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MS Dhoni joins Olympiad toppers on Allen Online series Rise to the Top
Episode with Aadish Jain and Krishnarghya Pramanik premieres at 7 pm.
MUMBAI: From cricket pitches to academic podiums, the conversation about excellence is crossing fields. Allen Online is set to release the second episode of its student conversation series Rise to the Top, featuring a discussion between cricket legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni and two young Olympiad achievers. The episode will premiere on the organisation’s Youtube channel at 7 pm today.
The conversation brings together Dhoni with students Aadish Jain from Haryana and Krishnarghya Pramanik from West Bengal, both recognised for their achievements in international Olympiad competitions.
Jain’s journey highlights perseverance. After failing in his first attempt, he continued preparing and eventually secured a gold medal at the International Junior Science Olympiad. Pramanik, meanwhile, achieved International Rank 1 in a global Mathematics Olympiad at a young age through online learning.
The Rise to the Top series aims to bring accomplished students and well known personalities together for candid conversations about ambition, discipline and the mindset needed to succeed in competitive environments.
In the episode, Dhoni discusses preparation strategies, curiosity driven learning and the pressure students often experience while preparing for demanding academic goals.
Drawing parallels between sports and academics, he emphasised the importance of maintaining balance while striving for excellence.
“It is very important to switch on and switch off,” Dhoni said during the conversation. “For me, riding bikes or playing sports like badminton and padel helps me recharge. I believe students should explore different sports early, because unless you try something, you will never know what you are naturally good at.”
Dhoni also encouraged students to remain curious and ask questions as part of the learning process, noting that curiosity and the willingness to seek answers play a crucial role in personal growth.
The episode also touches on the role of mentors and parents in shaping young achievers. Both students acknowledged the support and guidance they received from teachers and family members while preparing for their academic milestones.
Through the Rise to the Top series, Allen Online hopes to create a platform where students can learn from real journeys of persistence and achievement while gaining practical insights into managing ambition, pressure and curiosity in competitive academic fields.
The episode featuring Dhoni alongside Aadish Jain and Krishnarghya Pramanik will be available on the Allen Online Youtube channel from 7 pm today.
Brands
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.
