The Higher Education Review

An erudite engineering post-graduate and an esteemed alumna of MAEER's MIT College, Swati Chate is highly devoted to the development of MAEER's MIT Group of Institutions, which was founded by her father Prof. Dr. Vishwanath D. Karad, in the year 1983. Swati stepped into the post of Executive Director of MIT Group in 2006 and since then, she has been playing a crucial role in bringing new strategies of learning, and making the Group an ideal setting to train young minds. A strong-willed person whose action speaks louder than words, Swati guides various institutions under the Group to become research-based learning centres and also encourages their students to connect various elements of knowledge to form a coherent perspective of the whole, thus producing insightful, creative and analytical thinkers.

A Visionary Educationist and Efficient Administrator
Dr. Vishwanath D. Karad, Founder, Executive President and Managing Trustee of MIT Group of Institutions, comes from a rural background and was the first engineer from his village. He started his career as a professor in mechanical engineering at College of Engineering, Pune. With his vision for nation building, he was instrumental in setting up one of the first private engineering colleges in Maharashtra. This novel concept majorly contributed to the industrial and economic growth of the state by training numerous engineers for the 21st century. Thus, Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) was established in Pune in 1983 and got the cream of professors from government engineering colleges

throughout Maharashtra. In the last 35 years, under the able guidance of the visionary educationist Prof. Dr. Karad, MIT Group has grown to over 72 multidisciplinary educational institutions that train approximately 63,000 students every year. Following the footsteps of her father, Swati has contributed immensely in this journey.

In appreciation of the work carried out by MIT, Pune under the banner of World Peace Centre in championing the cause of promoting the value-based universal education system for spreading the message of peace in the society, based on the appropriate blending of science, technology and spirituality, UNESCO set up the Chair for Human Rights, Democracy, Peace and Tolerance in MIT in 1998.

Commenting on her experience of being an Executive Director and a managing committee member of this huge organization, Swati recalls, "Irrespective of the gender, everyone has their uniqueness to deal with various specialized tasks. What matters is a healthy competition in work, which enhances quality and meritocracy." She believes that everybody in this world has unique qualities and one should not compare oneself with others and try to focus on our own capabilities and qualities.

Swati informs that she aspires to create more opportunities for women in the form of employment and is fortunate to have many women working with her in tandem with her ideas. To empower women from marginalized sections of the society, Swati initiated the 'Saksham' program that trains and equips women through skill development.

Swati also understands the importance of spirituality and the need to integrate it in mainline education for bringing up future generations who think and act holistically. MIT Group endeavours to blend the time-tested spiritual concepts with modern education. "During the British rule, they had imposed their own education sys-

-tem to train Indians as clerks and subordinates. We are still continuing the same system and that is not helping us to have young minds with a research and innovation approach. Hence, we believe that we need to revive the value-based education system, which was the hallmark of India's ancient and self-sufficient society. Thus, we are focussing on developing ingenuity among the students," adds Swati.

With all the efforts, passion and the focus on enhancing the quality of education in India, MIT Group has entered into the league of research-oriented institutions with some unique ideas. For instance, MIT College of Railway Engineering and Research (MITCORER) was recently established in Barshi in Solapur District, where the curriculum is designed to meet the needs of the growing railway and infrastructure sector. Similarly, MIT School of Vedic Sciences (MITSVS) was established to train the students in the highly practical ancient sciences and philosophy for application in contemporary fields.

Now, MIT Group is planning to come up with one more university, which will be water centric. We all know that water is the most important aspect of life and is the biggest concern for the whole world. We understand the need to address all concerns about "water" through education.
"The latest feather in the cap is the biggest dome in the world, set up in MIT campus in Pune, which houses the Philosopher Saint Shri Dnyaneshwar World Peace Prayer Hall and World Peace Library. The library is spread over 62,500 sq. feet and books are imported from the universities around the world, while the prayer halls can accommodate 7,000 people," concludes Swati.

Thus, Swati endeavours to bring quality education to the aspiring students, along with a blend of ancient wisdom and modern technology. Such holistic higher education will go a long way in shaping the professionals of tomorrow for crafting the nation's destiny.