Souvik Sarkar: A Keen Strategist & Visionary Leader Making Quality Education Accessible To All
Souvik Sarkar
Director
Looking at the improved market opportunity for online education platforms, many startups as well as popular brands have joined the sector.To make quality education, innovative as well as affordable to every one,a group of IITians and professionals started the online education platform, Vidyartham. After an accomplished career in many sectors such as Business Operations, strategies, customer relations, BFSI, and so on, Souvik Sarkar joined Vidyartham as its Director and has built the overall business operation of the firm from the scratch. Under his able leadership, the firm has already touched more than 5000 lives over a decade and looking forward to achieving more.
In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, Souvik shares his early education and professional experience, the latest technologies adopted by Vidyartham to stay abreast of the latest trends, and much more.
Brief us about your educational and professional background.
Keen learner, willingness to adapt to changes, exploring new avenues has been my motivation in completing Ph.D. I have completed my B.Com from Seth Anandram Jaipuria College and later on have done my distance MBA from Sikkim Manipal University. I have more than 25 years of rich experience in various domains such as business operation, strategy, education management, and so on. I started my career as Operations Executive at ITC Classic Finance. Later on, I joined Giltedge Infotech Services as a Senior Executive Operations before joining Apeejay Surrendra Group as Manager Operations. I later joined Anagram Securities Ltd as its Regional Manager– Operations(East).
Later, I joined Reliance Securities as Zonal Manager Operations and worked my way up through the firm
to be come its Head- Customer Service. I moved on within the group to Reliance Money Infrastructure as Head-Alternate Channel. After working at Reliance for more than 10 years, I joined VIBGYOR Group of Schools as its Vice President- Skill Development Special projects before joining Riopath Technologies Private as a Consultant to gain knowledge on the Technology front. Since November 2020, I have been on the board at Vidyartham. I am also an Advisor to Ekodemy, a cloud based LCMS and Chariot A Dhruv Agarwal Foundation Initiative in the domain of preventive and promotive Mental HealthCare.
What inspired you to venture into the education sector? What is the motivation that fuels your daily routine?
Around 2012, while I was working at Reliance Securities as the Head of Customer Support, I wanted to do something else, and then came the opportunity from the firm itself. They wanted to reach-out to educational institutions propagating training modules on the BFSI sector which would help aspiring students wanting to pursue a career, and I was the first person for the said vertical and built it from scratch.
We introduced On-Ground Training for the aspirants, which was a big hit since they got accustomed to the work culture, expectations from the employers, practical knowledge in executing respective job roles, and how to sustain the same. I am thankful to the then Executive Director of Reliance Securities at that time who has gave me an opportunity for the same and forever changed my career goals. My quest to learn something new motivates me to get going.
Define Vidyartham as an organization. What makes the institution unique from the other competitors in the sector
Founded by a team of IITians and professionals, Vidyartham provides online tutoring and mentoring to students in grades VI-XII. In a span of a year & a half, the platform has helped more than 5000 students through its innovative way of teaching. The foundation for the firm has been laid by our founders Sachin Panda (B.Tech & M.Tech IIT Bombay), Prativesh Namdeo(B.Tech IIT Varanasi), and Sriram Rngarajan (CAIIB, LLB, MBA) and Biswajit Das (Gold Medalist PGDM in Material Managements). We aim to make education accessible to all. We have a fabulous WFH policy that reduces infra cost drastically and at the same time is productive with measurables in place. We aim to take our initiative to the state board
We aim to take our initiative to the state board students many of whom lack technical knowledge and aim to provide quality learning at an affordable price
What inspired you to venture into the education sector? What is the motivation that fuels your daily routine?
Around 2012, while I was working at Reliance Securities as the Head of Customer Support, I wanted to do something else, and then came the opportunity from the firm itself. They wanted to reach-out to educational institutions propagating training modules on the BFSI sector which would help aspiring students wanting to pursue a career, and I was the first person for the said vertical and built it from scratch.
We introduced On-Ground Training for the aspirants, which was a big hit since they got accustomed to the work culture, expectations from the employers, practical knowledge in executing respective job roles, and how to sustain the same. I am thankful to the then Executive Director of Reliance Securities at that time who has gave me an opportunity for the same and forever changed my career goals. My quest to learn something new motivates me to get going.
Define Vidyartham as an organization. What makes the institution unique from the other competitors in the sector
Founded by a team of IITians and professionals, Vidyartham provides online tutoring and mentoring to students in grades VI-XII. In a span of a year & a half, the platform has helped more than 5000 students through its innovative way of teaching. The foundation for the firm has been laid by our founders Sachin Panda (B.Tech & M.Tech IIT Bombay), Prativesh Namdeo(B.Tech IIT Varanasi), and Sriram Rngarajan (CAIIB, LLB, MBA) and Biswajit Das (Gold Medalist PGDM in Material Managements). We aim to make education accessible to all. We have a fabulous WFH policy that reduces infra cost drastically and at the same time is productive with measurables in place. We aim to take our initiative to the state board
students many of whom lack technical knowledge and aim to provide quality learning at an affordable price, which makes us standout from the rest in the market.
What is your take on the dynamic technology trends in the education sector and how would you describe its interventions in your organization? What drives the adoption of the latest technologies in your institution?
As the impact of the pandemic has started reducing , Hybrid Model is the only way forward for the education sector. The mixture of Reality, Artificial intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will impact every area of human activity, and education is certainly no exception. We also have incorporated AI in our LMS and the way content is delivered to our students, while making sure the content is delivered to each of the students based on their capability and allows them to improve at the best possible gradient.
The passion to provide the best possible education both in terms of quality and efficiency for the learner/students to grasp and grow is what drives the adoption of the latest technologies at our firm. We want to adopt technology not to just attract students, but also to impart knowledge most efficiently.
Tell us about the most effective methodology and technologies used in your organization to ensure better learning experiences for your students
As mentioned above, we provide both Synchronous and Asynchronous learning options with a graded and learner-based delivery model. A weaker student might get a different study pathway or delivery model as compared to a better student, though the end result targeted is the same. Our Cloud-Based content delivery allows students to be able to access it at any time. Even the AI/ML engine in our system allows students to learn at the required pace and level best suited for them.
Souvik Sarkar, Director, Vidyartham
Having extensive experience spanning more than 25 years in various sectors such as Business operation, Strategy, Education Management, Customer Experience & Process Excellence, Souvik is a keen strategist, visionary & change agent and is presently working as the Director of online learning platform-based firm, Vidyartham. An alumnus of Seth Anandram Jaipuria College, he joined the education sector after years of experience in business process and BFSI to face some new challenges and has built the entire firm’s business operation from the scratch.
Hobbies: Playing Badminton, watching movies & going on long drives
Favorite Cuisine: Biriyani
Favorite Book: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Favorite Travel Destination:
Kashmir
What is your take on the dynamic technology trends in the education sector and how would you describe its interventions in your organization? What drives the adoption of the latest technologies in your institution?
As the impact of the pandemic has started reducing , Hybrid Model is the only way forward for the education sector. The mixture of Reality, Artificial intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will impact every area of human activity, and education is certainly no exception. We also have incorporated AI in our LMS and the way content is delivered to our students, while making sure the content is delivered to each of the students based on their capability and allows them to improve at the best possible gradient.
The passion to provide the best possible education both in terms of quality and efficiency for the learner/students to grasp and grow is what drives the adoption of the latest technologies at our firm. We want to adopt technology not to just attract students, but also to impart knowledge most efficiently.
Tell us about the most effective methodology and technologies used in your organization to ensure better learning experiences for your students
As mentioned above, we provide both Synchronous and Asynchronous learning options with a graded and learner-based delivery model. A weaker student might get a different study pathway or delivery model as compared to a better student, though the end result targeted is the same. Our Cloud-Based content delivery allows students to be able to access it at any time. Even the AI/ML engine in our system allows students to learn at the required pace and level best suited for them.
Souvik Sarkar, Director, Vidyartham
Having extensive experience spanning more than 25 years in various sectors such as Business operation, Strategy, Education Management, Customer Experience & Process Excellence, Souvik is a keen strategist, visionary & change agent and is presently working as the Director of online learning platform-based firm, Vidyartham. An alumnus of Seth Anandram Jaipuria College, he joined the education sector after years of experience in business process and BFSI to face some new challenges and has built the entire firm’s business operation from the scratch.
Hobbies: Playing Badminton, watching movies & going on long drives
Favorite Cuisine: Biriyani
Favorite Book: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Favorite Travel Destination:
Kashmir