In an interview with TimesTech, Brinda Poornapragna, CEO of eVidyaloka, shares how her Himalayan teaching journey shaped a mission to bridge India’s urban-rural education gap. Highlighting success stories like Anish Kumar—an 8th-grader who designed an AI-powered drone to help farmers—she discusses the transformative role of technology, community, and curiosity in nurturing grassroots innovation and building a self-reliant, future-ready India.
Read the full interview here:
TimesTech: Your journey from leading roles in global corporations to becoming a rural educator is incredibly inspiring. What inspired this major shift, and how has your time in the Himalayas shaped your vision for eVidyaloka?
Brinda: During my experience teaching in remote Himalayan schools, I met children eager to learn, yet held back by limited access to quality learning experiences and educational support. That experience was a turning point—it revealed just how deeply education could change lives, and how geography should never define a child’s potential.
What drew me to eVidyaloka was the unique convergence of technology, volunteerism, and community engagement. It offered a real, scalable model to bridge the urban-rural education divide. My years in corporate roles taught me how to build systems that scale. Now, those principles fuel a mission that is both purposeful and urgent—ensuring quality education reaches where it’s needed most.
TimesTech: eVidyaloka is known for using digital tools to bridge the rural-urban education divide. How do you see emerging technologies like AI and remote learning shaping the future of rural education in India?
Brinda: With the right tools, a child in a remote village can access the same quality of education as one in an urban center. At eVidyaloka, we’ve seen how digital classrooms and remote teaching can open doors. Now, with emerging technologies like AI, we’re pushing that boundary further. This is happening at two levels. One, introducing AI learning in our classrooms to bridge the digital divide and the other is integrating AI in our own operations as a means to scale.
Our BRAIN (Build Rural Artificial Intelligence Network) program is a pioneering step in this direction. It introduces AI in a contextual, hands-on way—delivered in local languages, with relatable examples, and through guided digital experiences. This approach doesn’t just teach students about AI—it helps them see themselves as future creators and problem-solvers, shaping their communities and beyond.
TimesTech: With over 2.5 million students impacted and a global network of 6,000+ volunteers, how does eVidyaloka maintain a personal, community-first approach while scaling at such an impressive pace?
Brinda: Scale without connection is meaningless. At eVidyaloka, our strength lies in local roots and global reach. Every digital classroom is anchored in the community—with local NGOs, school staff, and Class Assistants forming the core of our ground network. Given the complexity and diversity of the geography, distance and the context, our intervention becomes sustainable when these variables are owned by the community. This ensures that education is not just delivered, but also embraced.
Our volunteers, spanning 40+ countries, are trained, supported, and connected through an ecosystem built for purpose and collaboration. Technology enables consistency, while community ownership ensures relevance. That’s how we stay personal, even as we grow.
TimesTech: Anish Kumar’s AI-powered drone is a fantastic example of rural innovation. How does the BRAINIAC program identify and support such young talents, and what kind of mentorship ecosystem surrounds them?
Brinda: The BRAINIAC contest is part of eVidyaloka’s broader BRAIN initiative, which introduces students in rural government schools to foundational AI concepts through hands-on digital learning in regional languages. While the BRAIN program focuses on knowledge transfer, BRAINIAC emphasizes the practical application of that learning—encouraging students to identify real issues in their communities and develop solutions rooted in innovation and empathy.
What makes this approach impactful is the way we introduce simple, accessible tools as entry points into AI. These tools act as a catalyst, sparking curiosity and encouraging students to see how technology can solve real problems. Students are also shown examples of existing solutions—tried, tested, and implemented—to help them understand how innovation works in the real world and how they can build upon or improve them with their own ideas.
In Anish Kumar’s case, what stood out was his deep personal connection to the problem—his family’s agricultural challenges. His drone concept was not just a classroom idea but a reflection of lived experience, designed to support decision-making in crop selection and water usage through AI-powered aerial analysis. This relevance and purpose-driven thinking is exactly what BRAINIAC is designed to unlock.
Once students like Anish submit their ideas, they are supported through a multi-layered mentorship ecosystem. This includes class assistants, volunteer mentors, corporate experts, and eVidyaloka’s internal team—all of whom guide students in refining their ideas, developing prototypes, and preparing their presentations. More than just technical input, this ecosystem helps students explore the problem-solving and optimization potential of AI—beyond the surface-level fascination with trends like gaming, which often dominate the digital space for children today.
TimesTech: Anish’s solution addresses real agricultural challenges using AI and drone technology. In your view, what role can student-led innovations play in solving grassroots problems, especially in sectors like farming?
Brinda: Student-led innovations like Anish’s remind us that meaningful solutions often emerge from those closest to the problem. His concept—using a drone to assess crop suitability and water availability—might be early-stage, but it reflects an intuitive understanding of his community’s needs and a growing comfort with technology as a tool for change.
In sectors like agriculture, especially at the grassroots, there’s immense scope for contextual, low-cost innovations driven by students who have grown up amidst these challenges. What these young minds need is exposure, encouragement, and access to foundational tools—something programs like BRAINIAC strive to provide.
More than building prototypes, the value lies in building curiosity, confidence, and belief—that even as students in rural schools, they have the ability to address real-world problems. That mindset shift, we believe, is what will power the next generation of rural innovators.
TimesTech: With initiatives like BRAINIAC and Teach through Television, how do you envision the role of programs like eVidyaloka in building a self-reliant, future-ready India?
Brinda: At eVidyaloka, we believe that true self-reliance begins with equitable access to knowledge—and equally, the freedom to learn by doing. Programs like BRAIN, which introduces AI concepts and skills to students in rural government schools through digital learning in regional languages, and Teach Through Television, which broadcasts curriculum-aligned lessons into underserved homes via local TV channels, are designed not just to deliver content but to create interactive, inclusive and scalable learning experiences.
What sets these initiatives apart is their emphasis on practical, application-based learning. Students aren’t just passive recipients—they are encouraged to explore, ask questions, and engage with real-world problems. Whether it’s through BRAINIAC’s innovation challenge, SERVE’s open digital platform, or engaging sessions powered by AI-teaching assistant, we are building an ecosystem that nurtures curiosity, experimentation, and contextual learning—especially important for students who have had limited exposure beyond textbooks.
Our broader efforts—including SERVE, a Digital Public Good platform and an early-stage AI-powered teaching assistant—are focused on strengthening delivery and expanding the reach of exploratory education. These tools not only improve consistency and access but also ensure that students experience learning in a language and format that is relevant to them. Together, these programs reflect our vision of a digitally empowered Bharat—where education is not limited by infrastructure, location, or rigid curriculum boundaries. By enabling communities, empowering teachers, and supporting students to learn by doing, we are not just building education systems—we are laying the foundation for a resilient, self-reliant, future-ready India.
