EdTech Company NxtWave raises $2.8 million pre-series A funding led by Orios Venture Partners and Better Capital

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December 1, 2021

EdTech company NxtWave raised $2.8 million pre-series A funding led by Orios Venture Partners and Better Capital, the company said in a statement. The company will utilize the fund to expand the team, accelerate product development and penetrate in the existing market to increase revenue growth.

Launched amidst the pandemic in September 2020, NxtWave is bootstrapped, cash-flow positive and has profitably grown by 9X in the last 10 months to $7.5 Million ARR, the company said in a statement.

The company has been founded by IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and IIIT Hyderabad alumni – Sashank Reddy Gujjula, Anupam Pedarla and Rahul Attuluri. NxtWave is on a mission to become India’s largest online employability platform and aims to produce 1 million new-age developers every year.

People like Ravi Bhushan (Founder, BrightChamps), Ramakant Sharma(Founder, LivSpace), Vikram Kailas(Cofounder, Mytrah Energy), Umang Kumar(Cofounder & President, CarDekho), Chakradhar Gade(Cofounder, Country Delight), Anupam Mittal(Founder, Shaadi.com), Vikas Malpani(Cofounder, Leher & Commonfloor), Rajesh Shawney(Founder, GSF Accelerator), Nandu Nandkishore(Professor ISB & Former Global CEO Nestlé Nutrition) and Shaji Devakar(Executive Director, IIFL Wealth) and Giridhar Malpani(Founder, Climber Capital) have invested in the company.

Speaking about the development, Rahul Attuluri, CEO, NxtWave, said, “We believe that the Digital Pedagogy must be radically different for small-town India to create transformative learning experiences. To achieve this, we have adopted a multi-pronged approach in designing our continuous career building programmes leveraging technology, pedagogy and vernacular content.”

“We’ve been successful in breaking critical barriers to learning the right skills and achieving a tech job. Along the way, we are also breaking many myths. Our NxtWave learners who are now in successful high-paying tech jobs have started with us from non-engineering degrees, from non-metros and without any programming background. Our hyper-focus on career outcomes fueled with strong customer love helped us unlock a stellar growth in such a short span,” added Attuluri.

Speaking about the development Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners said “Every year, India sees 10 million plus engineering students graduate from small-town India’s numerous engineering colleges. Their skills are widening vs the demands of the industry due to outpacing of the curriculum and constraints around pedagogy. These students are more comfortable in a mix of vernacular and English and can scale to achieve similar heights as their large city counterparts with the right platform. This opportunity is valued at $8 billion annually and growing. We are thrilled to join Nxtwave in its journey to address this gap and help them achieve their large vision.”

“NxtWave’s vernacular & semi-synchronous format is a brilliant innovation that plugs a massive gap for Bharat students and early professionals and creates an on-ramp for them into the fast-growing tech ecosystem – and in a way that was never done before”, added Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital, an early backer of breakout edtech companies like Teachmint, Skill Lync, Filo & others.

Schools in Mumbai to reopen from December 15

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December 1, 2021

Schools in Mumbai will reopen from December 15 due to the onslaught of new Covid 19 variant ‘Omicron’.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said the classes for 1 to 7 will remain closed. Earlier, the physical classes slated to reopen from December 1. “Schools for Classes 1-7 will now reopen from December 15, instead of December 1, in view of the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID in the world,” BMC added.

“Attending offline classes will be optional and parents can opt for online classes”, an official statement said.

Also read: Mumbai University launches MA programme in Hindi and Marathi

The Maharashtra government decided to reopen schools after a survey conducted by the school education department of the state. In this survey, it was found that 70 percent of parents were willing to reopen schools. However, after the warning from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the state government ensured that protocols are followed properly and thereby, deferred reopening of schools.

WHO also said that the new variant poses a “very high” global risk and spreads more easily. The risk to vulnerable populations especially in countries with low vaccination rates–could be substantial.

IIT Bombay congratulates alumnus Parag Agrawal on his promotion as Twitter CEO

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December 1, 2021

IIT Bombay congratulated Parag Agrawal on his elevation as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Twitter. Agrawal is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and obtained his B.Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the institute in 2005.

IIT Bombay in a recent tweet mentioned, “IIT Bombay alumnus and Young Alumni Achiever Awardee (2019) Paraga is the newly appointed CEO of Twitter. Before joining Twitter, he worked at Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AT&T Labs. IIT Bombay wishes him the best for his new journey!”

Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT Bombay also said in a statement: “The significance of a university is often judged by the collective achievements of its alumni and the glory that they bring to their alma mater. Parag Agrawal is one such alumnus that IIT Bombay is proud of.”

He joined Twitter in the year 2011 while pursuing his Phd at Stanford University & became the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) in 2017.

UP Govt. to distribute 2.5 lakh tablets and 5 lakh smartphones to students for free

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November 30, 2021

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will soon be launching the DG Shakti portal for management of the free distribution of smartphones and tablets to students in the state. A total of 2.5 lakh tablets and 5 lakh smartphones will be distributed in the first lot. The distribution will start from the second week of December.

As a relief to students, they are not required to register anywhere to get free smartphones and tablets. The data of the students is being given to the university by the colleges and the data feeding of the students is being done at university level itself. The data of about 27 lakh students has been uploaded on the portal currently. The process of data feeding of remaining other students is also being expedited.

Apart from this, information about smartphones and tablets will be given to the students from time to time on their mobile numbers and email IDs.

The biggest ever tender to the tune of Rs 4700 crore has been floated by the government on the GeM portal for the purchase of smartphones and tablets. Many well-known companies have tendered for smartphones and tablets. The companies like wishtel (Iris), Samsung (Vision) and Acer (Celkon) for tablets, Lava, Samsung (Celcon) and Samsung (United) for smartphones have filed tenders. Financial bids of eligible firms will be opened after technical scrutiny. It is expected that the work order will be issued by the first week of December.

Candidates can register for CSAB 2021 Special Round 1 Counselling today

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November 30, 2021

Joint Seat Allocation Authority, JoSAA NIT+2 Admissions 2021 for this academic year has begun from November 28, 2021. The Central Seat Allocation Board or CSAB started the registration process for Special Round 1 counselling as well.

The candidates can register for Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) counselling as the last day to submit the application is today (November 30). The students can visit the official website of CSAB–csab.nic.in.

JoSAA NIT+ Admissions 2021 will be held after all 6 rounds of JoSAA Counselling process have been completed. After the registration, the seat allotment result for this round would be released on December 2, 2021.

Also read: Schools and College Students will have counselling session: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

However, only limited seats are available in these Special Rounds of Counselling. People appearing here would get admission into National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other Government Funded Technical Institutes (GFTIs).

The applicants will be required to provide details and verify information that are essential for filling up the application form.

How to register for CSAB Special Round 1 Counselling:

Go to the website csab.nic.in
Click on the CSAB Special Round 2021 registration link
Click on the ‘CSAB 2021 document upload’ link
Enter JEE Main 2021 password, roll number and security pin
Login with the details
Upload all necessary documents
Submit the same

Maharashtra Govt. issues guidelines for reopening of primary schools

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November 30, 2021

Maharashtra government has issued guidelines to reopen primary schools from December 1.

Since the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic, the schools were all shut down and in-person classes were put on hold. As the scenario is improving, many schools have started with offline classes. The state government has observed COVID 19 appropriate behaviour and proper vaccination of teachers, staffs in the schools.

According to the Maharashtra’s health department’s guidelines, the schools will reopen from classes 1 to 4 in rural classes and from classes 1 to 7 in urban areas.

The government is ensuring that all schools should follow Covid appropriate behaviour such as maintaining social distance of six feet, wearing face masks, and washing hands need to be followed on reopening of schools.

Also read: Maharashtra Govt. takes U-turn in reopening schools in the state

Students and teachers residing in containment zones should not be allowed to attend school, the guidelines stated.

The Maharashtra cabinet recently decided to reopen schools for students of Classes 1 to 4 in rural areas and Classes 1 to 7 in urban areas from December 1. “After discussing the issue with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the cabinet and the paediatric task force, we have decided to reopen schools for Classes 1 to 4 in rural areas and Classes 1 to 7 in urban areas from December 1,” School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad had said in a statement lately.

NIPUN Bharat Scheme focuses on foundational learning: Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan

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November 30, 2021

Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan informed Lok Sabha on Monday that the government is implementing the National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy called National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) to gauge how well learning is happening in the states, districts and blocks across the country.

In a written reply, the minister said NIPUN Bharat scheme was launched on July 5, 2021 under the aegis of Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha. The mission aims to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy in primary classes.

The Mission Guidelines lays down priorities and actionable agendas for States and UTs to achieve the goal of proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy for every child by grade 3. The guidelines for the mission have been developed which includes the codification of development goals and learning outcomes for ages 3 to 9 years and Lakshya or Targets for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy starting from Balvatika to Grade III.

He added that as per the NIPUN Bharat implementation guidelines, assessment during the foundational learning can be broadly categorized into two major areas, namely: School Based Assessment (SBA) through qualitative observation based on performance of the child in a multitude of experiences and activities.

“Various tools and techniques like anecdotal records, checklist, portfolio, and interactions (through a holistic 360-degree assessment with teacher, peers, family and friends) have been recommended to be used for assessment. Thus, the teachers at the foundational stage need to observe children as they play, work on their task, perform or interact among themselves, to assess children’s interests and learning,” he said.

He mentioned large-scale standardised assessment for assessment of the processes and functioning of the educational systems (such as NAS, SAS, and Third-Party Assessments). The assessment tools commonly used in conducting large scale assessment studies are multiple choice questions (MCQ) and constructed responses are usually avoided to bring in objectivity in the process. These assessments are a mechanism to gauge how well learning is happening in their state, districts, and blocks. In this regard, the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 has been carried out for assessing learning outcomes of children in Grade III.

He also informed that a specialized National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA 3.0) for the foundational literacy and numeracy covering about 25 lakh teachers at the primary level across all states and UTs has been launched in September, 2021.

NIT Andhra Pradesh collaborates with state universities on research projects

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November 29, 2021

National Institute of Technology (NIT) Andhra Pradesh to work on research-based local community service projects. To implement it, NIT is collaborating with state universities. It will also implement joint academic programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between NIT Andhra Pradesh Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Kakinada, Dr YSR Horticulture University, Tadepalligudem and Adikavi Nannaya University, Rajahmundry. Professor CSP Rao, Director, NIT Andhra Pradesh, professor GVR Prasada Raju, Vice-Chancellor, JNTU Kakinada, professor T Janakiram, Vice-Chancellor, Dr YSR Horticulture University, and professor M Jagannadha Rao, Vice-Chancellor, Adikavi Nannaya University.

The collaboration aims to include various research initiatives, guiding students on thesis, continuing education activities, faculty exchange programmes, organising training, sharing best practices, development activities, design, and implementing joint academic programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level in their institutes.

The chief guest of the occasion was Professor K Hemachandra Reddy, Chairman, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education, he said, “As per the recommendations of AP Higher Education Planning Board, this Regional Cluster Group is to requested to study the potential areas for inter-institutional collaborations among the Central and State Universities in the districts and mapped to collaborate in the areas of academic programmes, faculty exchange, student exchange, common research projects, community service projects, sharing of infrastructural and research resources, among others. We are expecting to create a new knowledge forum as an outcome of this collaborative activity for universal needs.”

Professor CSP Rao, Director, NIT Andhra Pradesh, said, “The collaboration will benefit all higher educational institutions in this Godavari Region of Andhra Pradesh. We have talented faculty, highly motivated students and good collaborative partners. The kind of benefit we are looking for is the creation of a new knowledge and learning platform to collaborate for executing local community service-based research projects.”

Delhi schools, colleges reopen today for physical classes

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November 29, 2021

Delhi schools, colleges and other educational institutions have reopened today for physical classes. The educational institutions were shut down earlier due to air pollution.

On November 13, the schools in the national capital were closed due to bad air quality. With an improvement in the air quality, schools, colleges and universities have been allowed to reopen. “If we look at the average air quality index, Delhi has reached the pre-diwali state. Pollution levels had started increasing after Diwali…following which many restrictions were imposed,” the Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said.

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) data stated that the air quality in Delhi has improved but it is still in the ‘very poor’ category.

Delhi’s Education Minister Manish Sisodia informed through his social media and said, “…All the Govt., Govt. Aided, Unaided Recognized, NDMC, MCDs and Delhi Cantonment Board Schools will reopen from 29.11.2021 for all classes.”

During this time every year, Delhi’s air quality deteriorates to hazardous levels due to stubble burning, coal-fired plants outside the city, emissions from transport and other industries and due to the impact of external factors.

University of Patanjali prepares future generation for nation-building: President, Ram Nath Kovind

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November 29, 2021

The President, Ram Nath Kovind said that the University of Patanjali is preparing the future generation for nation-building by giving them education based on the idea of indigenous entrepreneurship and employment generation. He said this while gracing the first convocation of the University of Patanjali in Haridwar.

The University of Patanjali is marching on the path set by the National Education Policy to make India a ‘Knowledge Super Power’ by combining our relevant traditional knowledge with modern science, he noted.

He said that efforts made by this university would help Indian knowledge-science, especially Ayurveda and Yoga to attain a prime place on the world stage in modern perspective.

Also read: President Kovind: Universities can provide inspiration to deal challenges

The President was happy to note that the University of Patanjali has established a special cell for international students. He said that through this initiative the Indian values and knowledge tradition can be spread across the world. And this would be a special contribution of this university in the rise of New India of the 21st century.

He said that modern medical science has made amazing progress in the field of treatment with the help of many tools.

However, Ayurveda and Yoga-science have deeply contemplated and researched the best tool developed by the universe i.e. the human body. And through the body itself, it has developed effective ways of treatment, the president added.

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