Lecture on
“Higher Education Policy – Are we staring at a demographic disaster?”

by Maheshwar Peri
Founder & Chairman – Careers360.com, India’s largest higher education platform

Friday | 3rd March 2017 | 5.30 pm – 7.00 pm

Entry Free & Open to public

——————————-

About the Speaker:

A passionate entrepreneur, Maheshwar Peri is a qualified CA, CMA and ACS. He started his career as an investment banker with SBI capital markets. He then worked at the Outlook group—one of India’s most influential news magazine groups—for 17 years and headed it for more than 10 years as President & Publisher. Mahesh believes that the demographic dividend which India seeks can turn into a nightmare if the youth are not shown the right direction to best utilize their capabilities. Careers360 was born from his deep concern and understanding of student issues, including information gaps that need to be plugged in order to help students make informed career choices.

After leaving employment and turning into an entrepreneur, Mahesh feels unshackled. He expresses himself freely on current day happenings on political, business and education policies of the government. He believes in creating a more tolerant and transparent society where rule of law is applied in equal measure.

Mahesh is also widely known as the man who brought down the Indian Institute of Planning Management (IIPM), fighting Arindom Chaudhuri, the self-styled management guru and head of the institution, in a long drawn-out legal battle that took place in court rooms across the country for six years in which he challenged every civil and criminal case thrown at him, defended and won each of them in various high courts.

According to a March 2016 editorial in Scroll:

How Peri and Careers360 persisted in their follow-up with a series of hard-hitting stories despite facing a slew of legal cases filed all across the country, which finally culminated in their dragging IIPM to the Supreme Court for abuse of judicial process is an object lesson in endurance, perseverance and defiance for journalists and publishers pursuing stories in the face of adversity.

Click here for a feature on Mahesh that appeared in Mint (November 2013).

Lecture Synopsis: 
While the cost of education has been going up, learning has been coming down and outcomes are falling apart. At the end of it all, India will likely have more people with degrees, huge loans and debt and fewer people who are employable and with lesser job opportunities. Are we as a nation staring at a demographic disaster? Are we prepared for what may be coming?