Institute For Future Education, Entrepreneurship & Leadership

Sarath Shyam
Dr. Sanjay Salunkhe, Founder, Institute for Future Education, Entrepreneurship & Leadership
Founded and conceptualized by the distinguished educationist, Dr. Sanjay Salunkhe, Institute for Future Education, Entrepreneurship & Leadership (iFEEL) has evolved into a replica of modern B-School through filling the significant gap in learning outcomes and desired skills. Located in the serene atmosphere of Lonavala, Maharashtra, the institute since its establishment in 2009 has been instrumental in providing the business aspirants an inspiring platform for realizing their dreams by getting access to an immensely innovative curriculum framework.

Decades before anyone uttered the term 'big data' or 'data analytics,' businesses were using basic analytics - essentially numbers in a spreadsheet that were manually examined - to uncover insights and trends. In fact, we have already generated more data in the past couple of years than in the entire history of human kind. By 2020, every person in the world would be creating at least 7 MBs of data every second. Since the data has taken the world by storm with no signs of slowing down, there is an unfathomable scale of opportunities available for a graduate who has been trained efficiently to thrive in this growing industry. "India currently contributes to 12 percent of worldwide analytics and data science job openings, making it the largest analytics hub in the world, outside the US. However, as per the industry reports, we will face a demand-supply gap of 2 Lakh Data Analytics Professionals by 2020. This leads to a huge demand-supply void, which essentially needs to be fulfilled," says Dr. Sanjay Salunkhe, Group Director, Institute for Future Education, Entrepreneurship & Leadership (iFEEL).

Covering a wide range of courses like PGDM and varied certification program including a special 11 months Business Analytics certification program, iFEEL answers the increasing demand for data analyst professionals in the business world

While, the demand outstrips supply in the data industry, it is estimated that by 2020, the analytics education market in India is going to be around Rs. 300 - 400 Crores. Located in Lonavala in Maharashtra, Institute for Future Education, Entrepreneurship & Leadership (iFEEL) is one of the few modern business schools in the country that has been striving to produce excellent data analysts with great business acumen. Covering a wide range of courses like PGDM and varied certification program including a special 11 months Business Analytics certification program, iFEEL answers the increasing demand for data analyst professionals in the business world. "With a view to provide good quality management education at affordable fee to the management filed aspirants, we have strived to improve our offering by providing many value adding propositions since our establishment in 2009," pinpoints Dr. Salunkhe.

Offering a Global Education for Business Analysts

The key observations over the last few years show that globally management education is shifting from a generalized liberal program to tech-skills (CS) based one. However, are the management institutions in our country ready to embrace technology and blend themselves as a Techno-Managerial organization? Dr. Salunkhe opines, "Indian B-schools are still contemplating how to incorporate 'engineering' subjects into course curriculum. The significant gap in learning outcomes and desired skills can be fulfilled by a modern business school like iFEEL."

With meaningful industry partnerships and out-of-the-box teaching methodologies, iFEEL definitely falls into the category of modern business schools. Business Analytics certification provided by iFEEL has innovative curriculum developed for the programs jointly and is delivered by IBM designated subject matter experts and iFEEL faculty member. This 11 months program provides students with intensive hands-on training to develop the necessary and unique set of skills required for successful career in data science. "We involve our self in the data science community and continually keep update on the evolution of the course curriculum," says Dr. Salunkhe.

Owing to the exceptional quality of education that the institute has manifested over the years, iFEEL has become one of the most preferred choices for recruiters across the county. Hitting 100 percent placement mark every year, iFEEL graduates have been hired by prominent companies with packages ranging from Rs. 5 Lakhs to Rs. 11. 5 Lakhs per annum. RR Ventures, ICICI Bank, Amul, TATA AIG, Webxress, FIS Global Financial Services, Xion Advertising, Tresvista Financial Services, Anand Rathi, Rallis India, Xion Advertising, Talencia, Andromeda, Byjus, HFFC, Kamascachter, Allstate Insurance, are few to name among them.

A Platform for Tomorrow's Leaders

To provide its students with the best corporate exposure possible, iFEEL has collaborated with Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL) and Design Impact (DI). This unique partnership has resulted in the development of one-of-its-kind program named Global Citizen Leadership Program. Dr. Salunkhe adds, "Global Citizen Leadership Program is designed to develop leadership, innovation and social engagement in the next generation of business leaders in India." Since 2013, iFEEL is engaging the students with business impact projects. In this six-month long project, students get an opportunity to work along with corporate leaders. At the end of it, they work to find a solution, which needs to be sustainable, implementable, acceptable and scalable for the company. "The program has a continuous evaluation process, which includes a midterm and a final presentation. Our students have worked with and provide sustainable solutions to companies like Pidilite, Bank of India, Future Group, Ador Multiproducts and many more," elaborates Dr. Salunkhe.

As an innovative business school with a great vision, today, iFEEl is a recipient of several awards and accolades. The recognition honored includes, 1st ranking in the IIT All India National Entrepreneurship Challenge (NEC) organized by IIT Bombay in 2015 and 2017, ranked Top B-School in India for Leadership & Entrepreneurship Development by 22nd BSA & DEWANG MEHTA B-School Awards 2014, referred as best B-School in developing Entrepreneurs and Leaders in India by World Education Congress 2013 and the list hardly gets an end. Moreover, the institute has also produced many eminent personalities who are now working all over the world. iFEEl's notable alumni are Swati Chavan, Senior Executive-COO's Office Rallis India Ltd, A Tata Enterprise, Rahul Rajurkar, founder of RR Ventures, which has a turnover of more than 1,000 crores, HemanSaralya who is working for Reliance Retail as Area Manager, Ganesh Mokashi, who is currently working at Future Hypercity as merchandise manager a e-commerce role.

Today, the campus of the institute that is endowed with excellent facilities has different clubs such as Alpha Beta Case Study club, which assist the students to learn through case studies and the Finance Club that is responsible to expose students to the finance world. "We have plans to initiate a twinning program for the PGP program. That means, iFEEL will team up with renowned institutions overseas and on that account, our students will be able to transfer their credits to the partnering universities after completing programs in iFEEL," concludes Dr. Salunkhe.

Current Issue

TheHigherEducationReview Tv