India's 10 best ed tech companies to watch, 2021

AUGUST
ISSUE-01
NEW PATHWAYS
Career in
Digital Marketing
www.theknowledgereview.com | INDIA
India's
dTech
Companies
to watch, 2021
1
BEST
THE NEXT DIMENSION
AR and VR in the
Education Sector
SPECIAL PROFILE
EDWISELY
Empowering
Education with AI
SPECIAL PROFILE
ENGGENIOUS
Bring in the Digital
Autodidacts

EDITOR’S
NOTE
With the seismic rate at which the country’s EdTech sector
has been growing for the past few years, it is evident
that there will be no looking back. And if the experts are
to be believed, the next decade is expected to see the industry reach
$30 billion, a whopping rise from the current $800 million.
Private equity investments are majorly instrumental for the
industry’s giant strides in comparatively less time. Global EdTech
leaders have made a strong presence in the country. Healthy growth
has also encouraged the emergence of many start-ups that are
competing to be the best. Most importantly, the National Education
Policy (NEP) 2020 will add to the colossal growth in EdTech.
Easy access to gadgets like computers, Tabs, smartphones, and Apps
that facilitate live interactive classes has also helped the industry’s
growth. Internet penetration throughout the country made EdTech
easily accessible to all for less cost. The K-12 market is the most
promising one in the current situation and will continue to be so.
Test preparation and online certiﬁcation are the other major markets.
EDTECH SECTOR - A
FLOURISHING
MARKET IN INDIA

The ongoing global pandemic saw educational institutions
adopt online learning faster than one could imagine in
India.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in EdTech are
expected to grow by nearly 50% by the end of this year.
Automation of basic activities by AI and ML has enhanced
user experience.
The industry was already on a healthy growth path before
Covid-19. It got a massive boost after the pandemic broke
out, and many private players, including global ones,
pitched in to invest, there have been acquisitions and up-
gradation in the service. The companies provide apps and
services for students of all age groups, which are easy to
use. A majority of school and college students have shifted
to online classes.
The demand for online education has also seen EdTech
companies go on a hiring spree. This is the right time for a
career in this industry.
With a number of EdTech companies mushrooming, it has
also become confusing for educationists and parents to
choose the best. To make things easy for you, we have
featured some of the best EdTech companies in our latest
edition of The Knowledge Review, India’s 10 Best EdTech
Companies to Watch, 2021. These companies have traveled
that extra mile to transform education through technology
and give a fulfilling experience to both educators and
learners.
As you flip through the pages of this interesting edition,
please do read the CXO standpoint and the articles curated
by our in-house editorial team.
Happy reading! T R
Sumita Sarkar
sumita@theknowledgereview.com

Cont
NEW PATHWAYS
Career in
Digital Marketing
Articles
18
26
THE NEXT DIMENSION
AR and VR in the
Education Sector

nts
EDWISELY
Empowering
Education with AI
08
ENGGENIOUS
Bring in the Digital
Autodidacts
14
LEARNAPP
Directing the EdTech
Revolution
22 30
CXO
PUNE
The Oxford of the East
Pune Tithe Kay Une
Special
Proﬁles

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URL
Name of the Institution Brief
AskIITians
embibe.com
AskIITians has brought a ne range of
preparatory online courses for JEE & NEET,
where each course caters to different study
requirements of students.
Careers360
dlpindia.com
DLP Education
edwisely.com
Careers360 eases biggest doubts of students
with personalized video counselling from its
curated experts and and answers from the
student community.
Edwisely
enggenious.com
Founded by IIT Madras and Delft University of
Technology (Netherlands) alumni, Edwisely is
India’s rst AI-driven personalized hybrid learning
platform that connects both curriculum and
career.
Embibe
Embibe is focused on the vision to deliver
holistic learning solutions to students
regardless of their level of ability, exposure
and access.
globalgyan.in
LearnApp
leverageedu.com
Leverage Edu
GlobalGyan
Enggenious enables the journey of students as
career aspirants to industry leaders, through
eLearning, conventional, and blended
learning ways.
GlobalGyan academy provides practical and
ready-to-use management learning from industry
leaders by using appropriate blend of digital,
classroom and application projects to ensure that
learning is continuous, practical, and interactive.
With the objective of redening and reimagining
education for the 21st century, LearnApp is an online
video education platform that brings the best minds in
the eld of trading, investing and business
management to teach from a relevant, skill-driven
curriculum.
Leverage Edu helps students gure what they
should do and where they should be at -
wherever that be in the world - to realise their
full potential.
Schoology schoology.com
Schoology has every tool your classroom needs
and comes pre-integrated with more than
200+ tools, student information systems (SIS),
and education platforms.
Enggenious
learnapp.com
askiitians.com
With years of experience in the education
domain, strong team, and a diversied business
portfolio, DLP Education is one of the very few
protable ventures in the country.
careers360.com
India's
dTech
Companies
to watch, 2021
1
BEST

These are exciting times in the landscape of
education. Where once the time-honoured tradition
used to be sitting in a classroom or a lecture-venue,
the concept of classrooms has now been thrown wide open
in a way that has never been seen before. Once again, man
ventures into the unknown with this revolution that the
education sector is experiencing right now, and we will see
the fruits of it in the coming years.
In the global education landscape, the growth of AI is
expected to rise to $6 billion by 2024 with China and US
leading the charge. Most recently, AI has started to appear
in many colleges and universities to drive enrolment or to
streamline operations, among other things.
One such area where we can anticipate the rise of AI and
machine learning to demonstrate their enormous influence
is on personalized learning. A steadfast company which is
leading the charge to bring about the educational revolution
through AI is Edwisely.
Aspire to Make a Difference
Founded by IIT Madras and Delft University of Technology
(Netherlands) alumni, Edwisely is India's first AI-driven
personalized hybrid learning platform that connects both
curriculum and career.
Recognized among the Top 10 Emerging EdTech start-ups
in 2021, the company has completed 3 years of deep
research on Indian higher education to understand the
fundamental and practical issues that need to be addressed,
with the valuable advice from various eminent
educationalists. Edwisely has forged a community
partnership with NASSCOM. It has been identified as a
high potential startup among Higher Education SAAS
companies and is now part of Amazon’s AWS EdStart
Program.
Edwisely technology for higher education institutions
harnesses artificial intelligence to help teachers create a
personalized learning experience for their students and
significantly improve their learning outcomes. The analytics
engine continuously captures data from learning,
behavioural, and assessment cycles to provide custom
learning paths and prescriptive actions. Edwisely's
knowledge graph and cloud-based architecture allow it to
handle large datasets and scale across different disciplines.
“In the current pace of technology evolution, India needs a
new generation of quality institutions and educators to
nurture and build productive and creative individuals,”
stated Mr. Harsha Kankanala, the Co-Founder of
Edwisely. “The current education system runs on a one-
size-fits-all model. Obsession for marks and constant
comparisons have broken the self-confidence of students.
The system is more driven by examination, rather than
educating the individual to become a productive citizen.
Institutions that are the temple of learning, are unable to
provide quality education. With rapid changing
requirements from the industry and the limitation of subject
matter expertise, it has become a challenge to adapt to the
changes,” he added.
Edwisely's Mission is – To make every Indian graduate
employable by harnessing AI for personalized learning.
The EdTech Harbinger
Harsha Vardhan Reddy Kankanala (Harsha) is an engineer
turned Edupreneur and Co-Founder at Edwisely. Working
on a vision to personalize education, Harsha helps learners
Empowering
Education with AI
8 | MM 2021 | www.theknowledgereview.com

achieve their goals in a faster and an efficient way.
Coming from a family of teachers, he has closely seen the
changing trends of teaching and learning, both from a
faculty and a student perspective. His passion for education
has triggered him to start Edwisely. He strongly believes in
the fact that understanding the student needs, capabilities
and personalizing their learning experience can bring a real
change in Education. With this vision, he has been
researching ways to improve education by using
technologies like AI. He has done a detailed study on
various pedagogies, global curriculum frameworks, and
adaptive methodologies in higher education.
The Path
Although, the company had a long and arduous journey of 4
years since its initial inception, Harsha Kankanala (the
founding member), Yashwanth Tudimilla (Co-Founder
and AI expert who is an alumnus of IIT Madras), and Y. S.
Rao (Co-Founder) started Edwisely with a fresh
perspective, having learned from their past experiences.
After working with major global airlines, churning massive
amounts of data for better pricing and customer experience,
Edwisely technology
for higher education institutions
harnesses artificial intelligence
to help teachers create a
personalized learning
experience for their students
and significantly improve their
learning outcomes

Yashwanth has decided to apply the same AI technologies
in personalized learning.
“At the core of personalization lies ‘Knowledge Graph’:
A technology that is used by all tech giants. A Knowledge
Graph is like the internet of knowledge. Millions of atomic
knowledge units (concepts) interconnected with
relationships. This lays the robust foundation needed for AI
to propagate,” says Yashwanth.
His team at Edwisely is harnessing the power of data
science.
“Our aim is to connect, collaborate, and co-create future
workforce by addressing pain points of all the stakeholders
– educators (knowledge providers), students (knowledge
seekers) and industry (knowledge consumers).” explains Y
S Rao, the other Co-founder of Edwisely who had been
with the industry for more than 32 years and hired large
batches of entry-level employees.
YS Rao contributes to building the industry side of the
product, Role-competency matrix, career to curriculum
mapping, and accelerating the placements with validated
student learning and assessment analytics. This will
facilitate the companies hiring - qualified, skilled, and
knowledgeable students' data meeting their job descriptions
across the colleges saving lots of time and effort. The entire
activities related to screening, profiling, shortlisting, and
qualifying can be shortened to hours with validated data
points. YS Rao brings his expertise to Edwisely by forging
all key partnerships with academia and industry.
They raised the notion of transforming higher education
institutions into AI-powered learning campuses. Further, the
team also wanted the end customers to experience the
vision of AI transformation through premium user interface
and personalized interactions within the product. To achieve
the same, they went to India's best design company to uplift
the UI/UX and to make the user experience the value
proposition.
Institutions that are looking to new-age learning, should
start thinking beyond regular LMS (learning management
systems) or ERP (enterprise resource management)
systems. Most of these technologies that colleges and
universities are currently using are just used as convenience
tools for administrative purposes and for few academic
activities. They don't bring in a real value proposition to
either faculty or students, in terms of making learning more
purposeful and engaging. Today, with the increased
technology adoption rate, institutions should aim for
futuristic technologies that can bring in a significant impact
in day-to-day education, rather than going back to regular
standardised technology platforms.
These helped Edwisely reach out to 1000+ colleges in the
span of 6 months, starting from October 2020. Various
education veterans, vice-chancellors and institutional heads
started acknowledging Edwisely's mission, its products, and
the unique value proposition it brings to the institutions. A
strong product-market fit has been established, being the
only company in India that brings personalized learning
technology to higher education institutions.
Changing the Game: The 'What’
Innovative learning science models with the intervention of
technology, unlocks the future of education. Personalization
in education using AI majorly depends on the multi-faceted
learning approach for each concept.

Though lots of learning science models and preferential
styles are constantly evolving, a little is known about what
an individual student needs for him/her to learn better. In
general, assessments conducted in the colleges fail to
understand the exact reasons for the students' inability to
learn. Is it a lack of prerequisite knowledge to master a
concept; inadequate time spent; attention deﬁciency;
improper exam temperament; mismatch in learning styles
and preferences.
Edwisely’s AI systems will automatically analyse the
reason for inability and support each student to get through
by personalizing their learning experience. AI-based
recommendation engine also provides the best learning
modules based on individual's learning styles and abilities.
Edwisely AI framework can also support institutes in
nurturing the personality by understanding individual
students' attributes in the 1st year of their graduation and
support them to build on that.
Edwisely AI-driven Personalized Career path helps
accelerate institute placements by connecting students to
their best ﬁt opportunities across the nation. Personalization
helps students set their career goals and drives them to stay
ahead of their peers by following our career guidance
model, focusing on individuals' skills and job key skill
requirements.
The Edwisely web applications, mobile applications
(IOS/Android) are designed for the faculty, students, and
management which are customised to their requirements.
These applications conduct assessments and analytics,
create learning paths as well as career paths, and plan to
integrate an AI-Driven Placement Accelerator.
Institutions that are empowered with Edwisely are branded
as 'AI Powered Personalized Campuses’.
“Our goal is to transform 1000 colleges into AI Powered
Personalized Campuses by 2025,” concluded Harsha, the
perseverant leader of Edwisely.
India's 10 Best EdTech Companies to Watch, 2021
Recognizing the efforts and impact
that Edwisely can create, ASSOCHAM,
The Associated Chambers of
Commerce of India has awarded the
young startup 'The Emerging Startup
of the Year' award at the 14th National
Education Summit in New Delhi.
AWARDS

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The online learning market in India is set to grow
from USD 247 million (around 1.6 million users) in
2016, to eight times that and sit comfortably at
USD 1.96 billion (around 9.6 million users) by the year
2021 itself. While reskilling and online education market
currently accounts for a significant part of the online
education sector, online test preparation is expected to be
the fastest growing category. With an explosion of resources
becoming more available to the masses by the day, the
process of knowledge acquisition and dissemination has
never been easier. And if one wishes to sharpen his/her
skills and expand his/her horizon in the engineering and
manufacturing domains through the medium of online
learning, Enggenious is the right place to be.
The simplest way to describe Enggenious: it is a company
of learning solutions experts in engineering and
manufacturing domains. They design and deliver learning
solutions for and about automotive, auto-ancillary, power,
metal, oil, and gas, and other manufacturing domains.
Enggenious addresses the learning needs of all stages –
employability, deployability, career advancements,
leadership and serve purposes of up-skilling, in-depth
knowledge, and expertise. It enables the journey of students
as career aspirants to industry leaders, through eLearning,
conventional and blended learning ways.
Enggenious is a strategic business unit at SAN Techno
Mentors Pvt Ltd. Founded in 2006 by a group of IIT and
COEP alumnus with long years of professional experience
in diverse industry verticals, SAN Techno Mentors has been
into conventional classroom training and mentoring for the
engineering and manufacturing companies. Gradually, SAN
Techno Mentors became first choice technical training
partner for large and medium engineering and
manufacturing companies across the world.
SAN Techno Mentors is a part of SAN Group. Established
in 1990, it has six companies in product design, electronic
manufacturing, industrial automation, data connectivity
solutions, instrumentation, and value engineering domains
respectively. SAN group has presence in India and the
Middle East and works with a global clientele.
With a large pool of subject matter experts (SMEs) with
strong industry and brilliant academic backgrounds,
experienced instructional designers (IDs) and creative
visualizers working together, Enggenious creates
meaningfully engaging and lasting learning experiences
which are beyond books and theories.
Having worked with large Indian and foreign corporates in
this space, Enggenious is ably equipped with the know-how
of designing learning solutions for students, freshers,
graduate engineering trainees or senior, mid or senior
engineers, managers and leaders.
Team now comprises of 60 plus ex-IITs, ex-COEP, PhDs
subject matter experts with average 30 plus years of
experience in industry and academia. Digital media experts,
experienced instructional designers and developers work
with those subject and domain experts to create awesome
learning experiences.
Bring in the Digital Autodidacts
“
“
We will keep
impacting top lines,
bottom lines
of the
companies with well
researched and
awesomely built
learning
offerings

Leading the Charge
With an industry and academic experience of 35 years,
Sudhir Panditrao, Founder, Director of SAN Techno
Mentors has always been a passionate trainer. Sudhir
completed his Bachelors’ of Engineering (BE) in
instrumentation and control from COEP in 1985, and later
Masters’ of Engineering (ME) in instrumentation and
control from COEP in 2003.
Mangesh Wagh, CEO at SAN Techno Mentors comes
from digital technology and media profession with
experience of 17 years. BE in production from COEP in
2001, and later PGDBM in marketing from Indus Business
Academy in 2005. Mangesh brings in his expertise in
digital technologies as content development and delivery
platforms and digital media.
eLearning is the need of the hour, a cliché, but true
statement. According to the team over at Enggenious, one
of their major turn-ons in eLearning has been the creative
visualization aspect. The company believes that the core
eLearning quality comes from there. For the learner to gain
complete clarity on technological/technical concepts,
content needs to be built with excellent creative
visualization.
“After going through our courses when the learner says,
‘never thought it was that easy’…that’s the kick we live for,”
commented Mr Mangesh Wagh.
A Goal to Inspire Towards
Enggenious impacts top and bottom lines of clients via
well-crafted learning solutions. It wants to be that catalyst
who work with learning and development (L&D) teams to
create and continuously build upon desirable learning
culture. On the other side of the spectrum of the industry,
there is a great scope to bridge industry-academia
expectation gap. “We are working with academic institutes
to prepare their future workforce which exceeds industry
expectations, rather than setting greatly elevated
benchmarks,” said Mr Sudhir Panditrao.
They do this by keeping in mind a few simple mantras to
direct their time and energies toward:
Ÿ Learning that is beyond just books and theories
Ÿ Learning that sticks
Ÿ Learning that is joyful experience
Ÿ Encouraging the learner to learn continuously
“Having acquired marquee clientele over the years for
conventional learning solutions and also for the eLearning
and blended learning solutions, we are looking to scale up
rapidly in next couple of years,” added Mr Sudhir
Panditrao.
Primary Products and Services
Ÿ Main products/services offered by Enggenious are as
listed:
Ÿ Off-the-shelf eLearning courses – online subscriptions
or buying packages
Ÿ Custom developed eLearning and microlearning courses
Ÿ Innovative blended learning courses; pre-packaged as
well as custom
Ÿ LMS- (learning management system) based competency
assessment solutions; pre-packaged as well as custom
Ÿ Enggenious learning solutions are created by subject
matter experts having global field experience in the
subject. Experts who create these courses/solutions are
available for training, mentoring and consultancy at site
or via web.
Weathering the Storms
There are several challenges faced by EdTech start-ups
manoeuvring the trials and tribulations of the industry.
Sudhir Panditrao
Founder, Director

However, according to Enggenious, the challenge that
resides at the core is andragogy. And it (Enggenious) is
going all out to nail this aspect. The courses need to be
meaningful, addressing needs and problems of the learners,
showing them the way to pursue their desires. Dumping
eLearning courses on employees or students and enforcing
them to get the ticks for the completion report will never
serve the larger purpose.
“You can deliver less useful content in high quality 3D
animation or VR or AR, versus delivering a much more
meaningful stuff in a text blog; you know what will make
the difference in learner’s life. Yes, interactivity,
engagement, overall production quality brings a lot of merit
but let andragogy be the hero of your solution,” is the word
to the wise, from Sudhir Panditrao and Mangesh Wagh.
Riding the Tides of Time
A few more talked about developments in the field of
learning solutions, are practices such as gamification,
localization, bite-sized-learning pieces, use of AI in the
learning management system platforms, interactive videos
and much more. Enggenious is looking to create or acquire
a comprehensive learning experience platform, with plans
to float their content on it.
The company soon plans to create cluster packages of
courses, for example, pool of courses for engineering
trainees, other one for the beginners in digital
manufacturing. “We are localizing a few of our courses in
Hindi and other regional languages,” added Mr Sudhir.
Elaborating on their perseverance and strive to reach new
milestones, Mr. Mangesh commented: “We love what we
do. Learning is a joy. Ask anyone. When you learn
something new, you are happy. If you have someone who
helps you learn well, makes it interesting, is not preachy but
a buddy; you will have great time learning.” This is perhaps
the same experience and trust which the clients have
received over the years.
Enggenious has also adopted global technological trends
well. For example, they have mastered digital
manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and created comprehensive
learning solutions on the same. Very large manufacturing
companies have been continuously working with the
company to make themselves Industry 4.0 ready.
Based on the target audience and learning objectives, they
have created learning solutions of small durations like half-
a-day to three months long championship programs. These
programs include both synchronous and asynchronous
modes – eLearning, live lectures, recorded lectures, hands-
on training, interesting online gamified assessments, case
solving, hackathons and more.
Aspiring to Make an Impact
The journey of Enggenious has only just begun. Soon, they
envision to create an unseen value proposition for
engineering and manufacturing domains. Not just learning
solutions partner but a learning culture partner for
manufacturing companies, individual professionals and
even for the students preparing themselves for profession in
the engineering fields.
One obvious feature would be use of latest technology and
tools to enhance learners’ experience and retention of
knowledge. Continuous innovations on fronts of
instructional design, delivery, assessments and other aspects
of learning – that’s assured. By all measures, Enggenious is
all set to keep creating and maximizing joy of learning.
“We will impact top lines, bottom lines of the companies
with well researched and awesomely built learning
offerings,” concluded Mr. Mangesh Wagh.
Mangesh Wagh
CEO

Then the pandemic invaded. What do you think about how
helpful these online classes are? Where the teacher is
speaking, and students are supposed to turn oﬀ their
phone’s audio button so that there is no noise. In this digital
world where our attention span is so short especially when
it comes to those things that are hard to understand.
And what about the learning part? How nice will it be if
learning could be something that everyone could enjoy, in
creative, engaging, and challenging manner rather than the
rote-learning and theory education? If this happens, then no
one have to force anyone to study, and stop them from
playing or from doing whatever they like to, studies will
become part of those things that they like to do instead.
No doubt nothing can replace the real-life experience when
it comes to those rare, good teaching sessions until that
thing can give the same experience as a real world. Yes, I
am talking about AR and VR. It is the answer to all those
chool days are the golden days where we grow and
Sspend good times with our friends. In this pandemic,
many children have missed this opportunity to
experience their golden days. Moreover, the pressure is hard
to explain. How can we expect any student to understand
his/her syllabus without attending any classes in reality? And
how can we expect them to score well by those online
classes held on that small phone screens? Students are
depressed when they just can’t learn. So many people add up
more pressure on them because everyone wants them to
score well. And shouting at them, thinking they are not being
serious, can worsen things even further.
In this 21st century, it was already hard enough for the
students to understand what the teacher is teaching in 45
minutes. Imagine a class of 40 to 80 students, especially if
the seat is on that last bench, where all students are talking
and laughing, troubling the teacher, and half of his/her time
is spent shouting.

New Pathways

prayers that all parents, teachers, and even students were
praying for.
Augmented reality and Virtual reality are not difficult terms
to understand. These heavy-sounding theoretical words are
actually very interesting, and once you experience them,
you will be simply addicted to them. AR and VR differ
based on what device we require to experience them and
what we experience by them.
Virtual Reality is a program that you can use with headset
devices. It takes you to a completely virtual world that can
seem and feel completely real. But it can be a fictional
world. Whereas to use AR, you can use your smartphone. It
uses real-world settings. AR has the ability to upgrade the
real and virtual worlds.
It is a solution to so many problems in this pandemic. AR
and VR are proving to be helpful in various industries viz.
health care, corporate, governmental organisations, and
even in education. AR and VR can solve many problems
that our students have been facing while studying. Many
students are scared to ask questions in class or to speak up
when not able to understand what the teacher taught. Some
students understand better when they can imagine or relate
those topics.
And this can also be a solution for a cheap education. And
of course, now you don’t have to pay for that extra tuition
fees as well. Sounds like a dream? Well, it isn’t. By learning
with AR and VR technology, students are literally in that
time and place, witnessing the ongoing events happening in
the virtual world.
It’s a fact that we may forget the names of people, but we
mostly remember the faces, right?
Similarly, students perceive and remember better what they
learn by practical. They observe and follow with their
continuous thought process. Even their attention span is
better and longer in interesting activities, for example, the
topic is the universe, and the lecture is about to be con-
ducted in the virtual space itself. Now, who would of think
of bunking the class, right?
Did you know that the very first VR education was
conducted on September 3, 1943? In Berlin Blitz. It was the
true story of the Lancaster Bomber – mission to Berlin. It
was produced by the Immersive VR Education for the BBC.
There is an app called Google Expedition, an education app
that lets teachers conduct enthusiastic classes that any
student would love to attend. The subject can be anything,
like science, history, or be it geography. The app can take
the students to museums, Antarctica, or the oceans of the
virtual world.
AR and VR are being utilized on a whole new level by the
Australian company called FLAIM Systems that is helping
its firefighters by training them in the virtual world.
There they experience all the dangerous zones of fire and
learn how to deal with them without being in a danger zone
in reality. Everything they see and feel is just as real as the
reality to them with AR and VR.
Wouldn’t it be great if all students could enjoy the educa-
tion equally, even if they are differently abled? We can
thank AR and VR technology again for designing this
facility with specialized features. Models that enable
students to regulate the device according to their needs.
This technology will help students to deal with ADHD,
depression, and anxieties problems that they experience due
to their studies. By making daily education as interactive as
it should be.
It can also solve the language problem that many students
have. For example, learning English or any subject in
English is hard for many students because they don’t
practice it in their regular life. But in virtual education, one
can not only practice but see how it is being used.
Providing students quality classes that they can enjoy is the
least we can do for them when they are willing to learn so
many subjects altogether. It is not easy for them. After all,
one student has to learn multiple different subjects whereas
there is a separate teacher for almost every subject. By
educating them with AR and VR, we can finally make it so
that students and children genuinely fall in love with
learning.
- Nidhi Arya

earnApp is an online video education platform that
Lbrings the best minds in the ﬁeld of trading,
investing and business management to teach from a
relevant, skill-driven curriculum. Its main objective is to
redeﬁne and reimagine education for the 21st century. With
the world changing at a rapid pace, constant learning and
upskilling have become essential to success. At LearnApp,
you learn what it takes to be an industry-ready, disruptive
and successful professional.
The company was founded in 2017 as the manifestation of
the vision of four go-getters:
Ankush Oberoi
Co-founder,
Head of Business
and Productions
Swati Sharma
Co-founder,
Head of Productions
Prateek Singh
CEO & Founder
“
At LearnApp,
each course is designed in
a way that aims to give you an
information and insight-rich
experience by organising a
lifetime of a mentor's
experience into an hour
Directing the EdTech Revolution

Prateek Singh, CEO & Founder;
Ankush Oberoi, Co-founder, Head of Business and
Productions;
Swati Sharma, Co-founder, Head of Productions;
Sohail Alam, Co-founder, Head of Technology.
It was their collective vision and belief in experiential and
practical learning that laid the foundation stone for
LearnApp. The leadership believes that it is skills and not
conventional knowledge which will guide professional
success in the 21st century. Their focus has constantly been
on making learning actionable, skill-driven and object-
driven, because that translates to better results and long-
lasting learnings that are in sync with the constantly
disruptive 21st century world.
It is with this belief that they founded LearnApp. The idea
was to engage directly with the practitioners and learn from
their insights and experiences. Their emphasis on constant
upskilling, action-based learning and innovation reflects in
the organisation's philosophy, where there is a healthy space
and encouragement for unconventional and off-beat ideas
and hands-on learning.
Leading the Way
An entrepreneur and a risk-taker by heart, Prateek Singh
(founder and CEO), started trading from the age of 17 and
has been active on the markets ever since. Over the years,
he has also shared insights from his trading journey and
investing journey with thousands of individuals by the
means of his ventures in the financial education space,
namely TradeAcademy, Tradersaint, and Market Scientist.
His interest in trading led him to start multiple ventures,
where he aimed to solve the knowledge gap between
authentic stock market education amongst the masses.
After four ventures, LearnApp was finally established in
2018 with four co-founders. Having skipped formal
education, Prateek is on his journey to revolutionize the
way education, skill development and financial literacy is
thought about.
Products and Services
LearnApp believes in skill-driven, actionable and testable
learning patterns, curated by the best in the industry. The
company also strongly believes in the idea that upskilling
should start at a fundamental level, where people are just
beginning to venture out in their professional spaces. It
offers in-depth, insightful, and application-driven
frameworks of learning to professionals and students in the
Sohail Alam
Co-founder, Head of Technology
age group of 19-30. It covers this through four major
domains of importance – trading, investing, business
management and communications.
This emphasis on skill and insights, rather than rote
knowledge forms the core of its courses and classes. Each
course is designed in a way that aims to give you an
information and insight-rich experience by organising a
lifetime of a mentor's experience into an hour. This is
further enriched by the voiceovers, animations and graphics
that help drive home the point better. With each course, you
get one step closer to thinking like a leader. And with live
classes you get to engage with what you learn! What's
more, with LearnApp's live Q&A sessions, ensure that you
leave the class doubt-free, because the mentor will solve
them for you, right away.
Standing Apart
The idea is to make the learning process enriching,
industry-driven and engaging. The 150+ courses offered by
LearnApp cover various concepts of investing, trading,
communications and business management extensively and
are shot cinematically, with insights, stories and
experiences of industry veterans.

At LearnApp, an experiential, film-like crash course
organised into a lifetime of insights and knowledge each
industry legend has to offer- that is what the courses are
like. The idea is to focus on incorporating practical, relevant
observations that can be implemented by the user with
immediate effect. The live classes further provide a direct
opportunity for users to interact directly with the mentors.
From Raamdeo Agrawal teaching the art of investing to
Utpal Sheth explaining portfolio construction to
experienced traders explaining various trading strategies,
LearnApp gives you a chance to learn the best from the
best!
Prateek comments: “Our curriculum is designed by the
world's brightest minds spanning 10 major subjects. From
business management to entrepreneurship, to trading to
investing, we have it all.” At LearnApp, education is skill
centric. All this comes with a hyper-curated, in-demand,
relevant and continuously updated curriculum that is
designed by those who run the industry. Here, you work to
learn, and learn to do!
While eLearning is still dominated by conventional learning
patterns, LearnApp provides a dynamic, interactive learning
interface for the user to learn, understand and practically
understand the real-world applications of these concepts.
This can range from learning option strategies to trade
profitably in the market to understanding the art of
investing in order to manage their portfolio effectively. In
essence, the learnings and takeaways from learning on
LearnApp are immediate and practical, shortening the
learning curve for the users and leaving a lasting impact.
In addition to that, the company also has clearly defined
learning modules for trading, investing and more, which
provide a definitive starting point and a sequential path for
the user to start learning. This is not just beneficial for a
new learner, who has his learning map charted for him for
systematic, structured learning, it is also beneficial for an
intermediate or advanced learner, who wishes to enhance
certain aspects of their understanding regarding the subject.
A well-defined learning map can help them focus on what is
most important and relevant from their perspective.
Rising Fervently
LearnApp has managed to cover a significant and eventful
journey in this short span of three years. It currently has
more than two lakh registered users and a dedicated
learning community that is constantly expanding and
having more than 10 million streams on their paid platform
is a testimony to the quality of the content.
Apart from that, they have more than 150+ live classes
spanning a range of topics both current and conceptual, so
that the viewers can get a practical, hands-on experience of
their learnings and its applications. The live classes have
received rave reviews and great views and thus the
company wants to explore this dimension of user-mentor
engagement in the most effective manner possible.
Prateek also proudly recounted: “Our user retention rate
stands at 80%, which signifies how LearnApp has been able
to forge long-lasting relationships with its users in such a
short span of time. Our customer engagement has grown
five times since the lockdown and we are very fortunate to
have had the continued support of our users.”
“
Our curriculum is
designed by the world's
brightest minds spanning
10 major subjects. From
business management to
entrepreneurship, to
trading to investing, we
have it all

Additionally, LeanApp has also been able to drive
discussions in the learner community and ensure that
learning becomes as seamless and as interactive a process
as possible. More than 1,00,000 comments have been
resolved on it’s website, proof of how invested the
LearnApp community is in gaining hands-on education.
Having built an efficient system with regards to customer
satisfaction and service, LearnApp has also ventured into
prominent corporate partnerships like Kotak, empowering
and fuelling the employee upskilling and development
programs of many well-known companies.
Aspiring to Make a Difference
LearnApp aims to become a pioneer in insight driven and
practise-based learning space. It wants to become the
world's largest educational platform in terms of
practitioners teaching by means of an actionable framework
to create industry-ready, highly disruptive professionals
who possess a solid skill set. It also desires to add 10
million more people to its community and bring them a step
closer to learning directly from industry leaders. The vision
is to become the world's largest education portal where
industry leaders and practitioners teach the future
professionals and shape them into doers and go-getters.
LearnApp wishes to shift the focus of education from
merely certifications, degrees and traditional learning to a
skill based, result oriented and performance dependent
culture where the skills and work of the professionals are
given far more importance than the college education.
“This, in my view, is the future of every industry, including
education. And at LearnApp, we want to be at the forefront
of this positive revolution,” added Prateek.
While looking at diversifying its outreach by including
courses and content in vernaculars like Hindi and more,
LearnApp believes that its full potential will be actualised
only when each individual of the society benefits from its
courses.

Digital
Career
The Next Dimension

he term ‘digital marketing’ has become a buzzword
Ttoday. It is one of the fastest-growing industries in
the world that focuses on creativity and skills.
Every business is moving online, so the demand for digital
marketing is increasing at a rapid rate. This increasing
demand is opening doors for many job seekers. Due to this
trend, there has been a rising demand for qualified digital
marketing professionals. Hence, many universities and
educational institutes added digital marketing to their
syllabus.
So earlier, what was offered as crash courses by private
computer institutes is now being provided by colleges and
universities as full-fledged professional degrees - Bachelor's
and Master's. It is the need of time to have digital influence
for the growth of any business. Digital marketing plays the
role of catalyst in the process of generating leads. Hence it
is emerging as a go-to option for building a career.
Digital marketing is the process of promoting products or
services online to get better reach. Any marketing technique
that uses electronic devices to convey promotional
messages and advertisements falls under digital marketing.
The main goal of digital marketing is the same as traditional
marketing – to attract the audience and generate leads. In
other words, digital marketing is the updated version of
conventional marketing.
Digital Marketing as a Career
Digital marketing courses are available at both UG and PG
levels in the management stream. It is a broad term
consisting of many sectors. It offers the following career
options.
1. Market Research Analyst: The main work of a market
research analyst is to study different aspects of markets
such as consumer needs, preferences, habits, etc. The
analyst then gathers all the data and assists the company in
understanding the current trends of the market. Market
research analyst also supports the customers in their
decision-making process while purchasing any product.
2. SEO Executive: Search engine optimization is the
process of improving the rank of a website to appear on the
top of the search engine result page (SERP). SEO executive
is responsible for implementing On-page and Off-page SEO
strategies along with keyword analysis. This role includes
compiling the reports from google analytics and assisting in
the creation of appropriate content.
3. Social Media Manager: Social media is the best way to
increase the brand awareness of a business. Most people
spend half of their free time on social media. The social
media manager's work is to manage social media
campaigns, brand a company, share and publish product-
related blogs or articles, and engage in online
conversations.
4. Content Manager: The job of a content manager is to
manage interesting, engaging, and unique content. The
content should be SEO-friendly and without plagiarism.
Content is the core part of any marketing strategy.
Customers get attracted to the product by reading the
content. It is the primary job of a content manager to ensure
the content reaches the targeted audience.
5. Digital Marketing Consultant: Discovering new ideas
of businesses to attract new customers and retain existing
ones is the primary job of a digital marketing consultant. It
includes various activities such as overseeing ad campaigns,
SEO projects, web designing, etc. Digital marketing
consultant usually assists the company to reach their
customers in the best way.
Scope of Digital Marketing
To increase their online influence, most of the companies
are focusing on robust digital work culture. For this
purpose, they are hiring digital marketers to grow their
business. All the images we see online, interesting content
we read, and creative infographics we see are related to
digital marketing. This field is ever-expanding, and people
are getting attracted to it. Another reason behind this is,
there is rapid growth in digital marketing jobs. Also, there is
a gap between demand and supply of the workforce. The
demand is much more than the current supply of skilled
professionals.
This field is easy to start a career. It neither has a tough
syllabus like engineering or medical field, nor complex
structure like legal professions. Digital marketing is entirely
based on skills and creativity. It is a cost-effective business
practice than offline marketing. Digital marketing degrees
help start new businesses too. After acquiring the skills,
someone can start his/her own business. You learn more as
you progress. After all, digital marketing is the mine where
innovative entrepreneurs can be found.
- Vinayak Ghorpade

Pune
The Oxford of the East
Dr Rupali
Dhamdhere, is the
Principal of Trinity
International School, Pune.
She has also been an education
coordinator. She has written in a
number of publications on a myriad
of issues relating to education.
About the
Author
Dr Rupali Dhamdhere
Principal
Trinity International School

This city lacks nothing. Pune, called Poona till 1978,
is supposedly the second largest city in
Maharashtra but known the world over as the
“Oxford of the East,” a title Pune wears till date with a lot
of pride. This pride is an integral part of the culture, people,
and their attitude.
This city was also called as the pensioners paradise, the
only reason being that the life here is very relaxed, you will
not see people rushing, they have their own pace and timing
and if you want to survive here you need to get used to it.
But wait…please do not get it wrong. This city has made its
mark globally and was given the name Oxford of the East
by our very own first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. His
love for Pune has a very interesting story, many of you may
be aware but I would like to share it.
There was a massive flood in the year 1961 and when
Jawaharlal Nehru visited the city after the flood, he insisted
to visit his favourite bookstore which was badly affected
due to floods. The International Book Service was
established on January 1, 1931 and was possibly one of
Nehru’s favourite bookstores. In his letters to his daughter
he wrote, “I have sent you names of books, most of them
are new but some are old, which I wanted you to purchase
for me. But you could not get them at usual booksellers.
You might keep a list of those books with you in case they
are now available. In particular, I want you to note down
the name of a good bookshop in Poona which often keeps
books which cannot be obtained elsewhere - The
International Book Depot Deccan Gymkhana, Poona”.
Such was the level of the literature or the readership that
was existing in Pune, due to which there are numerous
bookstores in this city. Pune has always managed to keep its
culture rich due to its historical events but also has been an
educational ground for great institutions like Fergusson
College, Deccan College to name a few where our great
leaders have taken lessons. The city takes pride of the great
student community that has made its presence felt not only
in the corridors of these great institutes but also in the world
that has recognised their work.
Pune is also known as Punyanagari, means City of Virtue.
As per the name, the city depicts high moral standards with
its rich history which goes back to pre-historic times where
manuscripts were found on the banks of the rivers Mula
Mutha. The first girls’ school of India was started in Pune at
Bhide Wada on January 1, 1848. This was a very modern
and courageous move made by Savitribai Phule along with
her friend Fatima Begum.
In days where women were not even allowed to step out of
the house, Savitribai Phule had made this dream come to a
reality though it was a very difficult task, and a lot of
hardships were faced. As she was the first head mistress of a
school on record and while she was dreaming in the day to
educate women, she faced a lot of harassment from the
people as they would throw stones and dirt at her when she
walked to school every day. It was a very progressive
school as subjects like Math and Science were also taught
along with reading and writing. Today we have our new
NEP and we have so many schemes running for the benefit
of the underprivileged students but she had thought about it
more than 170 years back when she tried to give some
stipend to students for the work they did so that she could
control the dropout rate of the students, she also provided
them with meals in the afternoon. Also taught skills so that
students could learn a skill like painting, sculpture stitching
etc. to earn a living. Conducted parent teacher meetings to
spread the awareness of education among parents and how
their role was important in educating their child.
Pune University, which was established in 1949, was
renamed as Savitribai Phule Pune University in August
2014 to pay tribute to the tremendous efforts taken by this
social reformer in the field of education and thinking ahead
of time and contributing to put Pune on a global map for
education excellence.
Today Pune is a well-known educational hub, as it has a
variety of educational courses to offer from every field, be it
science, engineering, medical, art, theatre, film making,
astronomy, and astrophysics to name a few.
Pune is an attraction for students not only from India but
world over due to its perfect blend of modernization and
culture. It has a good green coverage with good
geographical splendour.
Pune city is a part of our soul, it is difficult to describe the
greatness of this city, but I believe to understand it better
you need to be a part of it with heart and soul.
Pune Tithe Kay Une

India's 10 best ed tech companies to watch, 2021

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