Twitter
Advertisement

Singapore's KEF has a vision for India's education sector

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

KEF Holdings, a multinational holding company, headquartered in Singapore, plans to invest more than Rs 1,500 crore in India over the next five years. 

The KEF group that specialises in innovative offsite construction technology, is making some very bold moves in education which could actually transform public school education in Kerala. This initiative is being done through the group’s foundation -- Faizal and Shabana Foundation. Speaking to dna, KEF group’s chairman Faizal E Kottikollon said he was both a businessman and a social entrepreneur. On the business side, KEF Holdings would channel investments through its two business verticals, KEF Infra and KEF Health.

Two large projects – ‘KEF Industrial Park’, the only integrated facility for off-site manufacturing for the construction sector in India, and the ‘PMHP Hospital’ (Premium Medical Healthcare Providers), a 500-bed facility being built in two phases – have already been launched, and are scheduled for completion by April 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, respectively. “In line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ vision, KEF Holdings is committed to supporting change by focusing on three basic needs – infrastructure, education and healthcare. KEF will change infrastructure development in the country by bringing in best practice, technologies and processes from across the world and integrating them to offer assured quality and a significant reduction in time and money,” he said,

KEF Infra hopes to be a game-changer in the construction industry and will cater to India’s education, healthcare, commercial and residential sectors through offering design, engineering, manufacturing, assembly and project management all under one banner. Its flagship project – the 42-acre KEF Industrial Park at Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu – is designed as a fully integrated one-stop ‘offsite construction’ destination with four dedicated units: precast, prefabricated bathrooms, joinery and aluminum glazing. Manufacturing entire building components such as columns, beams, hollow core slabs, wall panels, staircases, windows, doors, bathroom units and façades at one place and in a controlled setting will help reduce project build times by as much as 50%, shrink project costs by as much as 30%, minimise levels of wastage and maximise quality control.

Transported from factory to the building site, manufactured components will be precisely and quickly assembled in a Lego-like fashion. Inbuilt fireproofing and a reduced need for formwork and scaffolding onsite are the other intrinsic advantages of precast. The prefabricated bathroom unit, largely driven by robotics, will have the capacity to manufacture 30,000 units a year. Kottikollon said, “These will contribute enormously to the government objective of providing affordable housing on the one hand, and the creation of smart cities on the other.”

KEF Health aims to reduce the cost of healthcare through industrialising infrastructure, creating evidence-based care-paths and promoting disruptive healthcare technology. The pilot project for KEF Health is the 500-bed tertiary care, PMHP Hospital in Calicut, Kerala, for cardiology, orthopedics and neurosciences. KEF is working with a team of eminent doctors and technology experts from the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic (US), who also serve on the KEF Health Board of Directors, to ensure affordable care is available and provided at the hospital.

The hospital will also benefit from KEF’s collaboration with Australian firm TAHPI (Total Alliance Health Partners International), who are leaders in the design of medical facilities and health planning, and have authored the guidelines for medical facilities for the Indian government.

On the education front, Kottikollon wants to focus on public schools. “That is where society can get the greatest bang for the buck,” he said. That is why, when the local MLA from Calicut approached him to help improve school education for the economically weaker sections of society, his foundation promptly took up redeveloping the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Girls at Nadakkavu, Calicut. After obtaining all requisite clearances from the authorities, he razed to the ground the existing buildings, and rebuilt in their place modern structures and facilities replete with laboratories, gymnasiums and an astro-turf playground. “We did this without losing a single day’s schooling for the girls,” he said proudly with a grin of satisfaction.

To motivate teachers, he roped in IIM Calicut and introduced special courses for the school teachers. As a result, teachers were more motivated, the students were inspired to study in better surroundings and an academic environment, and the school soon got listed as one of the top five schools in Kerala. Kottikollon hopes to make it one of the top 5 schools in the country.

“But one school is not enough to bring in a transformation,” said Kottikollon. Luckily for him, other constituencies began approaching him for uplifting schools in their respective regions. Finally, the Faizal and Shabana Foundation decided to transform some 100 public schools in that state. He hopes to get the state to commit its funds, while his trust will put up Rs 500 crore on its own. “Each of these schools will have at least 2,500 students, thus giving us the ability to transform the lives of some 2,50,000 students. Given an average of at least four members in each family, this means we could affect the lives of some 1 million people in the state, he said.

He believes that just as his work with one school provided the incentives for other elected legislators to have similar schools in their respective constituencies, a similar competitive spirit will spread to other states as well when they watch the transformation of Kerala’s public education.

Many educationists through India, and even the world, will be watching this missionary project with great interest.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement