Curious Tourist

My letter to Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission Dear Sir, Hope you are doing good.  I am a Mentor in a school in Delhi. I have written many articles, held conferences on the success of ATL model and how it's helping foster entrepreneurship and innovation among school children. However in the last 6 months, many Delhi schools have faced a lot of problems. Most of the issues are arising due to severe paucity of funds and its becoming difficult to conduct workshops and procuring equipment for labs. Please consider following issues- 1. An amount of Rs. 2 lakhs is expected each year for an ATL school but my school did not receive this grant in 2018 and 2019(currrent year) 2. There is a technical glitch in BharatKosh portal- school has deposited the interest but the amount is still showing in PFMS account even though school has no funds left. Hence school auditor is unable to audit the second financial year(2018) and PFMS uploading can't be done.  3. School ATL Incharges

A Journey Towards Change! Atal Tinkering Fest at School   I have been mentoring students of Ryan International School, Mayur Vihar since 6 months. It has been an overwhelming yet enriching experience for me to see the budding innovators tweaking, failing, learning and finally succeeding at their prototypes. I have realized that my primary role in this journey is to inculcate in them the values and life skills required to become a successful entrepreneur. I facilitate the sessions in Q&A dialogue form so that they think independently and come up with solutions themselves. I have been able to nurture in them many useful traits such as compassion, perseverance, courage, critical thinking etc. My students have surprised me with their talent, curiosity and never-give-up attitude. They have in fact made me a better human being. We are using Design Thinking(DT) approach (5 stages of design thinking- Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test) . DT was adapted for busi

A revolutionary innovation event called 'Tinkering Fest' is happening in many schools all across India. It is a brainchild of Atal Innovation Mission(AIM), NITI Aayog,  Government of India. Atal Tinkering Labs have been set up under AIM in more than 2000 schools that aim to foster creativity and technological innovation among students using design thinking(DT) approach.  DT was adapted for business purposes by David M Kelley, a professor at Stanford University, who also founded the design consultancy IDEO   in 1991. IDEO further popularized the DT concept for solving specific business problems. A design mindset is not problem-focused, it is solution focused and action oriented towards creating a preferred future.  Students actively involved in the Atal Tinkering Lab(ATL) at Ryan International School(RIS), Delhi were given a summer assignment in which they had to think about and reflect upon the general problems in society that bother them. Many students used to vi

I was never sure about what I really wanted from life and what my true purpose was, so I started to explore myself and the world around me. One thing that I was sure of was my innate curiosity to learn just about anything new that came my way. Another thing that I knew I had was the ability to work hard and get my hands dirty. So it was hardly surprisingly that I was good or rather excellent in whatever I did. This made the search for my purpose even harder as I lost myself in the inebriation of curiosity, trying one thing after another and then another. My ravenous mind was never at peace with one thing and it always wanted exciting adventures to embark on, new paths to trek on and a new summit to climb on. I threw myself in all kinds of jobs, internships, fellowships and what not! Before graduating as an engineer, I had already worked as a researcher, a writer, a marketing intern as well as an analyst. My stints in all these roles definitely piqued my interest but the problem was

I usually get up early in the morning on Independence Day to catch the special Independence day speech of India’s Prime Minister live from the hallowed grounds of the Red Fort. This time I decided to do something out of the ordinary and paid a visit to Hajratpur Primary School, a low income government school in Noida that is supported by Samsung’s CSR initiatives. I was delighted when I got the offer from Samsung Noida’s CSR team to visit the school. After all, there is no better way to celebrate the spirit of freedom than to be with little kids who are the future of our country. Little ones dancing on a patriotic song After struggling a bit to find the exact location of the school, I finally managed to reach on time. I knew I had reached the right location when I saw my friends standing in the prayer ground along with so many smiling children. Some children were wearing magnificent tri-color paint on their cheeks and foreheads while others were waving the flags with boisterous

I was thinking about the recent initiatives taken by the Indian government and citizens collectively towards transforming our country. Promises have been made in so many diverse fields ranging from cleanliness and education to clean energy and digitization. The important thing now is to not renege on these promises and work towards their successful completion. New programs, policies, movements, fellowships in both public and private sectors are showing the way in this regard. Full fledged plans have been made and the work is also under way- a reinvigorated Plan to clean all our rivers, an innovative Swachh Bharat Fellowship program to nip corruption in its bud, Niti Ayog's 'Mentor Of Change' scheme to educate young innovators in classrooms and many such well meaning projects have come up. A change in government policy that is giving a fillip to electric cars and promoting clean energy sources such as nuclear, solar, wind and hydro is also welcome as it would help in redu

A way to enrich one’s life is through a regular practice of self-reflection. Reflection when done after every new experience or even after daily work helps create a conscious awareness of that experience that results in the formation of new neural pathways for faster learning. Being detached from the process and behaving like a silent observer standing in the corner, we open ourselves to unbiased and deeper insights into the experiences that we had in the day. It creates a possibility of improving ourselves from one day to the next as we try to do the same things differently and with a different lens and perspective. There are multiple ways of reflecting- writing in a journal, silently sitting with eyes closed which is akin to meditation, walking slowly with the objective of introspection, talking to a close friend or family member whom we trust and many other similar ways(It clearly depends on the person). Since I love to write and blog, it’s natural for me to reflect by m