The NEP is a Blessing for the Education Sector as it Spelled Out a New Approach Towards Education: Prof. Manoj Kumar Tiwari Director, NITIE – Mumbai

You have worked for many years and been associated with various institutions. Do you perceive any difference in the working culture and educational aspirations among those Institutions?

I think it’s more or less the same in all the institutions as skilled individuals are the same across institutions as well as corporate lines. Educational Institutes are known for their academic rigor. Engineering and Management institutions cater to the growing needs of corporate houses. NITIE being situated in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, is more connected to the industries and there is a growing association of industry and academia.

What changes can be observed recently in the industry and what will be the impact on different sectors?

Since last year businesses have been pivoting online across all industries, earlier the online mode was limited to the interactions between the customer and the Business, but now even crucial internal processes are executed virtually. The Manufacturing sector is witnessing this digital transformation, accelerated by exponentially growing technologies such as intelligent robots, autonomous drones, sensors, and 3D printing. With the advent of Industry 4.0, monumental changes are expected as new technologies would help managers optimize and augment their equipment virtually. This, coupled with the faster computing speeds provided by 5G and better semiconductor chips, would broaden our manufacturing landscape and become a global hub for production. Businesses in the IT and related sectors are expected to become more flexible, with workflows becoming more transparent, decentralized, and less hierarchical.

What steps have you taken towards building a connection between the industry and academia?

NITIE has a strong legacy of having deep ties with the industry.  We recently inaugurated a Centre of Excellence in Logistics & Supply Chain to improve the logistics landscape in our country. We’ve signed MoUs with Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Genpact, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC), and FICCI FLO  on a wide range of futuristic research topics to provide implementable solutions to real life problems. We have also signed MoUs with reputed international academic institutions like the University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education (Irvine, USA), and Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Bangkok) to further our academic zeal by collaboration with them on various projects. We completed 3 Global Online Certification Courses in association with Prof. David Simchi-Levi (MIT, USA) to illuminate the current trends in Supply Chain Management. A total of 3000 individuals from 350+ prestigious national and international organizations including executives from Amazon, P&G, GE, Asian Paints, Micron, Honeywell, PWC, and Deloitte from 17 countries participated in the course. We’ve also completed a global course by Prof. Tadeusz Sawik (Reykjavik University, Iceland) in the field of Supply Chain Management. We have also planned another online course by Prof. Noshir Contractor (Kellogg School of Management) in the field of Social Network Analysis. NITIE regularly hosts business leaders to share their insights and guide our students. We were glad to host Mr. Sanat Chattopadhyay, President of the Merck Manufacturing Division of Merck & Co, Mr. Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian of Tata Sons, Mr. Thomas Varghese, Business Head – Textiles, Acrylic Fibre, Overseas Spinning at Aditya Birla Group for their presence at our knowledge dissemination sessions this year.

How much do you think will be the impact of the new education policy on the way the industry employs and trains new graduates?

The NEP is a blessing for the education sector as it spelled out a new approach towards education, which is a relevant, current, and contemporary one. It opened the participation and contribution process to all people from different disciplines. It would help graduates gain a multifaceted understanding of the systems around them. The NEP targets Internationalisation with emphasis on students’ practical and application knowledge. The government wants the Indian education system to be on par with other countries. The NEP also envisages a Blended mode of imparting education. This includes online components to allow for increased flexibility, interact with peers and professors, and build a business network similar to on a full-time course. Through the Global Online Courses, NITIE plans to implement the NEP in its true spirit and develop the business leaders of tomorrow.

How has the pandemic impacted the academic journey of university students?

The ongoing pandemic means that everyone must pivot online to get things done, and NITIE is no exception. We had to move entirely online from our Admissions to classes and even the convocation. Our comprehensive admission process for the full-time courses aims at finding high-performing candidates with a curious mindset. 

We altered the process to suit the online setting without compromising on the evaluation of the candidate. For our classes, we leveraged online platforms to deliver our courses with an enhanced focus on case studies. Talking about the placements during the pandemic, 113 companies visited our campus, and around 32% of the class of 2022 received pre-placement offers (PPOs). NITIE has set new standards and surpassed its previous year placement statistics by a wide margin. This season recorded the highest annual CTC offered at Rs 49 lakh per annum, with the top 20% and 50% of the 2020-22 batch securing an average CTC of Rs 42.57 LPA and Rs 33.20 LPA, respectively, while the median CTC stood at Rs 22.00 LPA. We saw a jump of 12% in the average CTC compared to the last year.

We also completed the Summer Internship Process swiftly via the online mode. This year, the highest stipend offered was Rs 1,75,000 domestically, and the top 10% of the batch received an average stipend of Rs 1,56,500. The top half of the batch secured an average stipend of Rs 1,29,500, wherein the average and a median stipend of the whole batch stood at Rs 96,870 and Rs 1,00,000, respectively.

Businesses across the FMCG sector, Finance, E-commerce, IT, Logistics, Manufacturing, and Pharma came to NITIE. Recently we held our 26th convocation virtually, over 1500 students, parents, alumni, academicians, and staff members attended the virtual gathering.

What is your advice for students wanting to make a career in the field of Operations and Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain management today is emerging as a highly desirable sector for employment, providing an exciting career. Students will get an opportunity to make a professional career not only within the country but also internationally.

Delivering products and services at the right time, place, cost, and at the right quantity and quality is at the heart of logistics and supply chain management. Perfect order deliveries, customer responsiveness, and cost-efficiency are critical competitive priorities in this domain. Data analytics, optimization, machine learning / AI, simulation, modelling, forecasting, problem-solving, and negotiation skills are beneficial, as is the ability to think on your feet when under pressure. Finally, we  adapted students to keep pace with the breakneck technological advancements such as Supply Chain Digitisation, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Automation to adapt by continuously upskilling and disseminating knowledge among peers.

What are your top 3 goals for the growth of NITIE?

NITIE is dedicated to acting as a driving force of transformative education and industry-inspired research to help Indian businesses attain a global presence. To make that possible, we would leverage our strength in practical solutions to problems faced by the industry. To assist Businesses, we aim to collaborate and build better strategies to improve their profitability and increase customer base to grow to their full potential. We plan to Sign MoUs with businesses across industries to assist them in building a better world. We also plan to invite global business leaders, students, and faculty to our institute to gather their valuable insights and expand our minds in the process.  So, to sum it up, a relentless focus on the needs of the Indian Industry, Robust collaboration with Academia & Businesses, and an expanding International presence would be the three goals for the growth of NITIE along with training for large number of under privilege community students.

What should the students who are coming to take admission here expect from NITIE?

Ranked 12th in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings for Management Institutes across India, NITIE is committed to creating skilled professionals to gauge the country’s growing engineering and management needs. Apart from Supply Chain Management, students also get opportunities in Strategy and Operations Consulting, Banking and Finance, Sales and Marketing, IT/ITES sectors. NITIE has been producing some of the best managers over the past 50 years, with alumni at top positions and locations across the globe. NITIE is gifted by mother nature; surrounded on three sides by lakes and the lush greenery at our campus has earned it the moniker “God’s Own Campus”. At NITIE, we host eminent faculties from international institutes to take courses for students thus providing them a unique opportunity to upskill.