Top 7 Things We Learnt on Day 1 of the GSV Emeritus India Summit

India has one of the world’s largest workforces, and it is a workforce that needs to upskill, reskill and cross-skill with some urgency in order to stay relevant and future-ready. When it comes to the edtech industry, all eyes are on India today. Thus, it’s only fitting that the GSV Emeritus India Summit focus on All Eyes on India: Driving the Future of Learning. GSV, with its focus on elevating the scope and scale of innovation in education and skilling, and Emeritus, with a mission to make high-quality education accessible, are co-hosting this one-of-a-kind event that will build a narrative to fuel the future of edtech. The 3-day summit featuring—leaders driving innovation in education, key members of the Indian government capable of influencing decisions and industry experts— kicked off today at The Oberoi, Gurgaon. 

Amidst fireside chats, moderated panel discussions and presentations, Day 1 at the GSV Emeritus Indian Summit was quite eventful. So let’s get a low-down on the key takeaways from the day’s events and what they mean for the future of edtech in India. 

#1: Immersive tech and Augmented Reality (AR) will change the edtech landscape

Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President, Meta India, spawned an interesting conversation around AR and other supporting immersive technologies that aid experiential learning. “750 million users globally have used AR effects on our platform,” she said, alluding to how path-breaking that could be when applied to education. 

In the Indian context, immersive tech can do more than radicalise classroom teaching. It has the potential to take education where educators cannot reach physically. In essence, experiential education can be the magic wand that levels the playing field by bridging the existing gap in equity for education. 

#2: It is essential to create new business models for education to reach the maximum number of learners

Edtech, as an industry, has some unique problems. As Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO Simplilearn, puts it, “it is not a business of instant gratification.” It’s not like e-commerce or food-tech, where you can have what you want to be delivered to your doorstep. Edtech is selling an opportunity, and once you buy that opportunity, the real work begins then. You have to wait till you finish a programme to actually know the value of what you are buying. This delayed gratification warrants a different approach to business models. 

The conversation surrounding challenges in scaling a business while retaining customers and improving profitability also covered how it directly impacts learning outcomes. Chaitanya Kalipatnapu, co-founder of Emeritus, summed up this discussion aptly by stating why online education was “the way to go” for the future. He said, “The aspect tech in education is critical. And this technology needs to penetrate beyond metro cities to small towns and villages. We must create new models that can give access to education because we can’t build brick-and-mortar universities for the 40 million learners.”  

Physical campuses can only accommodate a fixed number of learners, and that number is nowhere near enough to skill up a steadily growing workforce. Hence, we must look to online learning to scale without compromising on the quality of education. 

#3: The fundamental challenge for edtech in India is creating different models to penetrate Tier 2 and 3

The bane of the edtech industry in India has been poor internet penetration beyond the major metro cities. And it is a challenge that limits the industry’s user base in Tier 2 and 3 cities. Sajith Pai, Director of Blume Ventures, a renowned venture capitalist with a long-standing interest in edtech, drew the Summit’s attention to this issue. “What got you here, won’t take you there”, he said.

“The fundamental challenge startups face in India is they do very well early on selling in Tier 1 India, but the same business model doesn’t work for Tier 2 or 3. Hence, we see distinct India models with key differentiators to create hooks for capturing Tier 2 and 3,” he explained. 

#4: In education, business models must be built to last

Khalil Gibran said, “Love the idealism of youth and the wisdom of age.” While the youth spoke of innovation, technology and new business models, the veteran in the field of edtech, Rajendra Pawar, Chairman & Co-Founder of NIIT Limited, drew our attention to a more core issue. “We want to bring back the old concept of learning on a new platform,” he said. 

He went on to make a critical observation about building businesses that last. “Are you building to sell or building to last? It’s a personal choice. But, if you are building to last, then education is the space for you,” he explained. Longevity and long-term impact must be the focus of education, particularly for Tier 3 cities. It is important to surface humane questions like who we are serving and whether they can afford what we offer. 

#5: A lifelong learning mindset is now essential if professionals want to be future-ready

Technology is a wheel that keeps turning, and it is turning fast. Those that can’t match its pace fall behind. On that note, the deep skills we pick up while completing our university degrees are not enough to last for decades in a dynamic professional world. But Jawahir Morarji, Managing Director, Enterprise Emeritus, is optimistic about life-long learning as a trend that will become the norm in time. 

“Over time, people learn to adapt, learn new skills and transform their careers. If people stop learning, that’s when they fall behind. I think jobs will get transformed and new opportunities will get created for those who learn to adapt,” he observes. 

Even as we look at it from the lens of organisations, learning is an integral part of their growth curve. Morarji summed it up by saying, “Organisations need to give people the opportunity to level up, especially those who’ve been around and helped to build companies. Give them a seat at the table.”

#6: For women to lead innovation, we need more women in decision-making roles

A seat at the table. Do women really get a fair shake when it comes to getting a seat at the table? Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, opened the conversation with an unpleasant but realistic stat. She quoted, “About 70% of the women entrepreneurs surveyed said that when they pitched their idea, they were usually the only women in the room!” Prerna Jhunjhunwala, Founder and CEO, Creative Galileo, added, “We have a lot of conversations about gender equality, but very few people want to make a tangible impact and walk the talk.”

Ashley Chiampo, Chief Learning Officer, Emeritus, explored the problem further. She said, “We have innovation across the education sector, and women are engaging in it. Somehow they’re not reaching the last mile. Female traits – empathy, collaboration, and emotional intelligence are fantastic traits for entrepreneurs. But these traits also hold us back!”

The solution, as always, is manifold, the panel concluded. Women need allies and sponsors at work and at home. Mentoring a younger woman at work could go a long way to bring parity in the gender skew for leadership roles. Most importantly, women need to be strategic about the organizations they work for. As Chiampo pointed out, at Emeritus, women hold 42% of the leadership roles. 

#7: The ultimate goal of learning is employability

Prateek Maheshwari, Co-Founder of Physics Wallah, raised a rather pertinent question: why is the demand for jobs so much more, and does the supply have a huge gap? Does this lead us to conclude that universities are not nurturing a job-ready workforce? The conversation centred around skills as opposed to just education, and Maheshwari spoke about coding as an example that drew very young learners. “The ultimate outcome for us is to help a kid from college get a better job,” he said. 

Further, Varun Chopra, CEO of Eduvanz Financing Private Limited, explored the financial aspect of learning. He spoke of the many different financing options and loans that could narrow the gap in accessibility to education if used optimally. 

These were the key takeaways from Day 1 of the GSV Emeritus India Summit. Watch this space for more in the coming days.

Written by Anwesha Barari