In Startup50 2016: For building a robust, profitable business model and socially impacting the lives of 2,500 students across 83 schools in 2015.

Founders: Tamal Mukherjee, Timir Mukherjee

While there are numerous organisations working towards developing specific skills of the rural youth, to make them employable, hardly do you come across ones that work right at the foundation, delivering quality education to children in the remote parts of the country. One among them, silently making progress in Eastern India is Nalanda Learning. Founded by Tamal and Timir Mukherjee in 2011 July, its flagship pre-school chain, Little Laureates, is working mainly in the district towns of West Bengal to nurture young minds to learn, grow and succeed in a challenging and culturally strong environment.

A Marked Difference

What makes Nalanda stand out from the crowd is its digitally enabled classrooms and teaching methodologies which work on three levels; the 5Cs model, which promotes critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity and cultural consciousness, the learning strategies which focus on specific learning outcomes, and a Whole Brain Teaching-Learning strategy, which emphasizes on active learning, in which the learner makes connections that tap both hemispheres (of the brain).

The Impact Zone

Funded by Aavishkar to the tune of Rs. 4 crore, the organisation is now 370 employees strong, and has spread its wings to 83 schools and 2,500 students thus far. In fact, 95 per cent of the workforce at the pre-schools is women; a very specific strategy Nalanda has adopted to provide economic upliftment for this gender, in the State.

Without doubt, delivering a product in the rural segments demands that it fall within the affordability range of its customers. Keeping this in mind, Nalanda Learning provides affordable fee structures, while also sponsoring cashless medical coverage of up to Rs. 30,000 to each student.

Rs. 4 crore

(Amount raised from Aavishkar)

 370

(No. of Employees of which 95 per cent are women)

Rs. 30,000

(Cashless medical coverage sponsored for each student)