Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, highlighted the need for public-private partnership (PPP) to promote quality education through innovation as he inaugurated the EPSI’s B-school Leadership Conclave in New Delhi recently. The conclave adopted the theme ‘Business Education 4.0: Futurising Indian Business Schools’.
“We cannot depend on conventional teaching, we have to shift to innovative teaching pedagogies like case studies, simulations, open online courses such as MOOCs, use of technology like laptops and mobiles, and disruptive technologies such as AI in classrooms. However, despite innovative practices, almost 20 per cent of the Indian population is still illiterate. This calls for an urgent action in addressing illiteracy, especially in rural India, so that the stepping stone to higher education is laid,” Naidu said in his inaugural address.
Insisting that Indians should change their mindset towards business, VP Naidu praised the role of some of the leading B-schools such as BIMTECH, XLRI, ISB, Narsee Monjee, in bringing this change and talked about the significance of family businesses. “Business schools should include case studies of successful family businesses as a part of their curriculum. We should adopt already existing business models and develop our own model that would suit Indian ethos. At the same time, business schools should also impart strong business ethics and morals in their students,” he added.
He quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi who underlined the importance of ‘reform, perform and transform’ in higher education. Naidu said, “During past few years, India has extensively worked on facilitating the ease of doing business in the country. As a result, the nation is poised to become the third largest economy in the world. It is self-evident that trained human capital is a vital strategic input for creating wealth and the growth of GDP of a country. India’s economic growth creates a tremendous potential for generating employment and offering a greater opportunity for doing business.”
Prof Eric Cornuel, Director General and CEO, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) was the Guest of Honour at the inauguration where other dignitaries included Dr G Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Dr H Chaturvedi, Alternate President, Education Promotion Society for India, and Dr M R Jayaram, Chairman, Gokula Education Foundation were part of the inaugural session of the conclave.
“Business education today is more entwined with the world’s socio-economic situation, globally, economic inequalities are on a rise and middle-class is rapidly shrinking; we need to ask if traditional education is enough to make the youth employable,” said Prof Eric Cornuel, Director General and CEO, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).
“Education is an important subject for any developing economy. It is time that we offer free education to all. We can start with free education to girls,” said Dr G Viswanathan, Founder & Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).
“We are proud to have the Vice President among us today. This conclave is an excellent opportunity for educators and industry representatives to come together and chart out a plan for the B-schools,” said Dr H Chaturvedi, Alternate President, Education Promotion Society for India.
The first plenary session talked about new jobs, new skills, and new curriculum to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s future. The other plenary sessions discussed rethinking the learning experience and leveraging technology in business education.