The initiative of Hinduja Foundation aimed at reaching the deprived and the underprivileged students across the country and deliver quality education.

With the programme being underway, Hinduja Foundation looks to progressively examine the possibility of enhancing the scope of the program to support its (Road to School) RTS target group of 80000 kids across multiple states.

As a part of the programme of Hinduja Foundation, 6 different language preferences were offered wherein the highest number of sessions were undertaken in Hindi followed by Tamil.

Learning Links Foundation, an NGO working with several of the Hinduja Group Companies, also extended
its support to the iCare program of Hinduja Foundation by implementing all the on-field volunteering activities.

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Mr. Paul Abraham, President, Hinduja Foundation said, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been critical in the country’s education sector where all the stakeholders are affected, the most vulnerable are the children.

Amid the physical closure of schools, Covid-19 has also restricted their social engagements like meeting their friends, family or simply playing outside in the playground, hence affecting their overall development.

The ‘iCare: Volunteer From Home’ program of Hinduja Foundation is one of its kind initiative that seeks to not just constructively engage the volunteers, the children (4 to 8 grade level) and their families.

The interaction of the volunteers under iCare program of Hinduja Foundation was through technology whereby the volunteers, while staying at home, had a choice to conduct 30 minutes sessions.

These sessions could be conducted using live audio/video calls or pre-recorded audio/videos sessions using commonly available communication mediums, thereby ensuring accessibility to all the beneficiaries.

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As part of this initiative by Hinduja Foundation, children were engaged in diverse activities that focused on helping them learn subject-based content better and build skills critical in these challenging times.

These included ‘fun with math’ activities and others that centred on the theme of COVID-19, which were aimed at generating awareness on preventive measures to be taken during the pandemic.

In addition, story-telling sessions, poetry sessions, mentoring sessions, wellness sessions and craft activities kept students interested and gave a boost to their self-esteem and confidence while also nurturing their physical and emotional wellbeing.

All the target beneficiaries, the parents and especially the children expressed their satisfaction with all the sessions.

About Hinduja Foundation
Deeply rooted on the philanthropic principles of its Founder of Hinduja Group, Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, this Foundation is a public charitable trust established first in Mumbai in 1968.

In its 50 years of existence, with the guidance of the Hinduja Family and support from Hinduja Group companies, its global presence has led to the development in the fields of Education, Healthcare, Water Stewardship, Sustainable Rural Development, Social Welfare and Arts & Culture.

About Hinduja Group
The Hinduja Group is one of India’s premier diversified and transnational conglomerates.

Employing nearly a 150,000 employees, with presence across 38 countries it has multi-billion dollar revenue.

The Group was founded over a hundred years ago by P.D. Hinduja whose credo was ‘My duty is to work
so that I can give.”

The Group owns businesses in Automotive, Information Technology, Media, Entertainment & Communications, Banking & Finance Services, Infrastructure Project Development, Cyber Security, Oil and Specialty Chemicals, Power, Real Estate, Trading and Healthcare.

The group also supports charitable and philanthropic activities across the world through the Hinduja Foundation.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has collaborated with z21 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm operated by its alumni. The z21 venture capital firm founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni will invest a total of Rs 2.5 crore in this partnership. The institute mentioned in a statement on Friday that the preliminary investment per team in this collaboration will be Rs 25 lakh.

As a result, IIT Kharagpur and z21 Ventures are joining hands to start an innovative program to provide final-year students with the necessary support and resources to create a successful startup.

The accelerator is created to leverage exceptional talent from IIT Kharagpur, turning ambitious ideas into market-ready startups. It will provide participants with unparalleled access to mentorship, funding, and premium resources. Centred on developing technological, scalable solutions to global challenges, the program will combine the latest research capabilities by IIT Kharagpur with the investment success cultivated by z21 Ventures to empower student entrepreneurs to make lasting, transformative changes.

• Mentorship: Direct guidance from successful entrepreneurs, industry experts, and venture capitalists.
• Seed Funding: Access to early-stage funding opportunities to ignite their ventures.
• Workshops and Training: Tailored sessions on business-building necessary features, including business development, product-market fit, fundraising, and scaling operations.
• Networking: Opportunities to connect with a wide network of investors, successful entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders, that promote partnership and business development.

The accelerator is designed to tap into the immense talent pool at KGP and translate bold ideas into marketable ventures. It offers a platform with unmatched access to mentorship, funding, and top-tier resources for participants. The focus of this program would be on building technical, scalable solutions to global challenges by leveraging IIT Kharagpur’s cutting-edge research along with proven investments in z21 Ventures. This is meant to empower student entrepreneurs to change the world.

First cohort and the structure of the program

The accelerator program will accept up to 10 teams in the first cohort. Throughout the program, these teams will continue to receive mentoring, strategic guidance, and seed funding in efforts to develop their ideas into products. Participants will also tap into the extensive network of z21 Ventures’ industry experts, successful entrepreneurs, and experienced advisors dedicated to guiding them toward market success. Critical infrastructure support would also be offered by IIT Kharagpur even after graduation to ease the transition from idea development to execution.

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“Start-up Accelerator Program with z21 Ventures, founded by our esteemed IIT alumni, to launch the ‘KGP Forge Entrepreneur’ is a structured accelerator program created to teach the students about company building, basic company finance and company law, fundraising etc. It is a significant step toward empowering our BTech, MTech, and PhD students. This collaboration aims to provide budding entrepreneurs with mentorship, resources, financial support and professional networks sufficient to convert their ideas into successful startups”, said V K Tewari, Director, of IIT Kharagpur. KGP alumni can also participate in this transformative program, in case they collaborate with current KGP students on their founding teams.

Conclusion

The IIT Kharagpur and z21 Ventures collaboration marks a transformative step in advancing student entrepreneurship. With its first cohort set to support up to 10 teams, this accelerator program gives aspiring entrepreneurs a solid platform from which they can turn innovative ideas into impactful startups. Combining cutting-edge research from IIT Kharagpur with investment expertise from z21 Ventures, this initiative will focus on scalable solutions to global challenges. This is done through mentorship, funding, and comprehensive resources to equip the participants to make meaningful contributions and lay the foundation for generations yet to come of trailblazing innovators.