Bharti and Deepak Mehta are co-founders of Rajkot (Gujarat)-based Anukaanchan Solutions Pvt. Ltd (ASPL, estb.2007), which has developed www.mindfiesta.com and www.mindfiestaplus.com — online portals providing coaching and tutoring services to class X-XII students enroled in CBSE, CISCE and Gujarat state board schools, and others preparing to write medical, engineering and 45 other pan-India entrance exams. Currently, the portals boast 52,000 registered students in India and the Middle East.
Newspeg. In April this year, ASPL (headcount 45) launched www.fiesta ecampus.com — “a perfect online teaching, learning and communication solution for schools and educational institutes”. Eight schools in Gujarat have signed up to use this web-based platform for administration, teaching-learning, student information and teacher-parent communication.
Direct talk. “Fiestaecampus is a robust online portal integrating myriad services including school administration, lesson planning, supplementary learning and teacher-parent communication. Students and teachers of subs-criber schools can access our 4,300 videos and question bank, and school administrators can use our resources to generate time-tables, tabulate exam scores, and keep parents constantly updated on their children’s performance. While the entire range of services is priced at Rs.3,000-4,300 per child per month, special packages for schools depending on their requirements can be customised,” says Mehta, an alumnus of Saurashtra University and IIM-Ahmedabad and managing director of ASPL.
Genesis. In 2007, Mehta, also managing director of Saurashtra Paper and Board Mills, and wife Bharti, former theology lecturer at Saurashtra University and educationist, decided to turn social entrepreneurs with the objective of using new information communication technologies (ICT) to help teachers, students and education institutions. “I had a corporate background and Bharti had the skills and experience to create educational content and products. In 2007 we decided to pool our expertise and resources to create ICT-enabled education products to help upgrade Indian education. With an initial investment of Rs.1.7 crore we developed www.mindfiesta.com and www. mindfiestaplus.com to provide coaching to students writing board and other competitive exams. From 20 people, we have grown to a team of 45 and our mindfiesta portals have over 52,000 registered students,” says Mehta.
Future plans. With its online coaching services being enthusiastically received by the students’ community, the enterprising duo is now looking towards concentrating their formidable skills on marketing ASPL’s newest offering — fiestaecampus.com. “By the end of the year, we expect to enrol 50 schools as fiestaecampus.com registered users and meet our revenue target of Rs.5 crore. We are equally working towards improving our products and services to ensure schools, teachers and students derive maximum benefit in the cause of upgrading Indian education,” says Bharti, chairperson of ASPL.
Swati Roy (Bangalore)