Top 10 Fastest Growing E-Learning Start-ups in 2021

FEBRUARY 2021

An investment to gain knowledge

Swift L ft

www.swiftnlifteducation.com

Top 10 Fastest Why E-Learning: Insights into the World of Online Learning and Development

Growing Startups In 2021

Top 5 Reasons To Invest In Rapid eLearning The rise of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

MR. SUNIL GUNDA Founder

TRENDYPAPER

Website: https://www.actyv.com/

Swiftnlift Media And Tech SwiftNLift is the Best Business Magazine across the globe for enterprises.

From t he E d itor …

I

t gives me immense pleasure to bring you this magazine. Many thanks to my team for the work undertaken. I’ve wanted to be there not just by virtue of being the editor but because I had something to say something that might join us for a moment in that miraculous way words can.

E-learning saves time and money. With online learning, learners can access content anywhere and anytime. E-learning is also cost-effective as we can see many companies save a substantial amount on the travel and accommodation costs of both learners and instructors, as well as the venue and materials.

SwiftNLift magazine is not just a print or digital anymore but everything we do derives from its long-standing character, approach and quality while we continue to produce the print publication with as much dedication as ever.

There are regular columns by the editors with reflective articles to provide information regarding E-Learning and its advantages during pandemic. Some print pieces have complementary components such as additional coverage, advertisements and still photography.

The cover story has featured Mr Sunil Gunda (Founder) of Trendypaper.

It is a one-stop online shopping portal where you get the all types of products at best prices. One of the most innovative company rising today.

- Nilesh Sabe Nilesh Sabe Chief Editor

Support@swiftnlift.in :www.swiftnlift.in

Copyright © 2019 Swiftnlift Media and Tech LLP, All right reserved.

Chief Editor

Managing Editor

Nilesh Sabe

Ravi Borse

Executive Editor

Amar Rathod

Business Developement Manager

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Graphic design team Art & Design Director

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Somesh Junavane

Marketing and sales Advertising & Promotions Manager

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Digital Marketing

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Marketing Manager

Snehal Bandekar Sales Executives

Pranav Raundale Diksha Purohit

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Contributors

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Technical team Technical Head

Technical Specialist

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Technology Consultant

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CONTENT 22

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CLASSROOM HUNT

Widhya HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED

Cover Story 10

Trendypaper

36 40

44

TCOLLEGEDAYZ 48

EDUBUK TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED

50

54

EduPenguin

Articles

Curious Times

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Top 5 Reasons to Invest in Rapid E- Learning The Rise of Online Learning During The COVID-19 Pandemic

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Why E-Learning? Insights into The World of Online Learning and Development

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CarvingBrain

Technical Hub

Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

TRENDYPAPER “Books are the quietest and most constant of friends they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors and the most patient of teachers” Charles W Eliot

MR. SUNIL GUNDA Founder

Trendypaper Tell us about your company. Its Vision and Mission.

Trendypaper vision is to create a world where everyone has access to books that will enrich, improve and change their lives.

Our mission is to provide books, resources and training to support an environment in which reading for pleasure, study and lifelong learning can flourish.

Our values Our values inform and guide our work. We are committed to: Equality of opportunity. Everyone should have the opportunity to read, whatever their circumstances. We support people from all occupations in their efforts to access the books they need to achieve their goals.

Quality. No-one should have to make do with old, outof-date books which do not meet their needs. The quality of the books we send is the hallmark of our work.

How do you stay on top of changes in the process, changes in thought of industries that you are going to look at more now?

1. The Ed-tech industry is changing. Everything changes; it always has, and it always will. You can keep up with and be part of the changes, or you can overlook and ignore changes and let others pass you by.

2. We prefer to keep up with what’s trending in our industry. It’s not always easy, especially in a field like Education, but we managed to recognize and change with what’s shifting in our field.

3. We take advantage of industry research and trends reports.

4. One of the simplest things we do to better recognize trends are read research reports or solution guides.

Often, industry leaders perform original research and compile their findings in one large report and by taking the time to read through it beyond the executive summary; we almost always find something in it that’s

valuable and relevant to what’s trending right now in Instead, I keep a very close group of friends, peers, and partners as my our space As the CEO of an Ed-tech startup, I like following a informal group of advisers. Together, variety of marketing reports to stay on top of trends-- they’re able to show me all kinds of different perspectives, help me see things that whether it’s reading about trends in Ed-tech space weren’t on my radar before, and spot what’s These reports don’t contain the word of god or anything, coming around the curve. And I can do but reading a variety of reports helped us get a feel for the the same for them. landscape and where things are headed. These reports gather for making sure you’re leading your company in 3. Ask the right questions, and the right direction. listen to your customers.

A. Regularly follow publications and influencers in our We are not afraid to ask current industry. customers what’s on their radars and B. Use different tools and analytics systems to identify what they see as future needs in their areas. the direction trends are heading.

C. We use different tools specific to our industry, our We get solid insight into trends in general audience, our goals and start developing Fortunately for us, when we look at things like Google more specific plans for Trends, we can see from a big-picture perspective that our company to grow the area our company specializes in--thought leadership- and better service clients -is steadily increasing in search interest. To break it down down the road. I love more specifically, my marketing team uses tools like grabbing dinner with a Google AdWords and Semrush to better pinpoint exact current client, hearing more about keywords and queries, and from there, we analyze the what the next five years might look big picture and the smaller picture to evolve with those like for them, and finding out what trends. they need from us along the way.

We use a variety of tools together to track our customers’ We recently did this with behavior, any correlations among a specific audience, publishing books as a service. and our performance.

Enough clients indicated it as a future need, and we realized 1. Make it a point to surround yourself with smart that if we want to grow with people. them, we needed to find Have you ever heard the saying, “If you’re the smartest some way (either through person in the room, you’re in the wrong room”? Well, it’s our offerings or through true--and especially so if we’re talking about trends and partnerships) to meet evolving our company with them. this need. Without Our team and I squeeze our already busy schedule to asking customers attend startup events and Lit festivals, Trade fairs which the right allow us to meet the countless intelligent people at those events gave us the better pulse on where the industry is heading.

2. Build and maintain a close group of advisers.

“Boards of advisers” never really got me excited as a young entrepreneur--and, honestly, I still don’t care for them. The formality and structure of boards like these always seemed to stifle the kind of candid, conversational elements that make relationships so valuable.

questions, we may not have started testing this service for them.

at the overall process where something simple might have been stalling it?

4. Learn to accept--and even embrace--change.

Growth stalls happen to the best of companies like Levi Strauss, Apple, Caterpillar, Daimler-Benz, Volvo, Etc. Even if you’re a rocket ship with a stellar trajectory, you’re going to have to do some repositioning or refueling at some point in your journey. We had issues with quite a several areas being it Marketing, Product design and Expansion, it’s a never-ending process we succeed in an area we get stuck in some other, and we are continuously doing our best to overcome our stalling. Product problems are not always straightforward, but they certainly contribute to growth stalls. Lack of diversification, bad pricing, poor go-to-market strategies, and little differentiation between us and our competitors are classic causes of a growth stall.

My team has battled this idea a lot in the past with leads whose leadership teams were reluctant to change or evolve with content marketing. And I get it--it’s hard to try something different when you’re in your comfort zone and things are going well for you.

However, we believe if you get too comfortable and adapt to trends too late in the game, a competitor will beat you to the punch. Then, instead of staying ahead of those trends, you’ll quickly try to play catch-up, which can cause even more problems in our execution. Accepting trends and change as facts and embracing them helped us avoid that.

Whether you’re ready for them or not, trends change industries every day. Knowing what’s coming around the corner and evolving our company alongside those changes can keep us competitive.

What might you find when you are looking

Ability to drive demand is a key factor between stalling out vs. accelerating.

Regardless of how fantastic your offering is, if people don’t know it exists, your business can’t sell it.

The thing is, driving demand—aka generating leads— can be overwhelming. Leads don’t just grow on trees.

Marketing team or no marketing team, when a stall occurs, the marketing efforts have to react accordingly. It is important to develop a demand strategy and continue to re-evaluate it over time to get customers through the door.

services on the website.

We offer better discounts across the board with up to 40% on promotional titles!

We can provide a full range of servicing elements tailored to meet client specification. This includes preferred Without a scalable, predictable sales process, the leads Books sets, Customized bags, uniforms to be displayed that marketing worked tirelessly to generate will go to in a dedicated school or institutions page which is first of waste. its kind in India with the add-ons of even wrapping and Scalability is the Holy Grail; scalability is about capacity labeling ready to go book sets delivered to their doorstep. and capability. Overlooking these is often the root cause of scale-related growth stalls.

How clients are getting benefited by doing

We have had too much on our plate and you’re unable to take on new clients or deliver your offering in a timely business with you? way, you had a scaling problem and had to delay few of It’s a unique platform wherein it caters to all kinds of our services and offerings. customers from KG to PG. Trendypaper offers the savvy shopper a host of benefits, from customer convenience and access to a greater variety of books to significant cost Why should one prefer you? savings.

Each member of our staff is an expert in the product they I. Cost savings: we offer the consumer huge savings over support. They take part in ongoing education, staying up traditional brick and mortar stores. We can pass on to date on the latest features, trends, tips and tricks. So, these savings for a variety of reasons. Our Rental costs they can pass what they learn on to our clients and use it are cheaper, as we operate out of warehouses rather to help ensure a hassle-free shopping experience. than in prime retail space.

Our team of experts is not only knowledgeable; they’re II. Convenience: As with all Internet shopping, passionate about helping our customers.

Trendypaper offers great convenience to the consumer.

Not only we do cut out travel time, but with the help We are a One-Stop-Shop for All Your Educational Needs. of the store’s search engine, finding exactly what Unlike many other online stores who only specialize in you’re looking for has never been easier. Another one or two products, we have the expertise to help you advantage is that you’re not constrained by the store’s manage all of your Educational Needs. hours; instead, you can shop 24/7, whenever you find No matter what Educational Institution challenge is, be it the time. cumbersome syllabus design, renting books, selling your used books we have the skills and expertise to help you.

A Company You Can Trust

III. Greater variety: We work with multiple suppliers, which allow us to offer a wider variety of books than a traditional retail store.

Trendypaper has been trading in books for 3 years! Our IV. Global availability: With the rise of Internet shopping, customer-focused family business is un-rivaled. it is much easier to access products from around the world, and books are no exception.

Online Ordering Tool V. Recommendations and customer feedback: One With lots of user-friendly features including sell books, of the greatest benefits of an online bookstore is the allowing you to sell you unused books for the price you access these venues allow reader recommendations ask for the option to sell books across the nation and customer feedback. Which allow customers to Lists and collections handpicked by our experienced rate their books and provide information as to why team. From curriculum resources and topic collections or why not they would recommend the product to to Book Banding, fellow readers wonderful insight as to whether or not a particular title right for them.

Our staffs are here year-round to help you with any query. We can place orders for you, find your titles, build Renting books via membership have many benefits, collections or come and see you demonstrate any of our including convenience, lessening your carbon footprint

and saving you both time and money.

A. You can find great bargains on second-hand textbooks Previously owned books are much cheaper than new ones. Typically, you can make at least a 50% saving when you buy 2nd handbooks and often your savings will be much higher. After your studies, you will have no use for your textbooks and therefore it is not worth spending a huge amount on books that you will only use for a limited period.

B. Help save the environment

What are your views on today’s industry scenario? What is your strategy to reach new industries and new customers?

When we launched this e-commerce startup Bookshop, he hoped it might carve out a small, cheerful corner of a market dominated by Amazon. It was an optimistic operation. Too optimistic, if anything.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Bookstore’s business boomed. It has been a wild ride,” Bookshop went from a well-intentioned start-up facing an uphill battle to one of the most popular ways to buy books online in a matter of weeks.

By using second-hand textbooks, you are contributing the bookselling business has changed amidst the stay-atto recycling. Buying used books is an environmentally home orders brought by Covid-19. friendly option. Not only does buying second-hand help The pandemic caused an abrupt, massive shift in to save trees, but it also reduces landfill waste. consumer behavior. Leisurely in-person browsing is on hiatus indefinitely. Although most physical stores are C. Support other students Buying textbooks from other students, rather than large closed, and the economy is in a drastic decline, book retail outlets, support the efforts of your fellow students. sales overall have been up in April, the book market has High tuition fees, as well as the cost of textbooks, make it historically performed well during times of economic difficult for many students to afford their studies. When downturn, and our past sales have shown us that there you buy second-hand books, you are helping other is unlikely to be a catastrophic cliff in demand for books individuals to afford the cost of buying the items that they need for their tuition.

With great offering partnered with exceptional customer service. We would want to utilize the most affordable strategy which is through word of mouth This requires considerable effort on our part and we constantly engage in dialogue with existing industry leaders and power players while staying up to date on the latest industry news. It’s not the easiest route to take, but the long-term benefits of becoming an industry leader are worth our sweat and toil.

How do you work on making the industry better? What can be expected from your company in the upcoming years?

The bookstore industry as a whole is going through a large

consolidation. Previously, the market was dominated by local, small stores and regional chains. With the advent of the “superstore” as created by Amazon, Flipkart the largest players in the market have been able to gather significant market share and drive many independent booksellers out of the market.

Where independent booksellers can still create a viable position for themselves within the market is in the used books segment. This segment generally does not attract big companies since the “superstore” concept is much more difficult to replicate in a market with such low-profit margins.

Renting, selling used books is a great way to lessen your carbon footprint. By renting books and sharing them with others, a significant amount of paper and trees will be saved. It’s a much better choice for the environment and Mother Earth.

We are currently working on Digital publishing (which is a combination of integrating a digital content onto physical books), Develop a fun and effective. Gamelike lessons and fun characters which help build solid understanding in the respective subject matter That can track your progress with playful rewards and achievements when you make practicing (Ideation Stage)

Tell us about the Founder/ CEO and the constraints faced at the time of inception?

Year of Founding: 2018 Funding Information: Bootstrap Founding Members: 3 Office Locations: Ballari, Karnataka Company Strength: 8 Website: https://www.trendypaper.com/

Always remember to ask yourself a question: When was the last time you did something new for the first time?”

At the early stage of my career, took up the family business of Food Supplies despite having no interest in it, solely due to it being the only source of family’s survival.

After not achieving much there, started looking for other opportunities. As I had a great interest in the internet and E-commerce, started Trendypaper.com in 2018

And I have always believed that if your business offering or solution is solving a real and existing problem, My Name is Sunil Gunda, Founder of www.trendypaper. geographical constraints do not matter in this internetcom (Trubrain Education India Private Limited). Who first world. belongs to a small city, a city without any advancement in All of us who reside or grew up in small towns with the field of internet accessibility all it had was one or two aspirations and dreams to build something for India and its audience have access to enough resources and cyber cafes and that too with slow dial-up connections.

Born in Ballari city, completed my Engineering from opportunities to convert our dreams into realities and Ballari Institute of Technology and Management(BITM) witness results, in today’s day and age.

VTU. I started working as a traditional businessman because I believe ‘one should never hesitate to start from

Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

CLASSROOM HUNT

Search, compare and explore schools in your city.

Tabassum Memon Founder & CPO Would you tell us about CLASSROOM HUNT (Vision and Mission)?

Our Mission: Bridge the gap between educators and parents/students by providing them a platform to search & select, connect & share and explore & learn.

Our Vision: To become the best and most trusted education platform in India.

About Us: Classroom Hunt is owned by Appalachian Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a company aimed at providing automated solutions.

With innovation at the core, Classroom Hunt offers its users the unique experience of discovering the 18

right school for their child. Classroom Hunt is a portal for parents and a platform for schools to reach out to parents.

With data from more than 10000 schools from all the major cities in India, Classroom Hunt gives its users ample options to choose from. Parents can read school reviews from other parents, connect with them, compare schools, and make the right decision.

In the next couple of months, we are opening Classroom Hunt to all types of educators like private tutors, coaching classes. This platform will not be restricted to schools, but all the educators can share updates and other content and connect with students and parents.

Our other products in the pipeline are Virtual Classroom, School Automation Suite, and PTA mobile app.

How do you stay on top of changes in the process, changes in thought of industries that you are going to look at more now?

Our team is continuously researching the changes and latest trends in the education sector in India. We think education is one industry where digital innovation is long overdue. There isn't any platform for parents looking for schools to connect with other parents from different schools or get some honest reviews. They rely mostly on Facebook or similar social media platforms.

Hence, Classroom Hunt wants to make the school selection process easier for parents by bringing all the information together in one place.

Classroom Hunt wants to create a space for schools FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

and other educators to share content and updates with parents and students easily. We constantly ask for feedback from schools, many schools and educators have provided us some amazing suggestions that we have and are incorporating on our platform.

Apart from this, our content team keeps publishing articles and blogs on the latest trends. We have interactive quizzes that can help students improve their knowledge and understanding of different subjects.

Why choose CLASSROOM HUNT? There is currently no option for parents searching for schools to reach out and connect with other parents from that school. On Classroom Hunt, parents can read the reviews of a particular school and connect with the reviewers when they need more information.

Parents can also connect with schools directly through Classroom Hunt. And this is what makes the Classroom Hunt different and unique.

There is no platform available to share important announcements or updates or other content with students and parents, even for educators. They can currently reach out to parents and students who are already part of their schools using bulk SMS and some other legacy technologies. But if they want to reach out to a broader audience like potential students and their parents, they don’t have any option. Classroom Hunt provides them with the facility to overcome this hurdle.

How clients are getting benefited by doing business with CLASSROOM HUNT? Classroom Hunt helps parents to search, explore, and select the right school for their kids. Along with their current students and their parents, Classroom Hunt helps educators share announcements, updates, and achievements with potential future students' parents.

Classroom Hunt takes away the pain of the school selection process from parents. It also provides a platform for educators to brand themselves and broaden their reach.

What are your views on today’s industry scenario? What is your strategy to reach new industries and new customers?

FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

As I mentioned earlier that digital innovation is long overdue in Indian education industry and this lack of innovation and digitization was quite visible after the pandemic. There are very few schools equipped with digitized content, let alone running an entire virtual classroom. Many schools moved to virtual classrooms using Zoom or Webex during lockdowns, but those are just stopgaps. Teachers are spending days before the sessions to create the digitized content and prep to fit the lessons in a virtual setting. Sharing essential updates and announcements about the virtual classes was a nightmare. We are in desperate need of a Platform that can allow institutes to set up their virtual classrooms for each grade, upload curriculum, create digitized lessons for each class, and conduct online exams. Such a Platform will not just be useful for schools but also for students and parents where students can form study groups, parents can chat with other parents, etc.

How does CLASSROOM HUNT work on making the industry better? What can be expected from CLASSROOM HUNT in the upcoming years?

Our short term plan (next couple of months) is to open Classroom Hunt to all types of educators where:  Educators can share educational content like videos, articles, and other essential updates via Classroom Hunt. They can also connect with parents and students  Students and parents can follow their favorite educators to get updates and also connect with other parents and students Our medium to long term plan is to launch three more products:  School Automation  Virtual Classrooms  PTA mobile App These four products will combine to create a digital education platform and serve as a one-stop-shop for educators, students, and parents.

Explain the CLASSROOM HUNT – Founder/ CEO’s journey till date, and how CLASSROOM HUNT tackled any initial struggles?

We launched at the end of 2017 with less than 3000 19

schools in our database with basic details. Right now, we have close to 11000 schools with all the advanced information, photo galleries, and other essential updates added to the platform.

Classroom Hunt has reviews of 1000s of schools added by parents and students.

Initially, our biggest challenge was to get school data. Our content team has spent months gathering all this data, but right now, schools reach out to us if they don’t find their school listed on Classroom Hunt.

Another challenge is the lack of digital savviness of most of the parents in India. Except for the metros, the majority of Indian parents still rely on traditional methods of collecting information. Hence, changing the mindset of doing something digitally is quite tricky, but we are getting there. Social media platforms are helping in reducing this gap.

How is Classroom Hunt helping the society?

Classroom Hunt is very passionate about creating equal learning opportunities for every kid in India. Hence, through our platform, we run initiatives to fight against two causes that we believe are the most significant reasons for keeping kids deprived of education:  Child Labour  Availability of school supplies (poverty) Through our platform, people can report child labor incidents if they come across any. We also help people to donate books and other school supplies to kids in need.

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Year of Founding: - 2017 Funding Information: Self Funded Founding Members: Tabassum Memon Office Locations: 103, Zikra Arcade, Bhiwandi, 421302 Company Strength: 12 Website: www.classroomhunt.com

FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

http://www.drcomputer.in/

Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

Widhya 1 in every two students are not employable. India's graduate unemployment rate is at an all-time high at 33%, meaning 1 in three college pass-outs doesn't find a job upon graduating from college.

Rahul Arulkumaran Would you tell us about Widhya's vision and mission, Rahul?

Widhya is building a gamified e-learning platform to help students get industrial exposure without doing a job or an internship and help companies find talent purely based on quality. Widhya partners with companies to take up live projects, modularise them, and put them forward for learners to solve. Those who solve tasks consistently with high quality are shortlisted for internships and jobs.

This way, companies also find quality talent at shorter timeframes and lesser costs. According to the All India Council for Technology Education(AICTE), nearly 54% of India's youth are unemployed, which means almost 22

Having surveyed 1000+ students from engineering colleges, we found out that people struggle to understand what projects to do and how to get started in a domain because of a lack of practical knowledge.

Out of these 1000+ students, nearly 90% of them who secured a grade of 80% or above found it challenging to find an internship or a job, while 99% of them who got a grade below 75% found it extremely difficult to even clear cut-off criteria. 66% of the companies also feared that they wouldn't find highly skilled talent.

Widhya's mission is to make industrial experiences more accessible to every student globally irrespective of their marks, grades, the college they are from or their field of study. Widhya intends to make 1 million students industry-ready in the next 18 months.

Why should students and companies choose Widhya, Rishabh?

Widhya helps students with the experience of a real-time industrial task or open-source project to receive adequate knowledge as to the ground reality FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

Companies can give a task/project to be converted into a Mission or choose to sponsor existing Missions on our platform that align with their hiring requirements. Missions help recruiters focus on high hiring standards while considering multiple factors like problem-solving ability, time taken to solve the problem, code quality, and solution accuracy. Widhya provides a hassle-free method to view all potential candidates’ solutions under one roof. On the other hand, sponsoring a mission saves a considerable amount of time for companies and can be adopted if companies are looking to hire on an urgent basis. This way, companies can get some technical work done while also being able to hire quality talent! Choosing Widhya is a win-win situation for both students and companies.

Rishabh, what might you find when looking at the overall learning process where something simple might have been stalling it?

Nowadays, students take internships not for learning purposes but as a trophy on the resume, which affects the industry's learning curve. This is that one thing that has caused a lot of troubles, not only for the students but also for the companies. On the recruiters' side, they find it tough to hire the right talent because of the many applications they receive and the lack of proof for what is mentioned in their profiles. In such cases, organizing the profiles of the candidates and reviewing them is a hectic task.

Rishabh Singh of a corporate circle even before they choose to join a job or an internship. Every project or task we get from a company is broken down into multiple smaller-scale tasks to help students focus on progressive learning while giving them a gamified learning experience.

Users can also track their learning curve with Widhya’s Dashboard Analytics, which assesses and analyses users’ performance through simple numbers and plots to give them a clear and honest picture of their learning curve. 99% of our users on the platform love the “learning by doing” approach. This way, learners get a taste of the industry, even without worrying about applying and securing an internship.

FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

Widhya intends to break this pattern and teach something valuable to students, which helps them in the future and helps companies make smarter and faster recruitments. Two things that help us stay as one of the best and most efficient e-learning and hiring platform in India are :  Our "Learning by Doing" approach on the Progressive Learning Theory lines helps students learn efficiently.  Our performance evaluation criteria are defined by unique KPIs, which recommend top candidates to companies.

Rahul, how do you stay on top of changes in the process, changes in the 23

ability, time taken to solve the problem, code quality, Changes in the industry are quite common and expected and solution accuracy. Widhya provides a hassle- no matter which industry. For example, the COVID free method to view all potential candidates' solutions scenario had wide-scale implications to a lot of sectors under one roof - ordered by scores awarded by internal like EdTech and HealthTech. At Widhya, we have believed Widhya assessments. in a hybrid learning model(live learning+learning through Tech teams in an organization might have some backlog pre-recorded sessions) for over two years now. While tasks they're finding tough to work on due to lack of time. this model has been gaining traction for around some When outsourced to us, these tasks help the companies time, COVID forced companies to adopt this approach. get the work done and keep a tab on the best candidate As time progresses, many changes are bound to occur. at the same time. As an organization, Widhya intends Many new competitors will spring up. Many old ones to provide an organized methodology to hire quality will fade away. But what helps us stay on top of changes talent in a shorter period. What was once a trade-off in our belief in the product and our ability to listen to now has become possible to achieve through Widhya's approach. customers and implement what most of them want!

industry you will look at more now?

We have always believed in adaptive product development. While product development is at the heart of any technology-centric company, we believe that there is no point in it if we can’t give our customers what they want amid a massive industry shift. When the lockdown was announced in March, we did not even have an online prototype. We got an MVP out by the end of March and ran multiple pilots until the end of September with just 669 users. October onwards, we started doing wide-scale launches and started scaling.

As of January 1st week, we now have 10,000+ users with an average rating of 4.5/5 for our platform. We call this adaptive product development

Do companies typically accept your recommendations? Does your shortlist give companies the talent that they are looking for? What do you think about this Rishabh?

The "Learning by doing" approach adopted by Widhya ensures that each candidate who wishes to acquire new skills - be it out of curiosity or requirement - fulfills their goal and learns more valuable lessons than merely academic skills to help them grow as a versatile corporate employee. Based on their overall performance, “Building a market of our own, even during evaluated by unique KPIs, Widhya recommends top significant industry changes. The customer is candidates to companies willing to associate with this always at the center of it!” methodology.

Rishabh, could you throw some light on how businesses benefit by using Widhya to meet their recruitment needs?

When a candidate can complete the missions, it gives the idea that they have an overall idea regarding their field and are ready to work, without spending any extra time learning the basics all over again, which is why companies usually love our recommendations. Since the candidate will be working on a project given or sponsored by the recruiter, it helps understand whether or not and to what extent a candidate can cope with the company's work culture.

Once a company is done posting or sponsoring a projectbased mission, Widhya screens the students and shortlists only those who maintain a certain threshold based on quality and time, as needed for the company's profile. Our clients save resources, understand a candidate's cultural fit into the organization, and go What you mentioned about your growth through an organized hiring process - all while saving is stunning, Rahul. Would you like to tons of money and time!

Recruiters & Talent Acquisition Specialists can save time and high costs incurred to train candidates, enabling them to get productive work done from day 0.

Missions help recruiters focus on high hiring standards while considering multiple factors like problem-solving 24

share some insight into what triggered this exponential growth for you?

It's a story that Rishabh and I always think about whenever we feel like we have hit a roadblock.

Back in September end, we weren't sure of where FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

the company was heading. With hardly any revenue or user growth in the two months before that, all we had was 669 users. But one day, while watching an IPL match, I ordered food from Zomato, and Zomato had a 100% cashback contest called Zomato Premier League - where we had to answer two questions related to the

the technology part mainly, and he was, ready for the challenge.

We decided on 2nd October to host the Widhya Premier League and launched registrations on 4th October 2020. By 10th October, we had the product ready for a wide-scale launch and we had 2500+ new users who signed up for the WPL! This event marked the beginning of our growth.

IPL match going on. If both the answers were right, we would get some cash back. It was then that an idea struck - "Why not do the same thing but make it a Data Since then, we have launched multiple initiatives and have seen a consistently increasing weekly growth rate.

Analytics Internship As of 1st week of January, we have over 10,000+ users, Program where learners would have to arrive at answers and 50,000+ cumulative learning hours have been put while using data." We knew that it was now or never to into Widhya! launch.

Satya, the third member of our team, takes care of FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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Rahul, what are your views on today's industry scenario and your strategy to reach new industries and new customers?

traditional e-learning platforms to pivot.

About 8-10 years back, when sites like EdX, Coursera, Udacity were out, everyone loved the idea of it. People spent hours working on courses where every video was about 1-hour and some even more. People got tired of this by 2016, and slowly, many such videos were divided into multiple smaller ones of 5-10 minutes. Now in 2020, we are in a similar situation. Learners want more. With graduate unemployment going at an all-time high and lack of industry exposure, learners now realize the importance of task-based learning and the learning by doing approach. I believe the EdTech industry will see a significant shift towards such practices, forcing

personally or professionally?

Our strategy is simple! We do what we do and continuously listen to customer feedback and monitor the data backing this feedback. While we have only partnered with a handful of companies as of now, we are I'm sure everyone working on an EdTech product or confident that this number would increase drastically by using one would agree that "Hybrid Learning Models" are the end of this year once we have proved the concept the hottest pick among learners today. It gives learners with more learners on our platform. a sense of confidence because of the opportunity to attend live learning sessions and the comfort to complete majority learning in a self-paced manner by How has your journey as a CEO been so going through pre-recorded videos. far, Rahul? Have you faced any challenges My journey so far has been a rich learning experience.

With each passing day, I learn something new from it.

Honestly, at Widhya, we are all CEOs in our way. Being a team of 3, it does not make a lot of sense to have designations - but yes, as we grow, we have decided that I would be donning the CEO's role. Luckily in startups like Widhya, the founding team members are equally as essential and help you by taking some load off your shoulders. Right now, our product is just as good as the 3 of us building it - me, Rishabh, and Satya. Throughout this journey, I've learned that we must be ready to do anything and everything - from work related to tech development to testing, from writing content for blogs to responding to support emails, from graphic designing to video editing. As a small team, we all step into multiple shoes to ensure that the work is done. This has been extremely challenging, but indeed an interesting one.

Over time, we have faced many challenges like people not understanding our product and banishing it right away, people demotivating our approach, investors not responding to emails, and what not! But I must say that it has all helped us build the product used by 1000s today.

Had people not criticized our product or wrote us off, we wouldn't have thought about making it better. Had investors invested in us in the very beginning, we wouldn't have made a plan to self-sustain, at least for the coming months, while generating a profit.

It has been a fantastic journey, but it comes with its disadvantages too. From sleep deprivation to not being able to disconnect from work, from thinking so much about work to forgetting other things, from losing your morale from time to time to feeling lazy - we have seen it all! In such cases, we just 26

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We wish to include more gamified features into our platform to make the learning process more exciting and rewarding. The final intention is to build Widhya into a community where students focus purely on learning, and companies hire talent based on a student's learning curve and other KPIs. Bringing this shift from a resumebased hiring process to a quality-based one and a shift from theoretical knowledge to a practical approach What is Widhya's plan for the coming will be challenging, but this is where we want to see years, Rahul? Where do you intend to Widhya in the future. In the next 18 months, we intend to see Widhya probably five years down provide real-time industrial experiences while learning to 1 million students in India. let soak in that phase, adapt to it, and eventually let it go rather than forcing us to get out of it immediately!

The journey has helped me a lot, both personally and professionally, concerning learning new things about myself and people in general and some new skills that I know will help me throughout my life!

the line?

We aim to provide students and learners worldwide with real-time industrial exposure by making it more accessible to everyone.

As learners, the job is to learn, and we want to make the learning process more exciting and more industryoriented because most of us need jobs after graduating to sustain a family. We want students to focus purely on learning, and we want to get to that stage where we ensure that they get the job opportunities they deserve.

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1 Year of Founding: 2019 2) Funding Information: Bootstrapped 3) Founding Members:

Rahul Arulkumaran & Rishabh Singh 4) Office Locations: Hyderabad, India 5) Company Strength: 3 Employees 6) Website: https://widhya.org 27

Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

MS. SAPNA JHA Founder & Managing Director

HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED Would you tell us about HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED (Vision and Mission)?

HapGen Educational Services is a global edtech company that provides leading edge learning experiences with its diverse range of educational offerings.

Global Instant Tutoring Platform. Get instant tutoring live online wherever, whenever one wants at 100+ countries in multi-disciplinary subjects from Certified Online Tutors in 80+ native languages.

With the ground-breaking quiz gaming product, Stumpers, it brings forth the logical skill enhancement to the learners globally in a fun way. It helps the learners Vision: To impart holistic learning beyond boundaries to identify the learning gaps, expands knowledge and irrespective of the native language, time zone and enhances the peer-to-peer competitive spirit. It helps physical location globally. schools world-wide to maximise learning outcomes with Mission: One-stop extensive platform starting from an instant insight into progress of their students. school learning to selecting the right career path for How do you stay on top of changes in the process, future aspirations, from college admission assistance changes in thought of industries that you are going to to college learning, from bridging academia-industry look at more now? gaps to acquiring jobs worldwide, and from successfully Education industry is rapidly changing. Since last year achieving dream jobs to upskilling oneself. with the advent of pandemic, education sector has With the trailblazing instant tutoring product, evolved drastically. There has been a high growth and MyTutorsOnline, it brings forth the World’s Largest adoption of technology in education. Global edtech 28

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investments arose to 18.66 billion USD in 2019. The e Parent Interface: Parent get to know child’s academic overall market for online education is projected to reach & life skill development daily.

350 billion USD by 2025. e Public Speaking Master Class: Master the art of being In order to stay ahead of the competition, we keep a million-dollar speaker. connecting to the customers through all digital and e Career Planning: Take right career decision with offline mediums to have a better perspective on what they AI-driven complete analysis of cognitive ability & are currently interested in. And then we always come up behavioural approach. with more new products having innovative features for a e College Admission Guidance: Get proper guidance great customer experience. about college admissions in India and abroad.

What might you find when you are looking at the overall process where something simple might have been stalling it?

e Study Abroad Guidance: Get practical advice to study abroad with scholarships. e Professional Internship: Get better understanding of any profession with internship certificate and future job prospects.

We keep on monitoring the overall process with deep analysis to maintain the performance benchmark. If e Logical Skill Enhancement: Get logical skills enhanced with ‘The Game of Brains – Stumpers’. we ever find something simple as stalling it, we keep on diagnosing the root cause without loosing patience to sustain the growth and start towering our strengths. We How clients are getting benefited by doing strategize again with basic research and development, market-fit overview and come up with upgraded product. business with HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL

SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED?

Why choose HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED? e 100% Video-Live Interaction: Interact with your teacher exactly similar as in physical classroom.

Our customers are falling in love with our educational offerings every next day. We have been able to build trust and credibility with a large number of customers. They have shared their love in the form valuable testimonials.

e Adaptive Learning: Get customised comprehensive study plan; Study oneon-one or in group. Seats are always limited to 10 in a group. e School & Competitive Exams Integrated Courses: Courses comprise school curriculum as well as competitive exams preparation. e 24/7 Support: Get round-the-clock support wherever, whenever you want. e Personality development: Get mentored for how to manage your stress, stay unique, stay ahead, and have a super positive attitude towards your

life.

e Monthly performance analysis: Get a comprehensive monthly performance report of class, homework, assessments and the best ways to be your upgraded version.

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Do companies typically accept your stakeholders of education will have equal opportunities. recommendations? How does the manner a company treats their employees come into How does HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL play?

SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED work on Absolutely! Our recommendations are highly valued. making the industry better? What can be We believe that to be successful in business goals, we expected from HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL not only need to focus on customer’s needs but also ensure that employees are well taken care of. We keep on SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED in the strategizing for ways and methods to keep our employees upcoming years? happy and productive. Work culture is much flexible and comfortable for employees. More often we acknowledge them with rewards. We keep asking their inputs on issues and ideas for growth of the company. We talk with them about company’s future and goals, make them feel valued for their contributions and demonstrate them that their dedication is going to bring something great for the company. We keep them boosted with monthly incentives and quarterly bonus along with the above treatments.

What are your views on today’s industry scenario? What is your strategy to reach new industries and new customers?

As already said, the education industry is rapidly evolving with the future trend to be a hybrid of online and offline learning methods. With the advent of covid-19, education industry is at the cusp of greater changes with a new definition for the education system. Recently, the New Education Policy introduced by the Indian government is a boon to the learners.

We would work aggressively to be connected to the customers globally through all online and offline mediums to have a better understanding on what would help them to gain a rich learning experience. And then we would come up with our newer products engrossed with AI to engage the customer base and enhance their experiences. We are looking to partner with many schools, colleges and higher education institutions to build an integrated system where all 30

We work with the learner-centric comprehensive solutions model. Even if we have diverse range of products to provide a revolutionary learning experience, we give maximum time and effort on research & development to come up with the best edtech product in the industry.

Currently, whether one needs help in understanding a complex topic, difficult assignments, preparing standardized tests, is stuck up in any unsolved question or needs career guidance to select the right career path, or needs help for college admission or looking for a job or wants to upgrade the skill, we have the educational offerings ready to assist him/her reach the learning goals. One can schedule individual sessions as per his/ her availability or can also enroll for group courses where sessions are held in a group for peer-to-peer interaction & for increasing performance with global competitive benchmark. One can get access to personalized scientific career guidance mapped with AI driven psychometric assessments and relevant research & knowledge tools for comprehensive analysis of cognitive ability, behaviourial approach and intensive assessment of aptitude. One can excel the logical thinking by playing the game of brains, identify the learning gaps and work on it to perform better.

As already mentioned, we expect to be coming up with newer products engrossed with AI to engage the customer base and enhance their experiences. We are looking to partner with many schools, colleges and higher education institutions to build an integrated system where all stakeholders of education will have equal opportunities.

Explain the HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

PRIVATE LIMITED – Founder/ CEO’s journey till date, and how HAPGEN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED tackled any initial struggles?

Our founder, Ms. Sapna Jha, is an avid entrepreneur, innovating each day with a mission to spread happiness to generations ahead with the brand “HapGen”. A postgraduate in Instrumentation & Commercial Methods of Industrial Analysis, B.Ed and a Certified Global Career Counsellor. Started her aspiring career journey as Research Associate in the Jubilant Organosys Ltd., Noida in its Formulation Analytical Research Lab 15 years ago where she worked on Analysis of Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms Using Advanced Instrumental Methods.

Skilled in Industrial Analysis, Lecturing, Editing, Educational Technology, Instructional Design & Global Career Counselling, she has always been passionate about spreading happiness among people with her problemsolving approach.

Awarded “Women Entrepreneur” by GECL Awards 2018. Honoured under “Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs to Look Forward to in 2019” on International Women’s Day. Under her guidance, “MyTutorsOnline” has been awarded as runner up for “Best E-commerce StartUp” and simultaneously she was awarded as runner up for “Best Woman Entrepreneur StartUp” in AEONIAN Awards 2019. Awarded for “Best Emerging Coaching Institute of the Year” by IARE Awards 2019. She has also been awarded “Exceptional Women of Excellence” in the year 2019 by Women Economic Forum (WEF). Glorified among “Top 12 Promising Women Entrepreneurs of 2020” on International Women’s Day. Honoured with “Business Excellence & Innovative Best Practices” Academia Award - 2020 by New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM).

It has been quite struggling financially as well as physically since setup. Understanding the market space, customer’s needs, finance back up and developing a user-friendly interface platform were some of the most important challenges that made her paranoid about. Convincing parents about changing old traditional methods of study and making them accept the new technological way of learning was the biggest challenge that kept her awake at night.

Year of Founding: 2017 Funding Information: Bootstrapped Founding Members: Ms. Sapna Jha Office Locations: Currently remote since pandemic Company Strength: 10 Website: https://www.mytutorsonline.org/ it comes to overcoming those challenges, apart from all the expertise, technical knowledge and entrepreneurial mindset she had, was a solid family backup. She utilized her personal investments for keeping everything in place for the startup. She used to work late nights with her small baby in the lap to complete each work she planned. It was struggling and adventurous too to bring an organization alone to a level where things started working properly.

Initially when she started her entrepreneurial journey, being a startup entrepreneur and an infant’s mother was a big personal challenge where she had to balance her time between the new born baby and her business. When FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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Top 5 Reasons to Invest in Rapid E- Learning Rapid eLearning is a new development model that makes use of eLearning templates. That is, courses which have been pre-designed by expert Instructional Designers can be used as templates for teams to make new courses, therefore allowing you to circumvent the services of an Instructional Designer. It empowers the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and other team members to create a course based on their own vision.

Most eLearning results in a Return-On-Investment eventually, but with rapid development, the lower costs mean the ROI will come to fruition sooner.

1. Reduce Development Time by Nearly Half

Traditional development of a one-hour course can take four to six weeks. Rapid development will This model may not be ideal for all courses, take two to four. That means it cuts development as courses with some complexity may require time nearly in half. custom design and the involvement of a skilled Rapid eLearning came into the spotlight last Instructional Designer. Most rapid development March, when companies needed to quickly courses are one hour or less. However, many types get learning content online due to their entire of materials can be served by rapid eLearning workforces switching to remote work. But there without a sacrifice in quality. are many situations in which companies would The main cost benefits of rapid development like to get courses created quickly. For example, involve an increase in efficiency, as well as the if the course is created due to abrupt company positive side effects of more efficient development. changes or in response to public relations needs.

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recommend quality assurance testing to check that the course works as intended on every device, you can be reassured that rapid dev will suit your users If you’re not sure your company would need rapid who take advantage of mobile learning. eLearning most of the time, it is worth it to be Mobile learning has proven to possess many prepared to explore how rapid eLearning works. benefits, including being accessed by busy Then, you have the option available to you in case learners on the go, used in Just-In-Time learning your company ever gets in a pinch and needs a situations, and engaging more learners by being present on preferred platforms. Investing in rapid course quickly. development ensures you won’t miss out on this great option for delivering learning content.

More simply, the team creating the eLearning does not necessarily have four to six weeks to dedicate to developing a course.

2. SMEs Have More Control Over the Course Development, Resulting In 4. Reduce Development Costs High-Quality Knowledge Transfer In traditional eLearning development, SMEs give their existing content to an Instructional Designer, who is then the primary creator of the course. In rapid eLearning development, the SME is the primary creator of the course, using their knowledge base to fill in course templates. The positive of this is that the SME has more control over how the content is presented and taught.

Sometimes, Instructional Designers can miss the mark or misinterpret SME content, especially if they don’t have the involvement of the SME. Course design created by someone who is not intimate with the material will inevitably contain errors. The development team can bring the SME back in to evaluate progress, but that does involve further rounds of edits and more meetings.

The partnership of a SME and an Instructional Designer can be powerful, but inefficient, and the SME has less control in this dynamic.

Since, in rapid development, the SME puts together the course, the transfer of knowledge will be more direct. The course will lean on the SME’s perspective of the material. The downside of this is that if the SME has little understanding of online course design principles, quality of the course can suffer.

As you can imagine, a traditional eLearning model requiring four to six weeks of work for a single course can quickly add up in costs. A more efficient development process in which the base of the course is pre-made through templates will clearly often cost less to produce. Strategically using rapid dev for content that suits that development model can bring down overall eLearning costs and increase ROI. This doesn’t mean you don’t need to run a cost analysis. Of course, the cost of a course can depend on many factors. For example, if the time of the SME is particularly expensive, asking the SME to spend more time on the course than they would have in a traditional development model might not save quite as much money. That’s why there are many reasons to invest in rapid development—not just reducing costs.

If your organization is one for whom rapid development can save development costs, this more affordable option could make it easier for you to procure a budget for eLearning. In a data-driven world, there needs to be proof of cost benefits, and a lower program cost can make it easier for higherups to take a risk and say “yes” to an eLearning initiative.

Potential lower costs for the rapid development of a course also creates a lower barrier to entry for 3. Rapid Dev Is Pre-Made for Mobile organizations new to eLearning; they will be able Rapid development templates are already prepped to try eLearning out and evaluate the benefits and and ready-to-go for mobile environments, needs for their organization before committing to including phones and tablets. That means more comprehensive, and expensive, solutions. there isn’t extra time to dedicate to developing mobile versions of a course. While we of course FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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5. Efficiency Allows More Frequent Content Updates One great side effect of cheaper, quicker development based on templates is that you can afford to update the content more frequently and content updates will be easier.

Currently, many organizations use courses that are several years old. While waiting for the new version of the course, managers will have to ensure everyone has corrections to outdated information. When the organization finally gets around to updating the course, it can be an expensive and tedious process.

Rapid development is a great choice for content that will need regular updates, such as compliance content that needs to share the latest regulations, content informing users of their health benefits, and more.

everything. Learning and Development systems are multifaceted with many different needs, and organizations will need to stick to a traditional development model for certain types of content and courses.

However, rapid development has been gaining popularity for a reason. There are many situations where rapid development is the best-fit option.

It has a lot to offer to organizations looking for an efficient and cost-effective solution that is flexible enough to benefit mobile learners. Even if money is no object, rapid development might be the best choice for organizations who want to have control over the content, include SME knowledge transfer, and make regular updates.

Regardless of the reason rapid development appeals to you and your organization, we are willing to bet that your investment will pay off.

The Benefit to Rapid Development Is What It Sounds Like—Efficiency Rapid development isn’t the solution for

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Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

TCOLLEGEDAYZ TCOLLEGE DAYZ

SANTOSH GUPTA Serial Entrepreneur & Growth Strategist

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Introduction

Goal

TCOLLEGEDAYZ is a trusted and renowned platform in the country that can help aspirants who desires to study in top universities overseas. It was incorporated in the year 2011 as Parent company and in the year 2019 as TCOLLEGEDAYZ. Mr. Santhosh Kumar Gupta is the founding member of the company. The head office of TCOLLEGEDAYZ is located in Hyderabad, Telangana, Surat- Bangalore, Saudi Arabia and has several regional heads appointed in the country that can help resident students of each state.

Its goal is to understand the basic requirements of the students and help them to choose the right course and the university / college accordingly. It aims to be a perfect link between the Universities / Colleges and the aspiring students who would like to study in a foreign land.

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Vision Its vision is to enhance the career lives of the aspirants who look for overseas education. With its dedicated 37

It also does SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) with every student which gives a better view of the aspirations which enables the team to provide the right advice. With the talented and skilled staff of the company, students can take a Services high fly towards the land of opportunities with just a The team is extremely dedicated towards the few clicks. organisation and strives to fulfil the promises made to thousands of aspirants. Before proceeding to the actual task, the team does a lot of research Accomplishment regarding the obstacles that could be encountered Due to this hard work and determination, The and the requirements that needs to be fulfilled. Founder Mr Santosh Gupta had received the Best TCOLLEGEDAYS plays a very vital role here in Entrepreneur Award by delivering excellent results order to guide the students properly to overcome and making a contribution towards the growth of the all the impediments. As can be seen, many students society. This research had been amazing in such a way get confused with the goals of their life. Students that currently, the company has information about who have just entered the high secondary classes 38 countries and nearly 4500+ universities and their contemplates about which university in the country or courses. abroad is wise enough for preaching higher education. and qualified staff, the exclusive intent is to provide wings to the students to fly towards the land of opportunities.

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Recently it has also got incubated by an Abu Dhabi based firm for 1M USD.

About the founder and the story behind TCOLLEGEDAYZ The concept emerged about starting such venture when Mr Santosh Kumar Gupta came up with the idea of helping aspirants to study aboard by making a simple plan for them which can be easy to execute. He generously thought that this would help a thousand of aspirants to fulfil their dreams without any obstacles.

He completed his masters from a top-rated university in the United States and returned back to the country.

He always believed that if somebody desires to achieve something genuinely then nothing can stop the person from getting the goal. He keeps saying- “Do Not Fear from Adjusting into a Different Country and the Culture.”

“Smart work is more powerful than hardwork” TCOLLEGEDAYZ have in the EdTech field, the EdTech industry is something, which is always in limelight, being said every parent dream is to give a better education to kids, so sky is the limit.

Santosh Gupta said- “The partnership will help entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by becoming their technical co-founder, developing their products technically and investing half of the money into the start-up is looking to raise.”

“If you ask me what can fulfil your dreams, I would say- Think big you get big”- he added.

Nostalgia plays a big role when a group of college buddies meet after a long time. What started as a Upcoming Ventures casual what do you do, what I do discussion led to TCOLLEGEDAYZ always tries to do something more realizing that coming together can create wonders. innovative and better. It aims to expand the company He started a small classroom with his team which can globally. be called as the India version of a garage setup and then gradually expanded operations into various domains.

Eventually experienced friends joined in big numbers and there was a big pool of extensively experienced Subject Matter Experts covering many domains in IT. The idea of TCOLLEGEDAYZ came into rise as when any student enters in the fifth grade in school, soon enough that individual starts to gain a sense about how he/she want to shape his/her career and what do they see themselves doing in the future. A few years or decades back, people did not have so many options available in front of them to look forward to building their careers in it. This was due to the fact that the institutes abroad are very expensive when it comes to their fee structures and this is a common problem that parents are stressed about. There are millions of students in the country that aspire to study abroad but are confused about how to do it. So, in these battles of worries and confusions TCOLLEGEDAYZ works as the ray of hope for all the aspirants.

Many other companies actually do accept its recommendations because of the hands-on experience FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

Shivani Mehrotra Bajaj COO

EDUBUK TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED 1) Would you tell us about Edubuk (Vision and Mission)?: Edubuk is an Individualized Education System where learners (ranging from students to adults) discover their true passion (via MIIT Screening: Multiple Intelligence, Interests and Talent) and get relevantly skilled (by Customized Learning Plans) to convert their Passion into a Profession of their liking.

Our broader Vision is “to help Youngsters convert their Passion into a Profession”.

This is a result of a PhD of one the co-founders from the education background, Shivani. Both Co-Founders: Apoorva and Shivani have done their graduation and post graudation from best Institutes in India (IIT and IIMs) and are topper(s) and Gold Medalists from the institutes as well.

Our concept has won several awards and got recognition globally (as top 10 Startups making an impact) from HubWeek (hosted by Harvard and MIT University); IIT Bombay, IIM Calcutta, Government of India (Innovative Startup), Government of Dubai (AIM Startup), Hyderabad To engage the students (learners on our platform) we have Software Enterprise Association (HYSEA); NASSCOM recently started a “Community Connect Platform” as well (Info.Tech. Governing Body in India); TiE Mumbai, TiE which connects parents, students, teachers and experts Delhi; Lead Angel Network; T-Hub (State Government (from various fields) to have relevant conversations Accelerator in India), Top 20 Startups by TimesNext; Top focused on Learning, Career Path and Employability.

50 Most Innovative Startups by Bombay Stock Exchange We are now shortly planning to launch a complete online school as in line with the preference of some parents for online learning for their children based on their experience during the pandemic.

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(Impact Startups); Top 5 Innovative Startups by SR Innovation Exchange and other reputed organizations.

How do you stay on top of changes in the process, changes in thought of industries that you are going to look at more now?

The world around us is changing much faster than ever enabled by technology. Education Technology (Ed-Tech) industry is fast evolving too. Gone are the days when there was no option of online learning and students have to go to coaching classes and schools physically and there were only a few good options around, especially in tier 2 cities. These are the changes that we felt and most of this is a direct result of our talking to our potential customers (students, parents and schools) and taking direct feedback from them including what are the problems they are facing. Also, we participate in various industry conferences (online and offline), webinars and keep ourselves abreast of the changes in the industry.

What might you find when you are looking at the overall process where something simple might have been stalling it?

We look at anything that has been stalling a process from the eyes of an opportunity and a challenge that we would like to overcome. For example: in the case of Ed-tech and in the case of career path exploration outside of conventional choices: we have found it is mostly the mind-set of parents and the mind set of society which needs to be changed and they should know about plethora of career options that they do not even consider for their children.

Why choose Edubuk?

With the implementation of New Education Policy from the upcoming Academic session, students will have plethora of options of subjects to choose from as there are no Commerce, Science or Arts streams. With this there is a lot of confusion amongst parents, students and schools as to how to enable students to choose most relevant combination of subjects as per student’s profiles and interest. Here comes Edubuk to the rescue! Edubuk’s MIIT Screening (Multiple Intelligence and Interest Test) has made it scientifically possible to discover the dominant intelligence type and interests of a student, based on the responses to a set of carefully curated and FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

APOORVA BAJAJ CEO approved questionnaire. Edubuk’s Customized Learning Plan options help students to get themselves relevantly skilled by various online learning medium options. We also focus on Less Explored Unconventional Career Paths like being a dancer, musician, singer, artist, sportsperson, actor, painter etc. or pursue these interests & passion as a hobby, on a serious note. Should parents, students or schools want to check and avail of our services then they can visit our website at www.edubuk.co.in

How clients are getting benefited by doing business with Edubuk?

While interacting with 100,000 students across 25 institutes in India, we realized that they are not really interested in what they are studying. Their passion lies elsewhere. They don't have the right direction to achieve a profession of their liking, hence we created Edubuk! India's biggest entrepreneurs like Narayan Murthy (Infosys); Azim Premji (Wipro): have commented in recent past that more than 90% of Indian engineers are not employable as they lack skills that are required in the IT industry.

It is also a known fact that Indian youngsters choose their career path(s) either by peer pressure or by parents’ 41

recommendations? How does the manner a company treats their employees come into play?

Yes, definitely. We have taken permission from Dept. of Education to conduct tests in 10 Model Schools in Telangana. Government has been very kind to allow us to conduct the pilot for government schools as well. We have also partnered with ClassBazaar to list Edubuk’s MIIT Screening offering on their website. As far as company treating their employee is concerned we firmly believe the employees are as crucial for the company as are its customers. If you treat employees fairly and give them growth opportunities within the firm, they will treat the organization with respect as well. Employees are the back bone of any organization is the mantra we believe in too.

What are your views on today’s industry scenario? What is your strategy to reach new industries and new customers?

wishes and they only consider a few choices like becoming an Engineer, Doctor, MBA, IAS or a CA. Our end to end solution of Edubuk helps these youngsters first to discover their passion, intelligence type, interests, talent and then map it with relevant career paths (a buffet of 4560 career path options for each individual); narrow these 60 options to 1-2 options (using our automated 6 metrics counselling tool); get themselves relevantly skilled (using our Customized Learning Plans) and finally get the most relevant job out there in the market using their Edubuk profile credentials.

This amazing end to end Individualized Learning and Earning model of Edubuk is the need of the hour and hence it is not surprising why it has won so many awards at international and national level from various reputed organizations across the globe. Our customers like our solution offerings and think it is really useful for them.

Also, students are paying for our solutions already and hence we are reasonably confident we have created a sustainable solution here: something that people want and are paying for.

Do 42

companies

typically

accept

your

Education Technology (Ed-tech) as an industry is here to stay, there will be different business models that can succeed at the same time, given the sheer size of the market and different customer preferences. Each organization within the Ed-tech industry, if they focus well on their customer base, can stay in the market sustainably. For us to reach new customers: we are making B2B tie ups like with ClassBazaar in India, E-Tran in Dubai and also for our B2C channel we have recently launched “Passion Show” concept, all our customers can directly set up here: https://edubuk.co.in/passion_show

How does Edubuk work on making the industry better? What can be expected from Edubuk in the upcoming years?

Other ed-tech players in the industry: are mostly focusing on two streams: mathematics and science or are focusing on entrance examination preparation courses. But we as Edubuk are creating our own niche and we believe that there are job profiles and career path(s) available outside of becoming an Engineer, a Doctor, a MBA, a CA (Finance professional): i.e. not every job profile and career path needs a Logical Mathematical Intelligence or Linguistic Intelligence. There are career opportunities available in becoming a singer, musician, dancer, actor, painter, sportsperson, graphic designer and a host of other options.

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We at Edubuk helps youngsters to discover their passion in all the fields (including and apart from STEM field). As we believe and have seen practically that all individuals are great at some type of intelligence (it can be Interpersonal, Spatial Visual, Bodily Kinesthetic, Musical, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic, Existential are also included).

Most other players in the industry just do the psychometric assessments and do not suggest Customized Learning or Customized Skilling plans to help the youngsters in acquiring skill-sets require to achieve their career paths.

It is time to look beyond the Science-Maths-Language Boundaries. We are here to better the industry in these regards.

Explain Edubuk’s– Founder/ CEO’s journey till date, and how Edubuk tackled any initial struggles?

Apoorva is a topper from the education system in India (from 2 best colleges in India in his Bachelors and Masters course) and Shivani is an Assistant Professor and has taught close to 10,000 students in 3 reputed colleges in 3 cities in India. Hence she has domain expertise in the education sector. Apoorva & Shivani both are highly passionate about Education sector and want to do something to rectify the current worrisome situation in the Indian Education industry where 90% of the youngsters are educated and graduated on paper but unfortunately are not employable.

Edubuk also faced many challenges in its initial days.

The main challenge was the development of the product FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

Year of Founding: February 2019 Funding Information: Bootstrapped Founding Members: Shivani Mehrotra and Apoorva Bajaj Office Locations: Hyderabad Company Strength: 5 Employees Website: https://edubuk.co.in/ because she was not from a technical background. Thus, Apoorva helped her with this, and they both hired two IT professionals for this purpose. Also, initially we had a tough time convincing schools and colleges to provide a demo of Edubuk’s product offerings to the students. But a few schools and colleges (5 in Hyderabad, Warangal, Mumbai and

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CarvingBrain Faisal Kareem Founder

 Parents: Analytics for Parents  Teachers: Class analysis for teachers

What CarvingBrain is based on?

We are taking learning a step further by bridging digitally the physical distance between the students and the teacher/mentors.

CarvingBrain is based on artificial intelligence. It learns your pattern in order to suggest you how you can achieve better and score higher.

 Students: Learning system for students  Institutions: Strong School/College management system (ERP) Artificial Intelligence is the next best thing to help in each sector. With our deep mind and machine learning algorithm, we help user to learn in a scientific & analysed manner.

“One day, all students around nations will have the It assists students track their progress, parents opportunity to attain an excellent education, and monitor their child and teachers examine their we are facilitating them” - CarvingBrain class. It’s a better way to understand their strengths, weaknesses and learning insight.

Which services CarvingBrain is providing to their Why choose CarvingBrain? clients/customers?

CarvingBrain is on a mission to provide free notes to everyone. Be it Schooling, Graduation or Master’s  Artificial Intelligence based learning system 44

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degree. We are providing hand written notes from It’s a better way to understand the strength and toppers of different subject from different colleges weaknesses. and universities.

We are taking schooling a step further by bridging It doesn’t matter who you are a teacher, student, digitally the physical distance between the students home-schooler, principal, and adult returning to and the teacher. the classroom after 20 years. All the material is CarvingBrain is an educational site run by a team available for completely free. So make the best out which is driven everyday by the obsession of of it. making studies manageable, analytical Carving Brain offers you Best Online Learning platform either you are school student or college student we have all subject on our portal, where you not only learn also you can track your learning and syllabus coverage.

and productive.

Learn easy learn more.

We are taking schooling a step further by bridging digitally the physical distance between the students and the teacher. CarvingBrain is an educational site run by a team which is driven everyday by the obsession of making studies manageable, analytical and productive. It assists students track their progress, parents monitor their child and teachers examine their class.

“

One day, all students around nations will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education, and we are facilitating them” - CarvingBrain

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The Rise of Online Learning During The COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.

Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay. While countries are at different points in their COVID-19 infection rates, worldwide there are currently more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school closures due to the pandemic.

With this sudden shift away from the classroom in many parts of the globe, some are wondering whether the adoption of online learning will 46

continue to persist post-pandemic, and how such a shift would impact the worldwide education market. Even before COVID-19, there was already high growth and adoption in education technology, with global EdTech investments whether it is language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing tools or online learning software, there has been a significant surge in usage since COVID-19.

How is the education sector responding to COVID-19?

In response to significant demand, many online learning platforms are offering free access to their services. Since announcing free live classes on its Think and Learn app, BYJU’s has seen a FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

200% increase in the number of new students using its product, according to Mrinal Mohit, the company's Chief Operating Officer.

Tencent classroom, meanwhile, has been used extensively since mid-February after the Chinese government instructed a quarter of a billion fulltime students to resume their studies through online platforms. This resulted in the largest “online movement” in the history of education with approximately 730,000, or 81% of K-12 students, attending classes via the Tencent K-12 Online School in Wuhan.

Other companies are bolstering capabilities to provide a one-stop shop for teachers and students.

Some school districts are forming unique partnerships. Media organizations such as the BBC are also powering virtual learning.

The challenges of online learning There are, however, challenges to overcome. Some students without reliable internet access and/ or technology struggle to participate in digital learning; this gap is seen across countries and between income brackets within countries. Some schools and governments have been providing digital equipment to students in need.

can be more effective in a number of ways. Some research shows that on average, students retain 25-60% more material when learning online compared to only 8-10% in a classroom. This is mostly due to the students being able to learn faster online; e-learning requires 40-60% less time to learn than in a traditional classroom setting because students can learn at their own pace, going back and re-reading, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose.

Nevertheless, the effectiveness of online learning varies amongst age groups. The general consensus on children, especially younger ones, is that a structured environment is required, because kids are more easily distracted. To get the full benefit of online learning, there needs to be a concerted effort to provide this structure and go beyond replicating a physical class/lecture through video capabilities, instead, using a range of collaboration tools and engagement methods that promote “inclusion, personalization and intelligence. Since studies have shown that children extensively use their senses to learn, making learning fun and effective through use of technology is crucial. *This article was covered by: www.swiftnlift.in

A changing education imperative It is clear that this pandemic has utterly disrupted an education system that many asserts was already losing its relevance. Many schools continue to focus on traditional academic skills and rote learning, rather than on skills such as critical thinking and adaptability, which will be more important for success in the future. Could the move to online learning be the catalyst to create a new, more effective method of educating students? While some worry that the hasty nature of the transition online may have hindered this goal, others plan to make e-learning part of their ‘new normal’ after experiencing the benefits first-hand.

Is learning online as effective?

For those who do have access to the right technology, there is evidence that learning online FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

Sanat Malani EduPenguin

EduPenguin What EduPenguin is based on?

Set up your profile and connect with other members, build your network, chat and interact with them, We at EduPenguin have come up with a personalised create your study groups or work-groups and conduct and private mobile application for schools and zoom meetings from the app. colleges to conduct lectures, share important notes and materials, facilitate academic activities among students and encourage student interaction.

Services that include -

Courses - We keep on adding free and valuable courses that you can take and develop your skills. We have courses on Data Science, Game Development, Web Development, Python, IT and Software courses, EduPenguin is the world’s first community based made etc. in India app focused on skill development, learning Jobs - Apply for BFSI, Hr, Sales and Marketing, and sharing knowledge.

Consulting, etc. jobs from the App. Join the community and apply for free courses to learn new skills, apply for jobs, download millions of Library - Free download millions (80,000,000 +) e-books and audio-books for free, keep updated with of e-books and audio-books in various categories the latest news and watch productive videos right including Science, Art, Technology, Business, Education, Fiction, Health & Fitness, self-growth, etc. from your app.

Which services can be expected from EduPenguin?

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News - Read daily news on Economics, Finance, Startups, etc.

several skills which includes web development, android and iOS app development, digital marketing, PenguinTube - A collection of must-watch, knowledge- that includes seo, smm, sem, lead generation, email based and productive videos including from National marketing, copyrighting, designing, and so much more. The languages that I have practiced include Geographic channel, History channel, etc. html, CSS, JavaScript and python. As a financial analyst All our products and services are focused on improving I have worked in equity research and investment your learning experience. Go ahead and download the banking respectively.

App now I am still learning and I believe learning is life long, for its all about being a polymath. That is being a person How you started and developed of wide area of knowledge so as to be also to solve complex problems. For any questions, work related EduPenguin? queries or collaborations you can reach out to me via I have completed my -CFA from -CFA institute USA in mail. I check them all! in the year 2019 and worked as an equity research analyst.

My interest in the digital world pulled me through and I developed my childhood project EduPenguin which hosts more than 350 courses, millions of eBooks and audio books, jobs, news, videos, etc.

Despite studying finance I learned and developed FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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Top 10 Fastest

Growing Startups In 2021

DEEPTI BERI Founder

Tell us about Curious Times.

About Curious Times

of information technology, communication thereby building confident citizens.

Curious Times is a media and content platform, exclusively for children. The platform provides age-appropriate, What was the idea & what inspired you? curriculum-aligned, global updates, current affairs and Children are born curious and creative too. Why do curiosity and creativity disappear when they join the student participation opportunities.

Through content and communication, Curious Times formal learning process? How do you retain the curiosity, aims at developing key 21st-century skills of curiosity, the joy of learning, application of knowledge and the creativity, critical thinking, communication and power of their expressions and creativity, collaboration, collaboration. Curated content and media lead to early peer learning and confidence among children? reading, thinking, learning and writing among young children. Our daily global updates and NEWS and Curious Times Weekly are the best medium to bring general awareness, civic, health, social financial and environmental literacy at an early age. The Curious Magazine and My Expressions on Curious Times enable showcase of students’ talent and build key 21st-century skills of critical thinking, reasoning, use 50

There is a lot of free content on the internet. But an 8-year-old cannot decipher the meaning and know the authenticity. The first link on any search engine is an advertisement. Shouldn’t there be objective information basis the learning levels of the child?

With popular social media platforms geared toward sensational and biased content, where is safe media for children? Do these apps build empathy, critical FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

thinking and creativity or they add more pressure at her age. The newspaper she got at school looked similar to what her grandparents read. And we can’t be in denial a very young age?

Half of what we learn becomes obsolete in less than that children born in the 21st Century would use digital five years as the world is changing rapidly. Advances in content for a lot of their learning. technology have blurred the lines between disciplines, challenging generalists as well as specialists. We are preparing our children for technologies, which don’t exist now and for jobs that can’t be imagined now. How do we prepare them for this future? How do we build forever curious and forever learners?

It started as a personal quest for finding the right nonfiction content and clean media for my daughter. And then became a bigger goal of making a high on trust platform, which every parent and many children are seeking.

How is your product solving the problem of

Some of these questions led me to create Curious Times.

When my daughter was 7 or 8, I saw all of this coming. media, content and education for children?

I could relate to all these problems. Despite her being Why do you think it brings systematic a voracious reader, she was missing the context. The changes in them as individuals, communities textbooks were context without real-world referencing. and nations?

There was complete disinterest in knowing what was happening around the world, due to the packaging of the Let us look at the problem: how much of media that content and the kids’ newspapers. It was not aligned with children consume including news, songs, documentaries, FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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movies actually made for children? We find a 7-year-old and 70 years old watching the same content, dancing to the same songs and viewing the same kind of news. Children’s minds are not miniature versions of adult minds. With the media and social media today, their impressionable years are spent looking at the world with the same lens as ours much before their core work and life values have got built.

“My Expressions (ME)” and students’ The Curious Magazine is a big favourite of students, parents and schools. One can find first-time writers, bloggers, artists, scientists and their work on Curious Times.

Over the years we have been doing Curated Custom Publications for the schools. These publications powered

by Curious Times are serving many schools, non-profits, Our product has been carefully crafted to suit different and organizations and kids-focused businesses too. learning levels. There are significant changes, which happen when a child is 6 to when she reaches 16. That’s how we serve our audience. From providing assisted reading Tell us something about your team. in early years to word meanings to the introduction of A start-up always struggles with the right kind of talent. technology, space, science, civic, health issues going up So kicking off Curious Times with the right kind of people to the complex world, social, economic and political with shared vision and values was our first milestone. issues, it’s a phased journey. And so does their personality, I think I was fortunate that Siddhartha, my co-founder, understanding and views about the world develop over who is extremely passionate about making the learning the years in a systematic manner. experience joyful and easy and content and media more Over a period of time, we are sure to observe improved appropriate joined me early on in this journey. We are reading, critical and objective thinking, and effective further blessed to have a team of educators, parents communication among children. They become aware and young content specialists and designers, who bring of national and international developments in the areas the necessary insights from learners’ and students’ of environment, politics, business, economies, SDGs, perspectives, their learning levels, their choices and most discoveries, innovation, technology, which just curricula importantly associate with our purpose. cannot bring.

How do you stay on top of changes in the How do you work with individuals and process, changes in thought of industries institutions? and how you are going to look at more now?

We have parents and as well as institutions, who adopt Curious Times is a platform for children. What supports Curious Times. children and helps them grow is primary to the work we Schools are using smart boards, do. It would be unfortunate to bring computers, and projectors, more pressure on them and designated zero periods/ take away the joy of seeking a GK periods for imparting little bit more every day. valuable knowledge to children.

From an industry We have weekly E-Newspaper perspective, it is always and school activity kits, which important to look at have been a hit with schools. education formats across Most parents realise the benefit of providing curated content to children. Providing a safe, moderated and a clean-content platform has instilled confidence in all our stakeholders.

the globe, at the policy level, future of work and the availability and access to resources. It is a good way to understand what will make sense for children over the next 5 years.

Our talent showcase platform 52

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How did the Year 2020 impact your company?

We were digital-first, but we always supported the blended format. So we provided offline programs for school too. We believe for a diverse country like India and especially where we serve children, it would always be an omnichannel outreach format.

During the pandemic, we saw 10x growth, as both parents and educators trusted our platform. Our growth was not just the outcome of students having devices, but us building opportunity and safety for children. Students participated in big numbers, creating their own digital footprint and also bringing laurels to their institutes.

We saw very high interest and engagement from teachers.

Our Teachers Day Special Edition “The Leap” was the single biggest edition in India carrying views and interviews of 200+ educators, who transformed classrooms and in turn got transformed.

Year of Founding: 2019 Founding Members: Deepti Beri and Siddhartha Jain Office Locations: Gurgaon Company Strength: 20 Website: https://curioustimes.in

How does CURIOUS TIMES work on making the industry better? What can be expected from CURIOUSTIMES TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED in the upcoming years?

We got associated with a lot of non-profits to support their students and provide opportunities to their students through the period, the students could not attend classrooms. We served them through videos and offline publications. Learning and engagement saw a multifold We enrich the students’ and parents’ with information increase. on what is happening around the world and the growth avenues around. For the industry, which serves students What is your strategy to reach new industries through their products, whether tech or non-tech, we serve as a medium of outreach and communicating their and new customers? value proposition.

India has to serve 320 million children every year in The brand communication of the partners also happens various ways to make their education complete. It is through their student participation on Curious Times. fairly established that children cannot learn completely on their own at a young age. The last-mile delivery is very important and parents and teachers have to play an What is your vision for the company? important role in it.

What started as a search for a clean and interactive way But safe and high-trust platforms can make this task to bring news and information to first-time readers, easy for parents. Curated and moderated infotainment Curious Times is on its journey to becoming a safe content can be trusted. engagement and information content platform of choice Curious Times has reached a lot of parents and schools. for children.

We are also serving through partner organisations and Our vision is to make learning and information enjoyable customers. B2B customers and partners with a shared and accessible to a large number of children by serving vision add to this growth. These partnerships will build a an inclusive product. We aim to bring opportunities strong ecosystem for good content and reach. to students, by showcasing their talent and enriching With the opening of schools starting April this year, it by providing resources. We wish to build a safer and we will see print versions of the content and curated judgment-free space for children. publications play a role in our growth and benefit much more number of students. We are going deep into regional content. This will enable students with limited exposure to English to stay updated on global developments.

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Technical Hub BABJI NEELAM FOUNDER & CEO

What Technical Hub is based on?

Technical Hub is an organization that has been founded with the primary purpose of bridging the traditional teaching gap formed between universities and industries. With the help of some of the finest certified individuals in the field of technology, we work round the clock with various certification vendors to train and certify university students.

understand the depths of technologies in the most unique, informative and interactive way possible.

Every individual that is a part of our family has been a part of a major corporate industry in the past.

With the help of their experience and knowledge, they're able to effectively deliver

Why customers should go for Technical Hub? Our team helps s t u d e nt s

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various international and corporate center of excellence programs. In addition to this, our sessions are completely interactive and provide hands on experience to individuals in authorized workspaces and labs. University students are also encouraged to work with various technologies and deliver projects that overcome problems with modern technical solutions. Besides our team also works with different organizations and come up with unique interactive events like hack-a-thons, bot-a-thons, awareness fares and other eye catching events that are specially curated to spread technological awareness among national and international university students.

We have established our model in more than 20 institutions.

How clients are experiencing services from Technical Hub? The demand-supply gap scenario, exponential opportunities and dynamic challenges in the 21st century call for a change in our thinking on engineering practice and education. A transformation on the current engineering education is the need of the hour. Growth of new knowledge together with rapidly evolving technological skills, the skill to communicate across disciplines, the ability to lead team-centered projects, contextualised problem formulation, and hands-on experience are the present demands of the global industry. On contrary to the present demands, students churned out from engineering colleges are not equipped to meet the current industry needs due to the growing gap between engineering practice, education and research which requires a lot of concern. As a timely response, it is this concern for the student that has led Aditya to initiate Technical Hub: a perfect launch pad to the job world. Technical Hub trains students in various disciplines beyond technological labels besides

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equipping them with skills and creativity required for advancement in their careers. Through its various programs Technical Hub provides adequate opportunities for an unmatched knowledge base by imparting all necessary skills to students and makes them job ready.

What othet services you are providing?

What is your plan to expand Technical Hub's Services?

Product Development: In addition to the educational sector, we also have a team of well experienced developers who work with various universities to understand the kind of problems they face to keep the university running.

These identified problems are then analysed and an effective solution is then developed for the university. Our team has helped to deliver various commercial solutions to universities across the world and have proved to make their work easier.

They also encourage students to work on similar projects and help initiate successful technical businesses of their own.

In short, we are an educational and Development Company that has been founded with the primary purpose of giving the society effective solutions, be it educative or productive, with the primary purpose of them benefiting from it.

By implementing this model in various national, international universities and also develop various education related products which will create good employment in the near future.

One of our recent achievement is we have collaborated with one of the Oman based IT company for the corporate training and product development.

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Why E-Learning?

Insights into The World of Online Learning and Development The world today is rapidly progressing on the road to utilization, with the ever-increasing number of technical applications that are used to communicate and pass on knowledge. In a traditional classroom, knowledge acquisition is limited to the information the instructor has and that which they can access.

However, connecting students to the outside world enhances their ability to construct new knowledge.

E-learning is an umbrella term that is used to describe a wide variety of electronic ways that enable access to education, and the process in itself. These include: virtual classrooms, web-based learning, computer-based learning, digital collaboration, video and audio recordings, interactive TV and many more. Thus, e-learning is suited to flexible learning methods and distance learning. E-learning can however be coupled with face-to-face instruction, which is called blended learning.

Evolution of E-Learning The last decade transformed e-learning radically. In the early days, courses offered for e-learning were typically custom created, by groups of programmers who were aided by software creating tools.

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Advancement in technology led to the creation of worldwide web, making the creation of e-learning courses a simpler task, that anyone without programming knowledge could complete.

Changes in technology brought new hardware like portable computers, which made it very easy for learners to access course material online. Today, many people are using tablets and smart-phones for online classes and web seminars or webinars.

Types of E-Learning E-Learning can be classified by the ways in which it is shared from the instructor, to the student. An informal distribution form of e-learning is one in which the students are trusted to view the available course material, and are not tracked or tested, for completion.

In the formal distribution form of e-learning, instructors usually keep track and make recordings of learner progress and results. Most educational institutions that offer certifications for students have specific systems and standards for gauging the scores for students.

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for tracking scores and to ensure that the students’ standards for each course are maintained. They are platforms that enable users to create good online courses; and also, the students to be able to access these courses. These platforms are of different types and they have different capabilities. Some are free while others are offered at a fee.

major reasons for this is space. Through e-learning, schools can accommodate as many students as they wish for courses offered, since factors like accommodation space and classroom space are no longer limiting factors.

1. Flexibility

E-learning is very flexible as learners can access material at any time they want. Students who reside Elements of E-Learning at places that are distant to the physical classrooms When creating an online course, there are a number or those who do not have the time to be with the of criteria to be met. Setting a list of criterion ensures instructor, have the luxury of choosing a time of that students benefit fully from the course they their convenience, to go through school coursework. signed up for.

2. Wider variety of fields to choose from

Some common elements of e-Learning are as follows:

1. The role played by the teacher/instructor is vital.

He/she is necessary to offer necessary feedback to students. He/she is also sometimes responsible for keeping students’ progress or scores.

There are thousands of school course-works, online degrees and certifications being offered online, today.

E-Learning does not limit students’ access to fields of study that traditional face-to-face mode of learning did. It is now possible for a student in Africa to access and complete course work that is not offered in their school, but in a school that is located in a different continent. That is the power of E-learning.

2. A well-organized Learning Management System is necessary. It should be easily navigable by both 3. Cost effectiveness the student and the instructor.

3. The learning material is the key feature in E-learning alleviates the need for students and e-learning. Usually, course material is formatted instructors to be located in a central place for in a way that is simple and easily accessible for learning to take place. This saves money that could be spent on travelling, accommodation and other students.

4. Communication is important for learning. To uses that school-based learners cannot escape from. be able to access online coursework from the Time that would be spent commuting to class could instructor, students have to use one or more of be used for other duties too.

the many modes of communication or delivery 4. Better participation and individual instruction methods.

Students are freer to interact with online tutors as There is a myriad of devices today that allow opposed to a physical classroom meeting. This helps teachers and learners to share knowledge. The students to understand concepts they are getting trainer connects to viewers or listeners interactively, trained on better. The instructor can offer complete using multimedia, voice communications, videos attention, for a longer time, to a single student online, (live or pre-recorded), presentations, product which is quite difficult in a conventional classroom. demonstrations and text chats, mostly over the internet.

5. Consistency in course delivered Teaching in a classroom is different every day. Unlike online tutoring, teachers in a physical classroom Advantages of E-Learning present information to students in varied ways, The impact of the rapidly evolving technological every day. This results in differences in the input world on ways which learning is delivered is that the learner receives – it may be qualitative immense. Today, many institutions of higher learning on some occasions and not so effective at other are offering off-premise schooling since it has many times. However, e-learning like a previously taped advantages over on-campus learning. One of the FEBRUARY 2021 SwiftNLift

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performance is delivered without varying every as well. Firms are increasingly turning to e-learning, time and this provides a constant consistency in to train their staff in skills that they may lack. This not only helps firms to educate their staff while coursework. cutting costs, but also helps save on time.

6. Flexible timetables

In a fast-pacing, technology-oriented world of In a school-based learning system, timetables are today, people are adopting technology and finding rigid. In a two-hour-class for example, students have new ways to integrate it in support of education. to sit through the whole class. In e-learning, the E-learning is leading the way, redefining ways in students have the luxury of pausing halfway through which knowledge is acquired. the tutorial, and resume at a later time or date.

Although e-learning is most widely used for school, *This article was covered by: www.swiftnlift.in it has found a variety of uses in the corporate world

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