Education Briefs

October 17, 2026 /Posted byPrajwal EW / 0

NMAJS-ECIS conference

Mumbai, september 10. The Mumbai-based Nita Mukesh Ambani Junior School (NMAJS) is set to host the Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS) Leadership Conference on October 23-24.

ECIS is an organisation with 60 years of history supporting international schools in more than 100 countries. Among the delegates to join the leadership conference are Marc Brackett, Founding-Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence; Helen Morgan, ECIS Head of Leadership Development and Learning; Inventure Academy, Bengaluru’s Meenakshi Elangovan; Research Scholar Rebecca Tickell; Marsha Maxwell, Head of Innovation, Research and Technology at Atlanta International School, USA and Tim Stuart, Director of Leadership at Search Associates, USA.

“ECIS and NMAJS are making a clear statement that human flourishing deserves more than a mission statement. It deserves a conference of its own,” says a NMAJS media release.

NIIT U AI Excellence centre

New delhi, october 7. The Neemrana (Rajasthan)-based NIIT University (NU) inaugurated a new AI Centre of Excellence, a dedicated facility that brings enterprise-grade GPU computing and industry-standard AI tools directly to its campus.

“At NIIT University, we believe artificial intelligence should not only be taught, it should be built. This Centre of Excellence reflects our commitment to experiential learning, giving students access to the same class of infrastructure used by the US-based AI market leader NVIDIA Technologies, right from the start of their degree programme,” said Prof. Prakash Gopalan, President, NIIT University, speaking on the occasion. The Centre is powered by an enterprise-grade AI technology stack, including NVIDIA DGX YodaEdge systems, he added.

IIT-Ropar’s AVNI initiative

New delhi, October 6. IIT-Ropar’s ANNAM.AI introduced AVNI, a new digital learning initiative that combines AI and experiential learning to build agricultural awareness among children from early age.

Developed by Dr. Mukesh Saini, Co-project Director of ANNAM.AI is a web and mobile app to introduce children to agriculture and nature through AI-powered exploration in their local environments. “We are working towards making agricultural knowledge accessible and engaging for children. AVNI has been developed as a free, ads-free and privacy-focused learning platform, enabling safe and focused learning and discovery,” says Dr. Saini, adding that the app enables children to explore crops, fruits, vegetables, spices, cereals and millets in their everyday environments.

TrackShift Innovation Challenge

Bengaluru, september 15. In partnership with Plaksha University, Mohali, the Bengaluru-based Mphasis Foundation hosted the second edition of the TrackShift Innovation Challenge on September 12-13 at the university’s campus. At the 24-hour applied innovation challenge 180 undergraduate and postgraduate student innovators (selected from 3,600 applicants from across India) presented scalable proofs of concept at the intersection of artificial intelligence, mobility and intelligent systems.

Developed as part of Mphasis’ multi-year association with the TGR Haas Formula 1 Team, TrackShift 2026 challenged students to apply newly-emergent technologies including computer vision, data science and predictive modelling to engineering problems drawn directly from elite motorsports. Solutions developed during the challenge are available through open repository on the TrackShift website, accessible to industry partners, academia, startups and research labs.

The top three winning teams were awarded cash prizes of Rs.1,00,000, Rs.50,000, and Rs.25,000, respectively and mentorship-based internships at Mphasis. The winning teams were: Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore (first prize) followed by Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur, and Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi, in that order.

“Engineers are shaped by the problems they are given. TrackShift puts that belief to the test every year, and this edition with its focus on overtake intelligence, track limit detection and tyre degradation intelligence, pushed students into the kind of complexity our industry partners deal with daily,” said Prof. M. Balakrishnan, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Plaksha University speaking on the occasion.

TCS Literacy Program

Mumbai, september 7. Marking International Literacy Day, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the well-known Mumbai-based IT services, consulting, and business solutions company celebrated the milestone of 5 million beneficiaries and 493,928 facilitators of the company’s technology-driven literacy programme.

Initiated by the late Dr. F.C. Kohli, the legendary Founder-CEO of TCS in the new millennium year, the company’s technology-driven literacy programme targets illiterate adults, especially women and underserved communities.

“At TCS, we view literacy as a catalyst for social and economic empowerment, enabling individuals to participate more fully in society and shape better futures for themselves and their families. Through the TCS Literacy Program, we are helping to create pathways to dignity, self-reliance, and sustainable livelihoods for millions,” said Joseph Sunil Nallapalli, Global Head, CSR at TCS, speaking on the occasion.

Tags: EducationWorld October 2026

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“Most schools never consciously chose their basic unit. They inherited one from the past: the class. With the class as the focus, the things that happen between people get squeezed out: the apprentice learning alongside someone skilled, the child taught where they are rather than where the class is, and the daily practice of getting along with people they did not choose. The most promising new schools are organising themselves around the individual child rather than the class. A better approach is to group children by readiness in each subject and change those groups as they progress. Communication, collaboration and handling disagreement need daily practice. In a school built around individual progress, teachers get time back to observe, diagnose, mentor and step in where they are most needed. Most teachers entered the profession to make a difference to children. Many spend their careers managing classes instead. The best new schools offer them a system that finally lets them do the work they signed up for.”

- Rahul Raghavan, Economic Times, (27/10)

“Prevention begins with understanding young people, their struggles and the environments in which they grow up. A sense of belonging, nurturing relationships and meaningful social interactions can play a crucial role in protecting adolescents from substance abuse. When young people feel connected to their families, schools and communities, they are more likely to develop healthy coping mechanisms, make informed choices and seek help when needed. Parents, teachers and community leaders must work together to create supportive spaces where adolescents feel heard, valued and understood. Schools must go beyond academic achievement to foster inclusion, emotional wellbeing and genuine relationships. Ultimately, preventing substance abuse requires looking beyond individual behaviour and recognising the influence of the relationships and communities that shape young lives.”

- Navdeep Aggarwal, Economic Times, (22/10)

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