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Charu Modi Bhartia was an educational anomaly when she arrived at Thunderbird more than 10 years ago. Newly separated from her husband, she made a intercontinental move from India to the United States with two young children.
“It was a real stretch for me to attend Thunderbird,” Bhartia says. “It was unheard of for an Indian woman with two children to go overseas and get a master’s degree without a husband, but I needed to make a break.”
Not only did Bhartia face deeply rooted cultural views about proper educational aspirations for women, but she hadn’t been in an academic environment in 13 years. “I wasn’t confident that I would pull if off,” she says. “I was scared. I couldn’t drive, and I was concerned about my family. I had been living the life of luxury.”
Prior to attending Thunderbird, the 1997 graduate had operated an export clothing company in New Delhi. Despite the initial fears, her decision to come to the United States has shaped most of her endeavors since leaving Arizona.
“The level of educational freedom among people from all nationalities was a real eye-opener,” she says. “It got me thinking: So many people in my country can’t go to Thunderbird and have access to a model of education like this. I wanted to bring the American model of education to people in my country.”
Affordable education
Following graduation, Bhartia worked briefly in the United States on behalf of her father’s company, K.K. Modi Group, an entity of businesses ranging from agriculture to consumer goods to education. She managed partnerships with Estée Lauder and Kaiser Permanente before returning home.
Bhartia discussed the idea with her father of bringing affordable, high-quality Western education to those in India. He told her if she could find a partner with $1 billion in assets, he would back the deal.
Relying on a strong network of contacts she developed in the United States, Bhartia contacted four companies with significant resources before she negotiated a joint venture in 2002 between K.K. Modi Group and Apollo International.
The deal established India’s first teaching site of Western International University, a subsidiary of Apollo. Today, the Modi Apollo International Institute of Western International University offers U.S.-accredited bachelor of science degrees in management and business with specializations in human resources, marketing, finance and international business. In addition, the institute offers a master’s degree in management, marketing and finance.
“The timing was right for this to happen,” says Bhartia, who is vice chairwoman and CEO of Modi Apollo International Group.
About 1,000 students are enrolled at the institute, which has three locations in New Delhi and the National Capital Region. Three new sites are planned to open soon in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai.
Bhartia says many superior academic institutions exist in India, but access to such programs is difficult and most can’t afford tuition. “We have been dealing with archaic norms and have been operating with systems, methodologies and rules that are 20 years old,” Bhartia says. “There are a billion people in India, with only 4,000-plus seats available at the top institutions.”
Training for nurses
As a member of a long line of family entrepreneurs, including her grandfather and father, Bhartia saw another barrier in education and another economic opportunity. This one involved a shortage of training opportunities for nurses in India.
In 2001, she created Modi Healthcare Placement, one of the most successful nurse recruitment companies in India. Through an exclusive tie-in with Banner Health in Arizona as well as partnerships with other companies in the United States, Modi Healthcare Placement trains and equips qualified Indian nurses to work in U.S. markets.
While the Apollo transaction transpired fairly smoothly, developing a Western nursing program that honored Indian sensibilities was a challenge. “It was a complicated model to bring to India,” she says. “Through many conferences and meetings, I was able to understand the American health care system and develop a workable and affordable program for nurses.”
Highly skilled nurses from different regions in India undergo Modi Healthcare’s rigorous training and licensing curriculum, which is taught by 15 faculty members. In addition, they receive extensive training in assertiveness, leadership and cross-cultural orientation. According to Bhartia, it’s the equivalent of a master’s degree in nursing, since the training can take up to two years to complete while most students in the program work full-time.
While some nurses continue to live in the United States, Bhartia says many return to India after a few years, taking their skills and capital home with them. “Due to the backlog of visas, the majority of nurses end up staying in India with a new set of knowledge and tools,” she says. “It’s a transfer of systems, and India becomes stronger because of this.”
Despite her full-time endeavors, she says family comes first, particularly visiting her daughter, 22, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, and her 18-year-old son, who attends school in Scotland.
“I’m a strategist,” she says. “I put together deals. I’ve set up my organizations so that they allow me to be flexible.”
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