Mathematics is called the queen of all subjects and also the mother of all sciences. But for millions of students Maths elicits fear. India has displayed its love for mathematics since the Vedic period. India’s contribution to the world of mathematics includes the discovery of zero, the decimal number system and negative numbers.
The National Achievement Survey 2017, conducted by the MHRD, to assess learning outcomes among children across India in different subjects shows class 3, 4 and class 5 students getting 64%, 53% and 42% respectively in the mathematics test. This shows a trend of declining interest in mathematics. More concerning is the fact that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) confirmed that only 21% students passing class 10 opt for mathematics at the senior secondary level.
Math Buddy aspires to change this. The company provides schools and students with comprehensive maths learning solutions for Grades 1-10. Its offering includes hands-on activities and online practice, and it also prepares students for Math Olympiads. The activities covered by Math Buddy are mapped to the approved curriculum. It sets up dedicated maths labs in schools, and its hands-on activities make the concepts simpler and enjoyable to imbibe. The concepts are then reinforced through continuous practice, with a dashboard providing granular data to students, parents, and teachers on progress made by students against each of the concepts.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has emerged as a major threat to public health. Resistant infections can be difficult, and sometimes, impossible to treat. Misuse and overuse of antibiotics is the main cause of AMR. Lack of clean water and sanitation and inadequate infection prevention and control promotes the spread of microbes, some of which can be resistant to antimicrobial treatment. India carries one of the largest burdens of drug-resistant pathogens worldwide.
Diagnostic cultures take 3-5 days and during this time medication gets initiated without the culture results being known. This can accelerate AMR. Hence, it becomes critical to have diagnostic technologies that can undertake rapid pathogen identification, which will lead to quicker, targeted treatment and medication, ultimately eliminating AMR.
Omix has developed a next generation molecular biology-based diagnostics platform for rapid detection of infectious diseases. Its DNA-based proprietary tests allow detection of infection-causing bugs within a few hours. Omix provides specific information on AMR, enabling targeted treatment. More importantly, its proprietary ambient stable protocols make it possible to use it in under-resourced settings.
Today, 65% of youth in India are in the working age group. This demographic advantage can be harvested through skill development of the youth so that they add not only to their personal growth, but to the country’s economic growth as well.
Leap Skills was launched to provide project-based skill training and placement to motivated, undergraduate students from tier-3 cities and rural areas of northern India. Course content was developed in partnership with a few leading corporate partners, covering the IT, retail, hospitality and BFSI sectors. Leap Skills later added an employment-focused English communication program for young graduates, and partnered with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to provide upskilling and training for already-employed informal sector workers.
Of the 580,000ha land being used for tea cultivation, 65% is managed by large estates and only 35% by small tea growers. Average land holding of these small tea growers is less than 1ha. At the same time, they face considerable challenges, such as non-availability of finance, pest and disease attacks accelerated by climate change, poor agronomic practices that lead to low quality tea leaves, very limited access to high value markets and hence low share of the consumer rupee.
Iron Kettle is a unique business model that challenges the notion that small growers have inherent and unsurmountable diseconomies of scale. It starts with the premise that a small grower can deliver superior quality that the market will reward with higher prices.
Iron Kettle aims to establish a leading front-end tea brand, providing premium tea grown by small tea growers using sustainable tea practices. The market position is centred around small tea growers with end-to-end traceability and premium blends to cater to high value tea consumers.
With the advent of technology and the emergence of new sectors, there has been an explosion of career options for students to choose from. However, due to lack of relevant information and guidance, students make career choices that don’t suit them. In a survey conducted by an online platform, of the 10,000 students in the age group of 14-21 years, 93% were aware of just 7 career options. Likewise, parents too lack awareness about professional and vocational pathways available for their children. In addition, 93% of schools in India do not have a dedicated professional counsellor, and consequently, students from middle and low-income households do not get the career guidance they require. Between 2020 and 2030, India will add 101 million people to the working age group. A key enabler to utilise this enormous demographic dividend is career guidance, and this will play a vital role in building a better skilled and more satisfied workforce.
iDreamCareer.com (iDC) is a career guidance and counselling company that guides students towards achieving their most suited careers. iDC has a database of well-researched content on more than 570 career pathways, 25,000 colleges and 1000 entrance exams and scholarships. The iDC online portal has more than 1000 hours of career content while the iDC app provides personalized content based on the student’s context and aspirations. This content is complemented with a psychometric assessment that makes students aware of their aptitude, personality type and interest areas. This is followed by one-on-one counselling sessions with certified career counsellors. Counselling guides the student through a career fitment process of assessing the most suitable options, both in terms of next steps in education and longer-term careers. Once chosen careers are defined, iDC has a college application program that supports the students in profile building, scholarship information, helpline support on colleges, and live counselling.
India is the second largest producer of wheat and rice – world’s major food staples. India is also currently world’s second largest producer of several dry fruits, agriculture-based textile raw materials, roots and tuber crops, pulses, farmed fish, eggs, coconut, sugarcane and numerous vegetables. 58% of India’s population depends on agriculture as their primary means of livelihood. 85% of India’s farmers cultivate in less than five acres of land, half of which, in many parts of India, may be rain-fed. Small farmers contribute 51% of agricultural output with 46% of operated land. However, these farmers face severe challenges such as low productivity, natural calamities, perishability owing to poor cold chain logistics, and weak access to higher paying markets.
Farm Folks procures fruits and vegetables from smallholder farmers at their farm gate. It provides residue-free fresh produce to online and offline retailers, and offers on-farm advisory from sowing to harvest for select crops. Farm Folks also educates farmers in globally accepted agronomic practices (GAAP) to help them realise a better price for their produce.
