Anand Sudarshan
Founder & Director
Founder & Director of Sylvant Advisors, Anand Sudarshan is also an independent Director at NIIT. Anand has a Bachelor of Engineering degree(B.S Degree)in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India. “Academia is of course an unbeatable aspect of NITT but besides academics, NITT further delved into the nuances of entrepreneurship by planting ownership and responsibility as important traits in my early career”, says Anand.
Anand did his PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India. He currently advises companies and entities in the education sector and is an active professional independent director. In the past, he had been supporting the Government of India in policy formulation and is a member of select Committees & Task Forces of the erstwhile Planning Commission of India as well as the Ministry of Education. In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, Anand shares his professional journey and lets us the insights about the education industry in the article ahead.
Could you give a brief account of your professional background and experiences?
Till June 2012I was Vice Chairman & Managing Director of MaGE, where I had a satisfying career since May 2006. Prior to MaGE, I was the President of a software services entity. In 1989, I was a part of the founding team of The Microland Group and for almost 14 years I was a part of the team that built it into one of the leading privately held Indian technology enterprises.
Could you tell us about the unique experiences NITT offers and what did you learn from the campus beyond academics?
There is no particular order of importance, but all learnings from NITT have been immensely significant to shape my personality and career. I was just 16 years of age when I joined NITT and was away from my middle-income, semi-urban home for the first time. Life at NITT taught me many things that were crucial for me to emerge a strong professional leader later in life building friendships & teamwork, self starting & banking on personal initiatives, facing challenges & find a way, and continuing to remain curious for life.
How would you define Sylvant Advisors as an organization and its current position in the market?
Sylvant Advisors works with academic institutions and enterprises to prepare them for their next phase of growth and advises these institutions on these expansion and transformational plans. Sylvant also works with technology companies in the education sector that are redefining the building blocks of education in the globalization era on visioning, strategy business & operational excellence.
Sylvant Advisors through its partners has angel invested in a portfolio of EdTech companies, some of which have already gone on to reach sustainable revenues & raise additional rounds of funding.
Could you tell us about the major factors you take into consideration while suggesting solutions to the clients?
Sylvant follows the developments in the education sector globally and
Till June 2012I was Vice Chairman & Managing Director of MaGE, where I had a satisfying career since May 2006. Prior to MaGE, I was the President of a software services entity. In 1989, I was a part of the founding team of The Microland Group and for almost 14 years I was a part of the team that built it into one of the leading privately held Indian technology enterprises.
Life at NITT taught me many things that were crucial for me to emerge a strong professional leader later in life
Could you tell us about the unique experiences NITT offers and what did you learn from the campus beyond academics?
There is no particular order of importance, but all learnings from NITT have been immensely significant to shape my personality and career. I was just 16 years of age when I joined NITT and was away from my middle-income, semi-urban home for the first time. Life at NITT taught me many things that were crucial for me to emerge a strong professional leader later in life building friendships & teamwork, self starting & banking on personal initiatives, facing challenges & find a way, and continuing to remain curious for life.
How would you define Sylvant Advisors as an organization and its current position in the market?
Sylvant Advisors works with academic institutions and enterprises to prepare them for their next phase of growth and advises these institutions on these expansion and transformational plans. Sylvant also works with technology companies in the education sector that are redefining the building blocks of education in the globalization era on visioning, strategy business & operational excellence.
Sylvant Advisors through its partners has angel invested in a portfolio of EdTech companies, some of which have already gone on to reach sustainable revenues & raise additional rounds of funding.
Could you tell us about the major factors you take into consideration while suggesting solutions to the clients?
Sylvant follows the developments in the education sector globally and
understands stakeholder expectations. It anticipates key opportunity areas that such trends highlight. This experience and knowledge are churned in our 'Insights Engine' which helps us envision the future of Education.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behavior that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
We predominantly work in the education sector and we have seen the increasing impact of technology in education over the last two decades. This of course had a peak impact during the pandemic, when most institutions were forced to abruptly transition to using technology platforms & rely almost exclusively on remote learning. We have always clearly held that the future of learning teaching is going to be through a blended combination of physical classrooms & technology driven learning.
The exact form & nature of this hybridization will play out over the next few years, and will naturally be different for different age groups, and different education scenarios. With social media and increased complexities in the world, the learning context will continue to morph & evolve, with technology playing an important supportive role. And that will be good, and will usher in new models of education India will be a pioneering development sandbox in education for the world, I believe, leading education, not to the next levels in the next decade and more. The future is very bright and is filled with a lot of opportunities.
Entrepreneurship will continue to flourish, while companies and markets mature. Investors in both private and public companies are becoming sharply focused on strong foundations being built, and I see a greater emphasis on corporate governance, which will act as an additional impetus for entrepreneurs to build sustainable corporations.
Anand Sudarshan, Founder & Director, Sylvant Advisors
Anand is an avid reader with interests spanning a wide range and is right now educating himself on Indian history (in particular that of South India). His favourite cuisine is Lebanese and he has an eclectic taste in music.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behavior that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
We predominantly work in the education sector and we have seen the increasing impact of technology in education over the last two decades. This of course had a peak impact during the pandemic, when most institutions were forced to abruptly transition to using technology platforms & rely almost exclusively on remote learning. We have always clearly held that the future of learning teaching is going to be through a blended combination of physical classrooms & technology driven learning.
The exact form & nature of this hybridization will play out over the next few years, and will naturally be different for different age groups, and different education scenarios. With social media and increased complexities in the world, the learning context will continue to morph & evolve, with technology playing an important supportive role. And that will be good, and will usher in new models of education India will be a pioneering development sandbox in education for the world, I believe, leading education, not to the next levels in the next decade and more. The future is very bright and is filled with a lot of opportunities.
Entrepreneurship will continue to flourish, while companies and markets mature. Investors in both private and public companies are becoming sharply focused on strong foundations being built, and I see a greater emphasis on corporate governance, which will act as an additional impetus for entrepreneurs to build sustainable corporations.
Anand Sudarshan, Founder & Director, Sylvant Advisors
Anand is an avid reader with interests spanning a wide range and is right now educating himself on Indian history (in particular that of South India). His favourite cuisine is Lebanese and he has an eclectic taste in music.