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BasicFirst appoints Dr Akhilesh Kumar as CAO
NEW DELHI: BasicFirst Learning OPC Pvt Ltd – a personalised e-learning platform – today announced the appointment of Dr Akhilesh Kumar as chief academic officer for the US market.
Kumar possesses a valuable mix of corporate and academic exposure that can benefit the ed-tech platform. He holds a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan, USA where he also pursued an MBA. An alumnus of IIT Varanasi, Kumar has held top positions at leading multinational companies like N R Corporation USA, Intel Corp USA, British Telecom London and CEC Ltd and as a Professor at MIT for over 17 years.
BasicFirst founder and chief mentor Randhir Kumar said, “As we rapidly expand our overseas operations, it’s a pleasure to welcome the accomplished Dr Akhilesh Kumar. His visionary outlook and passion for education will enable us to capitalize on many upcoming opportunities. Moreover, Dr Kumar’s deep understanding of the US markets will help broad-base our overseas presence.”
Kumar stated: “I am honoured to be offered the opportunity of leading BasicFirst’s US operations at such an important juncture in its development. I believe a four-step expansion model premised on Create-Grow-Generate-Innovate should ensure positive outcomes in addressing society’s educational needs. To stay ahead of the curve in the ed-tech space while leading the international market, it is imperative to continue innovating.”
In a career spanning 36 years, Kumar has received various awards and accolades. Furthermore, he has worked as a junior research scholar with Peter Drucker, Father of Modern Management, on improving the US economy during Ronald Reagan’s tenure in the early 1980s. He has undertaken extensive research on ‘Higher Education: A Road Map’ for the Government of Rajasthan towards skills and employability. Dr Kumar has also been associated with Harvard Business School USA, MDI, XLRI Jamshedpur India, University of Stirling Scotland, the University of Huddersfield UK and the University of Connecticut USA.
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IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
