More than 150 participants including education sector experts, those working on a social agenda for education, entrepreneurs looking to disrupt delivery of education through technology, marquee investors as well as industry consultants and advisors will attend the 6th edition of the VCCircle Education Investment Summit on November 26 at The Westin, Gurgaon.
The summit will provide an attractive platform to discuss the emerging trends and opportunities in the education sector and how innovative ideas in ed-tech are changing the outlook of education in India. At the same time, the summit will offer insights on the issue of social inclusion with a focus on good-quality universal education.
If you haven’t registered for the event so far, register now as the seats are filling up fast.
Here is the final agenda and list of speakers:
8:30 am - 9:45 am
Tea, Networking & Registration
9:45 am - 10:00 am
Introductory Note
10:00 am - 10:50 am
Panel I: Picking the nerve of Elementary Education in India: Have we done enough?
In light of UEE (Universal Elementary Education), Sarva shiksha abhiyaan is being implemented as India’s main programme for universalizing elementary education. Its overall goals include universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social category gaps in education and enhancement of learning levels of children. Some major developments have also been recorded in this aspect however there is a lot left to be accomplished. Key challenges to be addressed include:
What are the road blocks in making education accessible & socially inclusive? What have been the steps taken? Are they enough?
- How to track quality of education, keeping the beneficiary, i.e. students, at the centre. How to track learning outcomes?
- Is the parental attitude towards education changing? If so, what needs to be done more?
- How do we fix accountability of key stakeholders?
- Can there be transparency in tracking outcomes, making corrections and delivering the desired results?
- Can private players play a part here?
K Vaijayanti - Head - Research & Resource & Evaluation, Akshara Foundation
Sridhar Rajagopalan - MD & Co-founder of Educational Initiatives, Mindspark Centres
Imran Jafar - Partner, Gaja Capital Partners
Garima Batra - Project Leader -Public Sector and Development Practice, The Boston Consulting Group
Harsh Shetty - CEO, Central Square Foundation (Moderator)
10:50 am - 11:20 am
Keynote Address - Investing in education – Our global experience
Roopa Kudva - Partner & Managing Director, Omidyar Network
11:20 am - 11:40 am
Tea & Networking
11:40 am – 12:00 pm
Special Address- Accelerating and scaling successful educational innovation through GET IN, a new global educational platform
Shiv Khemka - Chairman, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation
12:00 pm - 12:50 pm
Panel II: K - 12 Education in India: Taking quality education beyond Tier I schools & cities
K - 12 education in India is the most fragmented segment within education sector. With government schools on side taking on the responsibility of catering to a larger pool of students, struggling to improve quality education, seize dropout rates amongst others and private schools on other side with world class infrastructure available for a select few. Besides, there are other issues plaguing the segment such as quality, affordability, lack of good teachers amongst others.
What can be done to improve quality of education across the K- 12 segment?
- Can Private players help the govt. in some way or the other?
- What has been the experiences around quota for EWS (Economically Weaker Section)? Is that the solution to bridge the gap?
- Can effective partnership models be explored to unlock full potential for this segment?
- How can large PE players be brought into the fray?
- What role can Edtech play in improving delivery of quality education across?
Sameer Sampat - Executive Director, India School Leadership Institute
Himanshu Gupta - Joint Managing Director, S Chand Group
Raj Yarlagadda - Managing Director, People Combine Educational Initiatives limited
Umesh Malhotra - Co-founder and Chief Executive, Hippocampus Learning Centres
Ajit Mahadevan - Country Head, Acumen India (Moderator)
12:50 pm - 1:40 pm
Lunch & Networking
1:40 pm - 2:25 pm
Panel III: Vocational Education: Skilling India’s human capital
Vocational education has been a major contributor in developed countries, providing good quality of human capital. That somehow does not seem to be the case in India, despite several initiatives. On one side, lack of opportunities and placements has made vocational education loose its sheen in India, while issues pertaining to certification and quality have long persisted.
Are vocational education programs scalable?
What are the challenges faced while implementing vocational education programs? Is there a way overcome them?
- Is recognition of vocational training programs an issue?
- How can private players help resolve these issues?
- Can we build profitable/scalable businesses with impact creation as the key?
- What have we done so far? Is that enough?
Pooja Gianchandani - Head of Global Business - EduTech and Skills, IL&FS Education Technology Services Ltd
Dr Gayathri Vasudevan - CEO, LabourNet Services India Pvt. Ltd
Surga Thilakan - Co Founder & CEO, iStar Skill Development Pvt Ltd
Vikram Jain - Associate Director , FSG
Dilip Chenoy - Former CEO & MD, National Skill Development Corporation (Moderator)
2:25 pm - 2:35 pm
Investor Talk
Prasad Gadkari, Partner, IDFC Private Equity
2:35 pm - 3:15 pm
Panel IV: EdTech: If you fund it, will it scale?
Indians spend a fortune on education and yet the massively fragmented business of education has left investors scratching their heads. What bets might work? What sectors are avoidable? Who is taking the bets and who might prevail?
Tej Kapoor - Country Head, dmg :: Information India
Vivek Agarwal - Founder & CEO, LIQVID
Ashish Gupta - COO and Global Business Unit Head, Evalueserve Financial Services
Rahul Patwardhan - CEO, NIIT
Nikhil Barshikar - Founder and Managing Director, Imarticus Learning
Prasad Gadkari - Partner, IDFC Private Equity (Moderator)
3:15 pm - 3:35 pm
Tea & Networking
3:35 pm - 4:05 pm
VCCircle Showcase
This is a curated platform where select companies in the education sector will get the opportunity to showcase their innovative products and services to the impressive gathering at the summit.
4:05 pm - 4:45 pm
Panel V: EdTech: Transforming the way India learns
The emergence of technology-based education services and products has gained sizeable traction with a number of VC Investors showing renewed interest. However, policy challenges and lack of conducive environment for operation has prevented edtech firms from coming into the mainstream. Plus is the integration of edtech services into the formal education space being held back by the lack of cohesive policy formulation? What are the larger prospects of edtech and how can the challenges be addressed?
The leading edtech initiatives making an impact
- Who are the edtech firms targeting through their services?
- What policy changes are required to bring edtech to the mainstream?
- How can edtech firms innovate to provide services despite the limited policy space?
Prachi Windlass - Director, India Education, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
Karthik KS - Founder & CEO, Avagmah
Avnita Bir - Director - Principal, R N Podar School
Parth J Shah - Founder president, Centre for Civil Society
Gaurav Mehra - Partner, Kaizen Private Equity (Moderator)
4:45 pm - 5:25 pm
Panel VI: Segmentation in Edtech: Online Tutoring and Assesment leads the way
The growing interest of the investor community in edtech has received further boost with the positive segmentation taking place within the edtech ecosystem. Out of the various segments, online tutoring and assessment has received a lot of traction with large chunks of students and teachers taking to these platforms to enhance their preparations. What makes these online Tutoring and Assessment firm stand out, how are they disrupting the traditional teacher student connect? What can other segment players within the edtech space take away from them?
Aditi Avasthi - Founder and CEO, Embibe.com
Harman Singh - Founder and CEO, WizIQ
Piyush Agrawal - CEO & Founder, Superprofs.com
Siddharth Talwar - Partner, Lightbox (Moderator)
5:25 pm onwards
VCCircle Unwind
This session will provide more networking time with entrepreneurs and investors over cocktails
Send us your views, ideas and suggestions on Twitter; use our event hashtag: #VCCEDU
To participate, register now or write to Kanika at register@vccircle.com or call 0120-4171111.
For branding and sponsorship opportunities, write to Vijay at vijay@vccircle.com.
