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Building India’s EdTech and AI Roadmap for Equitable Learning for Every Child
- Central Square Foundation (CSF) hosted the EdTech and AI Convening – Education Dialogues, a satellite event of the India AI Impact Summit, convening senior government leaders, philanthropies, global and Indian EdTech innovators, and education experts to reimagine how technology and AI can support learning at scale.
- The second edition of the Bharat Survey for EdTech (BaSE) launched – a unique, large-scale national survey by Central Square Foundation that offers insights across 10 States on access to, use of technology for teaching & learning among parents, teachers & children, and AI awareness among 12,500 underserved communities and households.
- Leaders underscored that evidence-backed innovation, strong system design, and cross-sector collaboration are critical to delivering measurable learning gains at scale.
NEW DELHI, Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Central Square Foundation (CSF) hosted the EdTech and AI Convening – Education Dialogues, a satellite event of the India AI Impact Summit, convening senior government leaders, philanthropies, global and Indian EdTech innovators, and education experts to reimagine how technology and AI can support learning at scale.
Delivering the keynote address, Chief Guest Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Education Minister, Government of India, spoke about the pathway towards achieving a Viksit Bharat by 2047 – where technology and AI become integral to ensuring quality education for all, empowering teachers, and preparing young people for the future of work.
Speaking at the launch of the Bharat Survey for EdTech 2025 Report, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Under the leadership of PM Modi, Digital India has truly come alive as a powerful means of empowerment. Rapid adoption of technology is part of India’s DNA. Our commitment is clear — technology must connect to every aspect of life and be integrated into everyday living so that it delivers ease, opportunity, employment, and empowerment. If you look at the BaSE (Bharat Survey for EdTech) report launched today by Central Square Foundation, you will see how deeply digital access has expanded across India — smartphones have proliferated, internet access has grown significantly, and AI preparedness is steadily rising. The foundation of this transformation is education. When technology is anchored in education, it becomes far more than an infrastructure upgrade — it becomes a powerful equaliser because it enables broad participation and makes education more democratic. I can say with confidence that we are moving in the right direction, building pathways for the next generation of India — and for the world.”
The event was also graced by Shri Sanjay Kumar (IAS), Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India, who highlighted the transformative impact of NIPUN Bharat in classrooms nationwide—from more confident readers to stronger number sense. He called for a bold integration of technology across every layer of the mission to ensure these gains are not only sustained, but accelerated. He said, “The launch of the Bharat Survey for EdTech (BaSE) 2025 is an important development for strengthening evidence-based policymaking in school education. A comprehensive, pan-India understanding of how EdTech is accessed, adopted, and used — particularly across underserved geographies — will enable us to better align policy, programme design, and implementation frameworks with ground realities. The insights from this report will help identify adoption gaps, infrastructure constraints, and capacity needs at the last mile. This, in turn, will support more targeted interventions, improved resource allocation, and stronger monitoring mechanisms to ensure technology investments translate into measurable learning outcomes at scale for all.”
In his address, Ashish Dhawan, Founder-Chairperson, Central Square Foundation said, “We are at a rare inflexion point where India’s strong digital foundations, growing evidence on what works, and the rapid rise of AI can together reimagine how we support every child’s learning — but only if innovation remains intentional, pedagogically grounded, and relentlessly equity-first.”
Shaveta Sharma-Kukreja, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Central Square Foundation, while delivering the welcome address said, “Over the past decade, technology has steadily reshaped how our children learn, how teachers are trained and teach, and how systems think about scale. And today, with the rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence, we find ourselves at a critical point — one that calls for both optimism and responsibility. The launch of the Bharat Survey for EdTech 2025 gives us key ground-level insights into how low-income households, students and teachers are actually accessing and using these technologies. We hope to see these help inform governments, innovators, civil society and philanthropies to ensure they truly serve every learner.”
A Global Moment for AI in Education
The Convening opened with reflections on the global moment for AI in education, as AI rapidly enters classrooms worldwide—unlocking new possibilities to personalise learning, empower teachers, and strengthen education systems. Benjamin Piper, Director, Global Education at the Gates Foundation underscored that realising this promise will require rigorous evidence, a strong equity lens, and context-sensitive implementation to ensure AI meaningfully benefits all learners, particularly those in low-resource settings. The Convening also showcased a range of pioneering innovations, from India and globally, in AI-led EdTech, illustrating how technology is being creatively leveraged to enhance teaching and learning across diverse contexts.
Building the Evidence Base for AI in Education
As AI tools proliferate in education, global and national leaders alike called for rigorous data and research to guide their effective use. Reinforcing this emphasis on data, Shri Amitabh Kant, former CEO, NITI Aayog, former G20 Sherpa (India), launched the 2nd edition of the Bharat Survey for EdTech (BaSE), a unique large-scale national survey by Central Square Foundation that provides insights on access to and use of technology for teaching and learning among parents, children and teachers from low-income backgrounds in India. Conducted across 10 states, the survey reached 12,500 households and 2,500 teachers from government and affordable private schools, exploring the foundational themes of access to, use of technology for teaching & learning among parents, teachers & children. The additional theme for BaSE 2025 was on AI awareness and use for teaching and learning. The findings signal that Bharat is increasingly going digital with 90% of households owning at least one smartphone and 63% of children already using technology for learning.
Scaling what works
Nobel Laureate Prof. Michael Kremer, & Director, Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago, emphasised that AI’s potential to improve learning outcomes must rest on clear, measurable evidence of efficacy – ensuring that innovation aligns with what truly drives impact in the classroom.
The discussions also highlighted what it takes to move from promising pilots to impact at scale, underscoring the importance of clear evidence on learning gains, enabling policy and infrastructure, and strong partnerships to ensure that effective approaches reach millions of children, not just a few projects.
Building Foundations for Responsible AI
Leaders from government, policy, and the innovation ecosystem discussed how India is building the architecture for the responsible and equitable deployment of AI in education.
The session outlined India’s vision to democratise AI through education-first digital public infrastructure, with the India AI Impact Summit advancing this agenda through the IndiaAI Mission’s investments in compute capacity, safe language models, and high-quality datasets. Bodhan AI, Centre of Excellence in AI for Education was highlighted as a key vehicle to translate this infrastructure into system-ready solutions and build capacity for responsible, scalable adoption across public education systems.
Flowing from this vision, the convening spotlighted AI Samarth—launched by Central Square Foundation with support from Google.org in 2024 — as India’s first structured, contextualised initiative to build AI literacy at scale among students, teachers, and parents from underserved communities—while Maggie Johnson, Global Head of Google.org, emphasised the importance of strengthening infrastructure and building institutional capacity to ensure communities across the Global South can meaningfully participate in and benefit from the AI transformation.
While giving the Plenary Address, Amitabh Kant, former CEO, Niti Aayog and Former G20 Sherpa (India) said, “This session is meaningful and of critical importance for both Global South and India. The BaSE 2025 report shows that access is no longer the primary bottleneck. The pressing question is whether increased access to devices is actually translating into improved learning. If India aspires to become a Viksit Bharat by 2047, that ambition cannot be realised without improvement in learning outcomes.”
While speaking at a Fireside chat on ‘Building Blocks for Responsible AI‘, Prof. B. Ravindran, Board Member, Bodhan AI, Centre of Excellence in AI for Education, IIT Madras, said, “It is important to know what the state of the system is and what the ground reality is. So we can understand a lot about what the ground reality is from these kinds of surveys and then go and solve for what AI needs to do.”
Speaking at a Fireside chat on Building AI Literacy for the Global South, Maggie Johnson, Global Head, Google.org, talked about the importance of including the community. “It is important to build with the community, design with the community and design for scale. Taking time to be in the community and understanding what it takes to use that technology and build that solution for them. These are some design principles that we have to assume in the Global South that devices will be outdated so anything that you build needs to be at scale also. You want to think about ‘Scaling’ early on in the process.”
About Central Square Foundation
Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit committed to improving learning outcomes for school-going children across 14 Indian states through system-led reform. We work in close partnership with 11 state governments to design and deliver statewide missions on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), while strengthening Early Childhood Education. CSF also focuses on building a vibrant EdTech and AI ecosystem to enable equitable, high-quality learning at scale. Our work extends to strengthening school governance across government and affordable private schools, and supporting High Potential Students (HPS) from underserved communities to become future innovators, researchers, and leaders. More on https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org
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Lumina Datamatics Wins IMC RBNQA – Performance Excellence Trophy 2025 in the Service Category
MUMBAI, India, May 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lumina Datamatics, a strategic partner to global publishers and eCommerce retailers, has won the IMC RBNQA – Performance Excellence Trophy 2025 in the Service category. The award was presented at a prestigious ceremony held at the IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Mumbai on 30th April 2026.
This esteemed recognition is part of the IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality (RBNQ) Awards for 2025, one of India’s most respected benchmarks for organizational excellence. The award underscores Lumina Datamatics’ unwavering commitment to business excellence, quality-driven processes, and continuous performance improvement. Notably, Lumina Datamatics Limited is the only organization recognized in the service segment this year, representing excellence across the Business Process Management spectrum.
The selection followed a rigorous multi-stage evaluation process conducted by an eminent panel of judges, assessing organizations on key parameters such as leadership, strategy, customer focus, operational effectiveness, and overall business performance.
Speaking on the achievement, Sameer Kanodia, Managing Director & CEO, Lumina Datamatics, and Vice Chairman & CEO, TNQTech said, “We are deeply honored to receive this recognition. This achievement reflects the collective dedication, collaboration, and relentless focus on quality demonstrated by our teams across the organization. It reinforces our commitment to delivering consistent value to our clients worldwide while continuously striving for excellence in everything we do.”
The milestone highlights Lumina Datamatics’ strong foundation in operational excellence and its ongoing efforts to set new benchmarks in service delivery across global markets.
About Lumina Datamatics:
Lumina Datamatics is a trusted partner in providing digital Content Services, Retail Support Services, and Technology Solutions to companies in the Publishing and Retail Industries worldwide. We are among the largest service providers in the Content space, and our customers include 8 of the top 10 academic publishers and 3 of the 5 largest Retailers and Marketplaces. Lumina Datamatics’ expert solutions combine its various in-house and client-facing platforms, partnerships with global technology leaders, and more than 7,500 professionals across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Philippines, and India. This integrated global capability enables the company to deliver scalable, high-quality solutions to clients worldwide.
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HOP Events, helmed by Kalpesh Kinariwala, bridges Indian talent and global prestige at the Shows of India 2026 Conclave
- The anchor sponsorship of the Shows of India 2026 Conclave marks HOP Events’ official pathway into the Indian subcontinent; the UAE-based premium live entertainment company aims to source and showcase extraordinary Indian talent in the markets it operates in.
- This move will bridge the gap between iconic Indian artists — rooted in Indian and South Asian culture — and world-class international venues and global audiences.
- In addition to headlining the conclave as its anchor sponsor, HOP Events also made its presence felt in crucial conversations and networking hubs, with Founder and Chairman Kalpesh Kinariwala gracing the conclave as a speaker.
NEW DELHI, May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — HOP Events, a UAE-based premium live entertainment company, made landfall on Indian shores through the eagerly awaited Shows of India 2026 Conclave. The sixth edition of the event, which drew to a close on May 2, brought together high-profile industry veterans, change-makers, and disruptors who are shaping the future of India’s live entertainment economy.
Led by industry trailblazer Kalpesh Kinariwala, HOP Events not only participated as the anchor sponsor for the conclave but also broke new ground by offering Indian talent and agencies unprecedented inroads into global markets and prestigious productions.
Held at Delhi’s upscale The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel, the two-day Shows of India 2026 Conclave is India’s most anticipated flagship gathering focused on the live entertainment, events, and experiential segments. It brings together key players from across the industry’s value chain, including event professionals, artist managers, promoters, brands, and creators, and facilitates industry-shaping conversations and collaborations.
HOP Events’ rationale for backing the Shows of India 2026 Conclave was simple but powerful – as a hub for some of the greatest artistic talent in the world, India stands to benefit immensely from HOP Events’ proven expertise in the premium live entertainment industry. With the conclave sitting at the intersection of India’s creative excellence and its commercial ambition, it is the perfect avenue for HOP Events to seek the artists, managers, collaborators, and cultural voices they want to elevate and present to the world. This anchor sponsorship is thus a declaration of HOP Events’ intent to champion Indian talent and carry it far beyond India’s borders.
Elaborating further on the sponsorship, Kalpesh Kinariwala, Founder and Chairman of HOP Events, who also spoke at the conclave, shared:
“India is producing some of the most streamed, most loved, and most culturally significant artists on the planet. Arijit Singh ranks ninth among Spotify’s top artists globally. A.R. Rahman has 75 million followers and ranks ahead of global superstars. Rishab Sharma is the number one followed sitar player in the world. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Aditya Gadhvi, Anuv Jain — these are artists with massive, passionate global fanbases.
Yet their presence on international stages, particularly in the Gulf and beyond, remains far below what their stature deserves. That is the opportunity HOP Events is seizing. The UAE is home to a millions-strong South Asian diaspora — professionals, families, and communities who are hungry for these artists and have both the means and the desire to attend premium live experiences. The Shows of India 2026 Conclave gives us the needed platform to engage with this talent ecosystem at exactly the moment when appetite for Indian talent on the global stage has never been higher.”
The conclave’s growing eminence as a premium, high-production-value platform was further underscored by its association with HOP Events, an industry leader in creating large-scale experiential events. Through the years, the Shows of India Conclave has differentiated itself through its trailblazing properties and a star-studded artist line-up. By essaying the role of anchor sponsor for India’s premier business and entertainment conclave, HOP Events is throwing the doors open for partnerships with Indian artist managers, talent agencies, record labels, and creative professionals.
As the force behind the sold-out Etihad Arena concert with Arijit Singh, A.R. Rahman, and Rishab Sharma, HOP Events knows what it takes to market Indian artists to global audiences, fill premium venues, and create experiences that do justice to the cultural magnitude these artists carry.
In the mid-to-long term, HOP Events aims to become the defining bridge between Indian artistic talent and the global stage. The company is actively scaling across the GCC and extending further into South Asian diaspora hubs globally, with the goal of bringing world-class talent backed by high-end productions and marketing sophistication to deep, passionate, and underserved audiences for Indian and South Asian cultural experiences.
About HOP Events
Founded by industry veteran Kalpesh Kinariwala, HOP Events is one of the UAE’s most prestigious names in premium live entertainment. It is hailed for curating global live experiences across the UAE and beyond. The company brings together eminent international artists, creativity, and immaculate organization on one stage, delivering world-class live concerts and entertainment experiences that make a lasting impression on the cultural fabric of the region. HOP Events’ expertise spans from close-up intimate performances to sold-out iconic arenas and includes notable names such as Arijit Singh, A.R. Rahman, and Rishab Sharma. The company differentiates itself through the three pillars of innovation, excellence, and a strong community focus. In doing so, it creates experiences that anchor communities, build connection, and foster a stronger sense of belonging, while delighting audiences with seamless execution, elevated experiences, and disruptive thinking.
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MSEED and SCOPE Global Skills University Sign Strategic Partnership to Shape the Future of Experiential Marketing Education
MUMBAI, India and BHOPAL, India, May 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Premium education institute MSEED (The Management School of Events and Experience Design) today partnered with SCOPE Global Skills University, Bhopal, to introduce a two-year MBA in Event Management and Experiential Marketing.
Besides boosting students academically, this association intends to equip them with the evolving demands of events and the experiential marketing ecosystem. Furthermore, the collaboration will be fueled by industry expertise and academic structure, helping students build a career in the fast-growing fields of events, entertainment, and experiential marketing.
At a time when experiential marketing is ‘evolving from a tactical activation to a strategic growth engine for brands’, this collaboration serves right.
Speaking on this exclusive partnership between MSEED and SCOPE, Joshua Newman, Vice-President – Marketing & Partnerships, MSEED, said, “Our focus has always been on outcomes, not just education. This partnership allows us to extend that vision by working with SCOPE Global Skills University to create a program that prepares students for real careers. From curriculum to classroom delivery and industry exposure, every aspect is designed to ensure that students graduate with confidence, clarity, and practical experience.”
The MBA program is designed to:
- Provide a recognized postgraduate qualification with a specialized focus
- Build practical skills through real-world projects and case studies
- Offering industry interaction, mentorship, and exposure
- Support students with internship and placement opportunities
Dr. Vijay Singh, Vice Chancellor of SGSU, hailed the launch as a landmark moment for the city. “This is a remarkable event not just for our university, but for the city of Bhopal. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in how specialized education is delivered in Madhya Pradesh. By launching this MBA in Event Management, we are providing our youth with a platform to master the art of execution, creativity, and management right here in their home state,” he said.
The partnership was formally cemented through the signing of an agreement between the two institutions in the esteemed presence of Mangubhai C. Patel, the current and 19th Governor of Madhya Pradesh, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of industry-integrated education in India.
For more information on events and experiential marketing, please visit our website.
Media Contacts:
For media inquiries, please contact
Tasneem Limbdiwala
tasneem@mseededucation.com
About MSEED
MSEED, a part of EVA Group, India’s one of the largest live event companies, and backed by 200 odd industry veterans, the institute brings with it deep-rooted industry expertise and real-world insights. It is a creative business institute designed for the next generation of storytellers, strategists, producers, and brand builders. The mission is not just to prepare students for jobs, but to lead industries.
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Lumina Datamatics Wins IMC RBNQA – Performance Excellence Trophy 2025 in the Service Category
HOP Events, helmed by Kalpesh Kinariwala, bridges Indian talent and global prestige at the Shows of India 2026 Conclave
HOP Events, helmed by Kalpesh Kinariwala, bridges Indian talent and global prestige at the Shows of India 2026 Conclave
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