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tion. Burnwal was born in a low-income
Future plans. Encouraged by public household in Dhanbad (Jharkhand).
response, EThames has drawn up However, through determined study
plans to expand the menu of indus- and application, he became an
try and job-oriented professional academic topper in school. Subse-
courses. “Certified GRC (governance, quently, he performed creditably
risk, and compliance), Certified As- in the highly competitive IIT-JEE,
surance, Certified IT risk and Certi- often described as the world’s most
fied ESG (environment, social, and competitive engineering exam, to be
governance) professional courses are admitted into the Marine Engineer-
almost ready. In addition, we plan to ing & Research Institute, Kolkata.
offer part-time courses in data sci- After graduating in 2006, he was
ence, analytics, and cloud technolo- campus recruited by British Petro-
gies, essential in today’s tech-driven leum where he served for four years.
jobs market,” says Gadiraju and adds Following the trajectory of qualified
that Indian industry is not interested engineers, in 2010, Burnwal signed
Gadiraju: industry-aligned programmes in white collar business management up for the high-ranked Institute of
and commerce graduates. “They Management Technology, Ghaziabad
tion,” Gadiraju acquired EThames, need to be equipped with comple- (IMT-G) for a two-year fulltime
an education brand started in Lon- mentary skills that make them MBA program. While a postgrad
don in 2021. industry-ready,” he says. student at IMT-G, he chanced upon
Since establishment of the col- Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru) a notification of the National Talent
lege in Hyderabad in 2009, 3,500 Search Examination (NTSE), offer-
students have signed up (tuition fees Scholarships ing scholarships for class X students.
range Rs.1.45-2 lakh per year) for This prompted him to recall his own
EThames College programmes and childhood when information on stu-
1,400 have graduated and have been consolidator dent scholarships was scarce, and he
recruited by MNCs like Deloitte, EY, set upon a mission to gather scholar-
PwC etc. SHUTOSH BURNWAL is ships data. Scouring newspapers for
Direct talk. “During my long career in Founder-CEO of Buddy4S- scholarship ads in the IMT-G library,
EY, I discerned a huge and widening Atudy.com, a scholarships he put together a database of 65
gap between Indian industry and aggregator firm promoted by the scholarships available to the public.
academia. The country’s universities Noida-based Smiling Star Advisory Direct talk. “I wanted to share this
are churning out a large number of Pvt. Ltd. Moreover, he is director of data with the public, especially
ill-qualified youth through delivery Buddy4Study Foundation and Men- students and parents. This led me to
of outdated syllabuses and curricu- tor of Change, the Atal Innovation conceptualise a specialised website
lums. On the other hand, India Inc Mission of Niti Aayog since 2020. for scholarships. Together with Raj
needs graduates with well-developed Established in 2011, Buddy4S- Burnwal: scholarships website
skills in emerging fields like cyber tudy.com is an online platform that
security, data science etc. To address aggregates information on higher
this problem, we have assembled a education scholarships offered to
group of highly qualified mentors Indian students by government, non-
and industry professionals from profit organisations, corporates, In-
top-ranked firms and companies dian/foreign trusts, foundations and
including Deloitte, EY, PwC, TCS, universities. Moreover, it provides
Infosys, and Accenture to develop scholarship management services to
industry-aligned study programmes 150-plus non-profit organisations,
for our students,” says Gadiraju. trusts, companies and government
EThames provides students agencies. Currently, Buddy4Study.
full access to 5,000 courses on the com has a live database of over
Coursera platform, and to 42 short 70,000 scholars.
duration business management Newspeg. Last October (2023), Bud-
programs by connecting students dy4Study.com celebrated its 12th
with the ManageMentor program of anniversary.
Harvard Business Publishing Educa- History. One of four brothers,

MARCH 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 57