Creativity Is The Result Of A Curious Mind: TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services

We are aware of the term literacy. It is the ability to write and read but the definition of creative is a little difficult to define: it can be defined as the ability to solve problems or being able to use your imagination. Bringing literacy and creativity together can be a powerful tool in teaching.

To have a discussion on these lines, BW Businessworld organized a webinar on "Classroom to Career" - Role of Creative Literacy in Preparing Students for their Future, in association with Adobe India. The eminent speakers who shared various insightful pieces of information and experiences are - Padma Shri T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services and Supreeth Nagaraju, Head Education – Digital Media for Adobe, India & South Asia. The session was moderated by Dr Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor in Chief, BW Businessworld & exchange4media.

In his opening statement, Mr Mohandas Pai said, “People should have a very keen mind, a very problem-solving attitude and a curious mind. As per Mr Pai, creativity is the result of a curious mind. 

On the need to have the right skills, he asserted, “When we talk about creativity, we talk about people like painters, dancers, sculptors etc. Now, what is it they have? They have an innate curiosity about their art. They have innate need to express themselves and they express themselves beautifully. They have innate need to demonstrate their skill. Even though you are a born painter, you don’t become a good painter unless you have all the right skills that are required to paint consistently. 

Explaining design thinking, he stated, “It is the process of understanding things on a system level. Why does a problem exist in society and how do you solve a problem logically through various steps, possibly using technology so that you have a real solution available to everybody and which can scale up. We should develop the ability to go from the micro to macro and from macro to micro.”

Mr Supreeth Nagaraju and Head Education – Digital Media for Adobe, India & South Asia, underlined, “Today problems are multiple and same solutions won’t fit for all. So we need to look at different ways of addressing a problem for different category of people. For example, hyper localization in media is paving way for so much collaboration in the tier 2 tier 3 markets across the entire length and breadth of the country. So this brings the country together and addresses the problems of the lowest common denominator in the society, at last.