Amlesh Kanekar is a Director of Academic in MDAE, Mumbai. He did Electrical Engineering from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Mumbai. He has over 30 years of experience in the Information Technology vertical of the Banking and Finance sector. He started his professional journey in 1987 with Tata Unisys Limited and later served as an International independent consultant on Unisys products for about ten years. Prof. Kanekar held multiple leadership roles, including Global Consulting Head for Digital Banking, Product Development Head for Digital Banking, Product QA Head for Core Banking and Channel Banking, and Digital Banking for Japan’s first virtual bank. 

MDAE Mumbai

What is the latest program offered in MDAE, Mumbai?

“Post graduate diploma in Economics, Data Science and Finance are our latest programs”

One of the latest programs on campus is a postgraduate diploma in Data Science and Finance. Another one is a postgraduate diploma in Economics. We have two flagship programs today. One is economics and another is in Data Science and finance. All these programs are beneficial for students.

What are the factors that make these programs beneficial for the students?

“Improve the skills and knowledge of students through these programs”

Our campus tries to bring world class knowledge and economics to students. They can attain quantitative skills, mathematics and statistics as part of the economics program. We enhanced the economics program with data courses and motivated professionals of the coming decades. Our students get tremendous opportunities after choosing the program. They are uniquely positioned to leverage the opportunities out there. 

What kind of students are you looking for on MDAE, Mumbai?

“Any one who is interested in understanding the world of economics, finance and data science”

We help young students to fit a rightful and valuable place in the global economy. Our campus provides various courses such as Bachelors in economics, finance, BAFF, BBAs, engineers, and working professionals. This is a diverse population in our classroom. Anybody who wants to understand the world of economics, finance, data science are invited on campus. They get various placements from the campus itself. 

How does your program ensure students get the best exposure?

“Placements, internships, seminars, are provided to students”

Most of the programs are student centric. We take in terms of faculty hiring or curriculum modifications from the campus. Students get placements, internships and seminars to improve their skills. We are determined to keep the curriculum dynamic. Campus management changes the curriculum from year to year based on industry demand. We encourage our students to take up research and enable them to be part of research projects. Our campus is affiliated with the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. Campus alumni network is strong and industry connection is extremely strong. 

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How do you train faculties to deliver this program to the students?

“Faculty development programs and industry sessions are available for mentors”

Most of the faculties on campus are highly experienced. All of us have efficient knowledge. We need to bring classroom through empathy, passion, and creativity. One of the primary parts of raising a child is higher education. Every faculty tries their best to educate students. Our campus gives faculty development programs and seminars for pupils.

What kind of challenges do you face in inculcating the program for students?

“To update recent changes occurring in the world and improve skills for pupils”

Primary challenge face by academies is to keep sync with the changes happening in the world. We conducted discussions with pupils about what the interviews were all about. And this is not about creating a question time like a coaching class. We can see a drift between our curriculum and what is demanded. So, keeping the curriculum in sync with reality is a big challenge. Another one is in mathematics, statistics and data skills improvement for pupils. Youngsters are not going to realize this if they are not good in quantitative skills. We see a fear of mathematics and statistics in students. One of our challenges is to make pupils unlearn the rote learning that they went through, awaken them and put them on a path to a strong foundation in data science, mathematics, statistics, etc.

What kind of hands-on experience do you provide to the students such as live projects?

“Projects concerning real life problems are available for students”

Students come up with unique ideas when working on projects. They can build a model whereby they capture many variables. A group of students undertake a project concerning data visualization, sports analytics. We are so deeply rooted in economics, and students undertake data analysis, macroeconomic data analysis of different countries. Last year, a group of students did a research project under our faculty. They actually did natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and NLP analysis of the text of election speeches. We did a project recently on COVID deaths in the state of Karnataka. Most projects are popular across university company valuations, and scoring a company by using different attributes.

What about the placements on MDAE, Mumbai?

”Provide placements from leading banks and companies from the campus”

 Placement is an outcome for our campus. We have an entire career's office, placements and more from the college. Most placement offices are driven by students. Our placement head who is an employee of MDAE and director of academic programs. We select a group of students from the current batch as members of the career's office. This brings a brilliant element to the proceedings. Leading MNCs, banks, equity market companies, have picked up our students in the last seven years. We are affiliated with the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics from this year onwards. One of the top placements at MDAE was 14.7 lakh per annum, and average placement has been eight lakh rupees per annum.

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Any Career advice you'd like to pass on for students?

“Believe in yourself and chase your dreams without losing passion”

It is necessary to build a personal and academic standard in your life. Believe in yourself and chase dreams. You should find the right passion and work for it. Learn new ideas and it helps you to get skills for your career. Make a start and pick up all skills. Combination of data skills along with knowledge of a domain is the best advice we can give kids.