Teri School Of Advanced Studies: Fostering Education, Research And Training On Sustainability Issues Relevant To All Streams Of Life
Prof. Dr. Ekalabya Sharma
VC
Here is an excerpt of the exclusive interaction with Dr. Eklabya Sharma, the Vice Chancellor and Dr. Manipadma Datta, Professor and Head, Department of Business and Sustainability, TERISAS.
Tell us the inception story of the TERI School of Advanced Studies. How has your journey been so far and what is it that differentiates you from other Schools in the education sector?
TERI School of Advanced Studies was set up as a Trust by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) a not for profit, independent research institute recognized globally for its contribution to scientific and policy research demands in the realms of energy, environment, and sustainable development in 1998. In 1999, the TERI School of Advanced Studies was granted the ‘Deemed to be University’ status by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and notified vide the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Department of Education, Government of India. The objective of the TERI SAS is to build capacity around various themes of sustainable development adopting an inter disciplinary approach and incorporating the most contemporary research-based evidence into the curriculum. The deemed University currently offers a dozen Masters’ programs and has nearly 200 Ph.D. students enrolled. It has started work on developing two new campuses at Hyderabad, Telangana in the south of India and Guwahati in the north-eastern state of Assam and hopes to start offering academic programs from these campuses by 2022.
Throw some light on the Entrepreneur programs and curriculum of TERI School of Advanced Studies? How is it designed to impart Entrepreneur Programs to the students?
Offering various PG programs which include MSc., MBA, MTech. and so on, all our programs have one common thread i.e. SUSTAINABILITY. Fostering inno vation and development, we have started a lot of solar power cells in our university which is technically monitored by our students and faculty. All the programs are oriented around entrepreneurship to enable our students with the current industry trends and demands.
Also, through our COVID management team which consists of students and faculty, even with modesty we can say we have contributed to the society in various ways, health care, finance, counselling, and the like, almost on war footing! Not only COVID management, but also, we are promoting the covid protective measures through auto-rickshaw drivers, so that, they can alert people about the environ ment, pandemic, appropriate behavior, sustainable consumptions and so on. So, the main feature of our university is to enable the students with different skill sets of social entrepreneurships along with various aspects of organizational management.It is indeed a great experience of experienced based learning exercise!
What are the various pedagogies/ technologies and infrastructure that you deploy to stand out as best campus?
As an important component of teaching and tutorials, we have a compulsory field visit for every program generally twice a year. We engage students in different research projects. For example, we had a project with Coal India Limited after the station and reclamation of land post-mining. We even developed simple Hindi exercises to educate the local people.
Similarly, our students do two compulsory projects; one is a minor project as a major project and in both the cases they are encouraged to have some hands-on experience with different organizations. We help students to get a lot of infor mation and knowledge out of such inter active association finally enriching their industry exposure.
TERISAS faculty are engaged in huge number of national and international research projects funded by agencies like Government of India Departments, World Bank, International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank and the like. These also encourage students' involvement and help faculty to teach evidence-based research. The Department of Business and Sustain ability also organizes an annual conference entitled, International Conference on Business, Economics and Sustainable Development (ICBESD) which has so far been fully sponsored by different corporate groups, Department of Renewable Energy, Government of India, World Bank, NISM-SEBI and the like. Out of
Also, through our COVID management team which consists of students and faculty, even with modesty we can say we have contributed to the society in various ways, health care, finance, counselling, and the like, almost on war footing! Not only COVID management, but also, we are promoting the covid protective measures through auto-rickshaw drivers, so that, they can alert people about the environ ment, pandemic, appropriate behavior, sustainable consumptions and so on. So, the main feature of our university is to enable the students with different skill sets of social entrepreneurships along with various aspects of organizational management.It is indeed a great experience of experienced based learning exercise!
What are the various pedagogies/ technologies and infrastructure that you deploy to stand out as best campus?
As an important component of teaching and tutorials, we have a compulsory field visit for every program generally twice a year. We engage students in different research projects. For example, we had a project with Coal India Limited after the station and reclamation of land post-mining. We even developed simple Hindi exercises to educate the local people.
All the programs are embedded in entrepreneur ship to enable our students with the current industry trends and demands
Similarly, our students do two compulsory projects; one is a minor project as a major project and in both the cases they are encouraged to have some hands-on experience with different organizations. We help students to get a lot of infor mation and knowledge out of such inter active association finally enriching their industry exposure.
TERISAS faculty are engaged in huge number of national and international research projects funded by agencies like Government of India Departments, World Bank, International Finance Corporation, Asian Development Bank and the like. These also encourage students' involvement and help faculty to teach evidence-based research. The Department of Business and Sustain ability also organizes an annual conference entitled, International Conference on Business, Economics and Sustainable Development (ICBESD) which has so far been fully sponsored by different corporate groups, Department of Renewable Energy, Government of India, World Bank, NISM-SEBI and the like. Out of
these vibrating intellectual exercises, students gain the experience of event management and international interaction.
What are the goals you want to achieve in the coming days to maintain your position amongst Best B Schools?
We are constantly looking for emerging areas of sustainability where we all can participate. As a non traditional Research Institute, we are quite ahead of other similar institutes operating across this area. We are committed and dedicated to the sustainable Development Goals. We have collaborated with Coca Cola for our Department of Regional Water Studies. In fact Coca Cola has wholly sponsored the formation of the Department. the company happens to be one of the major water users. We are committed to ensure accomp lishing the objective of judicious usage of this invaluable resource on the planet.
Prof. Manipadma Datta, HOD, Dept. of Business and Sustainability
We have many distinctions in the field of education. in our MBA program, there is a course titled Accounting and Finance for Sustainable Development, which is unique in its kind and perhaps such a course has been designed by an institution like ours!
Dr. Ekalabya Sharma, VC, TERI School of Advanced Studies
Dr Sharma is an ecologist having over 35 years of experience on sustainable development of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. For over 30 years he worked on institutional development of a national institute in India (Head of Sikkim Regional Centre of G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment) and a regional intergovernmental organization of eight countries (Deputy Director General, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, with HQ in Kathmandu, Nepal). Apart from being a Policy Advisor for ICIMOD, he is currently working as the Chairperson of Scientific Advisory Committee for G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India.
Prof. Manipadma Datta, HOD, Dept. of Business and Sustainability, TERI School of Advanced Studies
Professor Datta has been in management teaching, training and research for more than three decades in India and abroad. His areas of expertise are varied, ranging from Sustainable Development, Climate Finance, Responsible Investments, Inte grated Reporting, Circular Economy Finance, Weather Derivative, Circular Economy Finance to Public Management, CSR, Strategic Management, Sustainability and Creativity, Valuation of Intangibles and so on. He has served many institutions of eminence including University of Calcutta, Vidyasagar University, Nirma University, Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, International Institute of Management Delhi and Vrije University Brussels.
What are the goals you want to achieve in the coming days to maintain your position amongst Best B Schools?
We are constantly looking for emerging areas of sustainability where we all can participate. As a non traditional Research Institute, we are quite ahead of other similar institutes operating across this area. We are committed and dedicated to the sustainable Development Goals. We have collaborated with Coca Cola for our Department of Regional Water Studies. In fact Coca Cola has wholly sponsored the formation of the Department. the company happens to be one of the major water users. We are committed to ensure accomp lishing the objective of judicious usage of this invaluable resource on the planet.
Prof. Manipadma Datta, HOD, Dept. of Business and Sustainability
We have many distinctions in the field of education. in our MBA program, there is a course titled Accounting and Finance for Sustainable Development, which is unique in its kind and perhaps such a course has been designed by an institution like ours!
Dr. Ekalabya Sharma, VC, TERI School of Advanced Studies
Dr Sharma is an ecologist having over 35 years of experience on sustainable development of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. For over 30 years he worked on institutional development of a national institute in India (Head of Sikkim Regional Centre of G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment) and a regional intergovernmental organization of eight countries (Deputy Director General, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, with HQ in Kathmandu, Nepal). Apart from being a Policy Advisor for ICIMOD, he is currently working as the Chairperson of Scientific Advisory Committee for G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India.
Prof. Manipadma Datta, HOD, Dept. of Business and Sustainability, TERI School of Advanced Studies
Professor Datta has been in management teaching, training and research for more than three decades in India and abroad. His areas of expertise are varied, ranging from Sustainable Development, Climate Finance, Responsible Investments, Inte grated Reporting, Circular Economy Finance, Weather Derivative, Circular Economy Finance to Public Management, CSR, Strategic Management, Sustainability and Creativity, Valuation of Intangibles and so on. He has served many institutions of eminence including University of Calcutta, Vidyasagar University, Nirma University, Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, International Institute of Management Delhi and Vrije University Brussels.