Neetha Raghunandan

Indian social entrepreneur bridging gender gaps in STEM through immersive education

Neetha Raghunandan (b. 1978) transformed STEM education in rural India through her Science Karaoke initiative. Founder of STEM India, she developed VR labs for 1,200+ schools lacking infrastructure. Her Science Mela festivals reach 500,000+ students annually, featuring hands-on experiments in renewable energy and biotechnology. Raghunandan's Women in Tech bootcamps trained 18,000+ women coders, with 70% securing tech jobs. She co-created the Science.Digital platform offering free MIT/Harvard courses in Hindi and Tamil. Her 2016 book Code Your Future became a bestseller in educational publishing. Raghunandan's TED Talk "Breaking India's Gender Code" has 1.8M views. She pioneered the Girls' Innovation Hubs in 200 districts, where 30% of participants now pursue engineering degrees. Her work contributed to India's 40% increase in female STEM enrollment between 2010-2020. Despite these impacts, her initiatives remain less known globally than Western tech programs, making her a vital but overlooked leader in educational equity.