Q. You are the founder chairman at Youth India foundation. Tell us what it revolves around and when and how you started it?
I was always interested in business as well as social work. After I got into University of Delhi I saw a lack of social entrepreneurial spirit in the youth. I decided to combine both my interests, business and social work and founded an organisation based on social entrepreneurship.
Youth India Foundation is a student-led initiative, inspired by the principles of social entrepreneurship. Our goal is to cultivate innovative projects throughout the spectrum of society regardless of income and promote ideas by the youth of India. We stand for a new harmonious and indigenous structure of commercial practice as well as creating a platform for the general well being of youth in India.
We have collaborated with 70 colleges across the country like IITs, IIITs, NIT, DU, Mumbai & Kolkata University. We have also tied up with start-up India & the government of India. We are working with private and government bodies to ensure all these startups have a good foundation and are successful. We, at the Youth India Foundation, let the students intern in the department of their choice. We train them in different areas and make sure that students are held accountable so that we can achieve our target. We save a portion of that money and invest in their sustainable business start-up.
Q. While going through your LinkedIn profile we found out that you believe "true success is not acing your exams or working at top-notch companies but becoming a humble human who uses his power to bring smiles on the faces of the needy and how one contributes towards the betterment of society" Do you still abide by it?
Being brought up in an aristocratic family, I have always been involved with the mass.
I had a very humble upbringing where I was taught that money is not the priority, what matters is how much are you able to give back to society. I believe that if you are happy at the end of the day, then you are living your life to the fullest.
Q. You have also been the cultural secretary of your school and a member of the international press MUN. How has participation in activities like these enriched your experience and helped you lead such a big foundation?
The hard work that I did at that point of time has helped me a lot. All the struggle that I went through at that time has helped me grow, learn and evolve. My school and especially my idol, the chairperson of the school, Mr Vijay Kumar Shahu, has shaped me into the kind of person I am today.
Q. Who according to you has been your inspiration to start and work towards your foundation?
Every single person I have met till now, in one way or the other has inspired me. Every individual will have their own different interpretation due to their unique life experience and there's always something to learn from them and get inspired.
My grandfather, my father, my mentor and my chairperson have been the greatest source of motivation.
Q. You recently got featured in the cover story for the 13th edition of the Weaver magazine. How has the experience been for you?
I am really happy and people around me are also ecstatic with my achievements. With every single step that I take forward, I ensure that I don't forget where I came from.
I think the perception of trying and a positive attitude towards everything is the key to success
Q. You're also the co-founder of "Your friend" Tell us something about it?
I believe mental health is very important, it should be normalised and taken care of in our daily life. With this thought in mind I, with my best friend Ankita, started "Your Friend" in 2018 intending to help people struggling with their mental health anonymously. This is achieved by appointing an anonymous friend to them to whom they could talk to and process their emotions.
We have solved around 2000+ cases in the last two years. We have a professional team helping people suffering from mental health issues. We are in talks with the government of Delhi as well to put it into schools and colleges of Delhi.
Q. You're also the co-founder of youth India e-school. Tell us something about it?
We at E-school believe that education is important and should be affordable and accessible to everyone. Youth India education is an initiative by the Youth India Foundation aimed at empowering the youth from all sections of society by providing them with highly subsidised education through our e-learning platform.
Till now we have connected with 7 states,15-20 schools and tutioned 200-300 students.
We were called upon by the Electronics & IT secretary of the government of Odisha. Upon his suggestion to create an infrastructure, we created an e-school software, that included everything from administration to knowledge management, content creation, assessment management and report analytic along with the involvement of parents, students and teachers.
The software has been picked up by both the government of Odisha and the government of India. Currently we are connected with the government of Odisha to implement it in 314 schools comprising of over one lakh students.
We are also in talks with the government of India to directly tie it up with the Diksha platform.
Our goal is to become India's first affiliated digitalised CBSE school so that everyone can access quality education at low prices.
Q. How are you managing time between IIT and DU? Why double graduation?
I believe education is very important and we should continue to learn and study at least until we are working.
It is important to have a knowledge of accounting and finance for all the financial operations and economics, at the same time it is important to analyse how the world works with its resources and future is predicted through data science only. I wanted an equal blended course of Science, Commerce and Arts. When I joined University of Delhi, I was pursuing a course which was giving me the perspective of arts and commerce but then I didn't want to lose out on Science because the world is going to run on it. Fortunately, the New Education Policy gives you the opportunity to study different streams at the same time and that's the reason I am able to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Programming from IIT Madras.
