Raj Shekhar Vyas has transitioned through various roles—engineer, and entrepreneur—and ultimately discovered his passion for educating aspiring students.

Raj Shekhar Vyas is an accomplished man. As Founder-Director of the Techno India (NJR) College of Technology, he has helped thousands of students build their lives and careers.

Mr. Vyas was born in Udaipur in 1956. As his father was in a transferable job, he did his schooling at various schools in Rajasthan. After school, he went to BITS-Pilani for his B.Tech. in mechanical engineering. As he says, due to the exposure he got there and because of the diversity of students, it was a life-transforming experience for him there. Thereafter, he did an MBA in Chandigarh.

Raj got a campus placement at Voltas Ltd., a Tata Group company, where he worked for ten years. At a young age, he was sent to Indonesia to look after an international project, which gave him good exposure. He says that life was good in the company, and he also got the opportunity to visit the Tata headquarters, the Bombay House, where he met big Tata stalwarts like Russy Modi, Mavalankar, and Mr. Tata himself.

Life took a turn in 1988 for Mr. Vyas, as most of his friends gradually left their jobs to start their own ventures. He too, like a true Rajasthani, decided to jump into his own business. He left the Tatas with a heavy heart and shifted to Delhi, as the electronics business was the upcoming field at the time and Delhi was the hub for small and medium electronics manufacturers. He visited Uganda for some work. Uganda had just been liberated from the clutches of dictator Idi Amin, and the new president was wooing the Indians with open arms to invest and do business in Uganda. He also went into talks with some local Ugandan businessmen.

One fine day, he suddenly got a call from Uganda saying that the president wanted to see him and his partner. They went there and had a meeting with the president and his ministers. The Ugandan president wanted him to do something so that he could communicate with his people, as elections were near. The president told him that it was difficult to communicate as most of the Ugandans did not read newspapers and TV was almost non-existent. Raj suggested that he buy radios, distribute them free among the people, and send his message through the radio. The idea clicked, and he got an order for five lakh radios from the Ugandan government. As he was short on money, the president even gave him a huge advance to start manufacturing. He came to Delhi, tied up with five manufacturers, and started exporting the radios to Uganda. His business is still thriving in Uganda. He has set up a manufacturing unit there and has a network of seven African countries to which he supplies goods.

Life again took a turn. One of his best friends, Jitendra Singh Ranawat, died of a heart attack as he was unable to take the agony of the loss of his young son, who had died in a car crash one and a half years ago in America. But his friend’s wife was a courageous lady who decided to carry on with life despite all the challenges. So, they together founded the NJR foundation: N for Navdeep, his son’s name; J for Jitendra, his friend’s name; and R for their surname, Ranawat. They decided to start an educational institution and founded the Techno India-NJR College of Technology in 2008 in Udaipur.

After starting the college, Raj realized that the students of Udaipur were content with small-scale jobs and did not dream big. He adopted a different pedagogy in his college, which prepared his students for global roles. He promoted industry-aligned courses in his institute. He also imbibed life skills in his students, like adapting to long working hours, professionalism, discipline, communication skills, and problem-solving skills. All this helped his institute find success.

Talking about sacrifices, Raj says that only in his early days as an entrepreneur did he have to make sacrifices when he had to travel to Africa for 50–60 days. After becoming an educator, he is enjoying life thoroughly.

Mr. Vyas considers his father his role model for his hard work and determination. His father belonged to a very poor family, but with his grit and commitment, he went on to join the RJS and become a successful person in life. He was also of a helping nature. He once helped a poor boy who was finding it difficult to arrange the fees for his engineering college. That boy ultimately became an engineer at BITS-Pilani and went on to become the chief engineer at the Irish Railways. This made Raj realize that if given proper support, someone’s life can be changed.

Talking about leadership, he thinks that one learns leadership in bits and pieces in life as you face challenges. He has his own style and says, “I am what I am.”

Mr. Vyas believes that education is the foundation upon which you build your experience. Neither of them can substitute for each other. A solid foundation is good for a building, but what use will it be if you don’t build upon it?

Advising budding teachers, Mr. Vyas says that passion for your work as a teacher and empathy for your students are essentials for a teacher. You shall not become a teacher just for a living; you must take your work as a mission. You must upgrade yourself continuously to gain respect from your students.

For people wanting to start an education institution, his advice is to not do it just as a business; you must have a passion for education.

When asked about his childhood memories, Raj fondly remembers the time spent at his grandparents’ place playing with his cousins. He says that they used to sleep on the terrace, and even without a fan, they had to use blankets.

If he is taken back in time, he would like to be an educationist from the beginning, as this is what gives him immense happiness and satisfaction.

Mr. Vyas has always loved to play golf in his free time. For the last 30 years, he has been an avid golfer and even won the runner-up trophy in the Microsoft Corporate Golf Tournament in 2005. He regrets that Udaipur has only a small golf course and lacks a full-sized 18-hole golf course.

Sharing his experience with COVID-19, he feels that the positive aspect of the pandemic has been that we have become humans. He says the way people helped the needy by distributing food in the initial tough days was eye-opening. During these times, the best of human hearts came out. We all came closer to our families. He thinks COVID time was also good for the education system, as the institutions and students quickly adopted online education, which they had been trying to implement for the last few years.

He says that in his institute, they focus on digital transformation. They have tie-ups with the leading IT companies and prepare students who can compete globally. His students have been placed with giants like Google and Microsoft. They have in their institute a modern learning ecosystem with the latest infrastructure enriched with all types of software that helps students learn by themselves.

He exhorts the students to dream big in life and then work hard to make that dream a reality.