A SUCCESSFUL industrialist and educationist, Chennai-based S. Abhaya Kumar wears many hats. He is founder and managing director of the Rs.1,000 crore Shasun Pharmaceuticals Ltd (SPL, estb.1976), founder and vice chairman of Life Cell International Pvt. Ltd (LCIPL), and director of Visionary RCM Infotech Pvt. Ltd and General Optics Pvt. Ltd.  Yet despite a busy daily agenda, in 2004 Kumar ventured into education with the promotion of the Shri Shankarlal Sundarbai Shasun Jain College for Women under the aegis of the Shri S.S. Jain Educational Society which currently administers five schools and two colleges in Chennai.
Newspeg. Last October, the society launched the Shasun School of Liberal Education (SSLE), an all-women™s college affiliated with Madras University. SSLE is readying to admit its first batch of 120 students instructed by five full-time and 15 visiting faculty, come August. It will offer students four-year liberal education undergrad programmes in business administration (BBA), psychology (B.Sc) and visual communications (B.Sc). In the first two years, students are required to study four core subjects (ethics, logic, public speaking, rhetorical and critical thinking) and 26 elective courses. In the next two years they focus on their majors. Uniquely, there™s no age bar for women wishing to study at SSLE (tuition fee: Rs.3.90 lakh per annum). Eligibility requirements are successful completion of Plus Two and clearing an entrance test.
A new academic wing with a built-up area of 80,000 sq. ft (project cost: Rs.45 crore) is under construction on the 2.5-acre campus of the Shri Shankarlal Sundarbai Shasun Jain College for Women to house SSLE students. Determined to give SSLE a flying start, Kumar has also roped in Dr. Indira Parikh, founder-president of the Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME), Pune, and former dean of IIM-Ahmedabad, to serve as chief mentor of SSLE.
Direct talk. œSSLE will be the first college in India to offer a specially designed four-year liberal arts education programme for women. Our objective is to provide high-quality education programmes to empower and prepare women to assume leadership roles in society and facilitate their holistic personality development, says Kumar.
History. A chemical engineering graduate of Madras University, Kumar promoted Shasun Pharmaceuticals in 1976. After taking the company public in 1994, he subsequently promoted LCIPL in 2004. A strong desire to provide quality higher education opportunities for women prompted him to promote the Shri Shankarlal Sundarbai Shasun Jain College for Women in 2004 which currently has 3,500 students on its muster roll.
Future plans. Confident that SSLE™s innovatively designed liberal education programme will attract foreign and Indian students,Kumar has made ambitious expansion plans. œWe plan to start a branch of SSLE in Pondicherry which will be a co-educational institution, he says.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)
MEC gets going
Dr. Sanjay Dhande is founder-director of the newly launched Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC), Hyderabad, a fully-fledged engineering college promoted by Tech Mahindra, a constituent company of the Mahindra & Mahindra Group ” one of India™s heavyweight industrial houses. The first higher education venture of the group, MEC has inked an academic collaboration agreement with Ecole Centrale Paris (ECP, estb.1829) ” one of France™s oldest and most prestigious (grande ©cole) engineering universities. Under the terms of the partnership, ECP will develop the course curriculum and train MEC faculty. Moreover, the college has also inked an academic collaboration agreement with the local Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad.
Newspeg. Last month, MEC invited applications for admission into its four-year B.Tech programme, which has created a buzz in Indian academia and industry. MEC will admit its first batch of 180 engineering students in August. The college™s 30-acre campus in Hyderabad, constructed at an estimated project cost of Rs.100 crore, offers state-of-the-art lecture halls, well-equipped laboratories, modern student residences and suites, restaurants, swimming pool, gymnasium and a zoo. (Tuition fee: Rs.4 lakh per year).
Direct talk. œMEC™s collaboration with Ecole Centrale Paris will enable us to offer world-class multi-disciplinary engineering programmes in tune with the demands of global industry. MEC will develop new genre engineers who are science leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators with an inclusive and whole-brained approach to problem-solving. These new engineers will have the ability to adapt to change, master the complexity of organisations and understand and adopt new technologies still in their infancy or emerging, vows Dhande.
Dhande™s promise carries substantial weight because over the past 35 years, he has served as director of several of India™s top-ranked engineering institutions including IIT-Kanpur, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur (founder-director), and the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur. Moreover, he has also served as member of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, National Innovation Council, and the Scientific Advisory Council of the prime minister.
Future plans. MEC will eventually offer humanities, science, management, and digital media and arts study programmes. œOur long-term objective is to develop into a premier centre of higher education offering innovative, industry-aligned programmes, superior faculty and contemporary infrastructure, says Dhande.
Nadia Lewis (Mumbai)
Change agent
Celebrated US-based architect Prakash Nair is co-founder and president of the internationally reputed education institutions design firm Fielding Nair International, USA (FNI), and Education Design Architects India Pvt. Ltd (EDA), a joint venture of FNI and the Mumbai-based DSP Design Associates Pvt. Ltd. Promoted in 2003, FNI fuses the educational philosophy of Nair and his partner Randall Fielding, which is practiced through architectural concepts. With over 29 years of experience as a planner, designer, curriculum consultant, and institutional architect, Nair was instrumental in FNI signing a joint venture agreement with DSP Design Associates in 2010 with the objective of transforming India™s education landscape.
Newspeg. On May 2, Nair delivered a lecture on ˜Global Shifts in Education™ to a specially invited 200-member audience comprising school promoters and principals at the Leela Palace, Delhi. The 60-minute lecture explained why educational environments and campuses need to be transformed to complement  education innovations and new technologies to create enabling learning environments.
Direct talk. œUnfortunately education institutional design in India hasn™t kept pace with sweeping changes in curriculums, technology and pedagogies. Worldwide, there™s a shift from traditional factory-like school buildings to contemporary, interactive learning spaces. We need to question why classrooms continue to be four-walled boxes with plastic chairs and crammed spaces. There™s a growing mountain of evidence to indicate that learning outcomes are heavily influenced by the physical design of learning spaces. Our objective is to help schools and education institutions in India offer modern learning spaces to enable the development of creative and confident graduates capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century, says Nair.
History. An architecture graduate and valedictorian of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad with Masters degrees in architecture, community and urban planning from the universities of Illinois, Iowa State and City University, New York, over the past three decades Nair has enabled FNI to visualise, design and commission 21st century education institutions and campuses in 29 countries.
According to Nair, the prime objective of the jointly promoted EDA Associates is to create contemporary campus landscapes in India. Thus far since 2010 EDA has designed and engineered 30 school and college campuses countrywide. œLearning places need to be designed to meet stated educational goals. Modest investment can deliver radical changes in campus landscapes and dramatically improve students™ learning outcomes, and indeed reinvent education, he says.
Future plans. Looking to the future, EDA plans to target education institutions in tier 2-3 cities. œUnfortunately, institutions in non-metro urban habitats indulge in substantial wasteful infrastructure expenditure. We want to reach out to them and release resources for spending under other heads such as teachers™ salaries and in-service training, says Nair.
Garima Upadhyay (Delhi)

Outbound education evangelist
An alumna of the highly-reputed Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarakhand, adventure sportswoman Kavitha Reddy is founder-director of the Bangalore-based Basecamp Adventures Pvt. Ltd (BAPL, estb. 2009), a company focused on providing adventure/experiential learning programmes to school children in the four-16 age group, and adults as well. BAPL™s outbound development programmes are conducted in leased outdoor sites in Tumkur, Kudremukh, Coorg, Wayanad, Rishikesh, Sikkim, Manali, Goa and Pune.
Newspeg. Last month, BAPL completed five years in this innovative line of business. During this period and over the past 30 months since BAPL introduced its B2B (business-to-business) programmes for schools and colleges, the top-ranked Neev, Indian Air Force, Ankita, Golden Arch, Agara, Mallya Aditi International, Ebenezer International schools and Christ Junior College among others, have sent over 500 students to the company™s various life skills development programmes of one-four days duration.
History. A science and business management alumna of Bangalore University who acquired 14 years of corporate experience in India Life Hewitt and TeamLease Services, before promoting Basecamp Adventures in 2009, Reddy is the sole woman in Karnataka to have scaled two Himalayan peaks (Bhagirathi and Satopanth) in one year. She is also an associate member of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation and founder-secretary of ATOAK (Adventure Tour Operators Association of Karnataka).
Direct talk. œOur outbound education programmes are designed to challenge participants to step out of their comfort zones and resolve real-life problems in monitored and supervised field environments. Participants learn survival techniques and acquire leadership, team work, risk taking, and communication among other life skills, says Reddy, who is preparing to conquer Mt. Everest sans oxygen.
Camp fees. Rs.800-8,000 (inclusive of travel and taxes) per participant.
Future plans. œLearning by doing is the best pedagogy. Therefore our target is to sign up 750-1,000 children every year over the next two-three years and expand our operations across the country and into Nepal and Bhutan as well. Our goal is to emerge as India™s most preferred adventure and experiential training company with a wide menu of programmes for all adventure seekers, says Reddy.
Right on!
Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)
Seacom solution
Anish Chakraborty is founder-chairman of the Kolkata-based maritime services conglomerate Seacom Group (headcount: 1,100, estb. 2004) which offers skills-based professional and vocational education through its proprietary Seacom Marine (estb. 1989) and Seacom Engineering (2006) colleges, and eight other institutions spread across the state of West Bengal.
Newspeg. In its latest initiative of early April, the Seacom Group has promoted Seacom Skills University sited on a ten-acre campus at Kendradangal, Santiniketan. The varsity offers higher-secondary school-leavers specialised engineering degrees and short-term skills development programmes, aligned to industry requirements.
History. Over the past decade the Seacom Group which has 11 offices countrywide, has acquired a formidable industry reputation in businesses as diverse as shipping, tourism, healthcare, and infrastructure development apart from education. An alumnus of Madras Technical College, Chakraborty is also spearheading the group™s corporate social responsibility programmes.
Direct talk. œFrom the start of our innings, Seacom has focused on forging links with academic organisations to resolve the nagging problem of rising unemployment in India. That™s also the prime objective of the growing number of Seacom education institutions. We are continuously developing engineering and vocational courses which meet industry needs and ensure all-round development of our students. Another important objective is to expand the number of higher education options available to youth of West Bengal, and to increase the state™s higher education GER (gross enrolment ratio), says Chakraborty, a social entrepreneur who has also stepped forward to upgrade four Central government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in West Bengal under the PPP (public-private-partnership) model.
Future plans. Now fully persuaded that education ” particularly improved GER in higher education ” is the golden key of national development, Chakraborty has his sights set on promoting a state-of-the-art medical college and research establishment in Santiniketan. œIn the next phase of expanding Seacom Skills University, we are planning to invest an additional Rs.1,000 crore, he enthuses.
Wind in your sails!
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)