People

Vartamelo ideator: Darsha Kikani

-Aruna Raghuram (Ahmedabad)

Ahmedabad-based mother tongue advocate-entrepreneur Darsha Kikani is an independent director of several public limited liability companies. She also organises the annual Vartamelo (story fair) in Gujarati language creative writing competition open to class VII-XII students and teachers.

Launched in 2017, this annual storywriting competition held in January-February every year attracted participation from 200 schools […]

Street corner teacher: Deep Narayan Nayak

-Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

Deep Narayan Nayak, a teacher at the state government promoted Tilka Maji Adibashi Free Primary School, in the Jamuria village (pop.1.5 lakh) in Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal, is popularly known as ‘Raster Master’ (Teacher of the Street). This enterprising 34-year-old educator turned walls of village homes into blackboards and roads into […]

Executive educator: Ranjita Raman

-Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Ranjita Raman is the Mumbai-based CEO of Jaro Education Pvt. Ltd (JE, estb.2009) — a constituent of the Jaro Group of companies. JE is an edtech company that provides world-class executive education, certificate and degree programmes included, to enable junior, middle and senior-level working professionals to upskill and advance their careers.

Since inception, Jaro […]

Creativity stimulator: Aayur Kaul

-Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

Bengaluru-based Aayur Kaul is the India head of the New York-based Skillshare Inc. (est.2010) — “the world’s largest online learning community for creativity”. Skillshare, with over 13 million registered members worldwide, made its India debut last November. Kaul’s brief is to introduce Skillshare’s products and services to Indian learners.

Newspeg: Skillshare’s India debut fortuitously […]

Communication skills educator: Dr. Rakesh Godhwani

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Dr. Rakesh Godhwani

A widely acknowledged master of articulation, Dr. Rakesh Godhwani is the Bengaluru-based founder-CEO of the School of Meaningful Experiences (SoME, estb.2018, head count: 22), an education start-up that offers online communication and leadership skills development programmes to teenage children, entrepreneurs and working professionals.

Through partnerships with corporates, schools, colleges and […]

Co-curricular education evangelist: Yashovardhan Poddar & Akshay Rampuria

Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)

Yashovardhan Poddar (right) and Akshay Rampuria:

Yashovardhan Poddar is the Bengaluru-based co-founder of edtech start-up Openhouse Technologies Pvt. Ltd (estb.2018, head count: 100) that offers K-12 children a rich menu of curated after-school learning programmes including academic support, public speaking, theatre, dance, entrepreneurship, community service, chess, robotics, data science, and music.

Initially based […]

Polymath music teacher: Bindu Subramaniam

Bindu Subramaniam: post-pandemic scaling drive

Music education evangelist Bindu Subramaniam — daughter of globally-renowned violin maestro L. Subramaniam and Indian classical and playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthy — is the Bengaluru-based co-founder and CEO of the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (SaPa, estb.2007). SaPa provides joyful age-appropriate education in Carnatic, Hindustani classical and Western music. […]

Enterprising loans provider: Mayank Batheja

Batheja: 5,000 loans per month

Mayank Batheja is co-founder and director of Delhi-based fintech startup, Credenc Web Technologies Pvt. Ltd (estb.2017) which offers higher education loans to students. Over the past four years, Credenc has disbursed education loans valued at Rs.160 crore to over 3,000 students.

Newspeg. Recently, Credenc received equity and debt investment of […]

Work-readiness pioneer: Shveta Raina

Raina: ambitious future plans

Edupreneur Shveta Raina is the Mumbai-based founder-CEO of Advantage Leadership Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which owns Talerang, a proprietary career training brand and platform that is the combination of two words — Talent, and Boomerang. Talerang offers school students, college graduates and professionals well-designed short duration and long-term programmes to make […]

Singular edupreneur: Nitesh Jain

Nitesh Jain is the founder-CEO of the Gurugram-based Best Edventure Pvt. Ltd (estb.2019), a company that runs the BeSingular education platform.

Jain: future technologies focus

This online platform provides K-12 students study programmes in future technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), game design, coding, IOT (Internet of Things), […]

Inspiring institution builder: Koneru Satyanarayana

KLD University, Vijaywada campus. Inset: Satyanarayana: industry-ready graduates

Koneru Satyanarayana is president of the private, low-profile Vijaywada- (Andhra Pradesh)-based KL (Koneru Lakshmaiah) Deemed University (estb.1980). Sprawled across a green 100-acre world-class campus, KLDU is providing high quality undergrad, postgrad, doctoral and post-doctoral study and research programmes in design, architecture, fine arts, engineering, law, management, […]

People

Master toys designer: Arvind Gupta

“Science principles are best understood if they are incorporated into play toys,” says Arvind Gupta, coordinator of the Children‚s Science Centre of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, a hi-tech research facility open to scientists of all Indian universities. An electronics engineering graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, and winner of several […]

People

Film academy architect: K Hariharan

When the Chennai-based Prasad Group, Asia’s largest provider of post-production services in the film and video industry, promoted the L.V. Prasad Film & TV Academy in 2005 to commemorate 50 years of the Prasad Group (established in 1956 by veteran filmmaker L.V. Prasad), highly regarded film director, educator and columnist K. Hariharan was the unanimous […]

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Gubernatorial academic: Vinayak V Dalvie

Although Vinayak V. Dalvie has been the Mumbai-based deputy secretary (education) to the governor of Maharashtra since November 2003, serving first with erstwhile governor Mohammed Fazal and currently with the incumbent SM Krishna, he prefers to regard himself as a teacher. “When I accepted this assignment in the governor‚s mansion, I requested I should be […]

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Promising partnership: S Keshava Raju

Following the rapid growth and development of India‚s IT, particularly the computer software industry, Indian IT firms are establishing their footprints worldwide, especially in the high-growth economies of China, South Africa, New Zealand and Malaysia. One of the latest such initiatives in the high-growth IT hardware and networking training space is a collaboration agreement between […]

Rotary International president: Shekhar Mehta

Mehta: girl children focus

Kolkata-based businessman SHEKHAR MEHTA is the newly appointed president of the Chicago (USA)-based Rotary International (RI, estb.1905) — the well-known international public humanitarian service organisation with a membership of 1.2 million in 200 countries. Mehta is the fourth Indian president of the apex-level RI.

Newspeg. In July soon after taking charge […]

Tribal children’s champion: Saptarishi Baishya

Baishya: education & electricity solution

Bally (Kolkata)-based software engineer SAPTARSHI BAISHYA (25) is founder-promoter of the Maitreyo Foundation (MF, estb.2019) which runs Maitreyo Paathshala, a learning centre that provides free-of-charge education to children of the Birhor tribe, in Bersha village located in West Bengal’s Purulia district.

Newspeg. In January this year, MF signed a partnership […]

Inquisitive learning educator: Aneesh Bangia

Bangia: nurturing curious thinkers

Gurugram-based ANEESH BANGIA is co-founder of Open Door, an initiative of Think-First Education Pvt. Ltd (estb.2013), an edtech company headquartered in Bengaluru which offers K-12 school programmes to leverage the “power of inquiry to transform young learners into curious and better thinkers”. Open Door has signed up over 200 top-ranked […]

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Teacher training evangelists: Sudheshna Sinha

Sudheshna Sinha and husband Sujit are co-founders of Shikshamitra (‘Education Mate’), an alternative school and education resource centre (estb. 2005). A psychology graduate of Calcutta University with a special needs education diploma from Mumbai University, Sudeshna has worked in special and mainstream schools for over seven years. An IIT-Kanpur alumnus with a doctorate from Princeton […]

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Levelfield progenitor: Arghya Banerjee

Arghya Banerjee is founder of The Levelfield School in Suri (pop. 80,000) in the Birbhum district of West Bengal. The school was promoted in 2010 by the Levelfield Trust whose mission and objective is to “level the playing field” and make quality education accessible and affordable to middle class households in tier-II and III urban habitations.

Newspeg. In […]

People

Passaro pioneers: V. Karthikeyan

Chennai-based V. Karthikeyan and wife Veena are the promoter partners of Passaro Books (estb. 2012), a proprietary firm which imports pre-owned books from the UK for children in the 1.5-12 years age group.

Newspeg. Passaro Books runs retail and online bookshops with over 50,000 titles, and has created quite a buzz in this port city, which prides itself on its intellectual […]

People

BMU driver: Akshay Munjal

Delhi-based Akshay Munjal, a science and business management alum of Bradford University, UK, and Pepperdine University, USA, is executive director of the spanking new state-of-the-art, BML Munjal University (BMU) spread over 50 acres in Manesar (Gurgaon), on the periphery of Delhi.

Newspeg. Named after Brij Mohan Lall Munjal, the founder-chairman of the Hero Group of 20 companies (annual revenue: […]

People

Exemplary entrepreneur: Dr. Anita Sharma

Divya Sharma (Delhi)

Edupreneur Dr. Anita Sharma is the Jaipur-based co-founder of Stuprorefying Pvt. Ltd aka Inkpothub (estb.2018), a unique networking platform for research scholars, professors and students to collaborate, organise research studies and share knowledge. A polio survivor, Sharma is also the founder of Drive On My Own (DOMO, estb.2018), the country’s first driving school […]

People

Budding champions educator: Mahesh Rao

Dilip Thakore (Bengaluru)

Mahesh Rao (left) & Sardesai: established proof of concept

Mahesh Rao is the energetic promoter-director of the Bengaluru (aka Bangalore)-based Prose Education Academy Pvt. Ltd (PEA, estb.2017). This company provides online academic education to class VI-XII children enrolled in sports academies across the country. Its prime objective is to provide “necessary academic […]

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DVM chief executive: Dr. Rosetta Williams

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Dr. Rosetta Williams is the Delhi-based CEO of the Dalmia Vidya Mandir (DVM, estb.1924) chain of eight schools promoted by the Dalmia Bharat Group of cement, sugar and refractory companies (annual revenue: Rs.1,210 crore). Currently, the CBSE-affiliated Dalmia Vidya Mandir schools educate an aggregate 15,000 students in six states (Rajasthan, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, […]

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Home learning edupreneur: A.K. Srikanth

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Srikanth: learning continuity innovator

A.K. Srikanth is chief executive officer of the Bengaluru-based KLAY Preschools and Daycare (Founding Years Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd, estb.2012) — a chain of over 150 owned pre-primaries and daycare centres — well-reputed for high-quality curriculums and safety standards.

Newspeg. In its latest education initiative after Covid-19 hit India […]

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Sunderbans saviours: Nilotpal Barman, Raju Das and Mira Barman

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

Alumni of Calcutta University — Nilotpal Barman (25), Raju Das (25), and Mira Barman (23) — are co-founders of Ananda Niketan Pathshala (ANP, estb.2020), a free-of-charge learning centre-cum-primary school for children from predominantly Muslim and tribal households of Shitaliya village (pop.20,000) sited deep in the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangroves delta. ANP’s six […]

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Green schools initiative: Sabuj Pathshala

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

Sabuj Pathshala (‘green school’), a Kolkata-based voluntary organisation, has established three lower primary (class I-IV) schools for underprivileged children of Muslim and tribal communities in the Malda, Jalpaiguri and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal.

This NGO was promoted in 2006 by Kolkata-based journalists Milan Dutta and Syamantak Ghosh, together with software engineer Arijit Das […]

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TIME high flyer: Manek Daruvala

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Manek Daruvala is the Hyderabad-based co-founder of test prep company TIME (Triumphant Institution of Management Education) Pvt. Ltd (estb. 1992). With over 40 IIT/IIM graduates in its core team, TIME offers school and college-leavers rigorous coaching to write competitive entrance exams for admission into professional study programmes and employment in banks and corporates. […]

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Job interviews mentor: Sandeep Jain

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Sandeep Jain is the Noida-based founder-CEO of geeksforgeeks.org, a website popular with computer science students and IT (information technology) professionals. Launched in 2015, it offers aid and advice to engineering students preparing for job interviews, and useful content and solutions for IT problems and glitches.

Newspeg. Recently, the website — awarded a global Internet […]

People

Online ed innovators: Natasha Jain and Sonia Agarwal Bajaj

Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

Natasha Jain (Right) and Sonia Agarwal Bajaj

Delhi-based Natasha Jain and Agra-based Sonia Agarwal Bajaj are co-founders of a new e-learning and skills development platform Whiz League (estb.2021). Each course provides subscribers invaluable insights from industry leaders by way of pre-recorded lectures.

Newspeg. Since it was launched in April, this app has been […]

People

Tinkering labs provider: Sarang Gangan

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Gangan (centre): STEM missionary

Sarang Gangan is founder-CEO of the Gurugram-based Eduphoria Solutions LLP (estb.2017, headcount: 10), an edtech start-up that offers primary-secondary schools a bouquet of solutions to promote hands-on STEM learning and enhance quality and disseminate science and tech education countrywide.

Currently, the company provides end-to-end solutions for installing customised innovation […]

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Wizenoze founder: Diane Janknegt

Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)

Diane Janknegt is CEO and co-founder of the Amsterdam-based Wizenoze B.V. (estb. 2013), an edtech company which offers learners access to education content and resources on the Internet commensurate with their age and reading levels. During the past eight years since its incorporation, the company’s products — Wizeup and Web for Classrooms — […]

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Extra-curricular educator: Ashish Gupta

Bengaluru-based Ashish Gupta is founder-director of Bambinos Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd (BLS, estb.2020, headcount: 20), a digital learning academy offering 40 specially curated extracurricular programmes ranging from teachings of the Bhagawad Gita, learning musical instruments to robotics and coding. These programmes focus on the “physical, mental, spiritual and intellectual development” of children in the 4-15 […]

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Edupreneur Bros: Rajat Singhal and Kunal Singhal

Rajat Singhal, CEO and Kunal Singhal, CTO, are co-founders of the Cyboard School, an online K-8 primary launched on February 17. They are also co-founders of the City Public School (estb.2017), a K-8 school in Bhiwadi (Alwar district), Rajasthan and rising stars of the local business community. Determined to utilise new technologies to provide uninterrupted […]

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Idealistic LLH duo: Anirban Nandy and Poulomi Nandy

Siliguri-based engineer-turned social researcher Anirban Nandy and wife Poulomi are co-founders of Live Life Happily (LLH, estb.2017), an NGO which runs a mobile library and sanitary pad bank for children of tribal communities in 30 villages and 16 tea gardens in five northern districts of West Bengal. The mobile library houses 7,000 textbooks for class […]

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Explanatory learning pioneer: Shrishti Jain

Shrishti Jain is the cerebrally-driven founder CEO of Reading Right (estb.2013), a Kolkata and Delhi-based proprietary firm which she believes is ready, willing and able to give a huge boost to the learning outcomes of a wide spectrum of learners ranging from school children, college, university students to business executives. Following intensive research over seven […]

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Teacher training evangelist: Rishabh Khanna

Rishab Khanna is the founder-CEO of surasaa.com, an edtech platform providing internationally benchmarked teacher development programmes in India and abroad. Designed and developed by Les Transformations Learning Pvt. Ltd, a company registered in Karnal, Haryana, surasaa.com was launched in 2018 and provides online teacher training and professional development programs to aspiring and in-service educators […]

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Rural Organisation for Social Establishment cutting: Pinaki Ganguly

Pinaki Ganguly is the incumbent secretary of Sri Sri Ramkrishna Vivekananda Vidyapith, a new K-II school established by the Rural Organisation for Social Establishment (ROSE) in Charida, a tiny village (pop. 2,500) in West Bengal’s most backward Purulia district. The school with an enrollment of 77 students (45 boys and 32 girls) instructed by four […]

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Tree House rollout: Rajesh Bhatia

Rajesh Bhatia is the founder-managing director of Tree House Education & Accessories Ltd (estb. 2006), and promoter of one of India’s largest self-operated preschool chains with 444 (including 340 company-owned) centres. The publicly listed company employs 1,848 staff including 1,758 teachers in 55 cities and towns countrywide, and recorded a revenue of Rs.121 crore in […]