New Normal: When it comes to negotiating our way through the pandemic, our work lives have come under scrutiny like never before.

Dhrithi Bhaskar interviewed Sridhar Murthy and Savitha Bhakar, two people with business start-ups on either side of the globe to see how they have coped.

2020 saw huge changes in how businesses operate – According to Guide2Research.com, In the U.S. alone, education technology investment has already exceeded $13 billion dollars due to which there has been a significant shift towards online education tools like language apps, video conferencing and other online learning softwares such as google classroom.

According to Meticulous Research,18% of America’s workforce now telecommutes on a full- time basis while managing the move away from face-to-face interaction. One success story is Dlithe Consultancy Services in Bangalore, India. The business which Sridhar Murthy set up two years ago, with his partner Dr. Arun Raj Purohit, targets local engineering students and acts as a bridge between their university lives and their demanding professional employment, helping students plug the gap between their university existence and the more formal world of work. According to India Today, India is one of the fastest-growing online education markets, pegged to touch revenues of USD 1.96 billion in 2021, with 9.6 million paying subscribers.

The second success story is Savitha Bhaskar, who left India at the age of twenty to live in the U.K., where she struggled with English communication. This challenge has helped her latterly when moving between the USA and India, where she has started to help students worldwide by giving them exposure to the English language and guiding them in the various soft skills they are likely to encounter. Through her own travels, Savitha understands the importance of one’s mother tongue, but also believes English is vital in order to grow. The figures back her up: Prnewswire.com reports that the global Digital English language learning market revenue stood at US$ 4827.13 Million in 2018 and is expected to reach US$ 30341.5 Million by 2027.

Sridhar states that prior to Covid-19, his business had forged links with ten colleges in Bangalore. Since much of Sridhar’s business involves meeting students offline, with the traditional Indian ‘gurukul’ mode of in-person training, he has had to adapt to social media as a means of staying active and relevant. Instead of the business preparing to close down – as have tens of thousands in India and across the world – Sridhar transitioned to life online and it has proved a great success, with many more inquiries coming into the firm than before the virus hit India.

Savitha’s teaching career started in India, where she used to teach English and Business communications in high school. She and her kids came to visit her husband in the U.S. for the summer break, but ended up staying longer due to the pandemic. Savitha says, “I was looking for an online math tutor for my daughter, and it struck me- why can’t I teach English”.