Technology is playing
a growing role
in the delivery of education
and lifelong learning
for people of all ages
across the world.
For those in disadvantaged communities,
where access to education
is inhibited by financial
or infrastructural barriers,
this can be especially important
by providing a means of upward mobility
and a way to escape poverty
through low cost access
to remote learning resources.
Abhishek Gupta founded NavGurukul,
a non-profit dedicated to bringing
affordable technology-based education
to underprivileged girls
in India in 2016.
NavGurukul offers
software coding skills
through residential programs,
guaranteed job courses
and accessible learning modules
through its app, which is called Meraki.
Abhishek joins us to talk
more about some of the ways
in which technology is expanding access
to education in India
and how greater accessibility
positively impacts students,
rural communities and the economy as a whole.
Abhishek believes
that through organisations
like NavGurukul,
which is a current grant partner
of the Macquarie Group Foundation,
the rural and tribal communities in India
have the potential to one day serve the
IT needs of the world.
To be really efficient,
we have to make sure
that we invest in R&D and experiments
which may be considered crazy today,
but are the ones that are needed
for the future.
NavGurukul Labs make sure
that we as an organisation
invest in R&D and technology,
to build and deliver such crazy outcomes.
One of our own products called Meraki
that originated from NavGurukul Labs
is already catering to 25,000 learners,
which is so much bigger than the
NavGurukul Residential programs.
In simpler words, the idea of NavGurukul Labs
is to invest heavily
in R&D and technology
to build products for the future, today.
With the growing advancements
in technology,
it is only natural to expect
that technology is changing
and influencing
the poorest of the communities
and making them better.
But imagine a girl from a tribal area
in a far part of the country.
She neither has access to a device,
nor internet,
and even if she has access to both,
the content is extremely unavailable.
Either the content is not catering
to her language
or it doesn't cater to her context.
The technology can play a pivotal role,
only and only if, there are more than
hundreds or thousands of NavGurukul.
We are building solutions
for the most marginalised
and underserved parts of the country.
And it is a dream that we see.
The IT sector in India,
not just provide jobs to
so many more people,
but also has a crazy
strong impact on our economy.
By 2030, we're very sure
that we'll come to a point where NavGurukul powers
so much of the rural and tribal economy,
tribal work force.
That, a major part of the
IT needs of this world
will be solved
through the rural and tribal India.
With the falling workforce participation rate,
technology presents a very unique
and new challenge for the country.
The challenge of losing millions of jobs
through automation.
But with this challenge
comes an opportunity
to be able to translate the demographic bomb
that stands in front of us
to a demographic dividend.
With the right investment of technology
in education,
especially higher education,
we can make sure that the youth
of this country,
from the most marginalised sections,
have access to aspirational jobs
through which they can serve
not only themselves,
the communities, but also the country.