– Ronita Torcato 

The Maharashtra State Teacher Development Agency (MSFDA) has launched ‘Naridrishti’ (Nurturing Visionary Women Leaders for Transformation in Academia), a special five-day residential programme for mentoring women academics.

Designed to build capacity and foster leadership qualities among women professors across the state’s higher education sector, the programme was inaugurated virtually by Chandrakantdada Patil, minister for higher and technical education.

The virtual launch was attended by several educational and administrative heads including B. Venugopal Reddy, additional chief secretary – higher and technical education, Dilip Sardesai, commissioner, State Common Entrance Examination Cell; Dr. Shailendra Devlankar, director of higher education; Dr. Vinod Mohitkar, director of technical education; Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan, chancellor, Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute and several vice chancellors.

In his address, Chandrakantdada Patil urged women professors to look beyond traditional teaching roles and actively engage in research, administration, policy formulation, and institutional leadership.

Highlighting national progress under prime minister Narendra Modi’s women-centric policies, the minister noted that women are excelling in science, defense, and administration. He expressed confidence that ‘Naridrishti’ would boost participants’ confidence and drive systemic change.

Dr. Shailendra Devlankar lauded the simultaneous launch of three major MSFDA initiatives aimed at making Maharashtra’s higher education institutions more competitive globally and aligning them with NEP 2020:

‘Naridrishti’ – Women’s Leadership Development Program.

Teaching with Smart Technology FDP. (Project-Based Learning )

CO-PO Integration & Micro Planning for Outcome-Based Accreditation FDP.

These initiatives are designed to empower faculty with experiential teaching methods, technology integration, and outcome-based learning.