From Virtual to Personal Are we ready to look forward or will we lean into the past?

We feel the world has changed, and it has. Were our habits temporary during the pandemic? It doesn't feel that way, and we realize things are different. If lockdown brought unknown issues to the world, Open up has got us back into the pre-pandemic world in a different and still not completely comprehensible way. We like the comfort of the virtual but also the connection of the personal. The impact on many industries and investments needs to be envisaged by taking
into account different age groups, needs, and expected outcomes. The impact of hybrid is changing how we communicate, connect, and create a new world. On one side, people are making new choices about where they want to live and creating new expectations about flexibility, working conditions, and life balance, but on the other side, industries other than technology are not fully aligned to organizational agility, maintaining alignment, and empowerment of teamwork in a virtual environment.

One of the first industries caught in this dilemma is the education sector. This sector, for the first time in history, changed dramatically to be a leveler for studying from home and ensuring that learning and skilling continued even during the lockdown and the stay-at home-period. However, today when we are back in action, the Edtech industry, which raised close to $5 billion in funding during 2020-2021 is faced with the old reality of physical learning, which puts a question mark on its real impact. The education industry has a large impact from the government policy side and has been caught up since the last year on the complexity of degrees to be offered online to schools and universities wanting to shift back to a pre pandemic system of learning which neither leaves students the time or the appeal to be learning online. What lessons can the education sector learn from Covid-19's impact, especially to build better safety nets for the young section of our society? And if the future is digital, how do we make sure that swathes of the global population are not left behind in their attempt to access quality education.

Our issue looks into the possible major reasons behind this and also the probable solutions to the same. While the boom in the edtech industry has seemingly slowed down now, as lesser investments are being drawn by companies in the space, it has opened up for an interesting shift in business. Major names in edtech are slowly exploring the offline route of education. Meanwhile, prominent offline names in the educational coaching industry have undertaken an online journey. We try to shed light on these journeys and the motivations behind them. Edtech grew at a magnificent pace during the pandemic since digital adoption was less of an alternative and more of a necessity for students. Now, this necessity may have opened an opportunity for many malicious entities. The edtech environment has grown more prone to cyber threats.

The edition also looks into one of the more talked about issues gripping the country: the wide adoption of electric scooters was halted when multiple explosions stemming from technical faults in these vehicles were reported from all over the country. We explain the reasons behind the same and understand what could fix the EV issues.