India

New Horizons Alliance to be NASEF's India Affiliate

Scholastic esports to reach millions of students across India through new partnership 

ATLANTA, GA (July 8, 2021) – India is one the fastest growing and most exciting esports geographies and likely to become one of the gaming capitals of the world given its demographics, rising internet connectivity and IT skill sets. This opens up great learning and development opportunities for middle and high school Indian students through NASEF's scholastic esports program. In this regard, NASEF is delighted to announce New Horizons Alliance as their India affiliate.

Together, NASEF and New Horizons Alliance​ will build a broad and sound scholastic foundation in the country to ensure that school children are able to go "beyond the game" and develop a sense of innovation and entrepreneurship based on scientific exposure to data science and analytics, coding, web designing, and more. The focus shall equally be on building skills which ensure the social and emotional well-being of these students. This will be accomplished through NASEF's world leading esports program, seminars, symposia, academic visits, exchange programs and joint research projects between educators in the US and India on scholastic esports.

Gerald Solomon, founder and executive director of NASEF, said, “India has one of the world's youngest populations and the largest student community. We are delighted to have New Horizons Alliance partner with us as we serve these highly talented and skilled middle and high school youth. Our esports scholastic programs will help with their social, emotional and cognitive learning and development. This, we believe, shall help immensely with India attaining its full potential as one of the leading innovation hubs of tomorrow.” 

 
“We are proud to bring NASEF's cutting edge scholastic esports program to India, which is one of the world's most dynamic and vibrant esports markets. We need to harness its immense potential in creating technologically and temperamentally skilled youth who can propel the spirit of innovation and enterprise and help realize the vision of Digital India. NASEF has the IP, the pedagogy and the mentors to strengthen and accelerate this process,” said Ravneet Gill, founder and CEO, New Horizons Alliance.

Both NASEF and New Horizons Alliance observed that this partnership stands committed to creating employability and entrepreneurship skills and opportunities so that young Indian students can go on to build successful and fulfilling careers within and outside of esports.

One of the most significant developments in recent times has been the spectacular growth of esports across the world. Gen Z is the 'gaming generation' with 91% of children between the age of 2 and 17 enjoying video gaming in some form.

With its exponential rise came concerns about possibility of addiction and digital anxiety and disorders. Medical science very quickly got to work and now there is growing evidence that gaming has the following benefits:

+ improved self-esteem

+ development of fine motor skills

+ enhanced visual-spatial reasoning

+ meaningful social interaction

+ promotes scientific methodology

+ builds technological proficiency

Recognizing the above, the World Health Organization (WHO) which had earlier characterized gaming as a “treatable disorder,” recently launched a campaign titled #Playaparttogether which promoted gaming as a means to stay connected while observing social distancing. On the back of all the research and data, esports is becoming increasingly recognized as a mainstream sport and is gaining growing acceptance from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself.

About NASEF

The North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF) is on a mission to provide opportunities for all students to use esports as a platform to acquire STEM/STEAM-based skills and critical communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills needed to thrive in work and in life. NASEF and its partner HSEL are collaborating to create the leading global esports marketplace and community for play and learning. Find NASEF here and on Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.