Salesforce and Sister Nivedita University Announce First-of-its-Kind Academia-Industry Collaboration in Eastern India
Kolkata, July 23, 2025: Salesforce, the #1 AI CRM[1], today announced a strategic collaboration with Sister Nivedita University (SNU) to launch state-of-the-art Salesforce Lab on campus, aimed at delivering CRM and AI skills to students across disciplines. This collaboration is a part of the company’s larger mission to build a digitally empowered workforce aligned with industry needs.
Under this initiative, SNU customized curriculum on Salesforce CRM including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Agentforce will be incorporated in courses across engineering, management, media, and agriculture. Delivered through dedicated coursework, hands-on labs, and Trailhead-powered learning pathways, the program is expected to benefit around 1,000 students in the first year.
Kamal Kanth, Vice President – Sales, Salesforce India, said, “At Salesforce, we believe the future of India’s digital economy depends on how effectively we nurture talent at the grassroots. This collaboration with Sister Nivedita University is more than a skills initiative, it’s a blueprint for what industry-academia alignment should look like in the age of AI. By embedding real-world CRM and AI capabilities into the curriculum, we’re enabling students to graduate with industry-recognized skills, certifications, and pathways to meaningful careers. This is how we move from education to employability, and from aspiration to opportunity”.
Salesforce has enabled the initiative through licensing, curriculum co-development, and faculty training in partnership with its Workforce Development Partner, Bong Bong Academy. As part of a dedicated Train-the-Trainer program, faculty will be upskilled to mentor students effectively, while learners gain access to Salesforce certifications, hands-on mentorship, and career pathways. Qualified student profiles will also be shared with Salesforce partner companies seeking skilled freshers. In parallel, SNU is evaluating Tableau and other Salesforce solutions to drive its broader campus-wide digital transformation.
Dr. Sanku Bose, Group CEO of Techno India Group and Dean, School of Engineering at Sister Nivedita University, shared the vision behind the partnership, “We are moving decisively from traditional classroom education to a bold era of applied, outcome-driven learning. Our collaboration with Salesforce is not just about giving our students access to tools—it’s about transforming their mindset. Through this initiative, we are preparing a generation of agile, digitally fluent leaders who can innovate, adapt, and thrive in a fast-evolving world.” He further added that, “This isn’t just an upskilling effort. It’s a movement. A movement that equips learners from Bengal—and beyond—with the confidence, global skill sets, and entrepreneurial mindset to become creators of the digital economy. We are proud to align this with the spirit of India’s National Education Policy (NEP) and with Salesforce’s bold ambition to empower 1 million learners in India with digital and AI capabilities by 2030.”
With Trailhead-powered learning paths, live industry projects, and on-campus internship labs, the Salesforce program at SNU is designed to seamlessly blend academic learning with global digital credentials—positioning SNU as a future-forward engineering institution in Eastern India.