Chandigarh, India.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank unveiled and presented E-LEAD certificates to the institutions that have successfully completed an audit at a virtual event on Thursday. Minister HRD also extended his best wishes and appreciated the readiness of leading Indian University such as Chitkara University to score 150 marks out of 150 and becoming the future ready and online ready University, which is the need of hour in such pandemic situation across the world, informed by Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Pro Chancellor, Chitkara University.

The Secretary General of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Professor Pankaj Mittal, also appreciated the effort of the Indian Universities for their readiness of online education.

"I am glad that Chitkara University has received the E-LEAD Certification from QS IGAUGE. Such recognitions during such pandemic situation when the administration of many institutions were hit hard and they were faced with immediate closure and the need to transform hundreds of their brick and mortar classrooms, to online virtual ones. A year back, when the concept of team teaching was introduced at the University, we started with recording the lectures of our teachers and when only online education and digital learning opportunities have the ability to contribute to emerge as technology-enabled campus and fully online ready university with strong emphasis on quality, accessibility, inclusivity, and excellence," said Dr. Archana Mantri, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University.

QS IGAUGE launched the E-LEAD programme in the backdrop of current developments in the past six months. It deployed its global resources to create a global best practises document and methodology, with an aim to do a readiness check of institutions in India in adopting technology and technology-enabled services for online teaching.

"The methodology, data collection & validation, audit process, quality check and delivery mechanism have been thoroughly reviewed by experts from the higher education domain," said Ashwin Fernandes, Regional Director - South Asia, Middle East & Africa, QS-Quacquarelli Symonds & CEO, QS-ERA India Pvt. Ltd.