Alright, wow. Thank you everybody for joining in today and we have gathered here to discuss about this entire concept of study abroad and very happy to be doing this series on popular demand. Yes, a lot of students and a lot of parents have been reaching out to understand this entire process of, you know, applying for universities. What does it entail? How does one need to go about it? And that's when we conceptualized this entire idea of study abroad series. This is of course the first session, the introductory session and we will be diving into the final nuances of study abroad like appearing for SATs and ACTs, cracking those interviews, writing your SOPs and LORs, you know, understanding financial aids and scholarships, understanding why is it important to do research internships and summer programs and a lot more. So yes, you are in for a very, very insightful series. And at Elko International School, we take pride in the fact that a lot of students have been placed at some of the finest universities abroad. And it is just our effort to ensure that their juniors who are now very, very inspired, learn from this entire series. And as parents, you'll have some concrete takeaways. Just a small fun fact which I would like to share before we move ahead. We had done a small poll on Instagram where we spoke about what are the preferences these days. And if I can just share the results, you'll be happy to know that 66% people voted in for international universities, which clearly gives us a fair idea about what the youth is thinking, what are their choices looking like. And therefore this entire series becomes more and more relevant. Without any further ado, let's move on to understanding today's session and who this session is going to be taken by. I'm extremely happy once again to present Mr. Anand Prasad, the founder and managing director at SkillSphere Education, who have been our knowledge partners for a very, very long time and has always been a very productive association with them. Anand is a gold medalist engineer from Mumbai University, and then I really graduate from Cornell University USA. Anand has, he founded SkillSphere Education with the sole objective of imbibing 21st century skill sets in young individuals. And he's now heading SkillSphere Education, which has become Asia's largest skill-based skill set development organization and he is a mentor to over thousands of students, not only in India, but is now establishing his footprint in the Middle East and America also. So Anand, thank you very, very much for always helping us and for always being our rock solid support when it comes to, you know, great initiatives for students and giving them all the wonderful insights. It's as always a pleasure to have you and I'm sure the parents and students are going to have some concrete takeaways today. Over to you Anand. Thank you so much, Sugandha ma'am. It's an absolute pleasure to be conducting today's session as always conducting sessions at Elpro International School is a privilege and being a part of the extended fraternity at Elpro International School. I'm always very happy to be speaking to the parents, students and diverse demographics belonging to the school and the extended fraternity. We have a lot of members today in this group who belong to different schools and have been very enthusiastic to understand more about the entire concept of studying abroad. Well, I am going to be starting off my presentation and I will explain the entire flow of the session I'll introduce myself and the session is going to involve a little bit of interaction. We are a huge group of 290 individuals today. It is not going to involve as much of one to one interaction as group interaction by means of raising hands. I hope most of you know how to raise your hands on zoom that will make it much easier to go through certain aspects of this entire presentation. More importantly, at the end of the session we'd have a Q&A and I'm very happy to address every single question that you might have. I would like to tell you that I'm actually laying the foundations as the first speaker in the study abroad series. I'm laying the foundations for a lot of different things that a lot of different counselors and eminent personalities over the next few sessions will come and say to you. And I'm sure that a lot of you have been very inquisitive about this entire concept of studying abroad and what goes into it, considering the fact that on at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, you'll have found the time to be a part of today's session. So let's not waste any further time and let's quickly jump into today's session. What I'm going to be talking to you all about today is the way ahead for developing the right skill sets. Yes, the ACTs, the ACTs, the letters of recommendation, your extended essays, and everything else with respect to studying abroad are very, very important. But honestly speaking, all of those aspects form a part of the end process of your application. Okay, the means to reach the end process properly is what I'm going to be touching upon today. And I'm going to be talking about a lot of aspects. And through the process of these aspects, I will actually make you go through my entire journey of being a graduate from an Ivy League University. So I mean to give you a little bit about my experiences, as well as the importance of some of these skill sets. Right, so this is of course today's session. And as ma'am has already mentioned, I run this organization called Skillsphere Education, a lot of students at Elko International School would surely be acquainted with it. We conduct a range of 21st century skill based programs for students in over 340 schools and colleges across Asia, which focus on the development of skills like public speaking communication skills, general knowledge and awareness, critical thinking, problem solving, and we do a lot of events like model UN, quizzes, debates, and the works. So honestly speaking, what we are trying to focus on is making students the best versions of themselves. And when I talk about myself, well, I completed my schooling in Mumbai. I went to Mumbai University where I pursued my chemical engineering. I finished off from university as a gold medalist was something that was a great honor for me. And I started off skillsphere education post which I took a short sabbatical completed my masters at Cornell University USA before coming back to continue the growth of the organization in 2016 2017. So I have had the opportunity of getting exposed to multiple education systems, both in India and abroad. And more importantly, being in the field of education, I do study a lot of things that go into being a good student. Right. So we're going to be talking about all of these things. And if I'm to really define myself, I would define myself as a passionate teacher, motivated entrepreneur in the field of education, and most importantly, something that I hope all of you become, which is lifelong learners. So let's quickly jump in. I'm going to start today session off with a very interesting question I've asked this in the past as well. I want all of you seated here. I believe that we have a very diverse audience with respect to age groups, we have a few parents as well. What I want to ask you a simple question I'm going to basically be majorly customizing this entire session for students of higher school, but each of these aspects is also very fitting for students of grades four, five, six, seven and eight. All right. And in fact, the earlier you start the better it is when we talk about skill sets. So, I want all of you to imagine that you have applied for your dream university. For most students when we talk about dream foreign universities, it's typically an Ivy League University, though it need not necessarily be the case, or an Oxford or a Cambridge or a King's College in Great Britain. So I want you to imagine that you have applied for your dream university and just for the sake of it. Let's assume it's Harvard University. Okay, Harvard University is definitely one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Let's imagine that you have applied to Harvard University, and you are absolutely brilliant with your academics you're brilliant with your co-curriculars you're building with a lot of different things. And you've done extremely well in all of these SATs, ACTs, your board exams, everything is perfect. When we're talking about the IBDP, you're a 10% score student so all of these things are perfect for you.  And you're now in this final round. Okay, you've already made it to the university or made it to Harvard University but now you're in this final round, which is for a scholarship. Now one of the things that we often don't realize is that studying in some of these foreign universities can be very expensive. All right, on average an undergrad degree in a good college would not cost you anything less than $40,000 to $50,000 a year. That's on the lower end. That's a lot of money. And obviously we in India and everywhere across the world try and look for grants try and look for scholarships. So, in order to get into Harvard University, where you have applied, you actually need to sit for a scholarship interview. Okay, and this interview takes place with the Dean of Harvard University. Let me tell you, the acceptance rate to a university like Howard is less than 1.6%, which is really, really small. All right, and for a scholarship, well you can probably make it 1% or 1.6%. That's really a low number of people every year getting a scholarship, but you have made it to this August group who is being interviewed to potentially get a scholarship. And you go into the Dean's room. All right, before that you've prepared everything related to the field of study.  Okay, so you've done all of this and you come and sit on the chair for the interview.  But interestingly, this Dean doesn't ask you any of these questions. Okay. The Dean says, let's assume I am the student, you assume you're the student. Okay, so Dean says, look, I know you're academically brilliant. I've already read your resume. I've read your essays, you write well. You obviously know a lot of different, different things.  So I'm not going to ask you anything related to your academics. I have just one thing to ask of you. And that is dazzle me. Okay, so the Dean says dazzle me. This is a very interesting thing for those of you who probably do not gather what dazzle me means dazzle me means to surprise me, astonish me, make me feel amazing by sharing something about yourself that is so different from others, or just so amazing. All right. So the Dean says dazzle me. That's all that the Dean says. And here you are sitting in this once in a lifetime scholarship interview, trying to understand how to dazzle the Dean. All that you have studied for this particular interview is really of no use, because you never really thought of this kind of a question that could be asked. So I want all of you to think of this scenario. And tell me that if you were put into this scenario, how many of you believe that you'd be able to dazzle a person. Just raise your hands on zoom. All right, we have one hand, we have two hands, three hands, four hands, quite a few hands going up. Right. All right, I'm giving everybody a little bit of time. We have roughly 20 hands that have gone up. All right, I'm going to ask one of the students. Yes, Abhas, go ahead. How would you dazzle this Dean? You can unmute yourself Abhas, go ahead. Yeah, so can you hear me?  So I think first of all, it's an amazing question that has been asked. I mean, dazzle me. This question is probably the question that I believe I am the most prepared for. I think I have something that is very different from everyone else. Everyone can wake up at 5am in the morning. Everyone can open a book. Everyone can read it. Everyone can learn from the book. But I believe I possess the skills to understand and apply the knowledge that I gain from my surroundings. Not only apply them like everyone else, but to apply them in my language such a way that they benefit me not only academically, not only go curriculally but also financially. I know how to capitalize on my skills and having the ability to understand and having the ability to capitalize on what I know. I think that is one skill that sets me apart from everyone else who can learn and who can speak about anything. But having the ability to capitalize on my skills, I think that is one thing that sets me apart from everyone else. Alright, thank you very much. Let's ask another student. Yes, Yashashree. Yashashree, I'm sorry. Would you like to share with us how you dazzle a person? I've allowed you to unmute. Would you like to unmute yourself? Yes, go ahead. Hello, Audrey. Yes, you are audible. Go ahead, Yashree. Okay. Sir, I think I am capable of dazzling the dean because my thought process is different than others. I believe that everybody has capacity to do something different. Everybody has something special about themselves. And that is the thing which dazzles others. For example, I am an avid reader. So the dean can be dazzled by anything. I mean, I like reading, so I could have a good vocabulary. The dean can be dazzled by it. I have a great knowledge about some other thing. So the dean can be dazzled by it anything. There are many aspects to a person by which a recruiter or a dean or anybody can be dazzled. All right. Yes, Yashashree. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that. We are a very, very big group of individuals, so I'm not going to be able to give everybody an opportunity to speak on every question. But thank you so much, Abash and Yashashree, for sharing your different views on this question. This is actually a very deep question. It seems very simple. Often when put in the spot, a lot of us tend to be unsure of what to say or how to say it. And honestly speaking, when you're put in this kind of a situation, there is no right or wrong answer. Yashashree talked to us about many things that can potentially be things that dazzle other people. But more than having a particular skill, it's about how you present it. Your ability to express yourself with confidence and conviction and to be able to build a story and be able to convince a person and astonish a person requires skills that go beyond the basic hard skills that you possess. And that's what we're going to be talking about in a little further detail today. So this is my first question to you and I'll tell you where all of these questions are leading. The next question that I'd like to ask you all is apart from COVID-19. Okay, apart from COVID-19, can you think of five things that have taken place in the world in the past week and how they have impacted you? No news related to COVID-19. Can you think of five things that have taken place in the world in the past week and how they have impacted you? Nothing about oxygen cylinders, oxygen beds, unfortunate cases, rising, falling, lockdowns, unlocks. Can you think of five things? Think about it for a second. And more importantly, don't simply think of five things. Think of how they have impacted you. And as soon as you're potentially able to think of five such things, please raise your hands. Right? You have two hands that have gone up. We'll give everybody a minute more. One hand that's gone up. Two parts to the question, five things and how they have impacted you. 30 seconds more. All right. 15 seconds more. All right. Yes, Abhay, you want to go ahead and share what are the five things you thought about? Yeah, sure. Probably three or four more, most important things. First is in Champions League, Chelsea won the cup, which was like, I'm a hardcore Chelsea fan since last 20 years. Yesterday, Erickson got heart attack on the field, which was affected. He was one of the Tottenham players, ex Tottenham player. US has declared multi-million trillion dollars economic boost, which was, I wish we could have something in India. Next one you showed on the screen, Israel has attacked Palestine, which was a crazy thing during this period. And the last one is Europe has opened up most of the countries. I wish we could have visited those, but our situation is comparatively not good at this stage. So these are the couple of things. I can't say about the one lab, which was close to COVID, otherwise I would have mentioned that. That was a human-made thing, which I don't want to talk. Thank you so much, Abhay. That's very neat. Very, very impressive. A lot of variety of news. You talked about the unfortunate collapse of Christian Erickson yesterday. Luckily, he's safe. A match between Denmark and Finland, you talked about how Chelsea's won the Champions League. I feel happy. The multi-million dollar stimulus package by the United States of America and a bunch of other pieces of news, which are great. I'll give one more student an opportunity. Yes, Ankita, go ahead. Yes, sir. The first news that I want to talk about is that Sonu Swood has started an organization to help people prepare for UPSC. And Shubha Paul is a footballer from India who got selected for an exchange program internationally. I can't recall the surname right now, but she's a journalist who's won a Pulitzer Prize. And Kim Jong-un has restricted regulations against K-pop because he thinks that he's losing control over his people. And then Windows has announced that they might release Windows 11 quite soon. And Windows 10 will stop getting any updates in the year 2025. How these news have impacted me is that I'm interested in, since I'm a humanity student, I'm interested in becoming a journalist and the civil services is also one of my prospects. So this is how they've impacted me and all of the other people have inspired me, such as Megha and Shubha Paul. Megha Rajagopalan is the name of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian journalist who's covered the entire issue of the Uighur Muslims and their mistreatment by China. So thank you so much for that, Ankita. Thank you so much, both Abhay and Ankita. There were about five or six hands in this entire group of 333 that probably went up when I asked this particular question. Megha shared a lot of different pieces of news with regard to whatever has happened in the world. Different pieces of news, good variety of them as well, quite positive. Thank you so much. I'm sure it's been enlightening for everybody. But let's quickly go on and I have one last question to ask you before we jump into the entire context of why I'm asking you these questions. I would like to ask all of you and be very honest about it. In a group of five people, if you are the only one with a different opinion from the others, how confident are you of expressing it? In a group of five people, if you are the only person with a different opinion and everybody is very loud about their opinions, you're the only person who has a different opinion, how many of you would be confident of expressing it? I can see hands slowly going up, count going up, we have 18, 19, 20, 25. Think about it. 30, I'll give it 10 more seconds to see how far we go. Alright, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Alright, so 40 and 336 people mentioned that they are confident when it comes to raising their opinions in an environment where everybody else has a different opinion. Students, parents, all of you who have joined me today. The reason I've asked these five different questions is because they're fundamental when it comes to higher studies and especially studying abroad. Because these fundamentals focus on the importance of very, very basic 21st century skills which are continuing to become more important in today's times. There are some very astonishing facts that I'd like to tell you about. Well, glossophobia, which is the fear of public speaking, is one of the most widely seen fears in the world. It's only second to the fear of death and unfortunately more and more students today seem to suffer from glossophobia in spite of having good communication and conversational skills because of growth in media and social pressures. Another fact is 95% of the people in the world cannot answer that current affairs question that I asked. Here too, we had only five people who were able to think of five things that have taken place in the world in the past week. And what's more astonishing is that 99.5% of the people cannot answer the second part of the question wherein I asked, how does a particular piece of news impact you? And this is roundabout the exact number of students who are not able to answer this question either. It's actually a research statistic by Harvard University itself. And it was carried out on the sample size of 100,000 students. Most were not able to think of five things that have taken place in the world and how they have impacted you. And lastly, 98% of the people in the world cannot speak about themselves for anything more than 18 seconds. Now, these facts are not being presented by me to scare you. The objective is not to scare you. But what I'd like to tell you is one more important fact that I'd like to tell you is that the World Economic Forum recently conducted a research which stated that most technical skills and academic skills are expected to get outdated once every 10 years because of the technological advancements or the growth of artificial intelligence, robotics, and in general, through the spirit since 1950s post World War II, there have always been these phases where different professions and different academic skills and technical skills continue to get outdated. We need to keep upgrading them at very rapid basis. And with technological advancements, it is becoming even more important. But one thing that does not get outdated, irrespective of how our technology moves is soft skills and 21st century skills. Skills like clear communication, listening skills, overall public speaking, assertiveness, digital literacy, financial literacy, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, each of these skills are becoming more and more important. And it's not simply becoming important from the perspective of development. When I share my experience with you, what I'd like to tell you is that honestly speaking, all my academic skills did matter when I went to Cornell University for sure. That's something that each one of us is anyway focusing on. But what mattered more than anything else was all of these 21st century skills. And these skills cannot be developed simply before you start applying for university. It's not about a process where you start preparing for an SAT or an ACT and then you just start preparing for these skills on the site. This process needs to start much earlier in school itself through a plethora of opportunities both in school and beyond school because each of these skills is what is going to be helping you adapt to university life, especially abroad. One of the questions that is often asked to me is, you know, what is the difference between life in an Indian university and life in a Western university? Well, I spent life in both these environments and what I can clearly tell you, going to one of the best universities in the world at Cornell as well, is that the biggest difference lies in the approach to education. The approach to education in the West is, with due respect to Indian universities, more inquiry based, more collaborative and more open-ended. It requires a lot more effort from the student to explore and create your own journey within university. The options that you have are limitless in many universities, not only with respect to academics, but also co-curriculars and extracurriculars. So having that conviction to be able to explore different things becomes extremely important. The ability to interact with different people, the ability to work in group environments, the ability to present our opinions without being scared of what other people think of us. All of these skills are extremely important and must be developed from a much younger age itself. When I was at Cornell, I was a member and I was actually the president of different groups at Cornell University, which probably were the highlights of my time at university. While education was great, the campus was great, each of these circles and networks that I developed through my time at Cornell is honestly what made my time at university stand out. And if you'd like to enjoy that experience, well, you definitely need to work on your university application process, but you need to work a few steps before that on the development of your 21st century skills and your soft skills. And honestly speaking, these US universities, British universities, Australian universities adapt quite quickly. While India is also adapting with the national education policy that's come out, these universities, because they don't work in many cases with a centralized mandate, they tend to adapt very quickly. And the importance of these 21st century skills is something that is starting to reflect in multiple ways in a lot of these competitive examinations, the extended essays, and the interview processes. All right. So while, yes, if you do want to study abroad, you must develop these skills, try and develop these skills from your own long term betterment perspective. It's very important. And of course, we keep trying to propagate this at skills for education, we cover a small area of 21st century skills, but there's a much larger packet that we'll be talking about. And you need to start looking at it. As I told you, this is exactly why in the world I'm sharing all of this with you. But, you know, when you go even beyond universities, the reason due to these 21st century skills are important is I'll give you three very practical examples of corporate life. All right. I hope that a lot of you end up taking leadership positions in school, as well as beyond that in whatever other environments you are in. And I hope this eventually culminates in you taking up leadership positions, when you take up very, very big jobs, whether you start off as entrepreneurs, start your own businesses off or work with an Apple or a Google or some of these top companies. Well, if you're in a leadership position. Yes, your technical abilities are definitely going to be mattering, but it does not.  And if you're in these kinds of situations, you don't want to be feeling like this gentleman is feeling here. You don't want to have the chills you don't want to have the sweat. You want to be able to present yourself without worrying about anything and having the conviction in yourself.  At the end of the day, what's going to be very important is you have to be able to work in cross functional environments with teams. Okay, it really is not about your own individual abilities, you have to be able to maximize the teams abilities and work as a good team worker. And in those kinds of situations, you don't want to be dropping the cake like this person has dropped you don't want to be dropping on in your team. It doesn't matter how academically proficient you are. In fact, when we come to university as well, trust me when I say, if you really want to excel at university, you have to be able to make a teamwork. There will be probably just three or four assignments in an entire semester for every course, which are individual almost every single assignment is a group based assignment, almost every single assignment. All right, and you're going to be working with people from diverse geographies from diverse cultures, especially if you go to a foreign university so it's very important to be able to adapt. All right, it's not simply about the way you want to work but you have to be able to adapt to the way other people work.  Okay, a lot of us suffer from the imposter syndrome, wherein we feel and we are not good enough. All right, and this entire thought process, typically start setting in when we are 1314 15 years, sometimes even younger, where we see somebody better than us at something but we feel that we are not good enough at anything. We start questioning ourselves, we start questioning our abilities, and all of these things eventually culminate in us not doing something well enough. We really need to work on ensuring that we don't suffer from such a kind of a syndrome called the imposter syndrome, and need to start putting in that effort, wherein we develop that confidence and conviction in ourselves. And the younger we start the better it is, and for all students who are probably in grades 11 and 12, it's very important that you make use of every single opportunity younger the better, but grades 11 and 12, especially especially important. Of course, the IBDP systems, I believe this is being organized by the EIS IBDP section. The IBDP division does provide you with a lot of different opportunities as a part of your curriculum through CAS and everything else. So does CBSE, but it's very important that you utilize them, not only because your curriculum requires you to do so, but because you want to build yourself as a personality will not suffer from these issues and will be able to express and emerge. All right. So school years are very crucial. As I've always mentioned, there are opportunities that go way beyond simple academics. Honestly, I feel one of the biggest advantages of being in a school is that you have everything available under one roof. All right. If you want to learn a particular spot, you do have the opportunity to find people to play it with. If you want to learn a particular instrument, you probably have the opportunity to get that basic exposure at least. If you want to participate in different events on stage, whether it's dance competitions, music competitions, public speaking competitions, quizzes, model UN conferences, we have all of these things available under one roof. And utilizing these opportunities becomes so important. There are different activities, there are different clubs, there are different competitions and of course internships, which are now afforded to students of grades 11 and 12 as well. So being able to utilize each of these opportunities is going to play a very big role in ensuring that you're skilling up. All right. And each of these skills start mattering more and more as you grow older. Lastly, I'm going to just touch upon a topic very briefly, which is going to be talked upon in a lot more detail next week when profile building for grades 11 and 12 students is discussed. But the ability to build your profile by exploring a range of different activities, disciplines, whether it's social networking skill building to each one of these things can happen in a very seamless manner with a lot of support and mentorship during your school years. All right. So, when we really talk about 21st century skills, there is an entire packet of skills which are considered 21st century skills. You really ask me to be honest. I think the word 21st century skills is just an inward. You know, it's a fashionable word to talk about when you talk about education today but each of these skills is very important in any century. It's just becoming more important because of that fact related to the world education, the world economic forum, how you know hard skills and technical skills are getting outdated. But skills like communication, creativity, collaboration, curiosity, empathy, leadership, digital literacy, financial literacy and the works are super important. All right. How do you develop these?  The schools offer a range of such online workshops, a lot of extracurricular activities of this sort as well. A lot of offline workshops also keep taking place. Now, a lot of us often participate in these from the perspective of receiving a certificate. What I'd like to tell all of you is that, you know, the certificate doesn't really matter. When you apply to university, taking the example of model UN conferences, I always say this to students. It doesn't matter whether you have participated in 25 MUNs or you've participated in two. Okay. What matters more than anything else when you're writing your statements of purpose is how you have grown as an individual, how you have grown as an individual through participation in different activities. All right. Numbers never really matter. The diversity matters equally much. Okay. People are wanting to see how diverse you are as a person. All right. I know of cases where there have been students who have been brilliant at science, come up with experiments and come up with journal articles, which have also won them awards in Genius Olympias, which are global competitions. But because of a lack of diversity in their portfolio, just one track in nature, they have missed out on certain applications in spite of being academically brilliant. It's very important that you expose yourself to a lot of things, especially those things that you're scared of. Take this as an opportunity to expose yourself to those kinds of disciplines, those kinds of extra curriculars. So please do that. Whether it's through school or a lot of other online workshops or a Coursera or a Udemy, try and explore and develop different skills. In fact, for students of grades 11 and 12, there are a lot of different courses on Coursera and Udemy that are being developed by some very notable universities in the world, whether it's a Stanford or it's a Carnegie Mellon. There are a lot of different courses. See some of the courses you're interested in and try and actually take them up. That's not only going to help you build your profile and your portfolio, but it's also going to help you when you move further into university. When we talk about studying abroad, another thing that I'd like to tell you is that, you know, the initial process of settling in and adapting is a little stressful. It does take a little bit of time to adapt. I wouldn't say stressful, but it can be a little overwhelming because we are used to a system of education that's slightly different. We are used to receiving everything that we need to study, going and studying it and coming out and probably attempting a test related to it. The US system of education is slightly different. What takes place in the US system of education or the British system of education is that they'll give you the topic. You need to read about it and then come back and have a discussion on it. So it's very open-ended and most importantly, it focuses a little bit more on the application of learning. So being able to apply your learning and being able to apply it in different groups at times does take a little bit of time. It does take a little bit of time, but in due course you adapt to it. So being able to do this already through different courses, through different competitions is definitely going to be very, very helpful. So try and expose yourself. Somebody asked me about Upgrad. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter which side, which course, but each one of these things are definitely going to help a lot more when it comes to studying abroad. And of course with 21st century skill development.   Start taking those with grades 11 and 12. Start finding those. Now, there are also a lot of competitions that take place in the school at a Pune level or at a Mumbai level or at a state level, national level, international level, whether it's cultural arts competitions like dance, music, singing, or it's model UN conferences and debates or it's quizzes or it's sports, a lot of coding activities and a lot of tech robotics based championships are also coming. Now, I know a lot of students often scamper to try and participate in these competitions. It's great to participate in these competitions once again from the perspective of receiving a certificate and probably an even an award. But what I want to tell you all is that the correct approach to participating in these competitions is also to develop some of these 21st century skills. These are perfect platforms to develop skills like communication, like collaboration, like networking, because you get to meet and interact with so many other individuals. More importantly, it teaches you the importance of hard work, of patience, of perseverance. Each one of these skills gets developed in a very progressive manner. So when you participate in all of these competitions, try not to participate simply from the perspective of getting something to tick mark on your resume. Try and look at each MUN, for example, that you participate in, model UN that you participate in as an opportunity to improve your ability to convince and persuade others or your ability to analytically write draft resolutions better. When you participate in a football competition, try and use that as an opportunity to build your teamwork and your collaboration. When you work on coding competitions, try and use that as an opportunity to improve your application of knowledge. So each one of these skills and the perspective from which we approach them becomes very, very important. So I think there's a very golden thing that I learned at Cornell, one of my professors told me is that the end does not matter as much as the means. So the process is probably the most important part of any puzzle. So when you're participating in each of these different activities, try and look at the process.  Each of these is an upscaling opportunity. For students of grades 11 and 12, another opportunity that you must definitely explore. Students have started exploring that in a much, much bigger way in the past few years and opportunities are opening up, especially since we have gone online is internships. Now, you don't actually pursue an internship in grades 11 and 12 simply to earn money. In fact, honestly speaking, there are certain aspects of Indian law which make it illegal to pay students below the age of 18. But you must definitely pursue an internship to get exposure. So don't try and pursue a single internship. Try and change your internships every couple of months so that you get to explore different fields, whether it's tech fields or arts fields or teaching fields or social service fields. There are a bunch of different organizations which are offering internships to students, especially in grades, probably even 10 at sometimes but grades 11 and 12, where you get to work with different people, you get to understand what the work entails. Students think that we want to become chemical engineers or we want to become economists. But honestly speaking, when we actually understand what the work entails, at times we feel like we made the wrong decision. Probably back in my times, we did not have the opportunity to explore all of these different avenues through internships. Today you do, and that will give you a much clearer picture, a lot more exposure, a lot more perspective, and definitely a lot more confidence and conviction to take decisions moving forward. Internships are not the kinds of internships where you need to work from nine to five. Simply be a person and unpaid intern who's working for experience, probably you get a certificate and a letter of recommendation as well. But you work for one hour or two hours a day or you work for four hours a week where you just get that basic exposure. That's something that's really being propagated and it's becoming a part of certain curriculums as a part of gas in IBDP because I believe this is being organized by the IBDP sections. Yes, internships in different ways can also form a part of your gas projects. So internships definitely do matter and try and work on them. Lastly and most importantly, what I'd also like to state is build your profile. Profile doesn't mean your side profile or your front profile of your face because that's typically how we relate to this word. It's about building your exposure to different things. As I mentioned, don't stick to one thing. Try and expose yourself to multiple different disciplines. Try and do all those things that you're not so comfortable about doing while in school or in college. Try and look at those things. Just expose yourself to those things. It'll help provide that level of diversity or your application process as well as provide you with that opportunity to see whether you might end up liking something. When I went to Cornell, I actually took up drama and theater. It's something that I've never taken up in my life, but I actually took up drama and theater and realized how much I love it. And if you start doing those kinds of things at this age itself, it is definitely going to help you a lot more. Okay, it's definitely going to help you a lot more. So try and build your profile. It's something that the next set of speakers are definitely going to speak about a lot more as well. What I'd also like to mention is that today with the growth of social media and technology, the entire ability to interact with people from different disciplines, different corporates has really grown. All right, I know a lot of you spend the time on LinkedIn, I'm sorry, spend time on Facebook and Instagram, but one of the social media sites that I strongly urge all of you to explore a lot more is LinkedIn. Okay, LinkedIn is frankly a no-nonsense social media platform. It's a platform where people from different fields of work speak to each other and share ideas, talk about developments in their particular fields, talk about what they have done, talk about how they are growing in their professional fields. It's a professional social media network. So it's very important that you probably explore what different people say about different fields. I have my LinkedIn profile, it's called Anansh Prasad. You can always connect with me or follow me. I always like to speak to students. But just like me, there are hundreds of other people who are very happy to speak to individuals who are students. A lot of these professors from these larger universities, whether it's a Cornell or a Harvard or any of these universities are also on LinkedIn and are always very happy to interact with students. Apart from all of these people that are always CEOs, there are CFOs, there are leaders from different fields, you can always ask them about the prospects of the field, how did they go about things. So it gives you an opportunity to get information from the horse's mouth, first-hand information which can be utilized in so many, so many different ways. So all the time that you spend on social media, if you can start shifting that time from Facebook and Instagram, first make a LinkedIn profile. You can write that you're a student in a particular school, you don't need to have a detailed profile like I have. That's something that will keep growing, you keep updating your profile. But join LinkedIn as a learner to follow people and learn from them. Just spending some time speaking to these people will really help. What I'd also like to tell you is that often, we are a little skeptical about asking questions. We are scared of how the person we are asking to a question will actually respond to it. But one of the things about studying abroad is a lot of these professors are extremely approachable personalities and frankly, they love speaking to students. So if you actually try and get in touch with them via their email IDs, where you write to them, they'll probably respond or definitely via LinkedIn. You can try and comment on one of their posts and ask a question or you can drop them a LinkedIn message and you more times than not will probably get an answer. So one thing that I'd like to tell you, one of the skills that's very important is to be fearless when it comes to asking questions. That's always going to help and clear out a lot of doubts. There are a lot of people who claim that they know a lot about these universities, but trust me, they probably don't know more about these universities than the people who are either studying there or who are teaching there. So definitely go through those different processes. Beyond this, what I'd like to tell you before I start entertaining questions is number one. One key takeaway that I had from Cornell is you don't need to be the first ranked individual in your class to be able to get into Cornell University or into one of these Ivy Leagues. I am a part of the Ivy League networks of the world as well as India. I can tell you there are people with some of the most diverse backgrounds possible. Honestly speaking, I feel like we are the top ranked individual in our particular board of study. There are so many different people from different boards of study, some from the most impoverished nations of the world who have really worked very hard to come up to where they have. And it's all been about their diversity, their diversity with skills, their diversity with respect to profile and their ability to be go-getters. It's very important that you work on being a go-getter and basically clinch every opportunity that you have at your disposal. And of course, academics are important, but skillset development is equally important. Alright, skillset development is equally important. And I think Dhwani, one of the students I had interviewed from El Pro International School a couple of weeks back, mentioned how she probably went about that entire process of application herself. And she was not the top ranked student in her school at many points in time, but she was able to do well in academics while increasing her profilability is everywhere else. And she's found herself to go to Harvard and stories of this sort are in abundance. So don't simply focus on your academics, but also focus on overall development in grades 11 and 12. It'll really, really help. So those were my two bits of information for all of you. And I'd be very happy to address a few questions before we move on. I've gotten a few questions on message. If anybody would like to ask me a question about my experiences or about the basics of 21st century skills, how you can go about them, profile building or just the application processes in general, feel free to raise your hands, or you can also ask me a question on Zoom chat. I've gotten a question from Atul. You spoke about the different style of instruction that you can USA. Is it challenging for Indian students to adjust when they go there? Are students ready to go for undergraduate courses? Well, thank you for that question, Atul. Well, students are definitely ready to go for undergraduate courses. In fact, the ability to adapt would probably be much easier in the undergraduate levels because a lot of time is spent on orienting students for it. At master's levels, it totally depends upon how you grasp that opportunity and how you take it up. There's a lot more orientation period in undergraduates because it goes on for four years. So the first year, the freshman year is spent in the entire process of orienting students. And in fact, students don't even pick the degree that they want to pursue in most cases in year one. It's a very open-ended field where you can take up a bunch of different subjects and pick your degree or interest by year two. So yes, it is possible to adapt. It is challenging to an extent because we have to get out of our comfort zones and from our traditional ways of learning. So it totally depends upon our adaptability. Students typically are able to adjust within a month or two. Homesickness taken into consideration as well as soft skills. But what's very important is also to be adaptable. Those students who are not adaptable are probably the students who are not going to be able to do well in those universities. So that's my answer for you. Another question was, can you list some of the sites that offer internships to students? Dhriti is asked. Dhriti, you can go on to internshala.com and look for internships. Internshala is a good site for internships. But apart from that, honestly speaking, more than looking for those internships, just see what field of work are you interested in. Look for people who are in that particular field on LinkedIn and ask them directly. Don't be scared of asking. Ask them whether they offer internships, unpaid internships to students of grades 11 and 12. That's the best way to go about this. That's what I'd like to say for this particular question. But you can go on to internshala. Another ask, can you name a few organizations who offer internships for 11th graders? There are a lot of organizations. Honestly speaking, a lot of media organizations, right from some of the bigger media organizations and channels offer internships. A lot of educational organizations like SkillSphere Education. In fact, we had floated our firm, I think. Recently, we had shared it with Elpro as well. I think Sugandha Ma'am mentioned that she had shared it. We have a few students from Elpro who are also pursuing an internship at SkillSphere. There are other educational organizations basically that offer internships for external collaborations for content development. Even engineering and tech and coding organizations are happy to offer internships of times. Okay. One student has asked me, IIT versus US universities. Honestly, it's like comparing apples to oranges. All right. There's no comparison. It totally depends upon what you want in life. One day, IITs are also brilliant universities of learning, but yes, their process is different from that of US universities. It totally depends upon what you want to gather from it. All right. So honestly, I don't think anybody is qualified to decide which one is better. Well, I went to Cornell University though and I had a whale of a time. I had the most amazing time of my life, the one year that I spent at Cornell. All right. A question on chat is, can you explain the process of application? Explain the process of application in brief and honestly speaking, this will be a part of the study abroad series. So each session is actually going to be covering a different part of the process of application. But the process of application honestly starts off with building your soft skills and profile like I've mentioned. The first thing that you'll require is stuff to put onto your resume, stuff to put onto your profile. So start building it up as early as possible in life because all of this is really going to help. Once that the formal process requires you to shortlist universities. Give your competitive exams, whether it's the SAT or the ACT, you're going to have to probably give one of them. You definitely have to give the TOEFL as well. Right. You have to give that after that there would be extended essays for different, different universities. You'd have to get letters of recommendation. And then you have to go about the process of application post that. Well, if you'd like to apply for scholarships. Well, that's also at your disposal. Put it to cut a long story short. That's really the process. And it typically should start off in 11 standard grade 11 where you start building your profile at the minimum and shortlisting universities. And it picks up pace by the end of grade 11. You should be complete with your applications by the September or October of your grade 12 studies. Okay. The counselors for GRE as well as other, I'm sorry, for SAT as well as other study abroad degrees will be coming in the next few sessions. We'll share and shed more light on it. Okay. They ask what are the options for masters after the tech course. There are abundant opportunities for the tech courses, whether it's in engineering or it's in engineering management or in MIM degrees.  Just give me one moment. I'm sitting in my on my terrace. There seems to be a little bit of pandemonium. My sincerest apologies. Somebody asked me what was my area of specialization at Cornell? How did I arrive at this choice? Well, I did my masters in energy, economics and engineering, and I did my minors in early childhood education. How did I arrive at this choice? Well, I was a chemical engineer by by qualification post my degree and I was definitely very interested in exploring the field of energy engineering and environmental engineering. Energy, economics and engineering tended to blend in aspects of economics plus energy sciences beautifully. In fact, the course was beautiful. So I decided to take that up. It was under the department of chemical engineering. I had a minors in childhood education from Cornell because I run skills free education and I further wanted to refine my 21st century skills.  There are a prerequisite number of courses that you need to pursue in your area of concentration. But I have actually pursued all kinds of courses, right from learning how to play ice hockey, to learning drama and theater as a one credit course to a bunch of seminars related to tech and science. I mean, honestly, you won't even think of the kinds of courses that exist at times and what you can learn. Just the fact that a course of that sort exists is mind boggling. I'll take a live question at this point in time. Ronak, would you like to ask me a question? Go ahead. Yes, sir. I know this might sound a bit strange, a bit odd, but would you not mind telling me because I'm really intrigued to know the most difficult challenge of your time in Cornell, which has helped you reach to this great level. All right. Thank you, Ronak. Doesn't sound weird at all. That's a neat and very intriguing and interesting question. Well, I'm still on the part of greatness is what I'd like to believe, but yes, we are doing well at skills here and honestly, when I was at Cornell University, I was running skills here remotely from there. My entire team was working from here and I had to work on two different time zones. Honestly, I was working through the nights in India on my course at Cornell, and that was day in the US. And when it was night in the US is when I used to spend some time with my team. So that was quite challenging. When I talk about university, one of the biggest challenges was honestly I was spoiled for choice and this happens with a lot of students. You can't really know what you want to take up. And there was this particular time when you know we had to take up only 17 credits per semester, you could take up a maximum of 32 and I took up 33 credits. So it was a little challenging to complete all the assignments and everything associated with it, but it was a great character building exercise so it's important to be very conservative and be realistic when we decide what we want to do at times. That's really what I'd like to tell you. Thank you, Ronak. All right, Sujata, go ahead. Um, so sir, what do you think about volunteer opportunities right now? I think they're absolutely brilliant. I'm wondering whether with social service organizations or with any other organization is going to provide you with a bunch of perspective and opportunities which go way beyond putting those things into your resume. So you must definitely pursue every volunteering opportunity you possibly can. Right. Yes, would you like to ask me a question. I had a question that where could you suggest me to do 11th and 12th in India or abroad? All right. Honestly, I don't think that too many people qualify to answer that question for you. I don't think I'm qualified enough either. But I do believe that pursuing a 11th and 12th grade studies in India is not going to impact your ability to study abroad in grades, I mean for university. I mean, it doesn't really matter as much. Yes, with certain students from certain countries, especially students from China and students who do not read the English language well enough or not speak the English language well enough. There are people who actually go in much earlier to the United States to study from our grades, 10, 11 and 12 itself. But honestly for Indian students, it's not going to make much of a difference if that's what you're asking me. I have a couple of friends who actually went in at grade 10 levels and then pursued the undergrads in the US. I'll take a couple of other questions. I'll try and answer five more questions because we are running out of time. Yes. Hello, I wanted to ask you, what is the value of an engineering degree that is taken in India versus what is taken abroad specifically for somebody who is a US citizen? I think that taking a degree abroad is more beneficial if you are a US citizen than what you would take in India. Well, it totally depends upon where you want to settle down actually. Definitely for a US citizen and you want to go back to the US, a US engineering degree will matter a little bit more. At least some kind of exposure in the United States of America will matter a little bit more. Also, the quality of your degree definitely does matter. But frankly, if you study in India, getting a job in India should not be difficult. It depends upon the geography as I said. Shashank, I'll entertain one question from you and I'll try and see some of the questions that are being asked that are over 42 questions will be difficult, but Shashank, go ahead. Shashank, would you like to unmute and ask your question? Yes, sir. Yes. Sir, what was your motivation and how did you push yourself towards this? All right, to go into Cornell University, is that your question? I'll answer that for you. So basically, frankly speaking, both my parents are masters holders. My father's a masters from IIT Bombay. And my father's actually a master from Clemson University went to IIT Bombay and my mother's an MBA from Alabad University and both of them wanted me to pursue my masters. Initially, I was very skeptical about pursuing my masters because I'd already started off my own organization and was doing largely well. I didn't want to move out of India for a sabbatical because I didn't know how it would affect my organization at that point in time. But I did take this step I did apply and I always wanted to, I decided that if I go to a university, I probably want to go to the best. So I'd only applied to Cornell University and Carnegie Mell and luckily I got into both of these universities. I'll try and answer a couple of questions that have been asked here. Well, I put in my application for Cornell without a study abroad counselor. It's very straightforward if you go through the different. There's a lot of information available online as well as when you speak to people so I just found it more convenient to go about the entire application my process process itself. And I was very motivated once I started applying to just learn the process of application I thought it was a very interesting process. And the process of application should not be approached simply from the perspective of getting into a university it's actually something that's very enriching. I really enjoyed that. And once I got into Cornell University of course, you know, a lot of us think that being an Ivy League graduate has a lot of boasting rights and bragging rights well let's face it it does but that's really not what Ivy League graduates gain the most the exposure in the university is just unbelievable. It's amazing the number of people the kinds of professors and students you get to meet and work with the opportunities for studies and it's probably impossible to replace anywhere so I really miss it. And I would very strongly recommend that you all try to go to the best universities possible, because trust me you know college life is the most amazing time for anyone. And it's very difficult to replace if you ask me in a breath I'd be ready to go back to Cornell if I got the opportunity to study a little bit more. Right. So that was my answer for you. Let me just try and quickly scroll through a few questions. Should we do diploma and then complete a BTEC in Canada, a lot of these questions honestly that you're asking how to prepare for the SAT exam. You know which courses should you possibly take some of the people who are coming next week and the next week after will be really able to answer even better. So, I would not like to take that opportunity away from them I can answer them for you, but we better they answer it for you. The best medical universities well there are amazing medical universities in the US, which have worked on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as well as in Britain, where they've worked on the AstraZeneca vaccine as well as in India, where co action has been worked on as well so it's difficult to you know honestly there's nothing like a best university. So what I'd like to tell you is that these university rankings that exist, even though Cornell is the number seventh ranked university in the US, and the number 14th ranked university in the world. What I'd like to tell you is that they're an absolute rocks. Okay, let's face it. So, it's very important to understand that all of these rankings are based on past perceptions of a lot of things. So it's important not to go by them seriously it's important to go by the degree you want the environment that you want to be because that's the exposure that you're getting. And the IBDP curriculum really really provides you with this kind of an opportunity as well, because you get to explore the way of, you know, learning that's followed in the US systems when it comes to picking your subjects and picking your disciplines. So that really helps to an extent and of course other degrees help to, but since this was an IBDP section program I thought I'd mentioned that.  So you definitely must pursue it. Building a profile, I've talked about certain aspects of it. Yes, and you can build on that. What is the policy of financial aid in IVs? Does Harvard give all the students who get selected aid, or according to their situation? Well, it's according to merit and situation and additional applications and essays, it's kind of difficult to get scholarships or even part financial grants for larger IVs. I did get a 40% grant. And then I went on to pursue what you call an assistantship. Okay, I was a TA, I was a teacher assistant there. So I was able to cover a large part of my fee, but it's difficult at times to get this. What was my grade 10 and 12th percentage? Honestly, it doesn't matter. I don't even remember my grade 12th percentage. My grade 10th percentage was, I think it'll be laughable for you all now, but it was a good percentage back then. I was among the topers in Maharashtra. I was a 95% and 12th, I think something like 91, but it didn't really matter in the larger scheme of things.  Okay, what is the minimum age to go abroad for studies?  You can go as early as grades eight, nine and 10. All right, you can go in for your high school studies, or you can decide to move into any country and probably pursue the educational systems. But at this point in time, Adya, the key takeaway from this particular session for you is the importance of building your skills. And therefore, you have a much larger window to develop your skills and expose yourself to different environments. Do that, because by the time you reach in grade 11 and 12, it'll make life much easier for you. Okay, all right. Honestly, there are just so many questions. All right, I'll end with one question. I'm so sorry if I've not been able to address a lot of questions. What I'll ask is, all right, does one student who's continuously asking me this question is abroad more good than India and studies. Well, I don't think so. I don't think India is better abroad is better totally depends upon what you want, and what position I mean what direction you want to take your life to. But exposure is great. Honestly, if you'd like to get a little bit of exposure, I'd always suggest that you probably spend some time studying abroad, or at least getting some kind of exposure abroad, it really helps. All right. So, let me just see if I can ask. All right, I'll allow Anaya to ask her answer. I mean, ask me one final question. Anaya, please go ahead. Yes, so my question is, is taking a gap year after 12 beneficial for applying into Ivy Leagues and like improving your extracurricular activities so there's a more chance of getting into Ivy Leagues. Well, that's an interesting question, Anaya, the whole concept of a gap year. Well, I myself am a gap year student. I was actually applying for the IIT's post grade 12, and I did get in but I got a very low rank, even post my gap year so I wasn't really able to get chemical engineering which is why I went to Mumbai University.  But that gap year gave me a lot of perspective, give me a lot of exposure, I pursued a couple of internships as well while continuing to study. That's my experience. Well, a gap year does not necessarily provide you with the opportunity to improve your profile though. It's always important that if you take a gap year you're taking it while taking your parents into confidence and with a very clear cut objective and direction otherwise a gap year can be a large waste taking or not taking a gap year is not going to have a large impact on your university prospects. All right. So, that's Kavya. No, I did not study abroad in grade 10. I studied abroad for the first time post my undergrads, which was during my masters. All right, but the study abroad experience is something that you can definitely definitely gain. While in India, if you really want to gain a firsthand experience of the study abroad experience to some extent. Well, the IBDP curriculum does offer you that if you'd really like to look at that because the entire system of learning the IBDP learners profile, all of these things definitely play a very major role in helping you and adapting. You know, we talked about adaptability. Well, if you adapt into the IBDP system, it does make the process of adaptability into the systems in the US, UK or Australia, much, much easier. So in that perspective, we can definitely ask by copy pasting the question. I'm not going to answer it. All right, so don't do that. But anyway, there are some students who are sending the question again and again. But anyway, that's really what I'd like to tell you. US Unis do provide undergrad for law. Cornell has a great law university, Harvard has a great law university, bunch of others as well. Honestly, I'm just going through any question that I can possibly see at this point in time. How to choose a degree and at what time is one question that has come in. Well, honestly speaking, this is something that you all need to go through yourself. It's a process of self reflection to decide which degree you'd like to pursue. In undergrad studies, an interesting thing is that you do not need to actually opt for your major when you apply. You can apply for a university and apply and pick your degree in the second year. So it does give you the opportunity for exploration, but those internships, workshops, curricular activities definitely give you a little more exposure. Okay. Some courses that would help you build your college application, every single course could possibly help you with what I'd like to tell you is try and take up multiple different courses. Okay. I was not a student of the IB program. Some, some person has asked, well, because back in my times, the IB programs were not so well established. I come from Mumbai, I grew up in Mumbai. And the IB programs are just a couple of schools that provide the IBDP curriculum. So I actually completed my grades 11 and 12 in CVS. That's really the question you want to ask. How much does it cost on average to study abroad? Taking everything into consideration, the average per year cost would be around $45,000 to $50,000 for Ivy Leagues and others that might even go up to $70, $80,000 per annum. Totally depends upon the degree you take. All right, students, parents, I've tried to answer as many questions as I possibly can. And I'd love to probably get a transcript of all these questions and try and address them separately. And I request Sugandha ma'am to probably share it with all the attendees today. But I'd really like to thank everybody for the opportunity today before I hand it back to Sugandha ma'am. The key takeaways from my presentation are firstly, try and answer those three questions that I asked in the beginning. Dazzling me, try and dazzle yourself. Firstly, try and speak about yourself for five minutes, try and amaze other people by talking about yourself. Second question is always try and have an answer for the five things that are taking place in the world and how they impact you. And thirdly, try and develop that confidence to be able to express your opinion in groups, even if everybody else disagrees with you. Okay, this is just the beginning of some of the skills that are super duper important irrespective of the university you get into in India too, but definitely when you're studying abroad, try and build your profile for yourself. Okay, not university application of future job oriented but try and look at these internships courses workshops, any and every possible exposure. Look, it's not simply about, you know, I am into public speaking and you and squeezing and basic 21st century skill development. There are also technical skills, technological skills that are important social skills, art based skills, basically do everything possible to broaden your outlook and expand your horizons to make yourself a very, very valuable 21st century citizen. All right. And lastly and most importantly, if you really ask me what's required to get into some of these best universities, so called best universities I'd like to say, it's really trying to be the best version of yourself. So try and focus on being the best version yourself, because none of these universities believe in the concept of best. Right. So, thank you so much for this opportunity on a Sunday afternoon. And I do look forward to interacting with you all soon once again.


It is indeed privileged to have you here in this beautiful city with a rich history. That is also the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu. We have come to Madurai to come to India. I also take this opportunity to welcome Honorable Governor of Tamil Nadu. Then Banwari Lal Prohit, Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Then Edapadi K. Palani Swami, Honorable Deputy Speaker Lok Sabha. Dr. Tiru M. Tambidurai, Honorable Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Tiru O. Paneer Selvam, Honorable Union Minister of State for Finance. Tiru Pon Radha Krishnan, Honorable Minister for Cooperation, Government of Tamil Nadu. Tiru Selur K. Raja, Honorable Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu. Dr. Tiru C. Vijay Bhaskar, Honorable Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management, Government of Tamil Nadu. Tiru R. B. Uday Kumar, Honorable Member of Parliament, Madurai. Tiru R. Gopal Krishnan, Honorable Member of Parliament, Viridhanagar. Tiru T. Radha Krishnan. Ladies and gentlemen, can we have a nice big round of applause? As a token of respect and affection, a traditional welcome will be accorded to the Honorable Prime Minister by our Honorable Chief Minister. I request Honorable Chief Minister to welcome the Honorable Prime Minister. Malaniya Pradhan Mantri ji, Madurai Sheher aapka swagat karta hai. While the Tamil Nadu model of public health is renowned for its success in providing quality health services at an affordable cost, especially to the rural people, having aims in Tamil Nadu has been a long, unfulfilled dream of the people of our state. Today is a historic moment for the state of Tamil Nadu, as today, in keeping with his vision of a healthy India, Honorable Prime Minister lays the foundation stone for new aims in our state at Topur, Madurai, the cultural capital and the heart of Tamil Nadu under the flagship scheme, Pradhan Mantri Swastya Suraksha Yojana. Upon the request of Honorable Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Madam Selvi, Dr. J. J. Lalitha, Honorable Prime Minister of India has given an aims for Tamil Nadu to be built at a cost of Rs. 1,264 crores in 45 months. Further, as another major step forward in bridging the gaps in the tertiary healthcare facilities in Tamil Nadu state today, Honorable Prime Minister will also be inaugurating three super-speciality hospitals set up in government medical colleges in Madurai, Tirunelveli and Tanjavur at a cost of Rs. 150 crores for each project. Both the centre and the state governments, with funding of Rs. 450 crores and Rs. 85 crores respectively, have supported these projects, a boon for the people of our state. Honorable Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation and gift to the people of Tamil Nadu, 12 more post office passport seva kendra under a major initiative of the Government of India for taking the passport services closer to the citizens. Honorable Prime Minister will also be inaugurating three super-speciality hospitals at a cost of Rs. 1,264 crores for each project, a boon for the people of Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs. 1,264 crores for each project. Honorable Prime Minister will also be inaugurating three super-speciality hospitals at a cost of Rs. 1,264 crores for each project. I now request Honorable Deputy Chief Minister Thiru O. Paneer Selvam to give his welcome address. Honorable Deputy Chief Minister will also be inaugurating three super-speciality hospitals at a cost of Rs. Rs. 1,264 crores for each project, a boon for the people of Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs. 1,264 crores for each project. Honorable Deputy Chief Minister will also be inaugurating three super-speciality hospitals at a cost of Rs. 1,264 crores for each project. Honorable Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr. C. Vijay Bhaskar, Member of Parliament, Thiru Kobala Krishnan, Member of Parliament, Thiru T. Radha Krishnan, Varigavarindarukuntha Sattamanda Urupinar, Thiru Rajan Sallappa, Thiru Manikam, Thiru Periyapullan, Thiru Saravanan, Thiru Neethipathi, Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr. Krisha Vaithyanathan, Dignities, Friends from the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is my proud privilege to be present here on the momentous occasion of the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here at Thopurin, Madurai. In response to the request of the late Honorable Chief Minister, Porachitha Levyamma, the proposal to establish an alliance in Tamil Nadu was announced in the Union budget 2015-16. Under careful consideration of the alternative sites for the establishment of the alliance, the Government of India has finally chosen Thopur in Madurai district as the location for the alliance. I thank the Honorable Prime Minister and the Government of India for choosing Madurai as the location for the alliance. This location greatly benefits the people, deciding in the south-southern-backward districts of Tamil Nadu, the Thopur-Uchapethi-Satelites Township is being developed by the Tamil Nadu hosting board very close to the site of the alliance. This will ensure that all necessary infrastructures for the alliance will also develop in an orderly fashion. Porachitha Levyamma have Tamil Nadu numerous welfare and development programs. Some of the most important schemes are in the area of healthcare. As a result, Tamil Nadu has the leading health indicators among all states in India. Part of Tamil Nadu's investment in medical education under the guidance of Porachitha Levyamma has ensured that we have high-quality doctors and medical professionals. The alliance will ensure further accreditation of the quality of health human resources in Tamil Nadu. Porachitha Levyamma, through the Chief Minister's comprehensive health insurance scheme, made high-quality, tertiary medical facilities in the private sector accessible to even the poorest. We are still in the midst of the Taipongal Shasen. Many delicate events are being organized with great enthusiasm in different parts of Tamil Nadu. I recall with gratitude the Honourable Prime Minister's timely intervention in January 2017, which enabled this legal conduct of delicate, iraadha ulepukum, artelmithu saleukum, themeikku anjadha ninja uridhikum, eduthukataka thikalndu, samudaya nalam kathidabum, makkal nalam membadabum, oivindu uleithuvarum maan migu bharathaparathiru narendharamodiji avarilukku, yenglodiya yadevarumana nandigalai tarivithu. I thank the Honourable Prime Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu and reasserts government of Tamil Nadu continuing commitment to provide to the people of Tamil Nadu the highest quality medical facilities. Thank you. Nandri vanakkam. Thank you. Nandri, we now invite Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy to address the gathering. I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. Honourable Prime Minister Thiru Narendra Modi Ji will now lay the foundation stone for aims by clicking the remote button. Can we have the AV please? I thank the Honourable Chief Minister for laying the foundation stone for the aims in Tamil Nadu Thiru Edapadi K. Palliswamy. A Super Specialty Hospital has been built at a cost of Rs. 150 crores at Rajaji Government Medical College, Madurai for augmenting tertiary healthcare service in the state. The Super Specialty Hospital would add 320 more beds including 49 ICU beds along with 6 modular operation theatre and state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment like MRI, CT scan, catalan and digital x-ray. The four-storied hospital designed as per green building norms will facilitate augmenting 7 Super Specialty Services including Neurosurgery, Nephrology, Gastroenterology and Microvascular Surgery, marching towards a healthy India. Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the new facility at Rajaji Medical College, Madurai. The Honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will now inaugurate the Super Specialty Hospital building at GMC Tanjavur by clicking the remote button. Can we have the AV? A Super Specialty Hospital has been set up in the Government Medical College, Tanjavur at a cost of Rs. 150 crores for augmenting tertiary healthcare in five districts around the ancient Chola capital. The six-storied hospital building would add 290 beds including 90 ICU beds along with 5 modular operation theatres and state-of-the-art equipment like CT scan, catalan and digital x-ray facilities. This will add facilities for 10 Super Specialty Departments including Interventional Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Nephrology and Gastroenterology. Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the new Super Specialty Block at Tanjavur Medical College. Honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will now inaugurate the Super Specialty Hospital building at GMC Tirunelveli by clicking the remote button. Can we have the AV? A Super Specialty Hospital Block has been constructed at the Government Medical College, Tirunelveli at a cost of Rs. 150 crores for augmenting tertiary healthcare in the southern part of Tamil Nadu. The 330 bedded Super Specialty Hospital includes 50 ICU beds along with 7 modular operation theatres and state-of-the-art equipment like CT scan, catalan and digital x-ray facilities. This will facilitate adding 8 Super Specialty Departments including Neurology, Cardiology, Nephrology, Gastroenterology, Neurology in the Medical College. Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the new Super Specialty Hospital at GMC Tirunelveli. Honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will now inaugurate the new Super Specialty Hospital building at GMC Tirunelveli by clicking the remote button. This will facilitate adding 8 Super Specialty Departments including Neurology, New Super Specialty Hospital at GMC Tirunelveli by clicking the remote button. Madurai, the temple city of southern India, with Meenakshiaman Temple at centre has been a seat of learning and culture since the Sangam era. With an endeavour towards making this historical city a centre of excellence for medical education, healthcare and research and to bridge the gap in tertiary healthcare facilities in the region, a new aims is being set up at Madurai at a cost of Rs. 1264 crores. Spread over an area of 200 acres, the aims will have a hospital with 750 beds including 75 ICU beds, 30 trauma beds, a medical college and a nursing college. The hospital will have 18 Super Specialty Departments to take care of critical illness including cardiac, renal, cancer and neurosurgical issues. It would be equipped with 16 modern operation theatres, state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment including CT, MRI and cath lab. The aims will also have a helipad to enable quick transfer of emergency cases. With a mantra of integrating traditional medicine, the hospital will have dedicated department of Ayush with 30 beds. The aims will have a medical college with 100 MBBS UG seats and a nursing college with an intake of 60 students each year. The college will be equipped with modern lecture theatres, seminar halls and the latest laboratory facilities. There would also be provision for students, hostel and residential facilities for doctors, nurses and support staff. All the construction will be energy-efficient and confirmed to Graha 3 star ratings with rooftop solar systems. In time to come, aims Madurai will provide leadership in the field of advanced healthcare, medical education and research in the region. Foundation stone for this prestigious institution is being laid today by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congratulations Madurai! Now, Honourable Prime Minister Thiru Narendra Modi ji will dedicate to the people, 12 post office passport saver Kendra's by clicking the remote button. Our beloved Prime Minister for helping bring a positive tide in the healthcare sector, impacting the lives of several crore families. We the people are extremely happy to have the Honourable Prime Minister amidst us. Sir, the people are eagerly awaiting to hear from you. I now have the proud privilege of requesting the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi ji to address all of us. I am delighted to be in Madurai, famous for Minakshi Sundareswar temple and a place that owes its name to the auspicious blessings of Lord Shiva. The country celebrated Republic Day yesterday. In some ways, the laying of foundation stone of the All India Institute of Medical Science at Madurai today reflects our vision of Aik Bharat, rest of Bharat. Friends, we all know that AIMS in Delhi has cultivated a brand name for itself in healthcare. With AIMS in Madurai, we can say that this brand of healthcare has been taken to all corners of the country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to Madurai and from Guwahati to Gujarat. AIMS at Madurai will be constructed at a cost of more than Rs 1200 crores. It will benefit the entire population of Tamil Nadu. Friends, the NDA government is giving great priority to the health sector so that everyone is healthy and healthcare is affordable. Under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthasuraksha Ayodhra, we have supported the upgradation of government medical colleges across India. Today, I am happy to inaugurate the super-speciality blogs of Madurai, Tanjabur and Trunel Valley Medical Colleges. The speed and scale at which Mission Andradhanush is working is setting a new paradigm in preventive healthcare. Pradhan Mantri Matru Bandra Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Matri Swasthit Matru Tvavyaan is making safe pregnancy a mass movement. The number of undergraduate medical seats have been increased by almost 30% in the last four and a half years. The launch of Ayushman Bharat is also a big step. It is a carefully thought-out approach to ensure the achievement of universal health coverage for our country. Ayushman Bharat seeks to undertake path-breaking intervention to holistically address health issues. 1.5 lakh health and wellness centers are being set up to provide comprehensive primary care and preventive health services. Pradhan Mantri Aarogya Yojana provides financial protection up to Rs.5 lakh per year to cover over 10 crore needy families in case of hospitalization. It is the largest health insurance scheme in the world. I am happy to learn that 1 crore 57 lakh persons of Tamil Nadu state are covered under this scheme. In just over three months, about 89,000 beneficiaries were admitted and an amount of more than Rs.200 crore has been authorized for admitted patients of Tamil Nadu. I am also happy to learn that Tamil Nadu has already started 1,320 health and wellness centers. On the disease control front, we are providing technical and financial support to states. Our government is committed to TB elimination by 2025. I am happy to learn that the state government is upscaling the TB-free Chennai Initiative and seeking to eliminate TB in the state by 2023 itself. I compliment the state for the commitment toward the implementation of all aspects of the revised national TB control program. I assure that the government of India stands committed for extending all necessary support for efforts of the state in tackling this disease. Today, I am happy to dedicate 12 posts of its passport seba kendra in Tamil Nadu. This initiative is one more example of improving the ease of living to our citizens. I once again assure that my government is committed to strengthen the initiative in health care to ensure universal health coverage. Thank you, sir, for your words of motivation and inspiration, a unique speech from an inspiring leader. I request the audience to remain standing until the Prime Minister leaves the premises. I once again thank you, Honorable Prime Minister Tirunarendra Modiji, for visiting and joining us in adding a new chapter in the success stories of the state of Tamil Nadu in health care. I also thank the team of officials, dignitaries and people of Madurai who made this day a grand success.


Everybody forced here ripping the sports card Almanac multi-sport personal box edition of volume 3 you got one box here for Brett s Brett has box number 37 Good luck brett's Sean Alexander 37 Is he 37 my wrong Sean Alexander? This is order number nine six three eight five nine six three eight five But I will say the orders are much more spaced out right now, and then they were earlier 37 is a 2019 prestige Kyler Murray NFL Passport signature Gemmin 10 auto 10 nice on-card passport. I don't think they do them like that anymore There we go Kyler Murray rookie auto from prestige Passports are pretty cool actually There you go, Brett. Thank you again. We'll get this card out to you shortly You can 10 10 on it


Well, I'm not sure that I would formulate the question precisely like that about living in a simulation. A simulation means that somebody made the simulation and who did it. There are two aspects of it. Yes, it is absolutely hilarious. Of course, the scientist says right away that he would rephrase the question. He wants to talk about simulation theory, but at the same time he doesn't want to call it a simulation because then you need an inventor, you need a programmer, you need God. And the scientists nowadays unfortunately hate God. I don't see a contradiction with being a scientist and being a religious person, but unfortunately in this day and age most people do and therefore the scientist has to rephrase, has to abstain here from the possibility of there being a God.


Hey, lovely crocheters out there. This is Tasha from Start-of-School Crochet. Today's Saturday Stitch tutorial is the raised ripple stitch. This is my modern version. I revised the original a bit so the edges were a little bit straighter and today I'm using a six millimeter hook. So grab your yarn. We're going to do a foundation chain or a foundation double crochet and here I'm working ten. So go ahead and chain three then you're going to work your double over or yarn over. Put your hook in the first chain, yarn over and pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through one. Grab onto the bottom two of that. Pull through two and pull through two just like a regular double crochet. So insert your hook for the second stitch through the bottom two loops, yarn over pull up a loop, pull through one and then complete your double crochet like normal. You repeat that until you reach ten double crochets. The foundations really help a lot because they have stretched to it, which is great for puffy stitches. All right, so I've done three and go ahead and work ten and we'll come right back. Okay, so here I've worked my ten. The row two, this is considered row one, so we're going to chain one for row two and turn and row two is a single crochet row. We're going to start in the very first single double crochet from the row below and then work ten complete single crochets one in each stitch. Lord, my voice is not working today. So the raised ripple, this is my version. I hope you guys like it. The one in the book was super confusing and I thought I just can't teach this. I need to make this more efficient. So there's your row two. We've got ten single crochet. For row three, we're going to chain two and turn and then here's what we're going to do our raised stitches. So we're going to skip, do a double crochet in that first single crochet from the previous row and then we're going to work down and do our first raised double or raised treble into the second double crochet. Chains do not count as a stitch. So you do your treble, which is yarning over twice, going around the stitch and then completing your treble like normal. You skip one and then we're going to work a double crochet into the next stitch. You skip one double from below and do a treble around the next double crochet from row one and then we're going to skip one and we're going to work a double crochet into the next, which is the repeat. So you do a treble around a front post treble and then you do a skip stitch and then you do a double crochet in the next stitch. Skip that one and do a double crochet. You repeat that all the way to the end. Skip, do a raised. Some people call it raised. Some people call it front post. It's the same thing. Skip one, double crochet in the next and for our last stitch, we're going to do a double crochet in the very last single crochet. So here we've completed our three rows so far. Our foundation double, single crochet and then a raised. Chain one and turn and we're doing one more row. We're repeating row two, which is a single crochet row. So you're just going to single crochet across the entire row in one in each stitch. This is a really awesome stitch. I'm doing a scarf with some color changes too. So there we have our ten single crochet. For row four, we're going to chain two or five. I'm sorry. Then we're going to do our first raised treble in the very first double crochet that you see, your first visible double crochet. We're skipping the stitch behind there. We skip the first single crochet. We skip the second one. We're going to work a double crochet into the third. I recommend marking this row with a stitch marker. Then we're going to do a treble around the next visible double crochet below. Skip one and do a double crochet in the next and where that pattern repeats across the entire row. So you do a treble around the doubles and you do a double crochet after you skip one stitch. You repeat that until the very end and then the end is worked at just a little bit different. So here we've got one stitch left. We're going to go and work our last front post treble around that last double crochet and then we're not skipping a stitch this time. We're just going to do one double crochet into that last stitch. That creates a solid edge for you to sew together, which is something that I think is really important if you're a designer. So here's your foundation and then you're going to repeat rows two to five until you reach your desired height and here's what the swatch looks like. It's a really great pattern. The backside usually of the raised stitches are flat and there I've created a nice edge on both sides which will make it easier to sew with few gaps. The original version has quite a few gaps on the sides. All right guys, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Well first let me say I think you need to mark the fifth row because it'll help you keep track since the two rows are different. The two repeat rows are slightly different. It just helps you keep track of where you are. So go ahead and subscribe and give me a like if you haven't already. New stitch tutorial videos are out every Saturday. Thanks for watching. Take care guys.


Hello everybody, welcome back to another Adobe Photoshop 2022 tutorial. This one, I'm going to show you to create realistic ground shadow in about 60 seconds. Here, what do we got? Here's the original shot. Here's the ground shadow. How did I do it? Very easy. I'm just going to delete this layer, start from scratch. All right, start your timer. First step, you want to create a new layer once you've got your original image loaded in here. Now you want to go over to your brush tool, click on your brush tool and then go to the top here and you want to select a soft round brush. There's one under general brushes, which works just fine.  Also, you will also want to check the color. I have the color not quite at black but pretty close to back, a very, very, very dark gray because that's the look I'm going for. Now I've got my soft brush round brush part of me. I am going to add just a dob of paint here and then maybe one right there and maybe one there. So something like that. It doesn't look realistic yet, not to worry. Let's go back to our move tool. Now when I click on that dob of paint, I'm going to hold down command. If you're on a Mac or control, if you're on a PCNT, this opens up free transform. Now watch this. I'm going to hold down the shift key and I'm just going to drag this out a little bit. So you see what's happening here. I'm getting a nice elongated shadow. I'll place it in the middle and then of course you can adjust this as you see fit depending on the type of image you're making a shadow for. But in this one, the sun is right above and it's shooting down on the ball and it's creating this shadow. You can of course move it over to the other side and make it bigger or smaller depending on the time of day. If you wanted to really go for it, you can have something like that. But either way, that's all the effect. That's all the techniques you need to know to make realistic ground shadow. Thanks for watching. Be back soon.