PUNE: In a significant move to equip India’s youth with industry-relevant skills, Medhavi Skills University (MSU) has partnered with BVG Skill Academy and BVG Security Services Pvt. Ltd.

To integrate practical, on-the-job learning into formal academic programs. This collaboration aims to bridge the education-to-employment gap by ensuring learners are equipped with both recognized qualifications and real-world industry experience.

Pravesh Dudani, Founder and Chancellor, MSU, emphasized, “This collaboration is a step towards transforming education from a theoretical pursuit to a practical pathway for employment. By integrating real work experience into formal degrees, we are equipping students with industry-relevant skills.”

Kuldip Sarma, Co-Founder and Pro-Chancellor, Medhavi Skills University, said, “MSU’s focus is not just on creating job seekers, but on nurturing confident, skilled professionals ready to contribute from day one. Our collaboration with BVG marks a milestone in our mission, bringing together two like-minded organizations committed to empowering youth towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat.”  

Under the partnership with BVG Skill Academy, Medhavi Skills University will offer a range of work-integrated programs, including vocational degrees (Bachelor of Vocation & Master of Vocation), diplomas, and short-term certifications. These programs will combine structured on-the-job training with academic classes and mentoring, ensuring students gain both theoretical knowledge and practical, hands-on experience.

MSU’s Learning Management System (LMS) enables real-time progress tracking and personalized academic support for students. The collaboration is centered on co-creating industry-integrated, National Education Policy 2020-aligned curricula to equip students with skills that are not just academically recognized but immediately relevant and applicable in today’s dynamic workplace. 

“Skill development is not just a necessity; it’s a national priority. When academia and industry join forces, the result is transformative learning that prepares students for real-world challenges. Our partnership with Medhavi Skills University is designed to create career pathways that go beyond certifications. We’re committed to building capable professionals and nurturing the leaders of tomorrow,” said Hanmantrao Gaikwad, Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director, BVG India Limited.

India’s youth unemployment crisis is deeply rooted in the disconnect between academic qualifications and industry requirements. Recognizing this, Medhavi Skills University (MSU) has integrated work-based learning into its degree and diploma programs, ensuring students are job-ready from the very start of their education journey.

Through this new partnership with BVG Security Services, learners will receive practical, hands-on training across real-world operational environments, including security management, facilities services, and infrastructure support while pursuing their formal academic curriculum in real-life. This program is especially beneficial for 10th and 12th-year students, providing them with an opportunity to earn skill-based qualifications while gaining valuable work experience, thereby enhancing their employability and career prospects.

This collaboration exemplifies how higher education can evolve to meet the aspirations of India’s youth. By integrating employability into the learning journey, MSU and BVG are setting a precedent for industry-academia partnerships focused on inclusion, quality, and long-term societal impact.

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PUNE: Lentra, the leading digital lending platform, introduced its Intelligent Lending Cloud Platform during its annual flagship event, the Lentra Digital Lending Summit.

Representing a significant leap in integrating AI within the digital lending platform, Lentra introduces three cutting-edge AI-driven products. Additionally, it incorporates 40 new functionalities into its existing products, all meticulously crafted to leverage the potential of AI and deliver practical utility for Banks and NBFCs.

“The evolution of trends in India’s credit consumption narrative demands thorough understanding and analysis. At Lentra, we strive to meet the increasing demand for personalization and localization by harnessing the power of AI, ensuring accessibility for our clients.” – Ankur Handa, Chief Product Officer at Lentra.

Lentra’s Intelligent Lending Cloud solution is designed to address the evolving need for Vernacular Languages to expand reach, accelerate processing speeds, and reduce the cost of operation.

“AI has recently garnered widespread attention for various reasons, with its capacity for human-like interactions standing out. Aligning with our mission to transform lending by empowering lenders to democratize credit and foster financial inclusion through intelligent decisions, we are thrilled to introduce a wave of AI products and AI-infused features. With this extended portfolio, we are confident that our clients will experience significant enhancements in their business, equipped with actionable intelligence.” – Rangarajan Vasudevan, Chief Data Officer at Lentra.

Lentra is actively advancing the application of AI in intelligently automating solutions for Banks and NBFCs in India. The initiatives include leveraging Machine Learning Models to identify potential borrower segments within the existing customer base, employing AI for intelligent customer engagement and lead nurturing. It utilizes behavioral intelligence to enhance upsell and cross-sell opportunities by implementing hyper-personalized product recommendations for the bank.

These initiatives, rooted in impactful applications, are a testament to Lentra’s commitment to innovation. Their intelligent cloud lending platform addresses current needs and anticipates market evolutions, positioning their partners ahead of the curve.

“With NIM itself becoming a non-differentiative commodity the focus amongst banks is becoming “experience”. How do we create a simple, easy, and yet WoW experience for our new customers? That is where the real differentiator lies! In the world of lending, there are quite a few one-trick ponies that address various components of lending. This is where someone like a Lentra is uniquely different. Their AI-powered solutions remove the friction from the entire lending and collection process, enabling decisions that are faster, fairer, and more accurate. We are impressed with how Lentra is continuously pushing the boundaries of their intelligence-embedded solutions and creating the WoW experience for end customers.”  – Cyrus Daruwala, Managing Director, Global Financial Services, IDC.

Lentra Convo:

To cater to lenders operating across varied geographic and cultural moorings, Lentra Convo brings the power of natural language conversations in multiple languages to simplify the loan origination journey. Powered by AI, this innovation enhances the lending process while providing end customers with a personalized and seamless experience that is convenient for them in the language of their choice.

Lentra Insights:

The second product, Insights, provides actionable intelligence to the lending institution, to better optimize credit policy and loan journey design. Coupled with AI-generated recommendations, lenders can now assess the impact of credit policy rules and change policy parameters to drive higher take-up rates. This one-of-a-kind tool will be of great value to lenders in boosting their asset businesses.

Lentra Wingman:

A game-changer for lending operations, Lentra Wingman is geared to help directly what is arguably the most critical stakeholder in the origination journey: the underwriter. It intelligently summarizes financial information from various sources in typical credit journeys like bank statements and related financial transaction records. It then automatically identifies financial behaviors that need further investigation by the underwriters. Such instances are then articulated as natural language questions that the customer-facing operations executive can air to the loan applicant to get needed clarifications. Thus, the Wingmanguides the underwriter to focus only on those loan applications requiring further scrutiny, along with the specifics of that application that merit attention, all in a form factor that makes it easy for more information to be collected seamlessly to speed up decision-making.

Aligned with the theme ‘Empowering Economic Growth for all, Bridging the Credit Gap,’ the Digital Lending Summit, provides a holistic perspective on the digital lending landscape in India. The summit serves as an interactive platform for CXOs, Credit Heads, Retail Heads, CEOs, and all other top-level executives in Banks & NBFCs, fostering discussions on market innovations, trends, enablers, and drivers.

The event features insightful panel discussions, special addresses, and breakout sessions and is a beacon for lending industry practitioners. Lentra’s flagship annual event consistently draws distinguished guests from the regulators, Prominent Banks, and NBFCs, underscoring its growing significance year after year.

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DUBAI: Heads of multilateral development banks attending the 2023 global climate change conference, COP28, have committed to scaling resource mobilization to close the nature and water sector financing gap. The banks shared their views on what can be done differently to ensure that the world delivers on water, nature, and climate agendas. The high-level panel was moderated by Lord Zac Goldsmith, former UK Minister for Climate and Environment, and speakers included representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Asian Development Bank, and the African Development Bank.

The IDB President, Ilan Goldfajn, shared the institution’s CLIMA pilot program, an innovative financial tool that provides grants to incentivize borrowers to achieve nature and climate objectives. The President of the Asian Development Bank, Masatsugu Asakawa, reinforced the need for the development community to lead in mobilizing partnerships that can generate new and additional financing. Dr. Beth Dunford, Vice President of Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the African Development Bank Group, urged urgent action to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 of “clean water and sanitation for all.”

Globally, water resources are dwindling, and impacts are intensifying due to increasing temperatures. By 2030, a quarter billion people will grapple with water scarcity, and by 2050, climate impacts could cost Africa $50 billion per year. Since 2010, the African Development Bank has invested an estimated $7.4 billion in water supply and sanitation services delivery, benefitting about 90 million people in Africa.

The African Development Bank has pledged to quadruple its financing for climate adaptation to reach $25 billion by 2025 through promoting climate-smart investments. The Bank will encourage private-sector funding, particularly for water treatment, recycling, and other components in the water value chain. It will also consider strategic debt relief programs like debt-for-nature swaps in return for a commitment from regional member countries to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure.

The meeting affirmed that there can be no sustainable future without urgent, systemic, and collective attention to the inextricable links between climate change, water crises, and biodiversity loss. Safeguarding water resources and biodiversity should be prioritized as they are crucial in climate strategies. Dr. Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, delivered a keynote on “Rethinking the Financial Architecture for Water and Nature.” He called for collaboration in mobilizing finance advancing a conceptual framework and restructuring the overall financial architecture for climate, water, and nature.

The commitment of multilateral development banks to close the nature and water financing gap is a significant step towards achieving sustainable development goals. The African Development Bank’s pledge to quadruple its financing for climate adaptation is a welcome development that will promote climate-smart investments. The urgent, systemic, and collective attention to the inextricable links between climate change, water crises, and biodiversity loss is crucial in safeguarding water resources and biodiversity, which are fundamental supports to human well-being and economies.

(Image Source: African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

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