Page 72 - EW-January-2026

People

Intellitots, a chain of conformity over creativity,” says
holistic preschools Shivesh. “Government initiatives
and daycare centres such as Startup India, Make in India
which has since and Atal Tinkering Labs have helped
evolved into one unfreeze the conversation around
of India’s largest entrepreneurship. But schools must
preschool chains with play a much larger role in promoting
many of its pre-pri- entrepreneurship and innovation if
maries ranked high in India is to achieve its Viksit Bharat
the annual Educa- and $30 trillion GDP growth by
tionWorld India 2047.”
Preschool Rankings. Adds Kapur: “It’s high time path-
After a short stint at breaking innovations emerged from
Shivesh (left) & Kapur: embedded entrepreneurship education the Bengaluru-based India. We believe every student is
Founding Years a potential change-maker. A multi-
Newspeg. On October 6, TSL Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd, she co- plier effect is necessary for India to
launched the 5th edition of the founded TSL with Shivesh in 2020. achieve the PM’s Viksit Bharat and
School Youth Ideathon (SYI), India’s Direct talk. “After years of interacting $30 trillion goals.”
largest entrepreneurship festival with students and schools, we Autar Nehru (Delhi)
for school students at CBSE Head- realised that entrepreneurship
quarters, New Delhi. Promoted in cannot be taught as an Informal learning
association with the Management & extracurricular activity; it has to be
Entrepreneurship and Professional embedded into mainstream school
Skills Council (MEPSC), the Grand education,” says Shivesh. “Therefore enablers
Finale of this competitive event will we designed an experiential learning,
be held at IIT-Delhi on January 18. mentorship and real-world exposure R. TIRTHANKAR GUHA
History. An alumnus of IIT-Delhi curriculum that enables students THAKURTA, assistant profes-
and Cranfield School of Manage- to ideate, prototype and think Dsor at Kali Pradip Chaudhuri
ment (UK), Sanjeeva Shivesh began independently.” Medical College (KPCMC), Kolkata
his career with the Indian Railways Adds Kapur: “The National Edu- — the first private medical college in
after clearing the civil services ex- cation Policy (NEP) 2020 accords West Bengal affiliated with the West
amination (IRAS) in 1996. In 2005, high priority to innovation and en- Bengal University of Health Sciences
when he had risen to the position of trepreneurship through mandating — and PRAKRITI DUTTA, a celebrat-
Deputy Financial Advisor, Shivesh a National Innovation and Entre- ed singer, mime artist and daughter
resigned to pursue higher studies preneurship Promotion Policy. This of legendary mime exponent Jogesh
in the UK where he worked for two has helped school managements and Dutta, are co-founders of Bhalobasar
years as a management consultant. parents to appreciate the importance Pathshala (BP, estb. 2025). BP is
On returning to India in 2009, he of entrepreneurship education.” a free-of-charge learning centre
promoted a consultancy — Smart Since then over the past five years, mentoring children from underprivi-
Wave Education, and in 2013 estab- the annual School Youth Ideathon, leged families residing in the densely
lished The Entrepreneurship School, supported by CBSE and MEPSC, has populated, low-income colonies of
through which he has mentored over emerged as TSL’s flagship initiative. South Kolkata. Currently, five full-
20,000 school and college students In 2024, over 200,000 students time and 20 visiting teachers support
through more than 800 nascent registered for it and 52,000 newly 25 children aged 5-16 years, includ-
startups. ideated projects were submitted for ing government school students and
Equally well-qualified — an IIT- evaluation by a jury of experts. Of school dropouts.
Delhi and IIM-Calcutta graduate them 20 ideathon projects are under Newspeg. In October, BP introduced
— Shivani Singh Kapur who began incubation currently. vocational training courses in no-fire
her professional career in 1996 with Future plans. Encouraged by cooking, baking, dance, music, sew-
the blue-chip Infosys Technologies enthusiastic student response to ing and clay modeling. These pro-
as a Key Account Manager. After the annual ideathon, Shivesh and grammes will be supplemented with
a ten-year stint with Infosys, she Kapur have drawn up plans to scale academics, poetry, theatre, sports,
discovered that her true interest was TSL’s reach and deepen its impact art and craft curriculums designed to
education and in 2008, co-founded nationwide. “India’s school system is nurture creativity, critical thinking
Intellitots Learning, aka FirstCry still rooted in a mindset that values and essential life skills.

72 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2026