E CELL and IEEE SPIT collaborated to bring to the students of SPIT a session with Mr.Ankit Mehra (CEO, GyanDhan-An education financing company) on the 6th of October.
Mr.Ankit, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, worked with Capital One in the United States for five years. He left his job to pursue an MBA Course at IESE Business School in Barcelona. There, he realized the difficulties Indian students often face in foreign universities due to high expenses. Resolving to make their struggle easier, Mr Mehra started GyanDhan upon his return to India.
GyanDhan is a student-friendly education loan marketplace which aims to equalize and expand access to higher education. Since its establishment in 2016, GyanDhan has helped over 500 students finance their studies abroad.
The discussion started with Mr Mehra asking the audience their opinion on startups. Mr Mehra explained the framework and requirements for a startup. While encouraging students to follow their aspirations, he also cautioned them about the risks related the startups, and why not every startup is successful.
He then spoke about his own journey with GyanDhan, which started from scratch and is now a thriving company, assisting numerous students every year. Touching upon the plethora of options available at GyanDhan for students to help finance their education abroad, Mr Mehra elaborated on the scope of pursuing job opportunities outside India. He then answered the questions the audience had for him, bringing the session to a close. Although his work at GyanDhan earns him less than his previous job, Mr.Mehra is content living his dream.
“The students found the talk extremely informative. We are glad that the audience had the opportunity to interact with Mr.Mehra and learn from his experience.” –Krishna Mehta, Head of events, E-CELL.
-Article by Jack Sparrow and Draco Malfoy