Education Technology | Innovations and Insights - Edinbox

Following the growing demand for veteran professionals in the new technology area of artificial intelligence, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) has launched the second edition of its Certificate Programme in Generative AI. As a part of its Continuing Education Programme (CEP), this six-month online certificate program is open to working professionals with a view to acquiring freshest competencies in Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and responsible AI development.

This sector-agnostic course is intended for professionals from any industry such as software development, data science, machine learning, digital product management, and applied research. It also includes educators and tech-enabling professionals willing to make a career shift to innovative AI applications.

Pragmatic AI technologies like Python, NumPy, TensorFlow, PyTorch, spaCy, and Hugging Face are learned by students. The courses include hands-on tutorials as well as industry-led capstone projects that are orchestrated to simulate actual deployments of AI in different verticals including healthcare, education, finance, and autonomous systems.

Evolving research entails evolving subject matter in the form of transformer models, neural architecture, parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) for low-resource settings, and multilingual NLP. Students study evolving model architectures such as GPT, BERT, and T5, and are exposed to evolving techniques such as instruction tuning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), and evolving prompting techniques in order to maximize model performance and usefulness.

Emphasizing the larger societal relevance of the program, IIT Delhi Electrical Engineering Department Professor Tanmoy Chakraborty added, "This program is a result of our conviction that Generative AI will drive innovation and decision-making in the future. We aim to develop professionals who do not just know AI technologies but also drive their use in industries responsibly with depth."

As the world undergoes a change with AI, industry reports have already established an on-demand demand for AI experts. According to studies by PwC, AI will add as much as USD 15.7 trillion to the world economy by 2030. The BCG report does, nonetheless, lay out that even though investments in AI are on the rise, there is a success rate of only 26% for organisations to apply these technologies in driving material value. While that, The AIDEA of India report by EY estimates the figure at USD 1.5 trillion by the close of the decade, i.e., from Generative AI alone to India's GDP.

The training is being imparted in a mix of self-study and live web classrooms, amounting to 60 hours of formal instruction and facilitated learning, and a 10-hour capstone project. The trainees can choose one-day campus immersion at IIT Delhi, experiencing the quality of research and academics of the institute.

For admission, the candidate should have a bachelor's or master's degree in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. On successful completion, the students are awarded an e-certificate by IIT Delhi CEP.

With a focus on cultivating applied skills as well as ethical innovation, the program is meant to build the future generation of AI leaders to make lasting impact in industry.

India's online tech ed and upskilling industry is booming at a rate of 25.7% CAGR, driven by flexible learning, technology platforms, and policy support in the pipeline

The Indian online higher education and upskilling sector is witnessing an unprecedented boom with the market expected to reach INR 13,200 crore in FY 2023 (2022-2023 financial) to Rs.41,500 crore in FY 2028, revealed Technopak Advisors and ResearchAndMarkets.com reports. A huge 25.7 percent CAGR growth rate, as such, reflects the nationwide transition to industry and adaptive, easy education. Upskilling is the sole answer for the evolving job market of today. Data science and AI, digital marketing, etc. are the options at present, and during FY 2021, almost 7 out of every 10 online school admissions were booked by working professionals with a maximum of three years of work experience. Upskilling to stay relevant is the new cool thing to stay relevant to the job market.

Transforming India's EdTech ecosystem

India is being reshaped by education through corporate giants such as Jaro Education, UpGrad, Great Learning, Simplilearn, TalentEdge, and TimesPro. These are the companies who partner with top-ranked universities and recruit industry professionals, merging their strengths with new models of engagement and technologies to drive rapid growth and expanding student pools.

Jaro Education can be defined in terms of teamwork culture and vision strategy, in the competitive landscape. With its chain of 100 of the nation's top nationally ranked accredited institutions like IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Madras, and IIT Delhi, Jaro has established a brand name that can be trusted as a credible cross-roads between school success and student aspirations. Jaro is an unparalleled range and diversity with 239 programs being offered in 34 partner institutions all over the world. Jaro Education is the market leader having very good financial numbers with respect to high EBITDA and PAT with respect to high margins. It has been performing well and consistently good with respect to margins, and also it is the market leader insofar as margins are concerned with respect to other players like Imarticus, TimesPro and Intellipaat.

Why is upskilling important?

Industry experts concur with the need for upskilling. LinkedIn Chairman ASM Group of Institutes Dr. Sandeep Pachpande believes, "Upskilling is no longer a choice. With the changing workplace today, lifelong learning is the only way to be relevant." Edtech expert Rohan Joshi (@rohanjoshi) commented on X, "India's online upskilling market isn't just increasing—it's emerging to be the foundation for our next-gen talent. Those providing industry connect with academic seriousness will call the shots."

Government programmes like National Education Policy 2020, Digital India, and Skill India, and increased budgetary support are also bringing digital education within reach and making it inclusive. All these programmes are also empowering women and students of second-tier towns to enjoy quality education and upskilling. Other such government programs like the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Digital India, and Skill India are being launched to make online education accessible and more inclusive in India and the world and changing the landscape. Online education integration at every level, specifically, has been one of the areas of emphasis for the NEP 2020 that demands that one must offer digital infrastructure, high-speed internet, and an access to digital devices to rural and urban students. Through technology-enabled education promotion, NEP 2020 has vision for why it needs to provide the digital divide so that students located in remote areas/small towns can utilize the quality study material and engaging contents devoid of geographic context.

The policy will also help create digital pedagogy, and there are professional teacher trainings to empower the teachers to utilize the digital tools to the best possible extent and get the students to think and solve problems. The direct impact of this policy emphasis is experience on such activities as PM eVidya and creation of digital repositories, virtual labs, and online course platforms. Flexible, competency-based, and customized learning pathway provided by NEP can be especially beneficial to women and marginalized group learners, otherwise limited access to mainstream schooling. Orientation to the future

Backed by growing government budgetary spending on education, the policies are not just democratizing education but also expanding it out to women and small-town students to access improved quality education and up-skilling opportunities that were not accessible earlier due to geography. This convergent approach is revolutionizing India's education culture and is getting society inclusive and resilient.

In a move to put Karnataka at the forefront of the world map of innovation, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has opened its Hub and Spoke Centre of Excellence at the university's regional office in Bengaluru. Not merely a cutting-edge facility, this centre reflects an increasing necessity to connect academic excellence with on-ground innovation.

Spreading over a staggering 1 lakh square feet, the centre is a collaborative venture between VTU, Visvesvaraya Research & Innovation Foundation (VRIF), and Telecom Centre of Excellence (TCOE), India. It is conceived as a national research centre addressing cutting-edge areas like 6G and 5G communication, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, augmented and virtual reality, and state-of-the-art healthcare technology.

Addressing the launch, Union Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia emphasized that innovation is not sufficient alone — startups and institutions need to be in consonance with India's developmental aspirations. "The future is in 6G, AI, quantum computing and beyond," he said. "We have to be ready to lead the change, not lag behind.

But above the buzzwords and big technology, what is exciting about this launch is the people-focused vision. The centre is not for ivory tower scholars in lab coats or super coders — it's meant to support entrepreneurs, students, and researchers with the passion to tackle actual problems that matter in people's lives. From rural health diagnostics to AI-driven disaster warnings, the uses being developed here could reach millions of lives.

With Bengaluru already referred to as India's Silicon Valley, VTU's new Centre of Excellence is bound to further embed the city's position in the making of the digital future. It also marks a subtle but forceful shift in Indian academia — from being all about the degree to creating innovation ecosystems.

For students and technology enthusiasts, this is not another institution — it's a marker that India's tech leap forward is very much in motion.

It was an outstanding leadership recruitment when Apple Inc. named Sabih Khan as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) — a testimony to his incredible odyssey, from a Uttar Pradesh village town to the control centre of one of the globe's most powerful tech firms.

Khan's own biography is that of technical competence paired with worldwide aspiration. He has dual undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Economics from Tufts University and a Master's in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Such intellectual foundations have been a launching pad for almost a three-decade-long residence at Apple, where he has been instrumental in overseeing the company's enormous global operations and supply chain.

Born in 1966 in Moradabad, Khan was packed off as a child to Singapore when he was still in school. Early exposure to international systems and cultures could well have given him a problem-solving and innovative thinking model — traits that would characterize his professional life at Apple. Prior to joining the company in 1995, Khan worked as an applications development engineer at GE Plastics, where he had hands-on experience in using engineering to devise practical solutions to real problems. 

Khan rose through the ranks at Apple and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations in 2019 to be part of the executive leadership team of the tech giant. His hand is on all facets of Apple's very intricate, diversified worldwide supply chain — a tightrope act balancing logistics, sustainability, and innovation. Khan will now oversee Apple's entire operations ecosystem as COO, allowing the company to continue to grow into new products, services, and geographies.

His Tufts degree, which ranks among America's top 50 national universities, and his graduate degree at RPI, one of the world's highest-ranked engineering schools, have been key to his achievements. But also key is Khan's quiet effectiveness as a leader. It's something co-workers say will be absolutely critical as Apple moves into the next generation of technology revolution.

In Sabih Khan's professional trajectory, we hear more than corporate advancement. We hear education, global experience, and continuing education, and what they can do for a person, taking him from an Indian classroom to Apple's boardroom.

To fulfill the rapidly changing demands of professional skills for the new age of artificial intelligence, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) rolled out the second iteration of its Certificate Programme in Generative AI. Its Continuing Education Programme (CEP) provides the six-month online programme to working professionals seeking state-of-the-art know-how on Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and ethical advancement of AI.

This cross-domain software is intended for applied research, machine learning, data science, software engineering, and digital product management professionals. Educators and practitioners within the field of technology who have an interest in transitioning to high-end AI applications are also invited.

Top AI tools such as Python, NumPy, TensorFlow, PyTorch, spaCy, and Hugging Face are taught to students. Industry-focused capstones and interactive tutorials, which reflect real-world application of AI in healthcare, education, finance, and autonomous systems, form the courses.

The merged curriculum also includes such topics as transformer architecture and neural network building, multilingual NLP, parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) for low-resource settings, etc. Participants also become exposed to more modern model architectures such as GPT, BERT, and T5, and newer techniques such as instruction tuning, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), and higher-level prompting methodologies in an effort to continue to advance model performance and trustworthiness.

Highlighting the broader purview of the programme, IIT Delhi Electrical Engineering Department Professor Tanmoy Chakraborty said, "This programme is premised on our belief that Generative AI would be at the center of the future of innovation and decision-making. We are committed to creating professionals who not just acquire AI technologies but also take ownership of their deployment across industries with depth."

While AI is changing the world, industry reports have also indicated short-term demand for AI professionals. In a PwC study, AI has the potential to add as much as USD 15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. In a BCG study, while investment in AI is on the rise, currently only 26% of organizations are scaling the AI technologies to deliver real value. Conversely, EY's The AIDEA of India report pegs the value of growth with Generative AI at a staggering USD 1.5 trillion by the end of the decade.

The course is instructed through tutored live virtual classes and self-study, consisting of 60 hours of tutored teaching, workshops guided, and a 10-hour capstone project. The students also have the opportunity to taste the flavor of an optional one-day excursion to IIT Delhi campus, showcasing before them the research and academic prowess of the institute.

For the admission, the candidates must possess a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics undergraduate or postgraduate degree. After successful graduation, the students will be awarded an e-certificate of IIT Delhi CEP.

With a masterclass on acquiring practical skills and ethical innovation, the course seeks to build the future AI leaders who can drive meaningful change across sectors.

How does one live in New York City on a Rs 1.6 crore salary? Ask Google software engineer and social media influencer Maitri Mangal, who says the experience is not as glamorous as it seems.

In a now-viral video interview with podcaster and author Kushal Lodha, Mangal gave a frank glimpse into one month of her expenses in one of the world's most expensive cities—showing that even with a seven-figure salary, rent and living expenses can still make it a tight squeeze.

Lodha, sharing the clip on social media, had captioned: "What's the average package at Google? I asked Maitri, a Software Engineer at Google, and she told me it's about Rs 1.6 crore on an average for overall roles." But it was Mangal's open description of how much she spends every month that really caught the internet's eye.

Standing in her Manhattan apartment, Mangal disclosed that she spent around $5,000 (approximately ₹4.2 lakh) per month. An astonishing $3,000 (₹2.5 lakh) is paid only to rent. The rest—the food, entertainment, groceries, and transport—vary from $1,000–$2,000 (₹85,000–₹1.7 lakh), with transport alone taking up to $200 (₹17,000).

"New York living on this wage is comfortable, but it's not extravagance people would imagine," Mangal said. "It's balancing lifestyle, saving, and experiences."

Most social media users responded with a mix of feelings—some shocked at the high expenses, some others appreciative of the candor in opening up about what it really is like to spend and earn in a global tech city.

With more than 173,000 Instagram followers, Mangal frequently posts about career in tech and living in the U.S., giving a glimpse behind the check of high-paid tech careers.

Her video is a wake-up call for aspiring professionals: high paychecks tend to be accompanied by equally high bills.