A younger boy in a distant village in Tamil Nadu fastidiously locations a VR headset over his eyes. Immediately, his world transforms from a modest classroom with chalk-dusted blackboards to a futuristic panorama crammed with coding simulations and immersive digital experiences.
This isn’t a distant dream however a actuality made attainable by 22-year-old Harshini Kishore Singh, an entrepreneurship graduate, bridging the digital divide for rural kids in India.
Harshini, initially from Madurai, is the founding father of Rural Tech Rise, an initiative devoted to bridging the digital and entrepreneurial divide for underprivileged kids. By day, she trains and educates younger minds; by evening, she works as an IT worker to fund her mission.
From gift-making to offering the present of information
Harshini’s entrepreneurial spirit ignited early. On the age of 16, she began her first enterprise in company gifting. “I’ve been working totally different jobs since I used to be 14,” she says. Throughout the pandemic, she personally delivered 100 Diwali gifting containers, an expertise that formed her understanding of enterprise and resilience.
“My first enterprise failed because of the lack of publicity and information, however that failure pushed me to pursue entrepreneurship as a university diploma,” she recollects.
Transferring to Bengaluru for school in 2021 additional refined her perspective. “Initially, enterprise was all about revenue and margins for me. However in school, issues modified,” says Harshini. “We had night courses from 4 to eight pm, whereas mornings had been spent on internships and brainstorming entrepreneurship concepts,” she shares, who pursued her BBA in entrepreneurship from Jain (Deemed to be College).
She additionally undertook a management CSR challenge, volunteering with Train for India for 50 hours at a authorities college, educating ‘social emotion’, which proved to be a turning level in her life. “I labored with kids who had no mother and father, no background, and typically no residence. That have made me realise the deep gaps in Indian schooling,” she says.
She used her financial savings from varied jobs she undertook, together with a stint on the Google Operations Centre in Bengaluru at age 18, the place she was the youngest worker with a package deal of Rs 9 LPA. She invested her earnings to attain her schooling mission.
“I wished to transcend educating social feelings for the youngsters. The category I taught roughly had 30 kids and I used to be in a position to enhance their high quality of dwelling. A lot of the kids got here from poor and abusive household backgrounds,” shares Harshini.
“I used to be in a position to assist these kids to know schooling and society higher. This created the drive to make efforts to remodel different kids’s lives as effectively,” provides Harshini.
Recognising the rising menace of cybercrimes, she labored actively in DigiSafe, an organization based by her sister, Sushmitha Kishore Singh. This initiative targeted on educating authorities and personal college kids about web security and serving to them navigate by means of the digital world responsibly.
“So as to add credibility to my work, I additionally turned a licensed Cyber Crime Intervention Officer,” says Harshini, a qualification required to formally educate cybersecurity to kids. By way of DigiSafe, she performed coaching programmes, making younger minds conscious of on-line threats and equipping them with the instruments to guard themselves.
“Harshini took accountability for Digisafe after I needed to transfer overseas for my masters and issues had been functioning easily due to her. For instance, we had taken up a challenge of making 100 movies for the CBSE college kids which Harshini executed rather well,” shares Sushmitha.
Whereas operating DigiSafe, Harshini realised that rural kids lacked entry to even essentially the most fundamental digital instruments, not to mention cybersecurity schooling. This perception led her to determine Rural Tech Rise, an initiative introducing expertise schooling to underprivileged college students.
From establishing cell libraries crammed with books to bringing cutting-edge instruments like VR and robotics into school rooms, her work has reworked studying experiences for hundreds of kids.
The start of Rural Tech Rise
Based in 2024 and registered lately, Rural Tech Rise extends digital literacy and entrepreneurship coaching to kids in rural communities. Constructing on her expertise with Digisafe, Harshini established this initiative to introduce kids from rural communities to digital actuality (VR), synthetic intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity.
“We take VR headsets to rural faculties, which we now have acquired from an Australian College, letting kids expertise expertise hands-on. They’re fascinated as a result of they’ve solely seen such tech on YouTube, however by no means had entry to it,” she explains.
“We additionally develop our personal curriculum to show the youngsters,” shares Harshini, who makes use of the facility of neighborhood language to make sure the youngsters perceive the ideas effectively. “We don’t use any technical jargon as typically these kids don’t have entry to regular schooling,” Harshini provides — one thing that their crew is striving to stability out.
Licensed by ISAC (Info Sharing and Evaluation Centre), Harshini and her crew led workshops on moral hacking consciousness and digital safety. “Throughout our periods, kids have come ahead admitting they’ve despatched inappropriate photos on-line, later discovering them misused. We contacted ISAC and helped resolve such instances, making it a lesson for them,” she explains.
Additionally they conduct stay moral hacking demonstrations, exhibiting college students how one mistake — like clicking an unknown hyperlink — can compromise their web security and system safety.
Constructing younger entrepreneurs
Rural Tech Rise additionally consists of entrepreneurship coaching for schoolchildren, specializing in fostering a enterprise mindset reasonably than a job-seeking mentality.
One in every of Rural Tech Rise’s most revolutionary features is its Shark Tank, a pitching spherical launched in 2024 in Sholavandhan, Madurai. “We maintain pitching rounds in rural areas, awarding money prizes for one of the best concepts. After each coaching session, youngsters current their enterprise concepts, and so they take it significantly,” Harshini shares.
“I wish to introduce the thought of entrepreneurship to those youngsters, and I additionally need them to deal with the affect and never simply the money-making facet,” shares Harshini.
Her crew consists of 10 core members — all college college students from courses 7 to 9 — whom she skilled. “They’ve their ventures established and registered. One boy teaches individuals by means of magic. A lady desires to arrange a hair salon. They need to not simply work for revenue however perceive their objective,” she explains.
13-year-old Dharun finds Harshini’s steering to be insightful. “Earlier than the session, I solely had the thought of doing one thing with magic. It was Harshini ma’am who guided me so as to add the factor of schooling and educating science experiments into my love for magic,” shares Dharun, the founding father of Magic Web — an initiative that teaches youngsters science by means of the assistance of magic.
With the right steering, Dharun has been in a position to educate over 40 kids the great thing about science by means of the phantasm of magic. “By working with Ma’am, I get to study much more about entrepreneurship and what I can do with it after I develop up,” shares Dharun.
Overcoming challenges and increasing the mission
Harshini acknowledges the difficulties in gaining neighborhood belief. “Many suppose we’re right here for publicity, so registering the corporate gave us credibility,” she says. She additionally faces useful resource limitations, limiting college visits to twice a month. Nonetheless, she envisions a self-sustainable mannequin, the place skilled sub-leaders can broaden the initiative.
Harshini presently works evening shifts at Vivid Champ, an EdTech firm, counselling college students on monetary literacy. Her earnings go towards funding Rural Tech Rise. “I work at evening and use that cash to gas my morning social work,” she says.
Her dedication paid off — her programmes have now collectively educated over 5,000 kids throughout her 4 ventures, primarily from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka!
“In the long term, I wish to present scholarships for high quality schooling, herald world partnerships, and broaden our crew to a minimal of 100 members. If everybody takes care of their neighborhood, no nook of India might be under-educated,” she says.
Along with her unwavering dedication, Harshini isn’t just imparting technical expertise — she’s shaping younger minds, fostering self-reliance, and redefining the longer term for hundreds of rural kids. In a world the place lack of time is commonly an excuse to keep away from social work, Harshini proves that every one you want is ardour and dedication to make a distinction!
Edited by Arunava Banerjee; All photographs courtesy Harshini Kishore Singh
