Co-founded by Prateek Bhargava, an alumnus of the top-ranked Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and Prikshit Dhanda, a law graduate of Delhi University, Mindler is a high-potential online career counseling service of Delhi-based edtech start-up Taxmann Education Pvt. Ltd, promoted by the duo in July 2015. Mindler.com offers career guidance and counseling services to secondary and higher secondary students by integrating artificial intelligence, psychology, psychometrics and algorithms.

Newspeg. Since it went live in April last year, Mindler.com has counseled over 120,000 students countrywide.
History. In 2002, while still a high school student, Bhargava received judicious career advice from Prikshit Dhanda, then a career coach and mentor with Career Launcher Ltd. Over the next decade, the two kept in touch on email and the phone. 

In 2015, the idea of promoting an edtech venture “to make career counseling, dominated by a few established counselors and accessible to a handful of students, available to millions of students across the country”, fructified. Subsequently, the duo persuaded the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) of IIM-Ahmedabad to incubate their fledgling start-up. The company received a huge boost when it was awarded angel funding of Rs.1.2 crore at the ‘Power of Ideas 2015’ contest conducted by The Economic Times in association with Reliance Jio, the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and CIIE.

“We roped in well-known applied psychometry expert Prof. N.K. Chada to head a team of 16 full-time experts and several freelancers, which invested 75,000-plus man hours over 15 months to design algorithms for several careers based on inputs from domain experts and international faculty. Mindler.com went live last April and its three-month pilot phase was validated by 10,500 students. Last August we launched our B2C and B2B commercial operations,” says Bhargava, also an alumnus of Delhi University and MDI Gurgaon, who acquired substantial work experience with Maruti Suzuki and Accenture before co-promoting Taxmann Education Pvt. Ltd.

Direct talk: “Though career decisions shape a person’s life trajectory, career counseling is a neglected area in India with only a small minority of schools offering professional advice. Our objective at Mindler is to fill this lacuna by offering a reliable online career guidance system accessible to all students,” says Dhanda, chief strategy officer of the company, who has over two decades of career guidance experience with Career Launcher Ltd and Making India Employable Pvt. Ltd. 

Future plans. Mindler is in the process of raising $1 million, which will be utilised for product development, brand awareness, and human resource development. “We are targeting to sign up 100-150 schools this year in India, and a few in Nepal. Our heavily researched careers database and other material have already been translated into Hindi. We plan to translate it into major regional languages over the next year,” says Bhargava.

Wind in your sails!

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Goals-driven Edupreneur

Sanjay Padode is secretary of the Centre for Developmental Education, a not-for-profit of the DSIJ (Dalal Street Investment Journal) Group which has promoted the Institute of Finance and International Management Business School (IFIM, estb.1995) and several associated IFIM institutions (IFIM College, IFIM Law College, IFIM Institute of Social Sciences and IFIM Centre for Distance Learning) — all sited on a four-acre state-of-the-art campus in Bangalore’s Electronics City.

Newspeg. In a huge boost to its reputation, last September, the six-year-old IFIM College — which offers bachelor’s degree programmes in commerce, computer applications and business administration — was awarded A-grade accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Moreover, the curriculum of the IFIM B-school was recently revised and upgraded for the academic year 2016-17.

History. An electronics engineering and maths alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Padode promoted Dataline and Research Technologies Pvt. Ltd (DaRT) in 1993, which pioneered online delivery of information and email services across India under the company’s India Online and DaRT Mail brand names. DaRT was the first real time market data provider for the Indian stock exchanges and was later spun off as the Asian CERC Information Technology Ltd. In 2006, Asian CERC was acquired by the Religare Group and Padode became CEO of the merged Religare Technova Global Solutions Ltd. 

Direct talk. “Making students industry-ready is the prime objective of all our institutes of higher education, especially IFIM Business School. Currently the aggregate enrolment of all our institutions is over 800 students mentored by 57 well-qualified faculty,” says Padode.

Future plans. Enthusiastic public response to the DSIJ Group’s professional education institutions has inspired Padode to draw up plans for merging them into a full-fledged deemed university in Bangalore. “Given our management education experience, we believe we have developed the expertise to broaden and expand our operations. Moreover, we have begun construction of an international residential school in Karjat, a three-hour drive from Mumbai and Pune, in collaboration with the Singapore International School, Singapore. The school will commence operations in 2018. With India hosting the world’s largest child and youth population, providing them high quality education has become a national imperative. And we are determined to make our contribution to this issue of national importance,” says Padode.

Power to your elbow!

Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore) 

Book-keeping Reformer

Lucia Real-Martin is director, emerging markets of the London-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a global body of professional accountants which inter alia offers globally respected accountancy qualifications through a network of accredited learning partners worldwide.

History. Established in 1904, ACCA boasts a membership of 188,000 and a current enrolment of 480,000 students in 178 countries. The association operates through a network of 100 offices and centres connected with 7,110 employers worldwide.

Newspeg. Real-Martin was in Bangalore in November to release Professional Accountants — The Future, an extensive review report written in consultation with ACCA members, employers and learning partners around the world. The 88-page report details the skills required of professional accountants in a rapidly changing global business and regulatory environment. 

Direct talk. “During the past three years, ACCA has stepped up its activities in India. We have signed partnerships with over 70 public and private higher education institutions including Symbiosis, Christ, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chitkara, Sharda and Manipal universities to teach our curriculum. The ACCA curriculum, based on international accounting standards and independently benchmarked for quality, is accepted by employers worldwide as the gold standard of the accountancy profession,” says Real-Martin, an alumna of Stirling University (UK) and Madrid Business School, who acquired 16 years of business and industry experience prior to signing up with ACCA in 2010.

Future plans. Following the ground-breaking redesign of its qualifications, the association is set to introduce a new ethics and professional skills module in October and replace the existing ‘Professional’ level exam with a ‘Strategic Professional’ exam in September 2018. “Given the high level of innovation in the ACCA curriculum, ACCA-certified accountants will become qualified for top corporate positions such as managing directors and chief executives,” predicts Real-Martin. 

An overdue initiative against the backdrop of multiplying book-keeping scams worldwide. 

Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)
 

Primary kids enablers

Mumbai-based Sukhada Tendulkar and Mandar Desai are co-founders of Shirsa Labs Pvt. Ltd, an education technology start-up (estb.2013) offering curated edutainment content to primary school children. Its flagship online portal — Planet of GUI — offers content for over 50 subjects including history, science, English and maths through digital games, videos, puzzles and e-activity books to KG-class VIII children. Moreover the portal recently launched NewsPIK, a digital newspaper targeted at children in the six-13 age group. 

Newspeg. In December, Shirsa Labs crossed the 200,000 online registered users’ milestone for Planet of GUI and NewsPIK. The company also recently signed agreements with Sony Music and Disney TV channels to use their audio-visual content on its digital platforms. In addition it has signed content sharing partnerships with National Geographic Kids, Discovery Kids and the British Council.

History. An alumna of SIES College of Management Studies, Mumbai and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, Tendulkar began her career with Axis Bank in 2009 and quit three years later to co-promote Shirsa Labs with Mandar Desai, an alumnus of Mumbai and Boston universities with work experience in blue-chip tech companies including iGate, Hewlett Packard and Triature. The initial seed money of Rs.30 lakh came from the duo’s savings and was spent almost entirely on product development.

A year later in October 2014, Shirsa Labs received its first round of angel funding of $50,000 (Rs.34 lakh) from family and friends followed with $250,000 (Rs.1.5 crore) from Mumbai-based angel investment firm Ah! Ventures in November 2015. 

Direct talk. “Shirsa’s online learning products complement NCERT’s National Curriculum Framework and also enable parents to contribute to their children’s education and cognitive development. For NewsPIK, the Shirsa team curates news articles, events, quizzes and other age-appropriate information for children. Our objective is to help children learn in an enjoyable way,” says Tendulkar, CEO of the company.

Business model. Shirsa has three diverse revenue streams from direct subscribers, children’s brands promotion and schools. A 12-month subscription to its Planet of GUI and NewsPik is priced at Rs.999. “While our retail subscriptions are continuously rising, we are also developing the B2B (business-to-business) schools model and partnering with promoters of children’s brands,” says Desai, chief financial officer of Shirsa Labs. 

Future plans. To strengthen its presence in the B2B segment, the company has recently launched a life skills programme incorporating an online games and activities-based life skills curriculum as well as assessment modules. “Our goal is to sign up 150 schools for our life skills programme in the current academic year. Moreover, we are developing online content for digital life skills, financial and media literacy,” says Tendulkar.

Right on!

Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

Saaya driver

Raktima Dutta is founder-director of the Kolkata-based Saaya (estb.2006), a non-profit organisation providing education and healthcare services to a cluster of families in Panchanna Gram, a neglected suburban locality of Kolkata. This NGO also provides skills development training to women while also organising awareness programmes on health, sanitation and safe drinking water. During the past decade, Saaya has improved the lives and living conditions of over 200 households in east Kolkata.

Newspeg. Saaya is all set to launch a new unit this month to promote women’s entrepreneurship. Fifty women who have received weaving, tailoring, and handicrafts training will be given office space and supportive administrative, marketing and order fulfillment services. 

History. After serving a long stint (1976-1999) as a teacher in Kolkata’s top-ranked South Point High School, Dutta ventured into social entrepreneurship in the new millennium. Starting with supporting the education of children of her house helper who lives in east Kolkata, Dutta became incrementally involved with families residing in this low-income suburb of the metropolis.

In 2006 she started providing elementary education to children in the four-ten age group in a makeshift centre and counseled women on family planning and hygiene issues. Since then, she has scaled up the activities of the centre to preparing children for government schools and providing skills development training to women. Saaya’s modest annual Rs.2 lakh budget is funded by Dutta’s former students, many of whom are NRIs.

Direct talk. “Initially I intended to modestly help women and children by providing basic education and health and hygiene advice. But over the years I became aware that economic empowerment of women is the prerequisite of sustained change,” says Dutta, who also offers free tuitions to underprivileged youth preparing for competitive exams by helping them develop their English language skills.

Future plans. Dutta believes that a larger number of retired professionals and educated housewives should become involved with empowering the urban poor by passing on their professional expertise and knowledge. “A strong network of committed individuals working together can greatly improve the education and health of women and children, which in turn can upgrade their neighbourhoods and contribute to national productivity. I plan to network with other individuals and organisations to scale up Saaya’s operations. Well-devised programmes, services, counseling and hand-holding can go a long way in improving conditions of the urban poor who constitute a sizeable proportion of every Indian city,” says Dutta.

God speed!

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)