The 7th edition of EDNXT Bangalore, organised by The Economic Times Education, kicked off with senior policymakers, higher education leaders, and industry voices to examine how India’s education system must evolve to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world of work. The inaugural ceremony set the tone for the day with a thought-provoking message — scale alone is no longer enough; relevance, employability, and intellectual rigour must define the next phase of higher education.

The summit opened with a welcome address by Yasmin Taj, Editor – Education & HRWorld, The Economic Times, who highlighted the urgency of reimagining education amid accelerating technological change.

“It is truly energising to see this room filled with more than 400 leaders from school education, higher education, government, policy, and the education technology ecosystem, all gathered with a shared purpose – to reimagine how India learns, teaches, and prepares its people for a rapidly changing world,” she said.

Citing a 2025 NITI Aayog report, Yasmin noted that over 60 per cent of Indian schools and colleges are already using AI-powered learning tools, signalling that the transformation of education is no longer a future aspiration but a present-day reality. “AI is already personalising learning journeys, supporting teachers with insights and assessments, and breaking barriers of language, geography, and scale,” she observed, while also posing a critical question to the audience: “Are we transforming education thoughtfully—or merely digitising old models?”

The inaugural ceremony was graced by Mohammad Mohsin, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Education Department, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka; Khushboo Goel Chowdhary, Secretary, Higher Education Department, Government of Karnataka; and Prof. U. Dinesh Kumar, Director, IIM Bengaluru.

Adding an industry perspective, Deepankar Bhattacharyya, Senior GM & Country Head – Education, Nemetschek Group, emphasised the growing importance of skill development, particularly in sectors such as construction, where technology-driven competencies are reshaping workforce requirements.

Employability beyond placements

Addressing the gathering, Khushboo Goel Chowdhary, Secretary, Higher Education Department, Government of Karnataka, highlighted employability as the most pressing concern from a government standpoint, but not in the limited sense of immediate job placements.From her perspective, the real challenge lies in preparing students for a world where careers are no longer linear. Professionals today transition across roles, sectors, and skill domains, while the pace at which skills become obsolete has accelerated sharply. Chowdhary pointed out that many of the roles students will take up over the next two decades do not even exist yet, making traditional, static education models increasingly inadequate.

In this context, she emphasised that higher education must move beyond knowledge transmission and focus on building adaptability, equipping students with the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn continuously. The objective, she noted, is to ensure that Karnataka’s strong educational scale translates into long-term relevance and meaningful opportunities for learners.

Rethinking medical education for a changing healthcare landscape

Bringing a sectoral lens to the discussion, Mohammad Mohsin, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Education Department, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, underscored the foundational role of medical education in healthcare systems worldwide.

He noted that medical education has traditionally been responsible for shaping not just competent doctors, but also compassionate healers and responsible leaders. However, as medicine advances rapidly, driven by technology, data, and evolving patient expectations, the system faces significant challenges that demand urgent attention. According to Mohsin, medical education must adapt to ensure that future healthcare professionals are equipped to navigate complexity, innovation, and ethical responsibility in equal measure.

AI, employability, and the risk of superficial learning

Offering a strong academic perspective, Prof U Dinesh Kumar, Director, IIM Bangalore, cautioned against the uncritical adoption of artificial intelligence in higher education. While acknowledging AI as an extraordinarily powerful tool, he warned that power without understanding can be dangerous in academic environments.

“In India, we have over 43.3 million students enrolled in higher education, yet estimates suggest that only about 42.6 percent are employable,” he noted. Even if these figures are debated, he argued, the employability gap remains unacceptably large.

According to Prof Kumar, the core issue is not access to technology, but the nature of learning itself. If students are trained merely to prompt AI systems and accept outputs without questioning the logic behind them, institutions risk producing graduates who consume intelligence rather than develop it. “We are not merely deploying technology; we are shaping the thinking of future talent,” he said.

He stressed that students must understand how AI works, why it produces certain results, what assumptions and data shape those outcomes, and where its limitations lie. Without this depth, AI will not close the employability gap, it will widen it. The goal of higher education, he emphasised, cannot be tool proficiency alone; it must rest on intellectual rigour, supported by strong foundations in mathematics, reasoning, and critical inquiry.

Aligning education with the future of work

Concluding the thoughts together, the voices at EDNXT Bangalore highlighted a shared urgency – Aligning higher education more closely with the realities of a changing economy. Degrees and employability can no longer be treated as separate objectives. Instead, academic excellence, technological fluency, ethical grounding, and adaptability must coexist within a single learning framework.

As discussions unfolded across policy, healthcare, and management education, the inaugural session made one thing clear: India’s higher education system stands at a pivotal moment. The challenge ahead is to ensure that institutions do not simply adopt new tools or expand capacity, but rethink how learning itself is designed, so that graduates are not just qualified, but capable of shaping an uncertain and rapidly evolving future.

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