Established in the year 1994, Shree Chanakya Education Society (SCES) is dedicated to ignite the entrepreneurial abilities in the youth of the country. They have come a long way, gave birth to Indira Group of Institutes(IGI) that fueled their dream to create big business leaders out of the young generation of India. IGI shares their story with Foradian, read on:

Q. Our readers may not know about Indira Group of Institutes. Can you please share some information that will introduce your organization to them?

IGI: Shree Chanakya Education Society (SCES) was established in February 1994, under the visionary leadership of Dr. Tarita Shankar, with the aim of providing top quality postgraduate education in the fields of Business Management, International Business and Information Technology. By consistently providing quality education over the past few decades, institutes at Indira Group are now considered as one of the best institutes in Pune. At a time when India was struggling to put its economy back on its feet, after the nation having pawned the “family jewels” just to keep afloat, Dr. Tarita Shankar sensed that education too would have to become more broad based and more vocational in nature if India was to stand up to the world competition in quality and price for its products, The then Finance Minister had prescribed for the economy and so, in 1994, began a saga of growth and quality in education; a story that is just reaching its zenith with 14 fully fledged institutes registering a strong presence on Pune’s educational horizon. Since inception, the institutes managed by SCES, have maintained high academic standards and have successfully provided trained manpower to the industrial and services sector of the country. These institutes are now listed amongst the top colleges not just in Pune, but also in Maharashtra and India. With a modest strength of 60 students pursuing a single course, SCES has grown steadily and today boasts of 14 Institutes, having more than 8000 students from all over India pursuing multi-disciplinary, graduate & postgraduate programs. The objective of the institute is to provide ‘Management education in a corporate environment’, has been possible due to the sincere and dedicated efforts of the members of SCES, who have invaluable experience in varied areas like academics, industry, service and social-world.

Q. It seems that you focus a lot on education that is ‘vocational in nature’. Why do you think such education is important for this new generation?

IGI: The post globalization era in India has resulted in fast pace development activities, shaping mighty economic developments. Infrastructure developments are meeting the industrial needs and making India a promising destination. This has created a need for professionals with expertise in multiple disciplines to spearhead the growth momentum. Engineering is an instrumental branch that will define the future course of these lofty development plans.

At Indira Group of Institutes, we are committed to nurture the required expertise under one roof by creating competent and motivated technocrats and managers of tomorrow, who will use their technical knowledge and managerial qualities to confidently and successfully lead the organization.

Q. How has the journey been for Indira Group of Institutes so far?

IGI: Shree Chanakya Education Society (SCES), Pune, was established in 1994, with the explicit vision to provide sustainable impetus to the corporate and entrepreneurial abilities in the youth.

The realization that a robust framework of education is indispensable for the growth of global leaders, the visionary, Dr. Tarita Shankar, Chairperson, Indira Group, integrated her pursuit of excellence and articulated educational institutions, known as Indira Group of Institutes (IGI), which imbibe human excellence and demonstrate strong social values, with a single minded pursuit of developing the youth to become business leaders.

Unrelenting initiatives by the management team at Indira led to adding of multi-disciplines such as Management, Information Technology, Pharmacy, Commerce, Science, Engineering and Mass Communication to the group. And growth has been as deep as it has been wide. With 14 institutions, IGI now offers education right from Kindergarten to Doctorate level studies.

Having traversed the journey of nineteen years we have ourselves made certain significant achievements which, we are aware, are but the building blocks for achieving further heights.

Indira is ranked amongst the top 2 B-schools in Pune, by the prestigious AIMA – IMJ.
The same journal gave us a top 30, all India ranking on the parameters of Industry interface.
Our students have shown good academic results and have been at the level of university ranking.
The achievements of our students have enabled them to attract some of the best corporate recruiters.
Indira Group of Institutes and our goodwill has enabled us to establish campus agreement with Microsoft for using different software.
Our goodwill with Microsoft was further accentuated with Microsoft conducting workshops at Indira, for train the trainer modules.
Business India has also ranked us amongst the top 3 in Pune for last 2 yrs.
Our Institutes have received accreditation from various certifying bodies.

Indira Institute of Management was the first management institute in Maharashtra to receive the accreditation from the NBA, New Delhi.

Q. What are your future endeavors?

IGI: Welcome to the 2nd decade of the 21st Century!!! The world’s emergence from recession, even though slow and fragmented, is accepted by all. Every economic crisis in history has brought about breakthroughs in industries, science and technology. The recent crisis has stimulated thoughts and inspired the international community to make new explorations regarding development models. Growth and integration of a global, increasingly free market economy has raised standard of competition in all sectors providing goods and services. On the other hand management professionals from India are in good demand in international market. Private sector today offers rapid advancement to result-oriented professionals. The daunting complexity of the challenges that confront us would be overwhelming if we were to depend only on existing knowledge, traditional resources and conventional approaches.

In order to win in today’s fiercely competitive business environment, they will have to excel at short-term execution of their business objectives, while pursuing long-term visions that create new paradigms.

At the Indira Group of Institutes, we have picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the demands of the existing business environment. Our motto at Indira is the pursuit of excellence, a fact that is evident from our infrastructure and the quality of individual candidates – the Indraites. At the core of our philosophy lies the conviction that we must become ambidextrous, and this dynamism is translated in to the knowledge provided to our students.

Like the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu says “Rules of war never change – only weapons change”, our tomorrow’s corporate warriors will fight for market share and market domination by converting previous knowledge and experience into today’s competencies required for best possible strategies. Here we are committed to supply a growing stream of well-grounded and ethically responsible professional practitioners and leaders in every field of public life and endeavor.

IGI believes in the economic independence of individuals. In this endeavor we aim to inspire our postgraduate students to create a niche for themselves in the Indian Economic order first, and then compete globally. We owe our gratitude to the Indian Industry for consistently collaborating with us in this endeavor. Renowned industrialists have visited us and tremendously enhanced the morale of our students by sharing their vast knowledge and experience about entrepreneurial opportunities and foster a spirit of entrepreneurship amongst students.

Q:What do you think the face of education in India will be in the coming years?

IGI: Over the past decade, companies across almost all industries in India have been changed by competition both within the country and outside. India is no longer isolated from the economic mainstream. The patterns that are emerging in business worldwide are bound to be repeated here. Our markets have shown signs of recovery and the mood has been upbeat. The Indian Economy, hitherto seen as a slow moving elephant has awakened to find its potential. But we cannot rest on our laurels. Our efforts will have to double up, particularly when there exists an increasing possibility of winnings from global competition. For Indian business, this involves a change of strategy, structure, culture, compensation and everything from sparking innovation to streamlining internal processes. The solution to the conundrum of organizational complexities will have to be provided by our future managers.

Private sector today offers rapid advancement to result-oriented professionals. The daunting complexity of the challenges that confront us would be overwhelming if we were to depend only on existing knowledge, traditional resources and conventional approaches. Chanakya, (famous Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC) says: “As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.” – This philosophy is enshrined in the soul of Indira Group and enlivened by our lifeblood i.e. faculty and students. We have identified this paradigm shift of managing today’s business and therefore always strive to instill the ability of speedy decision making in resources deployed, managing diversity, searching right direction of knowledge management for the people, and finally social responsibility awareness in our students.

Education must empower us to enhance human progress and we must vow that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We need to vow that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. Only then the growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions will be worth their while only if they inculcate new hopes for knowledge and peace. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and at the same time all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still an issue around the globe; the belief that the rights of man come from being truly liberalized from all forms of tyranny and the ability to set sail in a voyage that allows complete liberty for growth and prosperity for all humanity.

At Indira, we create a movement to convert the hopes and aspirations of the youth, into commitments for purpose and performance. Our confidence in the learning abilities of the youth has led to a judicious mix of knowledge sharing, for holistic developments of the students into good human beings.

Interview with Indira Group of Institutes – New Customer of Fedena

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