Birla Edutech Limited (BEL) has launched Birla Open Minds International School (BOMIS). With the launch of BOMIS, BEL has forayed into international curriculum delivery.
BOMIS is among the few international schools of south Mumbai curriculum that boasts of a holistic and all-inclusive approach to education.
BOMIS has partnered with globally renowned institutes to introduce world-class learning opportunities with equal emphasis on extra-curricular activities. BOMIS will follow thematic and STEM based integrated international curriculum.
BOMIS partner associations include Helen O’ Grady for performing arts sessions, Shiamak Davar Institute of Performing Arts for specialised dance sessions, Furtados School of Music signed up to deliver music lessons to the students among others.
Commenting on the occasion, Dr. Indu Shahani, Founder, Dean- ISME and Chairperson, ISDI said, “I’d like to thank the organizers, BEL for inviting me to this event. We have business tycoons, entrepreneurs, etc. graduating from our institutes, but it fills my heart with happiness when someone enters into the education sector.”
Yash Birla, Chairman, Yash Birla Group said, “India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. With a strong demographic dividend having close to 54% of our population below the age of 25 years it becomes our responsibility to supply quality education that equalizes the current world requirements. It is important to address the huge workforce demand that stands in front of us and makes it necessary to impart systematic global knowledge and provide learning that is at par with the advanced world”.
Harvard University’s Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute (SAI) is soon going to open its India headquarter in New Delhi.
“Harvard would not be what it is if it was not capable of attracting the best brains from all over the world. We intend to create a small embassy at the institute, which will help the students and researchers to study at Harvard,” said Mark Elliott, vice provost of International Affairs, Harvard University
Harvard University’s New Delhi centre will enroll post-doctorate students in multidisciplinary research, fellowship and artistic residences, publications and more. The centre will help the university to enhance its association with South Asian subcontinent. Throughout 2018, leading scholars from South Asia-related fields are delivering a series of free public lectures in Delhi.
“Since Harvard offers several fully-funded courses, with several undergraduate courses inviting generous funding, it is all about getting the right kind of students from South-Asia. Since India has a huge potential to explore the research opportunities at Harvard, all that is needed is applying at the right time,” said Elliott.
A similar initiative was started in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the institute acted as a window to offer guidance to deserving students applying in Harvard.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Indian scientists to teach various concepts of science to school students by spending 100 hours a year with them.
While speaking at the inauguration ceremony of five-day Indian Science Congress at the Manipur University, Prime Minister said, “I appeal to the scientists to spend at least 100 hours a year with 100 school students of classes 9 to 11 to teach them the aspects of science. This will go a long way in exposing the students to science.”
Prime Minister pointed out that this was the second Science Congress in the northeastern region in the last 100 years. The summit has witnessed the participation of over 5,000 invitees including 2,000 research scholars and scientists.
He also stated that India would accomplish the mission of eradicating tuberculosis by 2025 whereas the World Health Organisation is planning to do the same by 2030 globally.
Appreciating the scientists’ contribution in space science, he asked scientists to help in resolving problems like malnutrition and diseases including malaria and Japanese encephalitis.
Prime Minister also said that the country would check the brain drain of its scientists.
The school endeavours to improve access to quality education that is relevant in today’s environment through participative learning, says Shreevats Jaipuria, Vice Chairman, Seth M R Jaipuria Schools and Jaipuria Institute of Management, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN).
How the technology can be used to improve the learning outcome of students?
Shreevats Jaipuria, Vice Chairman, Seth M R Jaipuria Schools and Jaipuria Institute of Management
Technology has enabled us to access unlimited amount of content and new teaching methodologies. The challenge is to identify what is relevant and usable and work with teachers to make new teaching-learning pedagogy a reality in the classroom.
How important is the student-teacher coordination to create a learning environment in a school?
At Jaipuria, we believe that student has to be at the centre of the teaching-learning process. Our pedagogy is designed to encourage students to participate in the classroom and co-create knowledge at an individual and group level. This requires a high degree of training for teachers to act as facilitators for this process.
What are the important parameters being considered to develop an innovative curriculum for the holistic development of students?
The world is changing at such a rapid pace that we cannot imagine the types of careers our students will have 20-30 years from now. Therefore the most important skill that we can impart in school is the ability to learn by their own. Our curriculum pushes students to participate in classroom from a very young age in order to develop them as lifelong learners.
With an ever changing dynamics of the education sector, how Jaipuria School is training its teachers to adopt the best and latest methodologies of imparting education?
Typically in Indian schools teachers do not get time to explore about latest or innovative teaching methods which forced them to follow the old ways of imparting lectures for a specific subject or topic. We have developed 2,00,000 pages of curriculum that help teachers to follow different and innovative ideas for each grade ranging from playgroup to class 12. We believe this gives teachers easy and useful ways to update themselves and deliver engaging lecture for students in classrooms.
What are the vision and mission of the school for future?
Our vision is to impart quality education to the students in tier-2 and tier-3 cities across India. For far too long, good quality education is centred to few metropolitan cities or state capitals. This must be changed to meet the aspirations of a new and developing India.
With focus on adopting best teaching-learning methodologies, Noida International University is inculcating skills that will help students to be employable, says Dr Devesh Kumar Singh, Chairman, Noida International University, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
Dr Devesh Kumar Singh, Chairman, Noida International University
As global skill destinations, what practices are adopted by Noida International University (NIU) to impart quality based skill education?
There are a lot of best practices put into every educational aspect here at NIU. According to me top three are:
International academic exposure: Its our effort to provide a broad view of latest trends through tie ups with foreign universities in the countries like Canada and the US.
Curriculum: As far as course curriculum we is concerned, we have tie-ups with renowned companies such as IBM, to have material that is industry relevant and essential for our students’ professional growth.
Internships: The university emphasises on internships. Placement department and faculty members have made it mandatory for students to get practical training in their respective streams and this is where I believe true quality of skill education actually stems from.
Research is important to discover new methodologies in higher education sector, what steps have been taken by the university in this regard?
At NIU we have a separate branch known as the NIU Research and Innovation Center – dedicated not only to bring in projects that facilitate new programmes at campus but also have students involved in these government projects that gives them great exposure. We have the mentors and veterans from across the globe to contribute on how best we can change. We modify our programmes to fit new methodologies as per their teachings. Another focus area is “on field research” as this is the only way students will learn research on field is the only way to stay relevant with latest trends.
Our mission and vision today is what will hold true for the years ahead – we believe in providing our students and faculty a holistic experience whilst they are studying or working at NIU.
It is important for students to meet the industry requirements, how the university is inculcating industry ready skills among its students?
It is mandatory for students of NIU to have internships in all the years of their courses. We also inculcate different skills among our students through various tie-ups and seminars that are held constantly at campus to give them as much of classroom exposure as possible. Therefore, every course at NIU is combined with relevant skill training and encouragement for on job training which will make them employable.
What is the vision and mission of NIU for the years ahead?
Our mission and vision today is what will hold true for the years ahead – we believe in providing our students and faculty a holistic experience whilst they are studying or working at NIU. We want them to be ready for the future and take all precautions for any uncertainty in life ahead. We want to contribute to a healthy and responsible India! Our children are not just our future but they will be the ones who will carry our work further.
Chitkara University is one of the leading non-profit universities of North India offering industry-relevant, multi–disciplinary programmes in Engineering, Management, Science, Art & Design, Hospitality, Pharmaceuticals, Media and several other fields. Within a short span of time, we have managed to carve a niche for ourselves in terms of programs offered, quality teaching, student placements and above all research, innovation and entrepreneurship. Most of our academic programs are ranked among the top- 50 programs across the region and in the country.
Dr Madhu Chitkara,Vice-Chancellor, Chitkara University
Chitkara University advocates inculcating high moral, ethical and professional values amongst its students, faculty and staff members. Our aim is to carry out the academic processes in accordance with global standards through active student-industry-academia interface and promote research, innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities for our students.
We have built very strong collaborative arrangements with industry to support our program delivery. Reputed industries like nVIDIA, NXP Semiconductors, Texas Instruments, Cadence, Mahindra and Virtusa have set up laboratories at our campus. Strong linkages with organisations like Fortis Healthcare, Quick Heal Academy, Safeducate, Bombay Stock Exchange Limited, Manpower Group, NDTV Worldwide, Rasco and many more develop and deploy industry-relevant curricula and support our academic delivery along with our learned and expert faculty.
Research opportunities are vast at Chitkara University. Through Chitkara University Research and Innovation Network (CURIN)our students, staff and researchers work across disciplines to extend the boundaries of knowledge. Our students get hands-on learning and majority of them participate in research during their undergraduate years. They are given opportunities to work with the faculty and can even apply for financial support for their research projects.With over 125 patents filed so far, Chitkara University has been ranked 4th among top Indian Universities by the Indian Patent Office for the year 2015-16.
Through our Engineering Exploration course now introduced in the first year of Engineering, we are taking a structured approach to sensitize and tackle social problems and finding workable engineering solutions to them. Our healthcare, nursing and pharmacy programs go an extra mile to work on social problems – specially creating awareness about health issue in our adopted villages. Our NSS wing works closely with many NGOs and other societies in the vicinity to impart skills in the areas of computer literacy, Hospitality, Electrical maintenance, stitching & tailoring and others.
We believe that we are moving towards a future where the ever-increasing demand in research and education can be met by globally networked university systems. Chitkara University’s robust international exchange programs with more than 130+ overseas universities/colleges give our students an edge to learn from the best of minds. Additional to our international edge, we host “Global Week” every year, where the expert faculty members of distinctive universities come to our campus and teach our students and share their best practices.
The Indian entrepreneurial spirit has risen remarkably as India stands third amongst the fastest growing startup countries worldwide – just after the US and the UK.The Government of India is supporting this initiativeand so are we. Through Chitkara University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, Education and Development (CEED), we have tried to provide a conducive environment for the students to develop a mindset of being an entrepreneur. At present, more than 40+ start-ups are successfully functioning at our state-of-art incubators.
In nutshell, we believe that every student has the potential to do exceptionally well if given the right guidance and mentoring. In order to deliver future generations with the right set of skills and knowledge, Chitkara University is continuously evolving its educational practices. We acknowledge the fact that it’s our key responsibility to deliver and acquaint our students with a right combination of education and employability skills so that they are ready for their future workplace.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has collaborated with Vietnam National University (VNU) for conducting research and development in the areas of mutual interest.
Initially CSIR and VNU will collaborate through student exchange programme at PhD level.
A high profile delegation from Vietnam National University (VNU), Hanoi, met CSIR Director General Dr Girish Sahni for collaboration. The delegation was led by the president of university Dr Nguyen Kim Son. The objective of the visit was to discuss the modalities of collaborative R&D activities.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Science and Technology, a Joint Working Group would be set up by VNU to execute research projects in the areas of mutual interest. The research areas will include material science, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and general technology applications.
According to the statement by the ministry, “Partnerships could be in the form of joint research projects, training programmes or through Technology Transfer arrangements.”
CSIR is a research and development organisation under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The council has a pan India presence with a network of 38 national laboratories, 39 outreach centres, 3 Innovation Complexes and 5 units. CSIR’s R&D activities are supported by 4,600 active scientists and around 8,000 scientific and technical personnel.
Workolab has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Manav Rachna University to set ups a research hub at university’s Faridabad campus.
Manav Rachna Group of Institutions Vice-President Dr Amit Bhalla said “We value this partnership with Workolab as our students will benefit from access to world class research environments and guidance from highly capable researchers.
“It will help students in making a good startup and innovation ecosystem and promoting the concept of doing research without degree. It is these partnerships which not only help develop technologies for tomorrow but also bring industry and academia closer,” Bhalla added.
Under the partnership, Workolab will help students and researchers to accelerate the development of their start-ups through calculated risk-taking. At the centre, students will get advices from mentors and learn start-up methodologies and best practices in a productive and collaborative atmosphere.
The mentors will also help students in clearing their doubts on fund raising, recruiting, technology, intellectual property, marketing, sales and other topics.
Zenith Vipers CEO & Co Founder Yashraj Bhardwaj said, “Workolab is platform wherein people from any age, community can come together and do research as well as build up their business at the same place i.e, Offices and Research Hub at one place. A proper assistance will be provided to people of all age to solve real world problems.”
Use of technology in managing the human resource has seen a significant increase among small, medium, and large enterprises. How the technology is helping these organisations to deliver better HR services observes Lakshmi Murthy, Chief People Officer, ITM Group of Institutions, for Elets News Network (ENN).
Lakshmi Murthy, Chief People Officer, ITM Group of Institutions
A few years ago, when we spoke about technology in HR, the discussions were around ERP systems which was restricted to maintaining records, ease of data access, retrieval, security and integrity. We have come a long way wherein in our mind today technology in HR is equals to artificial intelligence and robots replacing human.According to CB Insights, a venture capital database, investors have put more than $2 billion into HR technology systems and platforms in 2016. An Economic Times articles states that HR tech is a $400 billion industry globally. At about half a billion dollars, the Indian HR tech industry is still an infant. While the last decade was of integrated human resources management system (HRMS), the coming years would be of AI. HR technology is undergoing one of the most disruptive periods it has seen in a decade.
Why is artificial intelligence or Robotics is getting so much of limelight? Why are people talking about replacing humans with robot? Why the paranoia around artificial Intelligence (AI). According to me, scarcity is mother of invention they say. Lack of skilled manpower at the right time, right place and right cost is enabling usage of robotics in various industries. Moreover, human is lesser and lesser interested in doing repetitive and monotonous jobs.Technology is forcing organisation to focus on their core area where they can add value, which enhances their creativity. A very basic personal observations is that people are more comfortable to have impersonal (unknown people, non-emotional) interactions than human interactions which, according to some, is complex. There is this need to reduce or avoid “conflict” which is driving technology demand.
According to Jeff Weiner, CEO of Linkedin there isn’t just one skill gap; instead there are multiple skill gaps that exist across cities, for specific skills, at specific points in time.
A decade ago, it was normal for people to work with organisations on an average for 10 to 15 days, today even a average of 3 years is very high. Attrition, according to Hay group, can hit the organisation with up to 4% of revenues and 40% of profits. HR transition is also driven due to the entry of Millennials, and predicted to make up 75 percent by 2020. The entire workforce space changes drastically.
In order to get the place on the table, HR today is proactively looking at bridging this gap and nudging the top lines up. They are themselves becoming inventors and adopters of technology. So instead of waiting for market to provide, they go to market with new performance management model, new learning strategies, culture assessment concepts, tools and techniques for training and coaching. This is a huge paradigm shift with HR fraternity.
As per Josh Bersin’s perspective, the way the day is being stored, use of analytics, focus on video content, dominance of social recruitment and wearable at the workplace are driving the need for artificial intelligence. Every aspect of HR function is being transformed making a decade old technology upgrade redundant. Let’s look some of the key areas of HR function:
Recruitment: With increase in volume of recruitment accentuated with attrition, finding the right resources maintaining quality, meeting time deadlines and cost parameters is a becoming an uphill task. The job descriptions are also hybrid now, which keep changing. To meet these changes adopting technology is being smart.The candidate sourcing is being done through resume parsing and discover technology like text analytics. It matches the requirement with the potential candidate by scoring the internet and social media. This gives a much reliable profile of candidate than the one created by the candidate. With more and more focus on “templated interviews”, the value add from HR has reduced, resulting with the process becoming monotonous. So we see advent of robots who complete the preliminary round of interviews and provides assessment of the candidate to the hiring manager. What is left is for the manager to do the fitment assessment. This not only reduces the time taken but volumes can be handled while ensuring fitment. The volumes are being handled by chat bots, open sourcing tools, automated applicant tracking systems and assessments (culture and behaviour) through tools.
Performance Management: Within less than two years, the good old appraisal system has moved to event based feedback. The feedback to employees to employees is supported through lots of data and analytics. There are no surprises for both the boss and the subordinate. What remains is the critical conversation to decide the way ahead. There are systems which recommend learning strategies for the employee based on the performance assessment. For HR the process of sending out forms, collecting data, analysing the same has been eliminated allowing them to do lots of analytics and prediction. Vendors like Oracle, SAP, SuccessFactors, Workday, ADP, Connerstone, etc have developed ability to predict high performance outcomes, employee retention and promotions. Cornerstone’s systems predict which employees will not complete the training and certification.Starling Trust, offers a system that can analyze patterns of e-mail and other communication to build “trust networks”; it can actually predict where a security leak or fraud is likely to occur. Another company, Humanyze, sells smart badges that monitor workers’ locations and voice tenor to gauge when and where they experience the most stress. Betterworks is a goal management platform which ensures productivity is tracked.
Employees who stay ahead of the curve and upgrade themselves cannot be replaced. The role of organisation ( HR function) to build capabilities in-house to enable this transition. Since the new skills are so scare finding them externally will be very further difficult
Employee Engagement : While the ground was shifting under our feet, HR held the ground that employee engagement is one areas that AI cannot take away. The premise being that people can alone have conversation, assess the problem and manage the situation. With the advent of robots like “Amber” and “Leena” even employee engagement seems to be going away from HR. Organisation like Coca Cola, HDFC Life, L&T have already started deploying robots to sense the employee disengagement and alert the stakeholders. Organisations are already claiming fruits of the investment in these robots. These robots are trained to find triggers and start a conversation, “listen” to symptoms of disengagement. Twentysomething Varun Puri, one of Amber’s creators, says that’s by design adding “We want Amber to make you comfortable enough to open up to her,” he says. “But we don’t want her to have too much personality.” Human being still can and will try to maintain the supremacy over robots. Amber is created by a Gurugram-based startup Infeedo.
Companies are adopting to the changes in technology very fast. At Deloitte, following the path of most companies, the wellbeing initiative moved from a focus on “health” to a focus on “reducing burnout” to a new focus on “human performance.” This is the journey most HR departments are going through and the vendor market is moving fast.
A few months back there was an article in one of the leading newspapers that in just over a year, more than 30,000 employees at 37 companies have started confiding their deepest workplace secrets in a robot named “Amber”.
Although there is a lot of hype created about AI, but the potential of Artificial Intelligence in Human Resource Management is yet to be fully explored. Strohmeier & Piazza F. (2015) studied the application in six selected scenarios: turnover prediction with artificial neural networks, candidate search with knowledge-based search engines, staff rostering with genetic algorithms , HR sentiment analysis with text mining , resume data acquisition with information extraction and employee self-service with interactive voice response. Josh Bersin has summarized the history and growth of technology in HR.
Being a optimist and believer in human capabilities, I feel Robots cannot replace human beings. Today we are going through the same phase that people went through during industrial revolution. People are still employed and there are more job opportunities than that time. Probably, the same would happen once we use the full potential of AI. The jobs would be different. With elimination of few jobs, some new ones will be created. The quality of life may be better? Remember our journey from being a time office jobs to strategic partners role. Maybe people skills will be high in demand. (views expressed by author are personal)
