The Higher Education Review

The dearth of experiential learning, exposure to corporate leaders, industry visits, and entrepreneurship activities in the Indian education system make it difficult for the students to cope-up with the fast-paced industry. There are other reasons like inefficient communication and lack of global connect for the downfall of the students after graduation. Taking cognizance of this gap between the industry and the students, Institute for Future Education, Entrepreneurship and Leadership (iFEEL) started its journey to develop and nurture leadership and entrepreneurship excellence in the students. Located at Lonavala, iFEEL has industry-centric curricula and extensive industry connects through i6 speaker series and Global Citizen Leaders (GCL) Projects, International and Domestic Industrial Visits. iFEEL is imparting management education of global standards to the students and professionals, thus, turning them into responsible global citizens.

Faculty and Curriculum Layout
iFEEL has an exclusive pool of faculties which includes industry experienced professionals, practicing Business Lawyers and CA's that teach the students from the corporate perspective. The students learn from the experience-rich faculties about how to study business cases and provide a solution based on their analysis. The faculty members personally train and guide all the students on writing a research paper. Each faculty member mentors 40 students, which enables them to know the students' strengths and weaknesses thereby enabling them to develop the students better. On August 2018, iFEEL also conducted CSERD Global Summit in Research and Innovations to promote research and development in the institute campus.

"We have been undertaking research and development for the betterment of the industry and society since inception. In the process, we have built an intellectual pool of students, faculty, and alumni through innovative teaching-learning sessions and student-faculty development programs. Our GCL ­ Global Citizen Leaders program, conducted by the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL), USA is a 6-month experiential program where-in the students work in groups on 'Challenge Statements' to carry out primary and secondary research, undertake stakeholder mapping and bring out the opportunity statements. Throughout this process, the students are mentored by the faculty and corporate executives. At the end of the program, the students come out with prototypes or suggested solutions for the corporate. Over the years, this program has been appreciated by industry giants such as Rallis India, Future Group, Croma and INOX to name a few. Our partnership with IBM for Data Analytics, Value added certifications in Six Sigma, Digital Marketing, NCFM, HR Staffing and Recruitment are cutting edge and have made our students industry ready," says Dr. Sanjay Salunkhe, Group Director, iFEEL.

"iFEEL has an exclusive pool of faculties which includes industry experienced professionals, practicing Business Lawyers and CA's that teach the students from the corporate perspective"

On a regular basis, the faculty members of iFEEL participate in the Faculty Development Programs pertaining to their domain to stay aware of the latest developmental scenarios in the education sector. The institute also caters information pertaining to the education sector published on various print and electronic media to the faculty members that enables the faculties to design course and curriculum as per the latest trends in the industry.

Entrepreneurship Evolution
According to the words of the Present Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, published in India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), "Startup India is a revolutionary scheme that has been started to help the people who wish to start their own business." Following this

trend of growing start-up culture in India, iFEEL encourages the students to initiate businesses by mentoring and even financing good business plans. The students get a complete entrepreneurial experience because of this initiative. RAINLAB (RAIN represents, Reflect, Act Innovate and Nurture) on campus is a place where students work on their entrepreneurial ideas. The students have set-up small ventures like 'Eat and Treat', 'Yo Suppliers', 'Sams Choco Street' and 'Bicycles on Rent' in the campus itself which are supported by the institute on a sustainable basis. iFEEL has also given seed capital to one of its alumnus, Sanket Kulkarni who has started his venture called 'Big Smile Box'.

In addition to promoting and nurturing entrepreneurial activities on campus, the institute has introduced a very unique placement policy for the students. Students who want to venture into Entrepreneurship can opt for deferred placements and sit in the placement season with one of the two next graduating batches. The Placement Officer of iFEEL due proximity to the Country's financial Capital, Mumbai has an excellent network with the Corporates who regularly recruit from B-Schools. "We have nurtured and built upon these relationships over the past 9 years. We give a lot of practical exposure to the students by means of i6 series (Corporate talks) and pre-placement training. Some of our major recruiters are Deloitte, Tresvista Financial Services, Vodafone, Tata Rallis, Future Group, ICICI Bank, PNB Finance, Amul, Capgemini, Mahindra Logistics, and Tata AIG. Since our students hail from PAN India locations, recruiters find it comfortable to hire the students because of their positive attitude towards relocating at different places," elucidates Dr. Sanjay Salunkhe.

iFEEL is aware that the world is rapidly changing and it embraces the changes by aligning its curriculum to suit the changing needs of the industry by offering programs that develop specialized skills and knowledge in keeping with the industry needs. It is one of the pioneers in business education.