BW BUSINESS WORLD FUTURE OF EDUCATION SUMMIT 2017

The ‘Future of Education Summit’ was held on April 7, 2017 at Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida. The summit was organized by Business World.

The objective of the Summit was to engage thought leaders, practitioners and innovators to bring forth innovative and disruptive ideas that can link students, faculties and institutions to solutions that are best suited for them; solutions that improve lives and stories that inspire other educators to do better. The summit witnessed the attendance of Policy makers and Education Secretaries, Directors & Chancellors of esteemed Technology and Management Institutions, globally recognized Academicians and Social Organizations.

With a mission to enhance the academic growth of MBA students, Dronacharya Group of Institutions nominated MBA students Ms. Sonal Handa, Ms. Samiksha Dixit and Ms. Yashaswi Chaturvedi along with Ms. Prachi Agarwal, Assistant Professor - Department of Management Studies attended the summit.

The welcome note was given by Mr. Anurag Batra, Chairman & Editor - in - Chief - BW Business World & Exchange4Media Group. He thanked all the academicians, eminent panelists, Chief Guest and Guests of Honours to be a part of this thought provoking event. He asserted the fact, that with so much technological revolutions happening around the Globe, it becomes imperative for the Educational Institutions to rethink on their teaching strategies. He also stated the fact that the Synergistic, Innovative and Sustainable Educational Innovations and transformations are complex and difficult and requires a holistic approach, encompassing long - term planning, partnership and engagement.

After his short and crisp message, Mr. T. S. R. Subramanian, Former Cabinet Secretary addressed the gathering. He shared some alarming figures with the audience. He stated that about 50% students in Std. 5 cannot solve simple maths problems, even after 8 Years of schooling, the kids lack in basic skills and there has been a sharp decline in the science skills. He shared the fact that India’s education system is regarded as dead but the same Indians do wonders if they are studying in the West. He suggested that we should stop politicizing the education system and rather than focusing on Ministers and Secretaries, the focus must be on the children and teachers. There is a need of very effective academic regulation to be implemented in order to improve the overall scenario. The purpose of the colleges must be to make scholars rather than money. There is a need of better faculty, better infra and a stronger accreditation system in order to make better academics. Indians are forced to go abroad as there is a lack of education facility in India. The west spends about 7% of their GDP on education sector where as Indians spend only 2.5% GDP on it. Educating children is the only key to develop a country and with so many reforms by GOI in place, India will experience a quantum leap in the next decade.

The next session was a video message by Shri Prakash Javadekar, Hon'ble Minister of HRD. He appreciated the growing interest of media in education sector and stated that education belongs to everyone and all has equal opportunity to take benefit from it. He stressed on the slogan of Indian Government “Sabko Siksha, Sabki Siksha”. He stated that the vision to make Board Exams necessary in CBSE Class 10th, will surely improve things. He asserted the need of improving Research and Innovation in Higher Education. He shared the fact that 600+ faculties from abroad will visit India to teach the students in Higher Education and there will be more student exchange programs. He also shared the success of ‘Smart India Hackthon’ in which over 42000 students worked on various problem statements from various Ministries.  He stressed on the fact that the motive must be to make students employable.

Next to address the gathering was Prof. (Dr.) J. Mahendar Reddy, Vice Chancellor - ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education. He said that Normal Teaching is not going to help anyone and activities like Entrepreneurship, CSR etc. must be mandatory for the Institutions. The conferences and seminars must not be just talk shows but should have solid outcomes. The quality of research must be improved and there has to be stronger Ph. D entrance test. Research requires quality time and if the college wishes its faculty to come out with innovative research ideas, they must not overburden the faculty members. The government grant given for research must solely be on the basis of merit of a project rather than the Institution it is coming from. There has to be more foreign collaborations and if any Institute have them, they must make full use of the collaboration.

Mrs. Monica Malhotra Kandhari, Managing Director - MBD Group highlighted the utility of internet and the benefits which can be reaped from it. She further stated that everything has 2 sides, how we deal with it is entirely our prerogative and it’s upon us to decide the benefits of it. She also discussed the need of innovative teaching and learning.

Post lunch, there was a Panel Discussion on IIM Bill. The panelist included:

1. Dr. Rishikesh Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore

2. Dr. Debasish Chatterjee, Director General, IMI

3. Dr. C. P. Shrimali, Director, MDI

4. Dr. G. S. Narsing Rao, ICFAI Business School, Pune

5. Dr. I.M. Pandey, Director, Delhi School of Business

6. Moderated By: Sreerupa Sil, Executive Editor, BW Education & BW HR

The panelist were of the view that the proposed law, once passed by Parliament, will make each of the 20 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) an ‘Institution of National Importance’ like the IITs, NITs and AIIMS. Although the PG diploma and ‘Fellow’ title awarded by IIMs are recognized by the Association of Indian Universities and the HRD Ministry to being equivalent to an MBA and a Ph.D degree, respectively, the equivalence is not universally accepted, especially for the Fellow programmer.

The event ended with the Vote of Thanks rendered by Mr. Anurag Batra.