Cisco Offers a Comprehensive Digital Offering for Indian Education Sector

Education is at the heart of new digital economy and the digital learning solutions' market in India is currently at $2 billion -- the second largest market for digital education after the US, global networking giant Cisco said.

Realising the need to skill students in disruptive technologies like Big Data analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cyber security, Cisco announced a "Blueprint for Digital Education" here.

The blueprint will allow colleges and universities to enable students learn anywhere with "Cisco Connected Classroom" solutions which use the Cisco "Digital Network Architecture" (Cisco DNA) and collaboration solutions such as "WebEx" online meetings and Cisco "Spark" all-in-one communications solution.

Currently the Indian education industry at $97.8 billion and is set to grow to about $140 billion by 2020.

"Education is at the heart of new digital economy and the digital learning solutions' market in India is currently at $2 billion and outside the US, India is the largest digital education industry," Sudhir Nayar, Managing Director, Commercial Sales, Cisco India and SAARC, told reporters here.

He was speaking at the Cisco "Digital Education Summit" at the Indian School of Business (ISB) here.

"Cisco Connected Campus" provides extensive network analytics to help administrators make data-driven decisions while managing facilities, lighting, parking and transportation.

"We are committed to create environment that enables solutions and tools for digital learning and digital campus in the country," Nayar said.

"Today, we are for the first time launching a complete digital blueprint for education institutions that can help transform the Indian education sector," he noted.

The blueprint aims to help colleges and universities create a completely integrated digital environment that meets the high expectations of the industry.

With approximately 30 per cent of India's current population in the 0-15 age group, the education sector in India is poised to witness significant growth.

However, the education system faces challenges such as capacity, scale and quality.

"At Cisco, we create the infrastructure that can help the education system to transform," Nayar said.

The blueprint is based on Cisco's highly secure core network and unified voice, video and wireless communications, protected by state-of-the-art security solutions and lay the framework for connected campuses, empowered educators, informed administrators and students.

"In terms of affordability the new model would cost Rs 200 per student per month, which includes automated attendance, browsing facilities for the students, among others," Nayar noted.

Currently, 500 institutes and colleges (60 per cent urban and 30 per cent in rural areas) across the country are using Cisco digital education solutions for their digital journey.

It also includes leading institutions such as Manipal University, Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Jamia Hamdard and Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.

"With smart workspaces that automatically track student attendance and progress, schools and universities can operate efficiently in a rapidly changing environment," Cisco said in a statement.

Digital learning classrooms can support new online learning experiences, worldwide collaboration and rich online media consumption with virtual classrooms.

Cisco "Connected Research" solutions are also helping researchers, faculty and students conduct high-performance computing (HPC) in a secure environment and quickly scale computing resources to fuel innovation