An IIT-M incubated company, GITAA is the brainchild of experienced academicians from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, who bring in a wealth of expertise and knowledge in data sciences. Imparting quality training to corporates, students, and professionals in the niche area of data science and AI, the courses offered at GITAA have an equal balance of theory and practical knowledge and have been designed based on the job requirements of the industry. The firm has further forayed into edtech and are developing an innovative software product to auto generate question papers for university level courses that involve complex math operations.

Leading GITAA as the CEO of the firm, Dr. Suchitra V is a business leader who has donned multiple hats and she successfully leaves a positive impact on partners and students alike. “The capability to contribute to technical discussions, communicate with faculty and the ability to empathize with young minds has helped me grow as a leader. As a knowledge management professional, my focus is on understanding the gaps in e-Learning and enhances knowledge transfer through platforms. My objective is to disrupt the current rote learning cycle and use IT optimally to enthuse critical thinking and an ability to appreciate the fundamental principles underlying the subject. My understanding of IT Knowledge Management and my interest in human behavior in organizational settings has helped me thus far”, shares Suchitra V, CEO, GITAA.

Women Entrepreneur magazine recently engaged in a one on one interaction with Dr. Suchitra V. Here’s the highlight from the interaction.

Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience that you bring to the table.

I paved my way into entrepreneurial domain after pursuing MBA. I began with working at the exports division of an international bank, and later moved to the US and received a master’s degree in Information Technology from Clarkson University, US. I served as a system administrator at St. Lawrence University, Canton, US before moving on to the position of a Senior Analyst at the Office of Research Services,  Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, US. I also cofounded of Syseng LLC, a startup in Lubbock, Texas.

Later, I received my Ph.D. in Knowledge Management from IIT Madras in the area of Knowledge Management. Prior to my role as CEO at GITAA, I was also VP Administration at Gyan Data- an IITM incubated company, located at IITMRP Chennai. My association with various academic institutions has contributed to my understanding of the educational landscape and my experiences as an administrator at Gyan Data have helped me in my new role.

Tell us about the various roles & responsibilities that you shoulder as the CEO of GITAA? Share about some of the challenges that you have tackled so far.

Being the CEO of GITAA, I direct the company and pursue business opportunities in line with the vision of the founders. Long term strategy development and execution have been two main responsibilities that I shoulder. Just like the CEO of any other start-up, I am involved in multiple activities such as preparing annual budgets and HR planning as well. To add to this, cash flow management is another important aspect that I oversee.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the education sector and changed the market landscape.  Over the past two years, there have been many new entrants. Universities are now offering online skilling programs and certifications, and this has made the customer attraction and retention a challenge. To cope up, we have strengthened our ties with our partners IITM Digital Skills Academy, Intellipaat, and Stella Maris College and we continue to offer niche programs. Our strengths have always been developing customized courses for the Indian manufacturing sector and we continue to offer those courses. We have also diversified and moved into software product development.

“At GITAA, we do offer courses on our own platform and have hybrid classes to enable students and professionals from different parts of India take up our courses”

Going forward, how do you foresee the EdTech industry? What are the steps that you are taking to keep yourself well aligned with these evolutions?

With the democratization of the education sector over the last decade, there have been been enormous changes in the way we learn. Owing to the growth of the Internet, mobile technology, and video sharing platforms like YouTube, that has been a rise in awareness amongst the individuals about the possibility that learning can happen anywhere and at one’s own pace.

The Indian edtech industry is now capitalizing on this and recreating a transformational learning experience as it is set to grow at a fast pace. While

there are multiple platforms and players that influence the mindset of the learner and technology continues to play an important part in the process, it is critical to note that each individual learns differently and knowledge transfer over platforms is beset with some limitations, particularly lack of personalization.

At GITAA, we do offer courses on our own platform and have hybrid classes to enable students and professionals from different parts of India take up our courses. We have designed our edtech product– ‘InstaQP’ to generate questions automatically even for complex math subjects. This will revolutionize the way testing is done. Our product is built in such a way that each student can be given a customized question paper of the same difficulty level, thereby eliminating mass copying.

What are some of the most significant milestones that you have achieved through out your professional journey?

While we are still a young firm, we have been profitable throughout, and this has been a significant achievement for me. During these five years, we have offered courses to several corporate giants and have also enriched the lives of several students who wished to either up-skill or re-skill. Through our association with IITM Digital Skills Academy and the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBCDSAI), IITM we have successfully trained professionals from the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Indian Navy, DRDO and CVRDE. This has provided the opportunity to be of service to the public sector entities in India.

What are your future plans for the growth of GITAA?

While we have been primarily vesting our focus on training, we have also been consulting services in the data science domain. This has helped us in incorporating real-life industrial examples into our programs. In training, we would like to focus on really niche courses that deal with the use of AI/ML in very specific sectors. We are also in the process of developing an AI driven flagship product that can be used by- universities in automated personalized question paper generation for several courses, students in self learning, and corporate in recruitment and on-boarding. We would like InstaQPto be an Indian edtech product that is pursued by learners from all over the world.

What would be your advice to young women and girls who also aspire to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

Our society tells women and girls what they can and cannot do. I want women and girls to reject this and pursue what they want without fear of judgment or failure. There are large number of successful women who have followed this and would like young girls and women to take inspiration from this.