Education Technology | Innovations and Insights - Edinbox

Here, students can learn quality stuff for free on YouTube, with additional depth on the app.

In an ed-tech space filled with automation, buzzwords, and big data dashboards, Next Toppers is grounded in one core belief: "Hum desh ka bhavishya banate hain." Not only in their content — but in how they teach, communicate, and engage.

Problem with all learning platforms? They forget the learner

In a country where lakhs of students are battling board exams, tension, and performance stress — education can very soon become robotic, even isolated.

Next Toppers is changing that by bringing learning back to being personal.

With Humanities, Commerce, and Science having individual subject channels, a student-focused mobile app, and interactive tools that are designed to not just teach, but to inspire — the platform is making a difference not just in metros, but in tier-2 and tier-3 cities as well where quality academic guidance has always remained beyond reach.

Here, classes aren't simply "watched." They're lived. Students laugh, connect, question, and — most importantly — believe in themselves again.

A new model of learning: Relatable, real, raw

Whether it is Digraj Singh Rajput explaining social science through desi metaphors, Prashant Kirad explaining jargon science theories in crystal clear terms, or Shobhit Nirwan turning a maths class into a life lesson — all Next Toppers teachers are storytellers before they are educators.

This content-led, mentor-based model has acquired the platform a devoted following of hundreds of thousands of students, millions of views, and most recently — a spot in Forbes India, introducing the world to the three visionary co-founders as leaders for inclusive purpose-driven education.

But this is not a success story. It is a service story.

What sets it apart?

• No paywall-first model. Quality is free to learn on YouTube, with extra help available on the app.
• Stream-specific focus. Instead of expecting students all to be alike, Next Toppers learns stream-wise content — because a Humanities student deserves the same level of depth as a Science one.
• Real mentors, real faces. No avatars. No robotic screen shares. Students learn from teachers they know they can trust.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay launched two online Professional Certificate Programmes in Cybersecurity and Software Development as part of a massive programme to fill the digital skill gap. The programmes have already gone on sale, and classes for the first batch of the students will start from September 1, 2025.

Year programs are specifically made for working professionals, college teachers, and third or fourth-year students of engineering, mainly computer science or allied engineering students. There will be on-campus proctored exams for online courses to ensure academic integrity.

Every certificate program includes three well-crafted courses by IIT Bombay faculty with emphasis on experiential learning through bi-weekly lab sessions and hands-on experience with the software technologies employed by leading tech companies.

"These are not formal academics—rather, they're industry-focused and application-based," states an IIT Bombay professor. "We seek to equip students with in-demand tech jobs with profound, practical training."

Careers are excellent. The Indian cyber security market is anticipated to be valued at $10 billion by 2025, and the increasing dependence on software development in most industries, the courses make the learners job-ready as:

Full-Stack Developer

Security Analyst

Security Architect

DevSecOps Engineer

Software Engineer

IIT Bombay, with 17 departments of study and more than 75,000 alumni, is yet far from being surpassed by others in the realms of science and engineering educational innovation. With these additions, the institute is injecting academic seriousness to a larger mass—restless at home, but voraciously devouring content with substance and discipline because of IIT.

The applications are already in.

Ed-tech with actual and virtual schools in recent years. Whiteboards and web video to learning management systems and AI tutors, there is a lot of software supporting teachers and students today. But it also left us with a fragmented learning experience-high access, low consistency. The question that most teachers and technologists are grappling with today is: will higher integration lead to better learning outcomes?

THE CASE FOR ECOSYSTEM THINKING

Contrary to the common stand-alone EdTech systems running in a silo, homogeneous learning environments struggle to integrate content delivery, mentorship, skill mastery, and project work into a single system. This is an attempt to replicate-and in many ways overcome-the structure of the true physical physical physical classroom but with the scalability and reactivity of digital systems.

The concept is simple: with less need to repeatedly toggle between multiple applications, devices, or interfaces, students will spend fewer minutes getting around tools and more on interacting with material. Unlimited access to courseware, artificial-intelligence-driven support, virtual labs, and guided mentorship fosters unity-an amenity far too often in short supply within distance learning environments. 

REDEFINING ACCESSIBILITY

The coronavirus laid bare a harsh reality: education access is not necessarily a function of the availability of the internet. For the majority of students, especially disadvantage or semi-urban students, lack of quality devices, apps, or tutorials to learn tends to make online education superficial. There are interdependencies between ecosystems. A combination of specially crafted devices, cloud apps, and mentorship support renders systems frictionless to offset intent-to-delivery frictions. While the traditional model may expose a student to a class, the blended model exposes a student to the possibility of working on an assignment, receiving feedback, and monitoring progress-all in private, in one space.

ADVANTAGES BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

In addition to its effectiveness, the blended model also promotes enhanced learning behavior. A learning environment that is capable of learning at one's pace, providing instant feedback, and also allowing for self-paced learning has the potential to promote greater responsibility and confidence.

Also, problem-based learning in these hubs reflects actual problems. Sit down to write a research paper, create a prototype, or complete an internship module, the student is learning through doing. Learning-through-doing, coupled with industry demand, might as well bridge the centuries-long chasm between scholarship and employability. Rithwik Srinivas Ennamuri, founder, Unlox is sure, "One ecosystem. Three powerful programs. Designed to shape skills, boost confidence, and deliver real-world results.".

E-learning Program - Process of learning with the help of AI provides maximum productivity. The program simplifies learning, hassle-free goal-centered process with one-to-one guidance, project learning, and interaction. Check out our amazing E-learning courses.

Global Internship Program - World-programmed experience in which students are interacted with world-level mentors and live business projects. It closes the gap between global doing and learning.

Research Paper Program - A mentorship publication program that guides students step by step through the process of writing research, editing, publishing academic scholarship. Professional mentoring ensures the work meets international standards of academic scholarship.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Of course, there are limitations on such hybrid systems. Institutional inertia, cost, and scope can be colder than ice. And one might also have human beings without technology. Not everyone will be attracted by AI-based learning, and mentorship-thoughtful-is best paired with empathy.

Rithwik Srinivas Ennamuri, Unlox co-founder, describes, "What's special about Unlox isn't necessarily what we're doing; but how it all comes together. Learning with an AI that knows you completely. All your projects, courses, and mentorship in your own hands. Industrial-scale projects on high-performance virtual labs. without the cost of expensive hardware."

A PROMISING DIRECTION

Apart from all these issues, integrated learning ecosystems are a specter looming on the horizon. When India skill-ifies its large youth population, what India needs is not additional content-but sequenced, outcomes-based learning experiences. Start-ups, institutes, or public-private initiatives creating the ecosystems-whatever they would turn out to be, success would neither be technology-driven in isolation, but by their understanding of learners' realities. Integration could well be as significant as innovation in the next education reform wave.

In a major step towards promoting studies in green energy, eight government polytechnic colleges in the southern districts have introduced a new 'Diploma in Renewable Energy' course for 2025-26. The course is being offered under a tie-up between the Government of Tamil Nadu and Tata Power Renewable Energy.

The programme meets the 'Earn While You Learn' concept, allowing students to earn between Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 monthly over the duration of their course period.

As part of the course, the students will undergo three months of classroom training in their own polytechnic colleges-including Madurai, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Usilampatti, Andipatti, and Chekkanurani-with Rs 4,000 as monthly stipend. The remaining nine months will be at TP Solar Limited, Tirunelveli, where they will get industrial exposure and a monthly stipend of Rs 8,000.

In a conversation with TNIE, G Vijayakumari, Principal of Government Women's Polytechnic College, Madurai, said, "Each polytechnic college has a strength of 30 seats. In Madurai, 38 students have already been admitted, and a preference is being given to female candidates. The students will be provided experiential learning similar to other streams of engineering, including training in solar panel making, maintenance, and energy efficiency. This gives the students immediate job opportunities at TP Solar after graduation with no service bond."

Andipatti Government Polytechnic College principal (i/c) M Poonguzhali also stated that classes commenced on July 7, and a few of the colleges have vacancies. "Class XII pass students can be considered. Free hostel and boarding facilities are provided during industrial training. Stipend will increase gradually- Rs 8,000 in the first year, Rs 9,000 in the second year, and Rs 10,000 in the third year," she clarified.

In addition, meritous students are eligible to receive Rs 1,000 monthly scholarship under the Pudhumaipen or Tamil Pudhalvan. The course fee has also been fixed at a minimum of Rs 2,500 annually.

It started not with conflict, but with a subtle ripple.

On another unremarkable July evening, Telegram's notoriously reclusive founder Pavel Durov posted on X and gave some advice to students that was at once old-fashioned and forward-thinking:

"If you're a student deciding what to study, study MATH. It will teach you to relentlessly depend on your own mind. That's the essential skill you'll have to create businesses and run projects."

Several hours later, Elon Musk weighed in — not to argue, but to clarify: "Physics (with math)."

It was no duel, but a clever duet — a dialogue between two of the globe's most efficient minds, quietly reminding a generation drowning in AI-generated output that human intelligence still has requirements. Namely: numbers, patterns, and logic.

And yet, while this Twitter symposium was ongoing, Indian students had already decided. They weren't choosing math. Nor physics. Their latest craze? Prompt Engineering.

GenAI nation: India's AI learning boom

India currently tops the world in GenAI course enrollments, according to the Coursera Global Skills Report 2025, having reached over 1.3 million learners in 2024 alone. That's higher than the total number of learners in Europe. But here's the catch: India's global ranking in skill proficiency is a sobering 89. In AI-specific skills, we are at 46. Our showing in data (88) and tech (86) isn't a winning medal either.

We’re sprinting into the AI era — with shoelaces untied.

Math replaced by ‘hacks’

The paradox couldn’t be starker. While Durov extols math for its discipline, and Musk praises physics for its depth, the Indian learner appears focussed on something else entirely: Speed. Speed to certification. Speed to skill-badges. Speed to job-readiness.

And thus, Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT is India's number one most trending course (the Corsera Report shows) — a skill that's all about eliciting the correct responses from a language model without necessarily understanding the math or logic that drives it.

It's not a negation of STEM. It's a straining to shortcut the staircase and go by the elevator — in a building where the foundation is yet to be completed.

The shortcut economy

There's no denying that everything is being transformed by AI. The Coursera Job Skills Report 2025 uncovers the most rapidly growing workplace skills:

• Prompt Engineering
• AI Ethics
• Cybersecurity Risk Management
• Python for Data Analysis
• Cloud Infrastructure

It's an exhilarating list — and a frightening one, if you read between the lines.

All of these abilities rest on a foundation of literacy in logic, computation, and critical thinking. And yet, the Coursera report also indicates India lagging in all three.

Indian learners are adopting tools, but not the underlying thinking. This isn't a gap in skills — it's a mismatch in learning sequence.

Big brands, shallow depth

India's highest learner skills in 2025, according to Coursera, are:

• DevOps Tools
• Web Development
• Application Lifecycle Management
• Containerisation

All are beneficial. None demand a hard grasp of math or physics. While AI engineering and sophisticated data science — the true drivers of today's most revolutionary technologies — continue to elude most students without a solid STEM foundation.

It's like learning to fly by memorizing the in-flight safety demonstration.

The true test

This moment — a billion Indians pursuing GenAI and two tech giants nudging us back to first principles so gently — is a test.

Not of cleverness, but of patience. Not of talent, but of hunger — for deep learning, not merely quick learning.

For in 2025, mathematics remains difficult. Physics remains intricate. And genuine AI remains constructed by those who grasp both.

Indian students might be getting certificates at breakneck speeds. But the question that really matters is: Are we creating makers, or merely credentialed consumers?

Until then, Durov's subtle math lesson — and Musk's beautifully phrased nudge — could end up being unread footnotes in India's haste to download the future.

With the corporations adapting at the rate of growth intensifying at an unthinkable rate, businesses need to evolve the culture of continuous learning so that they always outdo the competition. Providing learning material to the employees readily, i.e., Internet learning modules, seminars, and professional courses, is all about structuring an organizational culture where learning is work by default.

Learning culture is the heart of leadership. Leaders will be motivated to learn themselves and make others learn through their team members, by doing. Growth mindset and feedback culture are the central point for propelling long-term growth.

India Today had an interview with Priyanka Anand, VP & Head HR, Southeast Asia Oceania and India, Ericsson as part of an effort to better understand how organizations can develop employees and become competitive.

ALIGNING LEARNING WITH ORGANISATIONAL GOALS

Learning activity organisational goal-based is guaranteed to bring returns on the organisation and employees. Organisations have structured development and enhancement programmes based on industry requirements, reflecting their continued pursuit of learning and growth.

EVALUATING SUCCESS OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

"In an effort to construct an end-to-end representation of Learning and Development (L&D) intervention influence, organisations must develop a multi-dimension measurement framework. They are Business Impact Analysis, Performance Metrics, and Behavioural and Cultural Observations, all of which are geared towards L&D effectiveness measurement," Priyanka Anand said.

IMPACT OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ON EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs are held accountable for creating feelings of belongingness among the employees in a manner that each and every employee feels valued and hence empowered. Through these programs, they have an equal opportunity for learning and development and wish to continue learning throughout their entire lifetime, which leads to more motivation, satisfaction, and turnover.

INNOVATION FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT

"Innovation and technology are great facilitators that drive employee growth and learning through efficient, agile, and customized learning. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality technologies augment experiential training experience and personalized learning journeys, while enhancing learning," she added.

To project Learning and Development interventions from organisational values and goals, companies must conduct rigorous needs analysis, engage leadership with programmes, integrate corporate values into training, and audit learning initiatives periodically and make modifications as well. This makes L&D interventions real, significant, and responsive to emerging business needs.