At Vedica, I can be on a platform with minds that are not only rich in experience but are from diverse exposures with no barriers. An environment created to promote learning, this will definitely bring out the best in me.” This is Aneesha Sharma’s testimonial on the official website of The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women.
Aneesha recently graduated from Christ University, Bangalore, majoring in English, Psychology and Performing Arts. She has always been attracted to inter-disciplinary education. She has explored fields such as Human Resources and Clinical Psychology, interned with NGOs such as Dream A Dream, understood the workings of an organisation at Sennheiser, as well as worked with Vimhans Hospital. Her leadership skills came into play when she led team-building workshops for the MBA class at Christ University. And then she found Vedica, a unique platform for women — an 18-month residential, postgraduate management course specifically designed for young women called the Vedica Scholars Programme.
For a girl from Coimbatore, Vedica proved to be everything that she had hoped. Having graduated in computer science engineering from the Kumaraguru College of Technolgy in Coimbatore, Ashmita Kannan finally found an answer to what she was looking for. She had started working at a data analytics firm and seemed to think that she had made a good start in her career but soon she became restless.
She felt that this was not what she wanted to do. In fact, she wanted to take time off to study, explore a variety of subjects to see where her interests lay. She was also not interested in an MBA programme at an IIM or ISB. She too discovered Vedica.
This unique multidisciplinary MBA programme, probably the first of its kind, is being offered by the Vedica Foundation and the Shri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication in New Delhi.
Kannan opted for Vedica because it gave her a chance to look beyond the profitcentric corporate CEO mindset. She soon was able to explore a lot of qualities which she didn’t know existed before. She has now learned how to handle conflict better, accept feedback and improve her people management skills. It’s been a win-win for both Aneesha and Ashmita.
Cofounded by Anuradha Das Mathur, The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women is backed by a governing council that includes former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and McKinsey & Company director emeritus Joanna Barsh.
Interestingly, Mathur's cofounder is Pramath Raj Sinha, a former McKinsey partner and founding dean of ISB, a top business school. ISB’s illustrious governing board reads like the whos-who of global business and wealth: the Reliance Group’s Anil Ambani, Dell’s Michael Dell, ArcelorMittal's Lakshmi Mittal, Khosla Ventures' Vinod Khosla, among others. But of the 72-member governing board at ISB, only five are women.
The corporate sector is just one avenue for Vedica students. Development professional Tania Tauro is confident the Vedica qualification will sharpen her management skills in her line of work. She’s done her master’s in development from the Azim Premji University and has worked in the area of public health with two NGOs, Armman and Magic Bus Foundation. Anuradha Mathur, a media professional and entrepreneur, is Dean of the Vedica Programme. She is one of its founders. The other two founders are Pramath Raj Sinha, founder and first Dean of the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Daljeet Wadhwa, Founding Director of the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication.
There were several reasons why they started Vedica. They were primarily concerned that many academically bright young women were dropping out of the workforce a few years into promising careers. To create a pool of financially independent women with determination to stay the course in their careers was the starting point of Vedica.
After being selected to be a part of the Fortune and US State Department Emerging Women Leaders program due to Mathur’s existing media firm, 9.9 Media, she was exposed to a larger global debate on what the working world for women is like.
Arming women scholars with selfawareness, self-confidence, the power to negotiate, retain work-life balance and network were important considerations when Mathur and Sinha sat down to create the Vedica programme.
Launched in July 2015, the Vedica course is now on its third intake of students, with applications coming in from around India and the world. With a 10 per cent acceptance rate, students are typically aged between 22 and 26, although there is no set age limit in place.
It's first batch of graduating students joined roles at a variety of corporates including Google and Nestle.
The other driving reason for Vedica was that the traditional ‘vanilla MBA’, as Mathur terms it, is losing some of its sheen and there was a need to embellish the core of management practice by adding the liberal arts, communication and personal growth. So Vedica students learn a gamut of liberal arts like micro and macroeconomics, women’s studies, development, public policy, history, philosophy, psychology and international relations. Courses in communication and thinking help Vedica students develop their logical, analytical and critical thinking skills. These factor in written, oral and visual communication skills that extend to business writing, drafting reports and proposals, presentation skills, social media engagement and public speaking.
There is an emphasis on personal growth, critical for women so that they can handle conflicts and dilemmas at their workplace.
Art appreciation and theatre workshops are juxtaposed with courses in public policy, sustainable development, impact evaluation and other subjects.
The best thing about Vedica is that the education is broad-based. So while some have their sights on careers in Silicon Valley and quantum mechanics, others are keen to better appreciate art. Broad-based learning is really the crucible of education.
As the first batch of Vedica scholars readies to go out into the world, the question is whether they are equipped for the challenges coming their way. The Vedica team certainly thinks so. While the placement process starts, an exciting onemonth ‘Shadow a Woman CEO’ programme begins in the first week of August. The young women will spend a month getting hands-on experience of working with top-rung, professional women like Anu Acharya, CEO, Mapmygenome, Gunjan Soni, CMO of Myntra, Pratibha Advani, CFO, Tata Communications, Hitu Chawla, India Head–Enterprise, Microsoft. Then there are others like Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India, and Roxanne Hakim, Social Development Cluster Leader at the World Bank.
If the scholars develop a great rapport with seniors in the industry through the programme, they become mentors for life.
The curriculum emphasises how women’s strengths can play to the work environment in a similar vein to a traditional MBA programme. Classes use role models, inviting both male and female speakers from a variety of business backgrounds, and students spend one month shadowing a female CEO mentor. International mentors are welcomed, encouraging the women students to get experience in a global work environment.
As the programme grows, Vedica hopes to also become a hub of professional research on women’s issues, which can influence public policy and encourage women’s productivity within the working world and grow into a full-fledged university.
But in the meantime, the goal is to ensure the Vedica students are equipped intellectually and emotionally to climb the ladder of financial independence in the workplace. After all, an MBA from Vedica is smart, female and beyond profit.