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al schools in Greater Noida, Swarn- tion institutions of the group up and
prastha Public in Sonipat and Glory running, Saxena has drawn up big
Public schools in New Delhi. More- plans to scale the Sparsh schools
over, the group has promoted and footprint across the country under
manages three higher ed institutions the franchise model, and consoli-
(HEIs) — Indore Institute of Science date the HEIs in Indore. “We plan
& Technology, Indore Institute of to consolidate our Indore-based
Management & Research, and Indore HEIs into a government-legislated
Institute of Pharmacy. Aggregate private university. Seven years after
enrolment: 8,000 students mentored we ventured into education, we feel
by 700 faculty. confident that the Sparsh Group has
Newspeg. Sparsh Global Business developed the expertise to introduce
School, Greater Noida is all set to best practices mandated by NEP
admit its first batch of 60 graduate 2020 to transform India into an edu-
students into its two-year postgrad cation superpower,” says Saxena.
diploma programme. Way to go!
History. An alum of Rohilkhand Uni- Autar Nehru (Delhi)
versity and business management Saxena: national footprint plan
postgrad of IMS Ghaziabad, Saxena launched two greenfield projects — New-age edtech
began his career in marketing with
the US-based Columbia Broadcast- Sparsh Global School and the Sparsh
ing Service, followed with stints in Global B-school — both in Greater services provider
Business Press and Gadgil Western Noida.
Group. In 1997, he signed up with Direct talk. “Our entry into education olkata-based entrepreneur
the (now defunct) Indian Institute of was driven by the awareness of our MANISH MOHTA is founder-
Planning and Management (IIPM), chairman Roshan Agarwal that Kdirector of edtech company
where during a 17-year stint he India needs new-age curriculums, Learning Spiral Pvt. Ltd (LSPL,
gained valuable experience in man- pedagogies and practices. Therefore estb.2019, headcount: 125) — a whol-
aging education institutions. after revamping and upgrading ly owned subsidiary of the Kolkata-
In 2015, he was hand-picked our acquired schools, to attain based Mohta Group of companies
and selected by Roshan Agarwal, the lofty goals of Viksit Bharat with interests in steel, power, copper,
chairman of the Sparsh Group, to and $30 trillion GDP set by prime chemicals, and plastics (annual turn-
lead their foray into education. Since minister Narendra Modi, in 2023 over: Rs.300 crore). Promoted five
then, Saxena has spearheaded the we launched the K-12 Sparsh Global years ago, LSPL offers student as-
group’s entry into K-12 and higher School affiliated with Cambridge sessment and online exams services
education through a mix of acquisi- International, UK, and earlier to higher education institutions and
tions and promotion of greenfield this year, Sparsh Global Business Mohta: innovative solutions
institutions. “In the first phase, from School. Public response to both
2015-17, we adopted the ‘Edu- these greenfield institutions is very
preneurship through Acquisition’ encouraging. Sparsh Global School
model, and acquired JP Interna- with its 21st century curriculum
tional, Swarnprastha Public and integrating STEM, entrepreneurship
Glory Public schools in Delhi NCR and social/emotional learning has
followed by HEIs in Indore. Since attracted over 1,000 students. And
then, we have been engaged in in- the Sparsh B-School which will begin
frastructure upgradation and faculty operations in July-August is all set to
training to transform these schools admit its first batch of 60 graduate
and colleges into high quality, glob- students. Currently, we are engaged
ally benchmarked institutions,” says in fulfilling the regulatory norms and
Saxena, conferred an honoris causa obtaining necessary clearances to
doctorate in business administration administer all our schools and HEIs
by Maryland State University, USA, under the Sparsh umbrella brand
earlier this year. by the end of the current academic
Soon after the Covid pandemic year,” says Saxena.
restrictions were eased, the group Future plans. With all seven educa-

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