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Krishna Bhupathi’s new venture

FORMER INDIA tennis player and coach of many Davis Cup stars, and co-founder of Bangalore’s top-ranked The Magical Years (TMY) preschool, Krishna Bhupathi is all set to launch The Village School (TVS), a primary-secondary which in the fullness of time will roll out into a fully-fledged Cambridge Assessment International Examinations (CAIE), UK-affiliated class I-XII co-ed […]

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McGraw Hill’s digital driver: Mark Dorman

Mark Dorman is president of McGraw Hill Education International and Professional, a division of McGraw Hill Education, the well-known multinational teaching development and learning solutions company based in New York (successor to The McGraw Publishing Company, estb.1888). As divisional president, Dorman manages the company’s international operations and professional reference business, which includes a 6,000-titles ebooks […]

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CUP explores new horizons: Ratnesh Kumar Jha

Ratnesh Kumar Jha is the Delhi-based managing director (South Asia) of Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd (CUP). An alumnus of JNU and Delhi universities and the Kellogg School of Management, USA, Jha began his professional career with Citibank, USA, and served with GE Capital, Reliance Telecom, Vodafone and Educomp Solutions (2010-2013) prior to signing […]

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New-age company founders: Bhupendra Acharya and Bhavana Sharma

Mumbai-based Bhupendra Acharya and Bhavana Sharma are founder-directors of Taj Eduglobe Ltd (TEL, estb.2015), a new-age company offering aptitude testing and career development services to students individually and through educational institutions. Under its Discover Brain programme, the company offers psychometric testing services — Dermatoglyphics Multiple Intelligence Tests (DMIT) and mark enhancement techniques (MET) — which […]

English focused edupreneur: Kavish Gadia

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Highly articulate educator and serial entrepreneur Kavish Gadia is the founder-CEO of Gurugram (Haryana)-based Stones2Milestones Pvt. Ltd (S2M, estb.2008, headcount: 300). This edtech start-up offers schools, teachers and parents diagnostic, affordable and research-based English reading and literacy solutions for children in the 5-12 age group.

Through its globally benchmarked flagship fREADom mobile app […]

Child rights champion: Shikha Agnihotri

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Delhi-based Shikha Agnihotri is state president of the Delhi Public Safety & Security Council (DPSSC) of the Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (WICCI), a representative organisation of women entrepreneurs and business leaders countrywide. A seasoned travel professional, she is also promoter of Young Edsplorer Pvt. Ltd (YEPL, estb.2015), an education consultancy […]

English through vernaculars: Amit Agarwal

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Amit Agrawal is founder-CEO of Gurugram (Haryana)-based Whiz Kidz Media Pvt. Ltd (estb.2015). Whiz Kidz is an edtech company that offers preschools, primary schools and parents of tier-II-III cities and towns, digital English learning lessons in seven vernacular languages.

Through its flagship product OckyPocky, an English self-learning application launched in 2017 that can […]

Committed philanthropist: Kamal Prakash

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

Kolkata-based entrepreneur Kamal Prakash is co-founder of Dakshini Prayash (DP, estb.1994), an NGO which runs the free-of-charge Madurdaha Satyavritti Vidyalaya (MSV), a primary school in South 24 Parganas district.

Founded in 1994 with four students learning under trees cover, MSV is now housed in two buildings in which 400 pre-primary to class VIII […]

Innovative mompreneur – Shraddha Fogla

Fogla: enjoyable homeschooling modules

– Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

Shraddha Fogla (35) is founder of 2monkeysandme (estb.2018), a Kolkata-based online portal for parents of children aged six months to nine years. Parenting advice apart, the portal features home activities, games, science experiment modules, STEM and DIY activities to boost children’s sensory, motor skills and cognitive […]

STTAR star – Sushma Raturi

Raturi: online teacher training focus

– Autar Nehru (Delhi)

An alumnus of North-Eastern Hill and Lucknow universities, Sushma Raturi is the first dean of the newly launched Saamarthya Teachers Training Academy of Research (STTAR), Ghaziabad. The academy provides online teacher training modules in 12 domains including content development and structural planning, leadership and assessment […]

Learning gaps innovator – Ekta Grover

Grover: remedial education initiative

– Summiya Yasmeen (Bengaluru)

Ekta Grover is founder of the mint new Shunya Impact Pvt. Ltd (estb.2020), Bengaluru, which has designed the Shunya Intelligent Classroom Learning Management System (LMS) mobile app for K-12 students. Based on latest machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, Shunya LMS enables students and teachers to […]

Focused visionary – Dr. Rahul Mehra

Mehra: comprehensive health education curriculum

– Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Delhi/Canon City, Colorado (USA)-based public health evangelist Dr. Rahul Mehra is the founder-promoter of Tarang Health Alliance (THA, estb.2016), a non-profit promoted with the mission to develop innovative content and train teachers to implement THA’s comprehensive health education curriculum — covering physical, mental and social […]

ECCE evangelist – Dr. Rebecca Isbell

– Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)

International early years’ educator Dr. Rebecca Isbell teaches the Ph D programme in early childhood care and education (ECCE) at the East Tennessee State University, Johnson City (USA). Despite also being a busy motivational speaker and ECCE consultant, Dr Rebecca Isbell has authored 13 books and penned numerous essays on creativity, […]

National Teachers Award winner – Jyoti Arora

– Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Jyoti Arora is the founder-principal of Mount Abu Public School, Rohini, Delhi (MAPS-R, estb.1998). In the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2019-20, MAPS-R is ranked #55 (out of 300) schools in Delhi NCR and was conferred a Grand Jury Award for campus architecture and design.

Newspeg. On Teachers Day (September […]

Coding education missionary – Rahul Ranjan

– Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

Rahul Ranjan is co-founder and CEO of LeapLearner India (LLI, estb.2020) — the India partner of the Israel-based coding education company LeapLearner Inc, which has 1 million subscribers in 20 countries worldwide. Under a recently signed agreement, LLI will offer computational thinking programmes through courses in coding, robotics, apps […]

Serial edupreneur’s new initiative – Vineet Gupta

– Dilip Thakore (Bangalore)

Vineet Gupta is the promoter-managing director of the Delhi-based Jamboree Education Pvt. Ltd (estb.1995), a pioneer test prep company for students aspiring to study abroad, and a founder-trustee of the highly-reputed, privately-promoted liberal arts Ashoka University (AU, estb.2014). Within a short span of time AU has risen high in […]

Children’s evangelist: Nivedita DasGupta

– Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)

Pune-based Nivedita DasGupta is the country head of Miracle Foundation India (MFI, estb.2011, head count: 55) — the Indian division of Austin (USA)- based non-profit Miracle Foundation (MF). The parent foundation was registered in the millennium year to provide for orphaned and other vulnerable children in approved Child Care Institutions (CCIs) […]

Man for all seasons: T.K. Chandra Mouli

– Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)

T.K. Chandra Mouli is director of Grafiprint Pvt. Ltd which runs the W.Q. Judge Press (estb.1952), Bangalore, one of the garden city’s oldest printing presses specialising in printing stationery, books and magazines, especially for education institutions. Moreover he is a multi-skilled polymath with a vast repertoire of skills spanning public speaking, […]

Leadership missionary: Shobhit Mathur

– Avtar Nehru (Delhi)

Shobhit Mathur is executive director of the Delhi-based Vision India Foundation (regst.2014) and co-founder and dean of the Rashtram School of Public Leadership, located within the newly promoted Rishiwood University, Sonipat (estb.2018). A highly qualified alum of IIT-Bombay, University of Washington and ISB-Hyderabad, Mathur previously worked for Amazon.com in Seattle and […]

Go-getter edupreneur: Deep Udeshi

– Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

Mumbai-based Deep Udeshi, chairman and managing director, Educational Software Technologies (EST, estb.2001) and Vibrant Publishers, Colorado, USA (estb.2010), has been a publisher of academic, test prep books and online solutions in India and the US for more than two decades. To meet continuous demand from test takers, the two […]

Accomplished philanthropist: Kiran Nadar

– Dilip Thakore (Bangalore)

An English literature graduate of Delhi University with multi-industry experience in advertising, garments manufacture, IT industry and also an international bridge player, Kiran Nadar is chairperson of the eponymous Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA, estb.2010). This museum houses India’s largest collection of modern art comprising 7,000 exhibits of art, sculpture, installations […]

Full STEAM ahead: Siddharth Mathur; National Academy of Science and Creative Arts

Siddharth Mathur is director of the Mumbai-based National Academy of Science and Creative Arts Llp (NASCA, estb.2017, headcount: 60) which offers a unique hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) curriculum mapped with national and international boards to schools in India. Over the past three years since it was promoted, 48,000 students in […]

Energetic entrepreneur: Praveen Tyagi

Praveen Tyagi is the Mumbai-based managing director of PACE (estb.1999) and co-founder (with Jatin Solanki) and CEO of EduIsFun Technologies Pvt. Ltd (ETPL, estb.2015). Involved with Indian education for the past 22 years, Tyagi is the driving force behind PACE’s good track record in preparing school-leavers for admission into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) […]

High-flying vice chancellor: Dr. Yogeshwar Kosta

Eminent educationist and former ISRO scientist Dr. Yogeshwar Kosta is the Rajkot (Gujarat)-based vice chancellor of Marwadi University (MU, estb.2016). Sprawled across a 52-acre world-class campus, this greenfield soft-launched private university provides 22 undergrad, postgrad and doctoral study programmes in engineering, law, science, business management, computer applications, pharmacy and physiotherapy to 9,000 — including […]

Biotech skills trainer: Kunal Vora

Kolkata-based Kunal Vora is the founder-director & CEO of SHRM (Hindi for ‘hard-work’) Biotechnologies Pvt. Ltd (estb.2006), a training and skills development company which offers students — undergrads to doctorate scholars — short-term study programmes in biotechnology, pharmacy & life sciences and provides research, incubation and placement assistance. SHRM Biotech is also the sole […]

Sports education trailblazer

Former India basketball star Kunal Maria is founder and CEO of the Corvuss American Academy (Corvuss, estb.2018), a trail-blazing, sports-focused co-ed residential school for children in the 11-17 years age group sited in Karjat, a two-hour drive from Mumbai. It s set to provide highly professional training in seven sports — basketball, cricket, […]

Exact science teacher: Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash Jonnalagadda

Math prodigy Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash Jonnalagadda (20) is a final year B.Sc student of Delhi’s top-ranked St. Stephen’s College. He is also founder of Exploring Infinities (EI, estb.2018), a proprietary firm promoted to boost children’s cognitive development and popularise speed mental arithmetics and games through workshops and year-long courses in schools.

Newspeg. EI is […]

Andersen’s challenging brief

Copenhagen-born Allan Kjaer Andersen is the Bangalore-based director of the new age K-12 Chaman Bhartiya School (CBS) — the first education initiative of the Gurgaon-based real estate heavyweight Bhartiya Group
(annual revenue: Rs.1,300 crore). Construction of two of the three integrated complexes of the state-of- the-art Bhartiya City sited on a 125-acre estate in suburban […]

Early code learning evangelist- Karan Bajaj

Coding education evangelist Karan Bajaj is the Mumbai-based founder-CEO of WhiteHat Jr Pvt. Ltd (estb.2018, headcount: 200), an edtech start-up offering individual subscribers aged 6-14 years age-appropriate computer coding programmes designed to enhance their reasoning, problem-solving, logical and analytical thinking skills. The company’s online live one-on-one study programme is accessible on a laptop using a […]

Big bang debut: Abhishek Kumar

Abhishek Kumar is the Delhi-based regional director (South Asia) of ONVU Technologies, a Switzerland-based IT solutions provider with three business verticals — ONCAM (surveillance solutions), ONVU Learning (video/AI-enabled teaching-learning solutions), and ONVU Retail (consumer behaviour analytics). In 2019, the company’s ONVU Learning made a big bang entry into Indian K-12 education with its video […]

New media art promoter: Hitesh Kumar

Engineer turned film director Hitesh Kumar is founder of Splat Media Pvt. Ltd, a Delhi-based new media and design company with a headcount of 50 employees including graphic designers and VFX editors. Last September, Kumar launched the company’s Art Illume project to bring media students, artists and designers on one platform to create illumination art, […]

Nordic ECCE spearhead: Pia Jormalainen

Espoo-based Pia Jormalainen is the CEO and co-founder of New Nordic School (NNS, estb.2018), a Finland-registered education solutions company offering turnkey pre-primary to secondary education solutions to clients worldwide. The company’s objective is to introduce the Nordic Baccalaureate programme that has the famed Finnish school curriculum at its core.

Newspeg. NNS has drawn up a plan […]

Viva Vibgyor diva: Kavita Kerawalla

Kavita Sahay Kerawalla is the Mumbai-based vice chairperson of the VIBGYOR Group of Schools (estb.2004), which currently runs a chain of 39 K-12 schools (27 Vibgyor Kids & High and 11 Vibgyor Roots & Rise) in seven states countrywide with an aggregate enrolment of 55,000 children.

Newspeg. Kavita Kerawalla was in Bangalore in December (2019) to […]

AUO mastermind: Ajit Chauhan

Ajit Chauhan is chairman of the Noida-based Amity University Online (AUO, estb.2005), the online education division of the top-ranked private Amity University (AU, estb.2003) which has nine campuses in India and 13 abroad. AUO is a global online university offering UGC-approved undergrad, postgrad degree and diploma study programmes in management, media and journalism, arts, […]

Square Panda is here: Ashish Jhalani

Ashish Jhalani is the global chief technology officer and managing director of the Mumbai-based Square Panda (India) Pvt. Ltd (SPI, estb. 2018), the India subsidiary of Square Panda Inc, USA (estb. 2014). The California-based company designs auditory, visual and tactile learning systems to enable children in the 2-8 age group to develop reading readiness […]

Notebook.school progenitor: Achin Bhattacharyya

Kolkata-based Achin Bhattacharyya is the founder and CEO of notebook.school (promoted by ABJ Eduventures Pvt. Ltd in 2018), a digital content portal that enables children to learn subjects in their syllabus subjects through engaging videos and text notes. Since its launch a year ago, the portal has attracted more than 600,000 views, and its app […]

Creative edupreneur: Ayush Jaiswal

Gurgaon-based Ayush Jaiswal (23) is the youthful co-founder of Pesto Tech (India) Pvt. Ltd (estb.2017), which owns pesto.tech, a career accelerator online platform. The company offers a 12-week intensive training programme to upskill and prepare Indian software professionals for international tech careers. Following completion of the online programme, diploma awardees work for […]

Portraiture educator: Daniel Graves

American born Daniel Graves is the founder-director of the Florence Academy of Art (FAA, estb.1991), Italy, a globally reputed school of classical aesthetics and art education. An alumnus of the Maryland Institute of Art and Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Art, Florence, Daniel Graves, who moved to Florence in the late 1970s, has […]

Digital era entrepreneur: Dr. Akhil Shahani

Dr. Akhil Shahani is managing director of the Mumbai-based Shahani Group of education institutions which over the past 60 years has promoted 24 institutions including Mumbai’s iconic Thadomal Shahani Engineering, HR, KC, and National colleges. Although these are minority institutions promoted under Article 30 (1) of the Constitution and can reserve 49.5 percent of seats […]

LEAD School leader: Sumeet Mehta

Sumeet Mehta is the co-founder and CEO of LEAD School, a comprehensive K-10 school academic system designed by researchers of Leadership Boulevard Pvt. Ltd, a “double impact bottom line” — social impact and for-profit — Mumbai-based company. It provides whole-school academic solutions including textbooks, curriculum-mapped ready-to-use lesson plans, on-demand teacher development and student assessment services […]