qualification but an academic entrepreneur by choice, Bala Balachandran is one of the best-known names in the Indian and American Management Education landscape. His teaching days began as early as in 1960 while as a student at Annamalai University, India from where he moved to Carnegie Mellon, Dayton and finally Kellogg at Northwestern University in the US where he served as Distinguished Professor for almost 35 years till his retirement in 2008.

With more than 100 research publications and several books to his credit, Prof. Bala’s research interests focus on Strategic Profitability through Customer Centric business strategies. He serves as a consultant to the senior management of many Companies, Educational Institutions as well as the Governments of the United States, India and Malaysia.

The Government of India conferred on him, the ‘Padmashri’ in 2001, in recognition of his contribution towards higher education in India. He is also the recipient of the prestigious AIMA - Kewal Nohria Award for Academic Leadership in Management Education for 2017 and the ‘Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar’ at 3rd National Teachers Congress organized by the MIT World Peace University in 2019.

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are coveted by the students cross-mapped with what they want to do. Business and Strategy Consulting, Technology Consulting or Techno-functional roles, AIMLA, Sales & Marketing, Business Developments are the major roles for which our students get chosen,” opines Dr. Bala V Balachandran. Over the years, several of student of Great Lakes have gone on to become functional experts, reached leadership roles, taken up international leadership positions in some marquee organizations. A few of them have also started their own ventures.

“We offer campus placement opportunities to all students of the full-time programs. Except a handful who are on sabbatical leave or have other aspirations, the rest of the students participate in the campus placement program. We have an unbeaten record of 100 percent placements right from our very first batch,” pinpoints Dr. Bala V Balachandran. For instance, the campus placement process for the PGPM Class of 2018 witnessed 100 percent of the students getting placed across diverse sectors and functional areas with an average package of Rs. 18.30 LPA for the top 10 percent of the class. While, the highest domestic CTC offered was around Rs. 26.38 LPA, highest international CTC reached over Rs. 36.46 LPA. The placement process saw participations from leading recruiters like Deloitte, EY, ZS Associates in Consulting, Amazon, Flipkart, Olacabs and Swiggy in E-commerce, Aditya Birla, Barclays, Dunia Finance and HSBC in BFSI, Fractal Analytics,

Higher Education Digest September 2019

The facilities on Great Lakes campus include a state of the art gym, a library that caters to the needs of every reader, be it fiction or business, a football field, a basketball court and an auditorium that provides the perfect backdrop for every occasion or performance.

Musigma and Latentview in Analytics, Accenture, ADP, Capgemini, Infosys, ITC Infotech, Mindtree, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Virtusa and Wipro in IT/ITES, to name a few.

Preparing for the Future “Globally, we are going through a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) period where the rate of change is very high. At the core of this fourth Industrial Revolution are the new concepts such as Disruptive Innovation, IoT, Block Chain, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Money Value of time vs. Time value of money and so on,” opines Dr. Bala V Balachandran. Great Lakes has been preparing its students for the VUCA world since 2015 and has started introducing course in Business Analytics, Business Intelligence and many more. Since then, the institute has augmented its offering to include Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, Machine Learning, Big Data and so on.

“We have only seen the tip of the iceberg and there are miles of uncharted and exciting challenges ahead of us. The education system as a whole (not restricted to just the Universities or higher education system) must lay a robust foundation in the disciplines like Science, Operations, Finance, psychology and human interaction, fundamental principles of economics and management, computational algorithms, data sciences, ethics and so on, since everything else can be learnt on the go, but without these basic tenets forming the foundation, the superstructure of Industry 4.0 cannot be built,” explains Dr. Bala V Balachandran. Great Lakes has also introduced multiple-formats and blended learning modules to ensure that those who cannot take time off from work can still re-skill and upskill themselves to face the onslaught of Industry 4.0.

Indeed, companies like Coursera have changed the way the people learn all over the world. Excellent learning resources are readily available at a click of a button. This is going to revolutionize the concept of learning and the brilliance of the idea lies in its simplicity. “I am a huge fan of affordable and accessible learning and Great Lakes has created its own learning platform CHOOCE (which is an improvement on the MOOC) to offer customized, hybrid, open, online courses,” shares Dr. Bala V Balachandran.

Great Lakes has also invested heavily in state-of-the-art Learning Management systems and campus Management systems, which help them deliver process-oriented solutions across all aspects of the school.

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Led by an exceptional faculty, steered by an outstanding advisory council and buoyed by international collaborations, Great Lakes has emerged as a top ranked Business School within a short span of time.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

What Makes it Great?

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The Great Lakes volleyball team organized the first of its kind Volleyball tournament in fond memory of Anshuman Vinayak (from PGDM 2019 who passed away in a road accident in 2017).

Higher Education Digest September 2019

“The quality of a good b-school program lies in its ability to impart a range of different experiences across all facets – teaching, learning, industry collaboration and many more.

When teachers from different geographies and cultures teach our students, they are exposed to a completely different thought-process and business practices,” states Dr. Bala V Balachandran. Throughout the year, Great Lakers meet, interact with and learn from titans of business, global academicians, policy makers and other such luminaries. In 2017-18 academic year alone, 100+ CXOs and industry leader shared perspectives with the learners of Great Lakes. Dr. Bala V Balachandran adds, “Our industry collaborations give us a grasp of not only the best practices but also the next practices, direction of business and industry allowing us to accordingly prep our students to be super-managers.”

At Great Lakes, sharing classroom space with students from another University as a part of the institute’s international exchange program paves the way for cross-pollination of ideas and development of fresh perspectives and sensitivities among the students. Great Lakes is associated with several of the best schools in the world including Illinois Institute of Technology to offer courses in Business Analytics & Technopreneurship), the Babson College (for entrepreneurship and family business related courses), Bordeaux University (student exchange program) and many more. Further, the institute has Centres of Excellence sponsored by companies to further research and studies in their specific focus areas like the Union Bank CfE in Banking, Kotler – Srinivasan CfE in Marketing, partnership with Virtusa to explore the IT/ITES space and many more.

A Best Place to Start Up Great Lakes Chennai has been chosen by the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) as one of the few b-schools with whom they shall partner to set up an Incubation center. Named the AGBI (Atal – Great Lakes – Balachandran Incubation Center), this facilitates start-up and innovative ideas right from concept to Commercialization. “Our Center for Entrepreneurial Development facilitates what is called as Experiential Learning where the students also can experiment with their creative ideas with the help of a TINKERING Clinic, Mentor clinic and a Consultant Clinic, which has the participation of both Industry and Academia and both U.S. and Indian Firms,” claims Dr. Bala V Balachandran. Right from its inception, Great Lakes has been conscious of the ‘Global mindset – Indian roots’ ideal and blending progressive western thought with Indian ethos is yet another conscious attempt aimed at eliciting creating output from students.

The institute is rolling out a 1-year niche program with Babson University (World’s No. 1 School in Entrepreneurship for 21 years in a row) in family Entrepreneurship. The institute earlier had another program with IIT Chicago where the MBA Degree is given by IIT Chicago on Technoprenuership. Apart from these standalone courses, students of the regular programs

specialize in Entrepreneurship and take up many courses in the discipline. With Atal Innovation Mission, Great Lakes now not only graduate full-time students, but also full-fledged startups.

Led by exceptional academic faculty, steered by an illustrious advisory council including some of the world’s most renowned academicians, policy makers and business luminaries, Great Lakes has emerged as a top ranked B-school within a short span of 14 years. In the years to come, Dr. Bala V Balachandran and his team at Great Lakes and bigger goals to achieve. Making Great Lakes Chennai a Deemed University under the Ministry of HRD or from the State University and a Global University with at least one major operational facility outside India (may be in the US) are the a few of them. “Passion with Compassion; Abilities with Humility, Mobility with Nobility, Success with Integrity; Caring for people and sharing of happiness with those less fortunate; Succeed with Your Logo by Surrendering Your EGO; become an efficient manager and a responsible corporate citizen, but above all a humane human being. The time they spend with us gives every student the opportunity to internalize each and every one of these key attributes. I am also glad to state that I have seen many students take back these ‘value’ attributes at the end of their stay with us,” concludes Dr. Bala V Balachandran.

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INDUSTRY PERCPECTIVE

Be Prepared for the Transition in the World of Work Neeti Sharma, Senior Vice President, Teamlease Services

Neeti has over 27 years of diverse experience in the domain of Outsourcing including Employment & Employability, Customer Relationship, Operations, Technical Training, Profit Center Management and International Business Development. Current focus is to set up a self-sustaining Employability and Employment models with various network of centers that profile, assess, train and certify job seekers across all profiles and cities / towns linking various stakeholders like Government, Educational Institutes, NGOs and Training Centers to cater to the manpower requirements (entry and middle level) of the organized and unorganized corporate sectors. Neeti has previously been associated with organizations such as Aptech Limited, Mittal Group of Companies & Goodearth Organics. She holds a Masters in Economics & Statistics and a Masters in Marketing Management from Symbiosis Institute of Management.

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

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Universities need to prepare students not just to earn a degree, but also to make them employable, job and wage ready

he world of work is changing very rapidly. Job seekers are looking for a taxicab arrangement with their employers, rather than a lifetime contract.

We often hear about how technology is taking over thousands of routine tasks and will take away many low-skill jobs. At the same time, technology is creating opportunities, making way for newer jobs – many of them still unknown to us. Studies show that 65% of jobs that today’s school going students will take, do not exist today. The core of Industry 4.0 is largely focused on Automation, Data analytics, Cloud computing, Internet of things (IoT), Artificial intelligence (AI). The key drivers are digitization, smart and autonomous systems fueled by data and machine learning. We need to create flexibility in the models of learning.

While Industry 4.0 is still evolving and many job roles of tomorrow are not known today, industry is struggling to upskill their workforce and hire relevant skilled professionals. Our Education system, however, is not preparing students for the jobs of Industry 4.0.

Most universities face the difficult trade-offs between cost, quality and scale and should be prepared to skill their students on the newer technologies, job role requirements and help students in continuous learning.

As the complexities and specialization in overpowering jobs increase, no single form of learning is sufficient.

Learning on the job has been the best form of learning, but that is not only time consuming but also not very cost effective. Learners could pick programs on their own to keep themselves upgraded. These could be learning through digital medium and/or a combination of digital plus classroom-based learning that is today being provided by many training companies by bringing in the best of trainers to class.

Universities need to prepare students not just to earn a degree, but also to make them employable, job and wage ready. Universities should be able to provide on demand learning through various forms of learning seamlessly – OnCampus, OnLine, OnSite, OnJobTraining. Provide various qualification corridors such as Certificate, Diploma, Advanced Diploma and Degree. Bigger problem in India is that of unemployability and wages rather than unemployment. Job seekers do not get the jobs that pay them the desired salary. Focusing on skilling and education is important to create employable workforce for our industry, however, a much larger focus needs to be in the area of improvising productivity of our workforce. In other words, the Skilling and Education

Higher Education Digest September 2019

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The skill sets required to be successful in college and the skill sets required to succeed in a corporate are like “Chalk and Cheese”

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budgets should focus on Repair, Prepare and Upgrade of our workforce.

Over the last decade, there has been a lot of focus on providing vocational skills and making first time job seekers employable. However, vocational skilling and employability has a financing problem. Students don’t want to pay for skilling, but are willing to pay for a job, Employers are not willing to pay for skilling but are willing to pay for a skilled candidate and Government – the largest funder for skilling has a trust deficit. Key skills for industry 4.0 currently are Problem solving, Critical Thinking, Design Thinking, Collaboration, Problem solving, Data Management, Machine Learning, Statistics, Programming, Decision making, Research ability, Analytical skills. While many are cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills are also in demand. Plus, the ability to self-learn and learn continuously is key.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

The skill sets required to be successful in college and the skill sets required to succeed in a corporate are like “Chalk and Cheese.” For an individual, starting to work in an organization is a unique and critically important phase that requires a special perspective and strategy to be successful as a fresher. Research suggests that the success of the transition period will have a major impact on aspects like salary, advancement, job satisfaction, and ability to have cordial relationships within the organization as well as on one’s own feelings of success, accountability and commitment to the job. And, the impact will last for many years and not just for the first few years. Preparation for this transition is the key, there is a whole host of skill sets one would need to inculcate to make the journey smooth, and we will look at some of the skills which will ensure workplace success. (As Told to the Editor)

FACULTY OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES PROGRAMS OFFERED GRADUATE: Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharm) Duration: 4 Years, Eligibility : 10+2(PCM/B/C/E)

POST GRADUATE: Pharm. D

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Duration: 6 Years, Eligibility : 10+2 (PCM/B/C/E)

Pharm. D Post Baccalaureate (Pharm. D. P B) Duration : 3 Years, Eligibility : B. Pharm

Master of Pharmacy (M. Pharm): Duration : 2 Years, Eligibility : B. Pharm

Pharmaceutics Pharmacology Pharmacognosy Pharmaceutical Analysis DOCTORAL Ph. D: Pharmaceutical Sciences Pharmacy Practice Higher Education Digest September 2019

MUST WATCH COLLEGES IN TAMIL NADU

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

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igher education is important for every country, as it is a powerful tool to build knowledgebased society of the 21st Century. India possesses a highly developed higher education system, which offers facility of education and training in almost all aspects of human creative and intellectual endeavors: arts and humanities; natural, mathematical and social sciences, engineering; medicine; dentistry; agriculture; education; law; commerce and management; music and performing arts; national and foreign languages; culture; communications and many more. At present, there are 993 Universities, 39931 Colleges and 10725 Stand Alone Institutions in India, with an estimated enrolment of 37.4 million.

The top eight states in terms of highest number of colleges in India are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Among them, Tamil Nadu is undoubtedly the hub of knowledge

creation in India. As per the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), The total number of students awarded PhD-level degrees in India last year was 40, 183 and Tamil Nadu tops the list with 5, 844 PhDs. The highest number of doctorates in Tamil Nadu doesn’t come as a surprise. The state has numerous universities and PhD awarding institutions, which can attract students from all over the world.

In this issue, we celebrate the success of Tamil Nadu’s higher education system by identifying ’10 Must -Watch Colleges in Tamil Nadu’ that are reinventing various disciplines of education to prepare young generation to be the leaders of the 21st century. We sincerely hope that our efforts to feature the premier institutions imparting best facilities for research, innovation, placements and entrepreneurship will help students and faculty members from all over the country in their educational journey.

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MUST WATCH COLLEGES IN TAMIL NADU Institute Name

City

Specialization

Salem

Engineering

Chennai

Mass Media

Tiruchirappalli

Management

Chennai Institute of Technology

Chennai

Engineering

Great Lakes Institute of Management

Chennai

Management

Loyola College

Chennai

Commerce, Arts, Science

PSG College Of Technology

Coimbatore

Engineering

SASTRA Deemed University

Thanjavur

Private University

SSN College of Engineering

Chennai

Engineering

Thiagarajar College of Engineering

Madurai

Engineering

Annapoorana Engineering College

Asian College of Journalism

Bharathidasan Institute of Management

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CHENNAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

To Live the Life of a Real Engineer 32

Higher Education Digest September 2019

MUST WATCH COLLEGES IN TAMIL NADU

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decade ago, 3D printers were the expensive machines used in factories and R&D organizations.

It is an incredible product that can construct a threedimensional object from a computer-aided design.

3D printer has now become a viable and affordable product for Designers, Engineers, Hobbyists, Colleges and even curious Consumers. Buying a high-end 3D printer in India may still cost us a few lakh rupees. However GAAGS Technologies brings it to the market with half price and without compromising on quality and functionalities. Interestingly, the founders of this innovative start-up are not industry professionals with years of experience; they are the students who recently got graduated from Chennai Institute of Technology. They call themselves as self-employed entrepreneurs with an aspiration of bringing life to our dreams through their 3D Printing Technology.

“3D printers are pricey in India a so people go for Chinese products which do not have quality and do not offer any sort of guarantee. At GAAGS, we make affordable multi-functional 3D printers and its accessories, so that, more people can use it without burning their pockets,” says V. Gokul, Co-Founder, GAAGS. Presently, GAAGS is incubated in IIT Madras – HTIC MedTech Incubator, which is a joint initiative by Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Government of India. The company is also working on several R&D based products, which will disrupt the MedTech market in the upcoming years. “The dream of manufacturing our own products and starting an own company because of the support we got from our college, Chennai Institute of Technology (CIT). Without the help of faculty members, we would not have been here,” adds Gokul.

Established in 2010 by the Parthasarathy Seeniammal Educational Trust, CIT works with the objective of providing quality technical education with an adequate industrial exposure than any other engineering colleges in Chennai. The institute has an Incubation cell for innovation and entrepreneurship for the transfer of knowledge, where the management encourages both

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P. Sriram, Chairman

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faculty members and students to carry out research projects that give solutions to several Industrial and societal problems. The incubation cell available inside the campus has helped many students to start their business venture. GOGOSOON, LEX Labs, NR Caterers, Force Enterprises, Chennai Auto Parts and K V L Infotech are few to name among them.

“At CIT, we give more focus on civilizing the quality of deliverables on par with global engineering education demands, rather than reinventing engineering education. As Engineering education is a professional course, we offer more modern industrial exposure to students by undertaking real time projects other than the curriculum requirements in the emerging areas such as industrial automation, digital modernization using big data, cloud computing and IOT, which are the main components of industry 4.0.,” opens Shri.P. Sriram, Chairman, Chennai Institute of Technology. Acclaimed as an Industry Connected Institution, CIT has grabbed the attention of the industry and the education fraternity at international level for its Centre of Excellences operational with well-trained faculty members having diverse experience in academic and industry with minimum qualification ME, M.Tech, Ph.D and PostDoctoral Fellowship.

“Now, many of the manufacturing and service oriented industries favor to work with CIT, since we have well established infrastructure, sustaining original version of software and equipment along with the expertise manpower available in the institution, which attracts the industries,” claims Sriram, who is a successful first generation entrepreneur in Chennai for the past two decades and it is his expertise in the industry that enhanced his thirst for establishing a technical institution under the banner of Chennai Institute of Technology. Today, CIT has strong collaborations with national and global industries in terms of student’s Internship programs, Industrial Visit, Project collaborations and Consultancy Projects. Further, the institute invites industry experts regularly to deliver guest lecture on recent trends in Industries, best practices and preparing the students towards the placements. Every year, over 90 percent of students get placed in reputed companies. Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd, ThoughtWorks Technologies, Human Resocia Corporation, Japan, WABCO India Limited, Rane Groups, Chennai, TCS, Verizon, Kaar technologies, Bank of America, HSDC, Bonrnfigleoli, YCH Logistics, Tech Mahendra, IBM, Empahsis and Mahendra & Mahendra are few to name among them.

Finding Solution to the Real Problems Budding as a favorite and promising technical institution for both students and industry, CIT has created specialized infrastructures for the industry needs such as IOT, Industrial automation, Computational mechanics, Robotics and Additive Manufacturing. “We have formulated totally 17 Centres of Excellence in the Emerging areas to make Industry ready Engineers who can cater the needs of various industries. The equipment and software in the CoEs are on par with global standards to solve any real time industrial needs,” shares Dr. J. M. Mathana, Principal,

Chennai Institute of Technology. Apart from the traditional teaching methods, CIT has given more importance to Collaborative Learning, Self-Learning, Competition Based Learning and Supportive Learning, which includes peer learning, Project based learning, Activity based learning and ICT supported activities. Dr.J.M.Mathana adds, “In support of innovation and creativity, we have established an Institution Innovation Cell (IIC) which is approved by Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India. It is helping us to systematically foster the culture of creativity and innovation among our students.

An attractive and compact campus, excellent student accommodation and close proximity to the city make CIT an ideal and conducive place for learning.

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The chief mandate of CIT’s Institution Innovation Cell is to encourage, inspire and nurture students by supporting them to work with new ideas and prototype.

This will promote innovation in the institution through multitudinous mode narrowing to an innovation promoting ecosystem in the campus. Dr. Mathana shares, “A separate innovation coordinator has been allocated for this process and awareness is being made twice in a month by inviting the well-known innovators across the nation from Industry as well as academia.” Indeed, Technical competition participation and learning is the crown of CIT in learning process. The main driving force for this comes from ‘Concept a Day’. “The present scenario gives many opportunities to the students to showcase their talents and innovations in many competitions at state, national and international level. They develop the products and startups that are relevant to social and technical importance,” opines Dr. Mathana. Many CIT students have participated in the Smart India Hackathon, Baja, e-Baja, e-Vehicle, Automated

Higher Education Digest September 2019

At CIT, students are given best equipments for practical sessions, which are conducted in the finest labs.

Dr. J. M. Mathana, Principal

Guided Vehicle, World Skill Competition, Code Vita, Code Thantra, and Code Gladiator. In most of these competitions, CIT students won the prizes which reveal their skill and technical preparedness.

“Our Innovative programs help to diversify the learning experience of every student through unique learning methodologies to develop products and face this modern world. It creates scientific spark in students to meet the global challenges, “pinpoints Sriram, which is also a mission of the Institution.

Undoubtedly, CIT students will have knowledge in emerging technology that will lead them to become an innovator in a sustainable manner. On the other side, CIT also inculcates human values and ethical principles to cater to the social needs. It contributes towards the research ecosystem by providing a suitable, effective platform for interaction between students and R & D establishments. Dr. Mathana states, “We are working tirelessly towards providing quality technical education on par with day today industrial requirements above the curriculum defined by the affiliating university through wellestablished eminent centers of academia, research by imparting knowledge, relevant practices and inculcating human values to work towards sustainable development.”

Today, CIT has many ambitious plans and the blueprints which are already set. Developing a world class facility on metal arc additive manufacturing system, creating an enhanced pro-engine research lab to support agricultural research activities, developing IoT enabled intelligent food grain warehouse monitoring system, publishing minimum 120 articles in reputed well indexed international journals, nurturing to file very minimum of 25 patens in this academic year (2019-20), achieving A++ grade in NAAC accreditation and becoming an Autonomous Institution are only few among them and its sure that CIT thrives hard to accomplish its Vision and Mission.

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INDUSTRY PERCPECTIVE

Indian Education in the Digital Age The advent of Industry 4.0 has created countless opportunities the tech-savvy learners.

In an exclusive interaction with the Higher Education Digest, Dr. Hari Krishna Maram, Chairman Vision Digital India –a provider of digital, analytical and app developing skills, talks about the current trends in the Idnia education sector. Dr. Maram is a highly motivated, experienced creative communicator with proven ability to “Achieve beyond Expectation”. He is specialized in concept development, market research, marketing, brand positioning, sales, sales training, educational consulting, university/ AICTE/UGC guidelines, Institutional building, international marketing.

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Dr. Hari Krishna Maram, Chairman, Vision Digital India

Higher Education Digest September 2019

• How does ‘achieve beyond expectations’ apply to higher education today?

Today Indian Higher Education system is the world’s largest with 985+ universities, 39,500 colleges, 2,98,700 schools with closely 37 crore student population. The reality is still no Indian Higher Education institution is able to reach world class institutions or even in top 200 rank globally.

To achieve beyond expectation, we have to work hard to meet the expectation of all the stake holders of the system by giving value for the time, money and industry- ready students.

One of the fundamental aspects to achieve the NEP goals is quality of teachers

• What is the strategy Vision Digital India has adopted to attract more students towards digital learning?

Vision Digital India under the umbrella of Imperial Group has launched a course that aims to bring digital education to 1 lakh students in the upcoming 4-5 years. This course will equip the youth with digital and analytical skills, which are much soughtafter by the corporate sector.

Many bright young minds today do not get to live their dreams of making it big in the corporate world, simply because there exists an immense divide between

the education that has been imparted to them and industry requirements. The core problem is that the industry is upgrading itself at such a breakneck speed that most educational institutions cannot keep up.

That is why the courses they offer are becoming dated and obsolete, and students armed with such degrees find themselves to be inadequately trained to make the cut in a highly competitive industry.

“This is what Vision Digital India had in mind when it created a course that is precisely tailored to meet the demands of the corporate world and ensure that students are industry-ready. Through its endeavor, Vision Digital India is trying to make PM Narendra Modi’s flagship campaign Digital India a resounding success and it is succinctly summed up in their motto ‘Enable Digital’,”

• Digital education has the capability to change the educational landscape of rural India. What is the current status of digital learning in India and what will be the focus of Vision Digital India in the market?

To turn aspirations into reality, Vision Digital India has incorporated niche technology into its course-structure to make it industry-relevant. Employers don’t just look into a candidate’s scorecard but what truly works in a student’s favour is how quickly he/she can be inducted into the workforce. And, this calls students for acquiring a better understanding of new and advanced technological concepts like data science, cloud and analytics, forming the backbone of an industry.

What sets the course apart is the fact that Vision Digital India is bringing to the table top-notch education at extremely affordable prices. What adds to its USP is that it has joined hands with the likes of Google, IBM, and Amazon, to rope in their technical know-how. For example, the

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Good education is about encouraging the student’s natural tendency to explore, experiment and experience

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analytics certificate comes from IBM and Google certifies the Digital Marketing course.

Moreover, Vision Digital India has secured the help of industry professionals who know the real world, how it works, latest updates and requirements, and what employers expect from employees. Who is better to instruct and train students than those men and women who have been working in the corporate world?

But, how does it go about it? Vision Digital India approaches colleges to implement its course. As per university regulations, the duration of the course is set at 80 hours. The bulk of it, around 60% is dedicated to handson training and the remaining 40% is all about theories.

• Do you think the draft NEP 2019 is poised to help students as well as the industry achieve beyond expectations? If no, why? If yes, please elaborate.

Draft in NEP is very well drafted and answers pertinent questions for a robust education policy. However, all of this will be of no use if there is no implementation on the ground. The crux of the matter is implementation.

Vision without action is a shallow thought. One of the fundamental aspects to achieve the NEP goals is quality of teachers. Perhaps having a strong minimum wage policy along with qualification can bring rigor.

• What do you think have been the major flaws in education policy in the past decades? Do you think NEP 2019 is attempting to address at least some of them?

National Education Policy ignores the ground realities of research quality in higher educational institutions but sets enormous goals for the country. The policy envisages that all higher education in India will become multidisciplinary by 2030. The new education plan will give us

Higher Education Digest September 2019

graduates who are creative and adapt in critical thinking.

Their multi-disciplinary training will ensure that they always remain employable even as single-disciplinary jobs become automated.

We have numerous private universities that offer bad quality academic training but do great advertising claiming a great placement record, but, only 5-10% students will be getting good salary and great company. The real story is that most of them are understaffed in terms of faculty and the quality of existing faculties is poor. The learning outcome is truly terrible.

• Education in India has focused on learning of facts all these years. William Butler Yeats wrote: “Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire.” What sort of changes in the system do you recommend to switch over to training of the mind to think?

Good education is about encouraging the student’s natural tendency to explore, experiment and experience. It is about igniting the fire that will spread light globally.

• College is for partying and a vacation for both students as well as teachers. Does this effectively sum up the education system in India as it exists today?

Unfortunately, social and emotional skills are not taught in schools and colleges. Incidentally most organizations choose candidates for their attitude and character. In India lack of emotional hygiene and mental well-being is an epidemic. Everyone in the industry and society complains lack of civic sense, social responsibilities, negativity and permission in the society but there is no effort towards building right skills. A focused approach on developing skills for emotional, social and mental well-being can not only mitigate most of these issues but also gives overall development.

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

ANNAPOORANA ENGINEERING COLLEGE

Building World-Class Technocrats

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Higher Education Digest September 2019

MUST WATCH COLLEGES IN TAMIL NADU

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r. A. Shanmugasundaram was a leader of excellence who saw what others did not see and positively impacted different generations to raise up other visionaries. In 1981, he established the Thirumuruga Kirupananda Variyar Thavathiru Sundara Swamigal Medical Educational & Charitable Trust (TKVTSSMEC Trust), a pioneer in offering higher education for over three decades in the fields of Medicine, Engineering, Dental, Pharmacy, Nursing and many more. The dream, desire and destination of Dr. Shanmugasundaram to impart quality education to the weaker and the poorer sections of the society, lead to the incubation of Annapoorana Engineering College (AEC) in 2010. AEC is now a shining example of ‘inclusive’ culture providing quality education to students belonging to socially deprived groups. In this sense, AEC is proving to be forerunner to the principle of social justice that was powerfully enunciated and enshrined in the constitution of the country.

“No account of the history can be complete without remembering the pioneering work of our Founder Chairman, Dr. A. Shanmugasundaram. It is the philanthropy of our Founder Chairman that has made this college a seat of social reform movements, cultural renaissance and intellectual awakening for the young men and women of many in this part of the country,” says N. V. Chandrasekar, Director, Annapoorana Engineering College. Located in the Salem District of Tamil Nadu, AEC has always been striving to impart quality education to all the students by providing state of art facilities, good academic ambience, and opportunities to interact with top academicians and professionals and right motivation to take part in cocurricular and extracurricular activities. “Our Vision is to achieve greater recognition in our chosen fields of endeavor and to excel as one of the renowned engineering institutions with respect to education and research so as to produce competitive student’s workforce to compete in the current Global Scenario,” adds Chandrasekar.

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46 Located in Salem - Coimbatore National highway, AEC has Airconditioned digital classrooms, spacious laboratories with state of art equipments, air-conditioned spacious central library and digital library with adequate learning resources.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Aims at producing ‘Industry Ready World Class Engineers,’ AEC is now preparing its students for Industry 4.0. and equips them with knowledge and skills required to deal with challenges of increasingly digitalized production systems. “We ensure students have the theoretical and practical knowledge to meet the demands of a demanding workforce. By having access to the tools, systems and programs that companies use in the market, we promote real-world education and have a road map that ensures that the right disciplines are being taught to empower tomorrow’s engineers,” states Chandrasekar. AEC helps its students to familiarize elements of industry 4.0 such as additive manufacturing, IT security, cyber-physical systems and many more. By this, they strongly hope that these capabilities and technologies will lead to greater job prospects and the ability to hit the ground running. As a result, AEC has been able to produce impeccable placement figures over the years. Companies like Infosys, HCL, IBM, Bosch, Flipkart, Oracle, Fiat, TVS and many more have been regular recruiters of AEC students.

Chandrasekar pinpoints, “We strongly believe that the Institution – Industry relationship has proved much beneficial to the organization by way of Placements and Implant training. Tie-ups with the Industries have tremendous impact on the students to get practical training.” AEC’s MoUs with reputed organizations have encouraged students to come out with innovative scientific projects. Leading Companies such as Trident Automobiles, Bangalore; Alliance Group, Chennai and many other companies have signed MoU’s with AEC recently. In addition to that, AEC has also made Tie-ups with top companies to offer Hands- on -Training Experience to the students.

47 Generating New Knowledge AEC is not only a place where students can find excellent placement opportunities, but also a platform for acquiring new knowledge through cutting-edge research activities. The institute has a Research & Development Cell namely Dr. A. Shanmugasundaram R&D Cell, through which Project Contests are conducted every year and cash awards and prices are distributed. The Management of AEC allocates over Rs.5,00,000 every year for such purpose. The college also has received number of grants from various funding agencies for conducting Work Shops, Seminars and Conferences. “Dr. A. Shanmugasundaram R&D Cell is also focused on collaboration with industries for the promotion of industry-specific applied research, innovative product development, advanced learning and skill development programs. It bridges across industry and the student, to provide support to enter industries and to improve projects which are evaluated by the industry experts,� says Chandrasekar.

Dr. A. Shanmugasundaram, Founder Chairman and his wife

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N. V. Chandrasekar, Director

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AEC students and faculty members are collaboratively taking up various research projects funded by Government and Private Agencies. One such ongoing project is on “Solar power generation system.” Along with that, they also attend various workshops, seminars and hands-on–training conducted at various places of the country. Few such seminars attended are “Noise Reduction” in Automobile Engineering, “Application of Lasers in Highway Engineering” in Civil engineering, “Hadoop” in Computer science Engineering, “Digital Signatures” in ECE, “Renewable Energy” in EEE and “Turbofan Engine” in Mechanical Engineering. “Equipping on latest technology have enabled our faculties to train, mentor and guide the students to do research projects and models to private agencies. The students are also well-versed in developing software to suit the needs of local businessmen,” adds Chandrasekar.

With proper guidance and mentoring from the faculties, AEC students have been bringing their dreams to reality. To nurture the talents of budding engineers further, the institute encourages them to participate in Symposia, project expo and model making competitions at various institutions in and around the state. “The training given on latest technologies not only enlighten the young minds but also motivate them in bringing their ideas and creativity into reality. If needed, we offer them special software at the campus in the respective area of their research and give monetary rewards for bringing out best innovative project and model,” claims Chandrasekar.

Innovative projects and models created by AEC students are

AEC offers excellent lab facilities with all necessary equipments that allow the students to gain a sound practical knowledge and live experience

motivated to present in various project expos and Project competitions. “Since many students come from rural background, we encourage them to bring out projects that are useful and productive to the society, which can be used in areas like agriculture, farming, handloom and so on.

Developing projects that cater to the need of the poorer section of the society is our greatest strength,” shares Chandrasekar.

On the other side, AEC strives to create a pool of skilled students in Design and Manufacturing through industry specific certification programs in skill development under Skill-India / Make-in-India schemes by establishing Manufacturing Hubs by leading industries. Appreciating the importance of the industry-academia partnership in transforming research and education to greater heights, Dr. A. Shanmugasundaram R&D Cell has partnered with industries and universities, which help in building an advanced technological research platform and empower innovation. “We also conduct various seminars through its Entrepreneur Development Cell. Successful entrepreneurs from various domains have been brought to our college for the benefit of the students,” explains Chandrasekar. AEC invites prominent personalities, from pauper to prince, to give talks on Start-up ideas, seed grant ideas for new business and other initiatives for entrepreneurially minded students.

Chandrasekar opines, “No matter what field they study, students come to college seeking to make a difference in

society through startups, social entrepreneurship, and other ventures of their own creation. We see the same kind of energy and excitement in young faculty, too, who now expect to develop new technologies or engage in startups as part of their academic career.” In a nutshell, every AEC student gather some major qualities the college apart getting the best employability skills. quick learning, multitasking skills, interpersonal and communication skills, ability to take ownership, problem solving skills, sincerity, hard work, perseverance and team playing are few to mention among them.

At present, AEC is marching towards the next step of success in bringing out the institution so as to become one among the top 10 colleges in Tamil Nadu and Number 1 College in the Salem City. To add one more jewel to the crown of AEC, the institution has a plan to apply for NAAC and thereby find a new sense of direction and identity for the institution and to initiate innovative and modern methods of pedagogy. To function in the ever-changing industry scenario, and to bring out strong Institution-Industry relationship, AEC has proposed to do more tie-ups and MoU’s with leading industries in the country. “We have plans to concentrate more on research by faculty and students. Engineering Projects worth Rs. 50 Lakhs is submitted to various funding agencies. We also want to improve the present academic results of around 75 percent to be 90 percent at the earliest,” concludes Chandrasekar.

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COUNSELLOR’S TAKE

Why India Needs about 1.5 million Career Counselors?

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Prateek Bhargava, CEO, Mindler

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Prateek makes everything tick at MINDLER. Double MBA from ISB Hyderabad & MDI Gurgaon, his brilliant track record includes strategy consulting, corporate strategy and education advisory with organizations like Accenture Strategy & Maruti Suzuki. Having cracked the CAT, GMAT, CLAT and many more competitive exams, he is an amazing mentor to get the secret recipe to reach your dream college.

He dreams to replicate the mentoring experience he received throughout his academic & professional journey for millions of students across the country. In his second interaction with the Higher Education Digest, Prateek talks about his life as an entrepreneur and Indian career counselling sector.

• As an entrepreneur, what is it that motivates and drives you? How do you handle failures?

The motivation is to build a legacy while solving the problem we are solving. Failures are part of the journey.

They teach you what not to do & keep trying!

• What is the status of career counselling sector in India and abroad? Do we have enough qualified professional in this sector who can guide the growing number of students?

We have an estimated 1 lakh professional career coaches compared to the need for 15 lakh career coaches to cater to 315 million strong student market

India has a counselling-deficit education sector which poses a critical challenge. We have an estimated 1 lakh professional career coaches compared to the need for 15 lakh career coaches to cater to 315 million strong student market. In comparison, U.S. has about 2.6 million student career advisors for 56 million students.

Career Guidance and Mentoring is only now beginning to gain the recognition it deserves and is witnessing exponential growth as a profession. While the developed nations have recognized the criticality of career counselling, and a vast number of progressive schools in India are also waking up to the fact, the scenario is more sober in reality.

Over 90% of Indian schools do not have career counsellors and there is a massive shortage of trained career counsellors in the country today.

• What do you put your success down to and who inspires you?

Perseverance and constant innovation. As a big sports fan, I seek my inspiration from sporting legends who whose journey is driven by patience, perseverance and passion!

• How do you generate new ideas?

Structured ideation for me comes from spending time with the team and looking at solutions, while unstructured ideation comes from reading & learning from what the best in each industry are doing.

• What is the significance of Mindler’s Multilevel International Certification for Career Coaches (ICCC) program?

ICCC is a 3-level certification program in Career Coaching designed by Mindler in collaboration with two USA-

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Prateek Bhargava

You need to have a clear vision towards solving a real-world problem and the right team who is aligned to the vision

Higher Education Digest September 2019

based career coaching bodies, CDA (Career Development Agency) and NCDA (National Career Development Association). While the main focus in the Career Guidance & Mentoring space is on building tools and services to support students, there are very few avenues to create and support existing Career Coaches This multi - level International Certified Career Coach (ICCC) program is aimed at helping professionals build an exciting career in the career guidance space. This robust programme will bring a qualitative change in the delivery of career guidance across the world. In India, in particular, ICCC will help fill a critical gap in the career guidance space and help shape up quality career coaches in a country with the largest youth population.

The three-level ICCC program comprises of ICCC Foundation program - a 30 credits program for 2 days, ICCC Master program - a 40 credits program and ICCC Advanced program - a 50 credits program.

• How ICCC program will bridge the gap between career counsellors and students? How will it help the aspirants in tier II and tier II cities?

The demand for Career Counselors is at a pan-India level because students everywhere need career guidance to make informed decisions. However, the trend is currently more prevalent in Tier 1 cities, simply because there is no access to such a service in Tier 2 and 3 towns. That said, India needs about 1.5 million counselors for its 350 million student population and the opportunity in this space exists everywhere.

The penetration of this service can grow by providing better access of career guidance services to students and creating more career coaches who can help parents and students not only understand the value of such a service in their lives but also make informed

career decisions. ICCC program will ensure world class training and certification of career counsellors across big and small cities to create greater access to high quality career counselling for students.

• What would you say are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?

You need to have a clear vision towards solving a real-world problem and the right team who is aligned to the vision.

• What advice would you give to student entrepreneurs who are starting out?

While no specific education or training is required to start a business venture of your own, the odds of success increase exponentially when entrepreneurs have a solid education background and with the popularity of entrepreneurship rising, many universities/ institutes offer programs to groom budding entrepreneurs. The idea here is to build a network as well as domain expertise. I see a lot of students running towards entrepreneurship without understand the tough journey it entails. So, I always tell them to do a thorough homework on this!

I would suggest few important things a budding entrepreneur can keep in mind: • The most successful start-ups are founded by people who followed their passion & belief in the problem they are solving.

• Find a mentor, who can guide you to your entrepreneur journey • Be focused on what you are doing.

• You need to understand your market, start-up fails because they don’t understand their target market. So, research as much as possible

• In one word, describe your life as an entrepreneur?

Exciting.

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BOOK REVIEW

Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat

By Sarath Shyam

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ill then, nobody has seen a goat giving berth to seven kids in one go. With Poonachi, it happens. She comes into the world as her mother’s seventh child, like a miracle.

This report can be fictitious. But that is what the Bakasuran, a mysterious and a large stranger, told the old man when he handed over Poonachi for free. The old man had no other choice than believing Bakasuran and taking Poonachi home where an old woman and a bunch of goats are waiting. Now, Poonachi, who almost looked like a small black kitten, must live with her differences and survive in this world.

The concept of anthropomorphism, which is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to nonhuman entities, is not alien to us as readers. We have seen it books like Animal Farm, The Wind in the Willows, Jungle Book and many more. Perumal Murugan’s Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat falls into this category, where Poonachi, the black goat, has a woman-like emotions and it goes through the ordeals an Indian woman has to face in a patriarchal society.

Before we go into the details of Poonachi, it is important to know a little bit about the author, Perumal Murugan, who became the talking point of an entire nation with the release of a controversial book named ‘Maathorupagan’ which was translated to English as ‘One Part Woman.’ Though the book was published in 2013, it stirred controversies after a few years of its publication and Murugan, a Tamil Professor and Novelist, gave up writing for a brief period after receiving numerous threats and intimidations. In 2015, he wrote on a Facebook post, “Hereafter, only P Murugan, a teacher will live.”

After 18 months from the time he announced his ‘death as an author,’ much to the relief of his readers, Murugan comes back with a thought-provoking novel, Poonachi: Or the Story of a black Goat. The novel, which has been translated to English by N. Kalyan Raman, can be explained in many ways.

However, with so many characters and different emotions, Poonachi would keep the readers hooked from cover to cover.

At the end, it will leave us with so many questions in mind and with so much affection to the creature other than humans living around us.

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Higher Education Digest September 2019