Youth Impact India

CONNECT-ED CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

ConnectEd Education Program

Learn more about the ConnectEd Challenge and how a high-access, low-cost phone-based innovation can deliver remedial education to underserved primary-aged learners.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Youth Impact India is leveraging proven, inclusive, and resilient approaches to transform foundational numeracy for children in India’s deepest hinterlands.

Its model is the Indian adaptation of ConnectEd, where trained facilitators coordinate with the government school teachers and select students from primary grade and tutor them through regular 1:1 phone calls focused on foundational numeracy. Instruction is tailored to each child’s learning level and reinforced by actively involving caregivers in the learning journey.

After every tutoring call, facilitators record assessment details and track progress, share the insights with teachers, ensuring continuous feedback loops. Students are engaged across multiple cycles in an academic year, strengthening retention and learning gains. The critical feature is that it will complement the government scheme, which mandates teachers to conduct tutoring calls. It makes the effort inherently scalable.

The founding team comprises Rohan and Subash, who together bring deep expertise in government partnerships, education program design, and system-level reforms. Their combined experience spans large-scale program delivery, data and technology integration, and on-ground implementation in collaboration with state governments. This unique blend of strategic leadership and grassroots execution equips the team to drive evidence-based innovations at scale.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 540 children during the pilot.

• Distribute 3420 proven interventions during the pilot.

• Raise an additional USD 25,000 during the pilot.

FOUNDING TEAM

Rohan S Katepallewar - Founder

Subash Prabhakaran - Founder

The Paal

Custom Livestock; India

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Custom Livestock Challenge

Learn more about the Custom Livestock Challenge and why distributing proven livestock interventions can greatly improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

The Paal is reimagining the cow as more than just a livelihood, turning it into an investable asset to unlock economic opportunities for smallholder women farmers.

The Paal turns livestock into an investable asset class to bring better opportunities and economic security for smallholder farmers. The pilot is in Salem and Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu in India. Unlike others, The Paal treats the farm as not merely an input but as a core product- creating value for farmers, consumers, and investors alike.

The Paal was co-founded by Manali Jain, a graduate student at Harvard University who serves as CEO, and Shivam Johri, COO, with experience in agribusiness and private equity. They met as undergraduates at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and combined grassroots insight with strong operational expertise to build a scalable, farmer-first model.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 100 customers.

• Distribute 50 proven interventions.

• Fundraise an additional $30,000.

FOUNDING TEAM

Manali Jain - CEO

Shivam Johri - COO

Read Imagine Grow Association India (RIGA)

Teaching at the Right Level CHALLENGE; India

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Education Program

Learn more about the Teaching at the Right Level Challenge and how an evidence-based foundational learning program can improve primary literacy and numeracy in low-resource schools.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Read Imagine Grow Association India (RIGA) is bridging learning gaps to unlock the potential of primary students in rural India.

RIGA’s model aims to utilize existing rural school infrastructure and train teachers in TaRL via a sustainable train-the-trainer model. The TaRL interventions will be integrated into existing school hours to ensure maximum participation and impact. TaRL is one of the most effective techniques proven to bring 2X improvement in learning levels within 2 months.

RIGA was founded in 2025 by Srishti Parihar and Anjali Malik. Srishti is a grassroots educationist, storyteller, writer and non-profit leader with prior experience working with government schools and primary school children. Anjali brings HR expertise with rich experience in Learning & Development, CSR and operational excellence.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 200 learners.

• Distribute 200 proven interventions.

• Fundraise an additional $5,000.

FOUNDING TEAM

Anjali Malik - Co-Founder

Srishti Parihar - Co-Founder

Raitagyana

Quality inputs CHALLENGE; india

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Quality agricultural inputs.

Learn more about the Improved Farm Practices Challenge and why increasing the effective use of fertilizer has the potential to unlock significant crop yield for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.  

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Raitagyana aims to equip smallholder farmers in Bidar district of southern India with cost-effective agricultural inputs and specialized knowledge to improve their crop yields and lift them out of extreme poverty.

Our approach to improving agricultural practices in Bidar involves establishing an input distribution center in a village and providing quality inputs and training to farmers. Our team of passionate experts offers guidance on effective farming practices, including soil health, pest management, and water conservation. Our mission is to increase crop yields and income, creating sustainable rural communities.

The team for this venture includes Nikita Vardiparti, an engineer and founder of Raitagyana with entrepreneurial and corporate leadership experience and a passion for helping farmers. Sushant Swami, co-founder and also an engineer with 10+ years of experience in research & development, and planning in the corporate world, will provide strong support in setting up the venture, budgeting, and operations. They are joined by an Agriscience Graduate activist, a social worker, and an award-winning farmer.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 5,000 farmers by the end year one of operations

• Reach 2,0000 farmers by year two of operations

FOUNDING TEAM

Nikita Vardiparti - Co-founder

Sushant Swami - Co-founder

Oxicare

OXYGEN CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Service and repair of oxygen concentrators.

Learn more about the Oxygen Challenge and why repairing and maintaining oxygen concentrators in low-resource hospitals expands access to medical oxygen - a key treatment for pneumonia, malaria, sepsis, meningitis, and Covid-19.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Oxicare is on a mission to serve over 1 Million patients by helping them service their Health Devices.

Oxicare was started with a simple mission- A Saved Life Saves Lives. The initiative’s business model revolves around recruiting and training jobless technicians from across the country and provide them job of repairing and maintaining Oxygen Concentrators in their local areas.

The organization was founded by full time Program Director Rajesh Bansal (Alumni IIT-Bombay) along with Anika Singal who has extensive experience of working as a Senior Consultant in Indian Government Advisory projects.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 1,000 Customers by servicing 200 Concentrators

• Train 20 Bio Medical Engineers to service 200 Concentrators

• Raise an additional $15,000

FOUNDING TEAM

Rajesh Bansal - Director

Anika Singal - Director

Suvita

IMMUNIZATION CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Routine childhood immunizations.

Learn more about the Immunization Challenge and how increasing routine childhood immunization rates in low-coverage areas could prevent millions of childhood deaths.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Suvita increases uptake of immunization services to combat vaccine-preventable diseases.

Suvita identifies natural community influencers through peer nominations, and invites them to become immunization ambassadors who motivate and remind others in the community to bring their children for routine immunisations. The model complements this with customized SMS reminders direct to new parents, which follow their child's immunization schedule. These two evidence-based programmes have been shown to boost uptake of immunization in a randomised controlled trial in Haryana, India, by Nobel Laureates Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and colleagues - and the Suvita team is taking them to scale.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Establish embassadors in 50 villages, covering 5,000 eligible children during the pilot

• Raise $50,000 during the pilot

• Reach 50,000 beneficiaries by the end of year 1

FOUNDING TEAM

Varsha Venugopal - Co-founder

Fiona Conlon - Co-founder

Resonance Lab

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar Lamps.

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Resonance Lab provides clean, affordable and reliable energy access to people in rural India. The distribution plan levergares the reach of local NGO in Jharkhand, the most power-deprived state in India. Resonance Lab will offer off-the-shelf products during the pilot phase to assess product-market fit.

Nitin Malik and Mohit Saini aim to solve social problems in India. They have 13 years of experience across eight countries in consulting and work with low-income communities.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• 50 solar products distributed over the first three months

• 550 customers reached by end of Y1

• 3,000 customers reached by end of Y2

FOUNDING TEAM

Nitin Malik - Co-founder

Mohit Saini - Co-founder

Adolescent Health Champions

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Improving health outcomes by distributing a health education program. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Adolescent Health Champions cultivates a network of youth health educators (Champions) in Mumbai, India who lead the health education process in their schools and communities. We use an innovative, evidence-based peer education model that leverages the voices, talent, and leadership of adolescents themselves. Our approach provides adolescents with the knowledge, dialogue, support, and prevention strategies they need to navigate their health needs during this pivotal transition to adulthood.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Educate 5,000 adolescents during pilot

• Train 625 peer educators during pilot

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Ricky Sharma - Co-Founder

Priya Shankar - Co-Founder

Civis

TRANSPARENCY CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A mobile platform that enables citizens to understand legislation and share their feedback on laws and policy decisions in local languages while providing an avenue for the government to understand citizens’ priorities and gather feedback on policies in real time.

Learn more about the Transparency Challenge and how citizen reporting platforms can be used to hold government officials accountable and reduce corruption.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

At Civis we are building a scalable, multi sided platform, to ensure that the process of public consultations can be effectively used by citizens and governments alike, to co-create laws together. We do this by:

1. Aggregating all open Consultations seeking feedback.

2. Simplifying them in accessible language.

3. Reaching out to individuals and gathering inputs on these laws.

4. Analysing and sharing citizen’s feedback with the Government - thereby building Government capacity to run effective Consultations, and gather actionable insights.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• 10,000 users by the end of pilot phase

• 100,000 users by the end of year 1

• 1,000,000 users by the end of year 2
  
  

FOUNDING TEAM

Antaraa Vasudev - Founder

Empower Energy

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar Lamps.

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Empower is building a rural distribution platform in India to ensure that products and technologies with the potential to improve lives actually reach rural consumers, at scale. Their customers live in remote, rural villages. In most cases they live in poverty and are engaged in subsistence agriculture or seasonal casual labor.

The innovative Empower solution relies on a digital approach to provide rural villagers with access to products that can improve their productivity and quality of life. Their team finds smartphone users in rural villages and equips them to distribute products and services to their communities.

Their vision is to establish a wide-reaching network of digital agents across rural and remote India to meet the product needs of India’s 800 million rural consumers.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 2,500 people and establish 10 franchisees during the pilot phase

• Reach 5,000 people and establish 100 franchisees by the end of year 1

• Reach 1,000,000 people and establish 2,000 franchisees by the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

Ronit Kanwar - Chief Executive Officer

Gideon Laux - Chief Operating Officer

James Dickson - Head of Data & Impact

Sehak

PATIENT IDENTIFICATION CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Free, SMS service that provides accessible diagnosis for for easily correctable health conditions and connects users to vetted health facilities.

Learn more about the Patient Identification Challenge and why identifying individuals in need of medical treatment and finding ways to make that treatment accessible reduces poverty.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

In Mumbai, a dynamic metropolis and the entertainment and financial capital of India, 41.3% of the population of 19 million reside in slums. The largest of these slums is Dharavi, a locality in the heart of Mumbai, with a staggering 2000 people residing per acre. Many of the public hospitals in the area are overcrowded and unreliable in their services , leading residents of the slums to face a lack of access to affordable, quality healthcare, despite their proximity to world-renowned health infrastructure - echoing a theme seen in many urban slums across India. This leads to residents contracting diseases that are left undiagnosed and untreated in spite the fact that some of these conditions are easily-correctable, easily-identifiable and cheap to treat.

88% of Indian households now have mobile phones, including 77% of households in the bottom quintile. Due to the widespread presence of mobile phones, India is predicted to have the highest adoption rate for mobile health or “mHealth” technologies

Sehak has created creating a free, call-based service that provides an accessible
diagnosis for the 4 easily correctable health conditions targeted, connects users to vetted health facilities that can treat the diagnosed condition, and regularly engages with the users.

The service will target 4 pecific easily-correctable, identifiable and cheap-to-treat health conditions: obstetric fistula, cataracts, clubfoot and cervical cancer.

Users will sign up for our service by placing an initial missed call to our number. They will then receive an immediate automatic call back, and the automated response system (IVR) will prompt the first-time caller to provide their basic demographic information, including their gender, age, location, and preferred language, as well as whether they are married and/or have young children. We will then store this information in our subscriber database and the subscriber will start receiving our regular text messages via SMS to dispense essential and timely health information. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 5,000 users during the pilot

• Reach 50,000 users by the end of year 1  

• Send 1,500 diagnostic calls during the pilot 

• Send 15,000 diagnostic calls by the end of year 1 

FOUNDING TEAM

Sanya Sareen - Partnerships and Finance Lead

Nishchala Bhandari - Strategy and Human Capital Lead

Arushi Gupta - Technology and Research Lead

EnEff

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Three solar products including solar lamps and solar lanterns. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

In the absence of electricity, homes frequently turn to kerosene-based light sources for illuminating their homes. The largest use of subsidized kerosene in the world is in India with around 380 million in 2011 using kerosene as a primary lighting source.  

EnEff (Energy Efficiency) will improve access to solar lamps to families in Rajasthan, India through a unique distribution network, a consumer-oriented finance scheme, and a focus on large-scale skill development of individuals living in rural areas with a unique referral scheme. 

EnEff will first hold meetings with local farmers, women's groups, local leaders, and small business owners to better understand energy and product needs in target communities.  Distribution of solar lamps will be initiated through gram panchayats (locally elected governing bodies) which are active and respected by the local population in order to build public trust in the product and its benefits. The Solar products will also be distributed through NGOs and Village Local Entrepreneurs to end consumers. Distribution channels will include a referral scheme in which every successful referral will earn the referee cash back on the initial value of their purchase amount. To benefit from this scheme, a customer will have a short compulsory briefing from the EnEff team in servicing and sales, indirectly creating a skilled workforce and a trained sales team at minimal cost to the company. Distribution will be coupled with a broad marketing and awareness raising campaign. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 2600 beneficiaries by the end of the three month pilot  

• Sell 650 solar lamps by the end of the pilot phase 

• Sell 8,000 solar lamps by the end of year 1 

• Benefit 30,000 people by the end of year 1 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Kaushal Kothari - Program Implementation  

Kartavya Bhola - Strategist 

Neeraj Bhagwatula - Sales, Distribution and Human Resources Manager 

Kavya Sravanthi - Publicity, Marketing, and Community Engagement Manager 

ThinkZone

FLIPPED CLASSROOM CHALLENGE

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

‘School-in-a-box’.

Learn more about the Flipped Classroom Challenge and why new education models, like flipping the classroom or deskilling a class curriculum, offer a solution to the vast teacher shortages in the developing world.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

ThinkZone empowers parents and educators to develop foundational skills of children by leveraging accessible tech solutions and community-led interventions. We enable community educators, childcare workers, and school teachers to deliver quality early-grade education programs via data-driven mobile and voice/SMS based technology, low-cost learning resources, and class management tools.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• 15 women entrepreneurs onboarded during the pilot phase

• 450 students enrolled during the pilot phase

FOUNDING TEAM

Binayak Acharya - Founder

Pay2Educate

SCHOLARSHIP CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Education scholarships. 

Learn more about our current distribution challenges and why we focus on interventions that are proven to impact lives.  

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Pay2Educate aims to provide better means for the education of young girls in India. It has created a simple platform that links donors to schools, creating scholarships for underprivileged females. Pay2Educate will begin operations in Bombay and will expand to more cities in the future. In three months, the organization will raise $5,500 for female education. Using this money, schools will create their own scholarships to provide tuition, supplies, and boarding when applicable for students. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Support the education of 100 girls during the pilot
• Create 1,000 new scholarships for female students by the end of year 1 
• Support the education of 1,250 girls by the end of year 2 

FOUNDING TEAM

Naureen Singh - Co-Founder, Finance Lead

Milinda Bhopatkar - Co-Founder, Partnerships Lead

Arvind Nagarajan

Arvind piloted a new approach for improving education in resource-limited settings. He will rely on digital student assessments to increase transparency of education quality and drive improvements in school systems. He will pilot a tablet-based assessment in a low-cost center in Mumbai, and hopes to launch full time in 2014. Eric Pohlman, co-founder of One Acre Fund, is serving as a mentor.

Essmart

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTION

Solar lamps and clean energy products. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

India's peri-urban and rural populations are not benefiting from existing life-improving technologies - such as solar lanterns, water filters, and smokeless cook stoves - because the local retail outlets they depend on are disconnected from these essential goods. Essmart is a distribution company operating in Tamil Nadu that connects local shops with a catalog of quality, affordable, essential products, providing marketing, distribution, and after-sales service. 

Ninety percent of Indian households primarily shop in an estimated 15 million small, low-margin retail shops. However, these retail shops do not sell esesntial technologies because they do not know about them, where to get them, or how to service them if they break. Essmart connects a catalog of high-quality goods with proven demand to local shops, where trusted buying relationships exist. 

Essmart's model has three parts. 1) Aggregate a catalog of high-quality existing products and build relationships with suppliers. Sales Executives then demonstrate our catalog to local shops and end users through marketing campaigns. 2) Essmart's local Sales Executives build distribution networks to villages by creating an Essmart-branded section in local shops, leaving our catalog in shops, and fulfilling orders. 3) Should any product break, Essmart provides training and maintenance services and facilitates manufacturers' warranties. This ensures that users continue to benefit from the products and shops need not take on the burden of returns.  

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Work from 10 aggregate distribution centers by the end of year 1 
• Sell 16,200 products by the end of year 1 
• Support 5,000 local Sales Executives by the end of year 2 
• Work from 24 aggregate distribution centers by the end of year 3 
• Sell 387,420 products by the end of year 3 

FOUNDING TEAM

Jackie Stenson, Chief Executive Officer 

Diana Jue, Chief Operations Officer 

Prashanth V'Ramana - Director 

Poonacha Kalengada - Director 

Social Cops

TRANSPARENCY CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INNOVATION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A platform using vioce, SMS, web and smartphone applications that allow the public to verify the quality and completion of municipal projects carried out by contractors. 

Learn more about the Transparency Challenge and how citizen reporting platforms can be used to hold government officials accountable and reduce corruption.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Most public services of the government such as garbage collection, traffic light repair, and street light maintenance in many parts of the world are outsourced to third party service providers. While third party contractors send in daily reports regarding the completion of their duties, the government has no way of monitoring the accuracy of these reports. 

Social Cops allows citizens to easily report issues via their mobile phones and the internet. A seamless process (compliant filing can be accomplished in one minute) combined with google map and GPS integration allows Social Cops to identify the relevant authority and forward the complaint to the authority which can view it on a customized dashboard. A council then receives two feeds: one from citizens and one from the third party service provider. The citizen reports are used to verify the accountability of reports submitted and then easily respond and engage with citizens via the platform, notifying them when the complaint is solved. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Increased garbage collection from 26 percent to 98 percent in one ward of Delhi.

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Prukalpa Sankar

Varun Banka

Harjoben Singh

Vivek Banka

Shreya Sonthalia

Pulse

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A mobile phone deposit system similar to popular talktime top-up methods to help low income families put aside money for household needs. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Through a network of certified Pulse vendors, users can 'save on impulse' and create a buffer of funds that serve as an insurance against emergencies and unexpected expenses. Furthermore, it provides a solution to the common issue of insufficient physical change, in which customers receive their change back in the form of candy rather than cash, a common occurrence in many developing countries. 

Pulse offers an electronic system that is more convenient for beneficiaries. Importantly, since the service is not tied to any particular carrier, it works on any mobile phone, and enables instant access to the service for all users. 

The customer experience: customer deposits leftover change or surplus income by buying a Pulse prepaid scratch card or leaving change with the shop owner and requesting an electronic deposit into the Pulse account; shop owner and customer receive an sms confirmation of the transaction with current balance; customer spends or withdraws their savings at any vendor in the Pulse network when needed. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Sign up 1,000 Pulse savers during the pilot phase

FOUNDING TEAM

Karl Oskar Teien - Product Development 

Mandy Vidalis - Business Operations and Finance 

Niketa R. Malhotra - Implementation and Technology 

Saul Alexander Minkoff - Management and Business Development 

CleanTap

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

"Tippy Tap" handwashing station. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Street food is an integral part of Indian cities. Unofficial government estimates state that there are over a hundred million street food vendors in India. However, lack of infrastructure and awareness about food safety and handling among street food vendors makes it a significant contributor to food borne diseases. Through CleanTap, the organization aims to provide an easy, portable, DIY solution to the sanitation infrastructure challenge and combine it with an effective social marketing strategy to promote behavior change. 

A Tippy Tap is an easy, portable, low-cost device that encourages hard washing and saves water. It can be made with scraps of readily available local material. The apparatus involves a container that holds water with a hole on tap where the water flows out from. The flow of water is controlled by a foot lever. Their design of the Tippy Tap for food carts focuses heavily on portability. On average, a tippy tap involves a $1 investment per person to promote hand washing. It has been successfully deployed as a standalone product in rural areas of India. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Launch pilot with 25 street food vendors 
• Provide hand washing for 1500 customers in Mumbai

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Prerna Seth - Co-Founder

Molly Daniell - Co-Founder

Joel Putnam - Co-Founder

vChalk

FLIPPED CLASSROOM; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Remedial education and progress tracking. 

Learn more about the Flipped Classroom Challenge and why new education models, like flipping the classroom or deskilling a class curriculum, offer a solution to the vast teacher shortages in the developing world.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

vChalk offers remedial educaiton and progress tracking services to affordable private schools in semi- and per-urban India. The problem is the inability to support all children in India with diverse learning needs in keeping up with the formal curriculum and in preventing them from falling behind.  This inefficiency translates into poor learning outcomes for millions of young learners in India, many of them first generation, who are enrolled in primary school but have not achieved the minimum benchmarks for learning. 

Remedial programs that help students catch up have been, for years, directed only toward government schools. As affordable private schools spread to meet the growing demand for education in India, vChalk fills an important learning gap by distributing the proven Balsakhi (now called Read India) remedial education model to these schools. We help mitigate their problem by offering a bundle of two services: in-school remedial programs start and support (targeted at children who do not master basic numeracy and literacy skills) and learning progress tracking service (targeted at children who are subscribed to the remedial class). 

The remedial program would look like this: a female Community Instructor who has completed at least 12th grade and who is motivated to work with children (ideally from the parents' community) works with lower perfornace students in 3rd and 4th grade for two hours each day. The instructor goes through a two week training program before teaching and receives further on the job training during the year from vChalk's Monitoring Manager. The intervention runs for two years at the school. vChalk's tracking system of children's learning progress is a focus of the project and makes longitudinal data available for each student. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• 30 active schools during the pilot phase
• 360 total students in remedial classes during pilot phase
• 160 active schools at the end of year 1 
• 3,220 students in remedial classes at the end of year 1
• 360 active schools at the end of year 2 
• 7,620 students in remedial classes at the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

Daniela Gheorghe - Team Lead

Anil Bishnoi - Chief Technical Officer 

Jody Tian - Management Consultant 

Suma Nagaraj - Product Development Consultant