MBD Group plans 20 luxury hotels with Steigenberger

MBD Group is one of the leading education companies with over six decades of experience. Monica Malhotra Kandhari, Managing Director, MBD Group, says the market for digital education is growing and the percentage of schools effectively using e-learning is increasing every year.

Q: With the increased use of multimedia, how does MBD see the changing landscape in publishing?

A: Today, both print and digital channels co-exist and supplement each other, though consumption remains diverse from region to region.

We offer a wide range of services covering offline and online multimedia-based learning solution (Ecademy classrooms, SD cards, online learning etc.). We print more than 5,00,000 books a day.

We have started converting our books into e-pubs and soon it will be available for purchase via our portal and one can access the same on tablets, mobile phones and desktops.

Q: How is the publishing industry faring for education and vocational books?

A: The present government has been instrumental in strengthening vocational education and emphasis is on job-based training. We, at MBD, have started developing books for vocational curriculum – covering major courses and we will also provide e-content for vocational courses.

Q: What are the online education plans of the group?

A: Keeping pace with the advent of the digital world, we ventured into e-learning with MBD Alchemie. Our company has implemented Ecademy in 1,500+ schools across the country and has trained more than 30,000 teachers in ICT. Digital content developed by MBD Alchemie is being used by millions of students around the globe. Also, we have our homegrown mobile application Nytra, an augmented reality application, which brings textbooks (k-12) to life.

Q: What are the initiatives on skill development?

A: We are running various skill courses (DTP — desktop printing, web designing, retail, hospitality etc.,) across the country. We have signed an MoU with National Skill Development Corporation under Project UDAAN to train and provide jobs to 5,000 students of J&K. We have already trained 35,000 pupils under our capacity building programme and aim to train 1 million people by the year 2022.

Q: What are the future plans for the hospitality segment?

A: We have recently tied up with Steigenberger Hotel Group of Germany. Under this JV, we will focus on key cities in the country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and other cities where we want to come up with 20 luxury hotels over the next 15 years.