Rohit Balakrishan

Revolutionized rural education in India through his award-winning online learning platform.

Rohit Balakrishan is the visionary behind ShikshaAI, an AI-driven education platform connecting over 1.2 million Indian students from remote villages to certified teachers. Growing up in a rural Karnataka village without internet access, Balakrishan developed his first coding project at 14 using a pirated textbook. His 2019 startup pioneered offline-compatible learning modules delivered via low-cost tablets preloaded with curated content. The platform's adaptive learning algorithms personalize curricula based on student performance, reducing dropout rates by 60% in pilot regions.

In 2022, Balakrishan partnered with India's Ministry of Education to deploy 500,000 solar-powered tablets across drought-prone regions. His team's Shiksha Research Lab has published groundbreaking studies on tech-mediated pedagogy in low-resource settings. Recognized as a Forbes '30 Under 30' in 2023, his work inspired similar initiatives in Nepal and Bangladesh. The documentary Code for Change (2024) chronicles his journey from village dropout to tech innovator.