Eduvoice | The Voice of Education Industry

Tag: Founder

  • Marrow Founder Deepu Sebin Resigns

    Marrow Founder Deepu Sebin Resigns


    Marrow, India’s healthcare education and training platform, announced that the founder, Dr Deepu Sebin has officially resigned from the company in all capacities. Vineet Bagri, who has worked with Sebin for three years as the Business Head, is appointed by the Board as the CEO of the company. Sebin plans to move on to investing and advisory roles in healthcare after taking a short break.

    This transition has been under process since last year, where Sebin and Bagri have worked together to set up a foundation of people, processes and new goals along with the Board to ensure complete operational stability.

    During his tenure, Sebin has made strides in advancing evidence-based practice and promoting a culture of continuous learning in medicine. Marrow, a product of DailyRounds, is a platform used by medical students in India to supplement their medical education and improve their clinical skills.

  • Industry specific Professional Training – BW Education

    Industry specific Professional Training – BW Education


    Designing industry-specific programmes to create medical professional for clinical trials, Kamal Shahani, Founder and MD, Cliniminds, speaks on the importance of embedding values into technical training

    What was the inspiration behind starting Cliniminds?

    The idea came when I was in the United States from 2004 to 2006 and the clinical trials industry was booming there, while clinical trial industry in India was just starting. When I returned to India, I observed a workforce requirement in this sector. There were no opportunities for people to receive formal training in clinical research, drug safety, business analytics and data management. We wanted to create a platform for not only professionals but also those who are just starting their careers after studying life sciences or medical education. That’s how the Cliniminds branding began.

    What are some good practices that are critical to clinical trials?

    Clinical trials are all about ethics. In all clinical trials, the procedure and ethical guidelines need to be followed by the company conducting the clinical trial. This is imparted through education. We ensure that students understand the concepts of ethics, the meaning of ethics, and the importance of ethics not only in clinical science but in their life and overall career.

    What steps have you taken to bridge the skilling divide between academia and industry?

    We have approached the government proactively and sought accreditation to these programmes in life sciences. Bringing Skills Development Council into our programmes has helped us, the students and the industry in standardising the training.

    Two, this industry uses a lot of IT platforms for clinical trials, softwares and databases. So, we have integrated these softwares and databases into the training process. Itself.

    Also, every student comes with the vision to get job placement. So, we have a 360-degree placement-oriented programme. Our technical teams are there to train them on writing, interview preparation, mock interviews, doing the aptitude test, etc. All the programmes are designed as per the industry requirement that fit specific job roles.

    What are your plans for scaling up?

    During Covid-19, people realised the benefits of e-learning technologies and that they are here to stay. E-learning is helping us reach out to the smaller towns and cities, where students are able to learn from the best trainers and given the same job opportunities as their urban counterparts. This is helping us to grow.

  • Education Business With A Social Cause

    Education Business With A Social Cause


    TeamLease EdTech works with about 55 universities and helps them design, develop and deliver engaging & employable programmes at affordable prices. Founder and CEO Shantanu Rooj on company’s future plans and collaborations

    Shantanu Rooj has been an entrepreneur for the last 25 years now. His previous organisation was working with schools and colleges, helping them automate their processes and improve customer service. While at that, he realised the challenges of distance education learners – this lacked engagement, learning outcome and above all employability. He figured out that through use of technology, it is possible to improve the outcome for the learners. That gave him the idea to start TeamLease EdTech to solve the problem of outcome, signalling value and employability of distance education learners in the country.

    The company recently won ‘Innovative Technology Solutions for Higher Education Provider’ award. On how his company has been able to outperform other players in this category, Rooj expresses, “It feels great to be recognised at this prestigious platform. We believe that our focus on changing the outcome of the distance learning degrees at scale and ensuring employability, signalling value and high engagement through an integrated technology platform helped us win this.”

    The company partners with India’s leading universities and helps them design, develop and deliver high-quality, engaging and employable programmes at affordable prices. “Currently, we work with about 55 universities and 750 employers serving about 5.5 lakh students. We believe that we can increase these numbers 5-fold in the next 5 years,” informs Rooj.

    Speaking on the Indian higher education landscape, Rooj shares, “Higher education is considered as a pathway for students that leads them to build their careers. However, most often the students are disappointed as they get caught in the doldrums and are forced to take up additional courses to improve their employability.”

    “The welcome change is the fact that NEP 2020 focusses on building skills alongside academic knowledge by embedding this within the course curriculum,” he adds.

    Rooj believes that education is a business with a social cause.“Every new entrant must realise that the businesses that can provide the right ROI to the learner are the only ones that survive,” suggests Rooj.

    “Hence, focus on consumer service, engagement and a long-term vision are necessary to survive and thrive in this market,” he further says.

  • Better If The Student Has Right Diagnosis

    Better If The Student Has Right Diagnosis


    Vivek Varshney, Founder, Speed Labs, advocates hybrid mode of learning which enables a student’s progress through better data and methodological inputs

    Vivek Varshney’s tryst as an education solutions provider began after a long stint in financial services, industrial banking and private equity for 11 years, followed by work in the education space for about six years. A BTech and an MBA, Varshney came up with the idea of deploying technology to improve learning outcomes in 2016. Thus was born Speed Labs, a ‘Catchy’ abbreviation for ‘Specialised Education Lab’.

    Describing the thought process behind the launch of Speed Labs and the service that the startup provides, he says, “If we look at the journey of a student, there are three aspects – lectures, self-study and practice. We are more focussed on the second and third aspects where we use machine learning and data analytics to improve learning outcomes for students and curate their learning journey.”

    Varshney is a firm believer in hybrid learning as against pure online learning, and adds, “In 2016, I was among the few people in the industry urging to go hybrid and thankfully during Covid too we stuck to hybrid model. We never experimented with pure online because it’s not doing justice to students. Pure online has lots of challenges in terms of infrastructure, device, place at home and monitoring. Whereas you can use hybrid mode for better analytics, feedback and suggestions.”

    Empowerment approach

    What specific role is Speed Labs playing in a student’s life, and how does it plan to innovate its product? Answering the question, Varshney says that with NEP rolling out, school education as we understand will not be the same anymore. “The term K12 may not remain. It may split into K 8 and 9-12. NEP is emphasising making youth available for skilled employable force. And after CUET’s successful implementation in 2022, every stream, be it engineering, medicine, humanities or commerce will have some competitive exam to get into the college. So, a product like Speed Labs can empower students with more methodological, analytical and data-driven inputs for those exams.”

    In the new scheme of things, preparation based on data and not perception will determine admissions. “It’s better if the student has right diagnosis. Speed Labs is providing the right depth of diagnosis to students so that they can use their time well and work on their weaknesses and make strategy for exams,” he adds.

  • Our Children Our Future – BW Education

    Our Children Our Future – BW Education


    Vittal Bhandary, Founder, MD & CEO, Little Elly Chain of Preschools, stresses on having the right thought process and attitude to flourish in the education market and prioritising kids’ interests simultaneously. Excerpts from an exclusive interview

    While Bhandary and his wife Preeti became parents to a girlchild in 2004, they were searching for a top-notch preschool for their little one. While there were a few excellent playschools and nurseries in the area, none of them seemed to provide the kind of comprehensive early education that they wanted for their little one. Bhandary states, “Preeti and I made the decision to conceptualise and dream up a pre-school, since Preeti is an enthusiastic kindergarten teacher with a flair for innovation. ‘Little Elly’ was born, as a flagship brand of Learning Edge India, an entity synonymous with education in Bangalore.”

    Passion and patience are the two key traits that they inherit as early childhood educators. About engaging with children, parents and teachers, Bhandary shares, “We regularly interact with our centres and parents on numerous occasions and according to predetermined frequencies. Establishing consistency in our deployments helps maintain a continual connection with the children, parents and our centres.” “Our zonal coordinators go to the centres to observe the employees and offer guidance,” Bhandary adds.

    Little Elly recently won ‘Regional Preschool Franchisor of the Year’ award. Expressing his feelings on receiving this award, Bhandary states, “The team is thrilled to receive this honour. Our curriculum is our greatest asset and the combination of the Montessori and Steiner approaches distinguishes our methodology and this made us outperform other players in this category. “To ensure that every child, regardless of the centre they attend, receives the same value as elsewhere, we invest significantly in our training and coaching programmes with our partners,” he further says.

    Bhandary believes that business will follow if you have the appropriate attitude and thinking. He suggests, “This industry places a strong emphasis on honesty and integrity while keeping children’s best interests in mind.” There are numerous opportunities in education and India is recognised worldwide. With such a large number of young people, there is enough pie for everyone to enjoy. Our children are our future, he says.