Education
Aakash names Alka Garg as CFO, Kanika Nijhawan as SVP marketing
Leadership hires signal sharper growth focus and stronger governance push
MUMBAI: India’s leading test prep powerhouse, Aakash Educational Services Limited, has strengthened its leadership bench with two strategic appointments aimed at fuelling its next phase of growth.
Alka Garg has joined as chief financial officer, while Kanika Kumar Nijhawan steps in as senior vice president – marketing. Together, the duo brings nearly four decades of combined experience across finance, branding and high-growth businesses.
Garg arrives with more than 22 years of strategic and operational expertise, having partnered with founders, CEOs and executive teams to build enterprise value and scale sustainably. At AESL, she will steer the finance function, shape long-term financial strategy, enhance efficiencies and reinforce governance frameworks as the company sharpens its growth ambitions.
Prior to this role, Garg served as chief financial officer at Yum Restaurant India, where she played a key role in strengthening financial strategy for the KFC brand and driving business performance. Her career spans leadership stints at Siemens, GreyOrange, Bharti Airtel and Deloitte, giving her a rare blend of corporate discipline and entrepreneurial agility.
On the marketing front, Nijhawan brings over 17 years of experience across media, retail and sport. Known for her expertise in brand building, digital performance marketing and omnichannel engagement, she most recently spent a decade at Adidas India as director of brand marketing.
Her earlier career includes roles at HT Media and Sony Entertainment, equipping her with a strong understanding of storytelling, audience engagement and consumer insight, skills that align neatly with AESL’s student-first focus.
With these appointments, AESL is signalling more than routine leadership changes. It is doubling down on professionalised management, operational excellence and disciplined expansion. As competition intensifies in India’s test preparation landscape, the company appears intent on pairing academic strength with sharper financial rigour and stronger brand resonance.
For students and parents navigating the high-stakes world of engineering and medical entrance exams, that could translate into a more streamlined, responsive and future-ready learning ecosystem.
Education
Scaler appoints new heads for its online and offline businesses
Amar Srivastava becomes chief executive of the online business and group chief product officer; Vidit Jain takes charge of the offline schools
BENGALURU: Scaler is shuffling its top deck as the AI skilling race heats up. The Bengaluru-based tech education company has elevated two senior executives to lead its online and offline businesses, signalling a sharper push into an AI-driven market.
Amar Srivastava, previously senior vice president for product and business, has been appointed chief executive of the online business and group chief product officer. Vidit Jain has been elevated to senior vice president and head of Scaler School, taking charge of the company’s offline education units, the Scaler School of Business and the Scaler School of Technology.
The company has also recently appointed Ratnakar Reddy as head of enterprise for India and the Middle East and North Africa, with a brief to drive partnerships with governments and enterprises for AI-led skilling programmes.
Abhimanyu Saxena, co-founder of Scaler, said the promotions reflect the company’s confidence in both leaders and the direction it is heading. “Amar and Vidit have been central to Scaler’s journey, and their elevations reflect our conviction in their leadership and the direction we are shaping as a company,” he said. “With leadership now in place across the business, we remain focused on building engineers the world’s best companies want to hire. In an AI-first economy, that mission is more urgent and more achievable than ever. Our next chapter is centred on building an AI-native workforce from India, equipped to compete in a technology-driven global economy.”
Srivastava brings over a decade of experience building education-focused ventures. He previously founded Intellify and was part of the early team at Doubtnut. At Scaler, he will lead the online business with a focus on growth, profitability and expansion into new segments, while strengthening the product ecosystem across the group. He is blunt about what the AI economy actually needs. “The AI economy does not have a shortage of tools. It has a shortage of engineers who can think clearly, build reliably, and keep learning as the ground shifts. That is what we are building toward,” he said.
Jain brings more than 15 years of experience across startups and consulting, including stints at MPL and McKinsey and Company. He will oversee growth and profitability of Scaler’s offline business. His priorities are immediate and unambiguous. “The offline experience is where depth gets built, and that depth is critical in the AI era. Over the next 12 months, our focus will be on consistent growth, stronger unit economics, and delivering outcomes for students while building long-term employer partnerships,” he said.
Founded in 2019, Scaler is valued at $710 million and backed by Peak XV Partners, Tiger Global and Lightrock India. Its parent firm, InterviewBit, has featured on the Financial Times’ Asia Pacific High Growth Companies rankings every year from 2021 to 2025. On average, Scaler’s learners see a 4.5x return on investment and a salary increase of around 126 per cent.
With leadership locked in across every business unit, Scaler is betting that the next wave of global tech hiring will be won or lost on the quality of engineers coming out of India. It is a big bet. But the numbers, and the promotions, suggest the company is in no mood to hedge.
