Aditi Prasad (Guest): So the journey has actually been quite a long one. So we do have experience in the STEM education business since 2010. We've introduced classes where we teach coding, robotics, eventually AI for kids from all ages across schools in India. We also developed products for the global STEM market.

So if you backtrack on why we did that, even in the first place, I think it also stems from a lot of personal experience.

Growing up in India, I was privileged enough to like be in a good school, going to a good school here in Chennai and, slowly as I progressed and I went to study my masters abroad, I realized that the entire rote way of learning that all of us have been subjected to, did not at all benefit me, did not allow me to progress in my further studies abroad.

Whereas over there it was a lot around talking about discussion, lot of open book exams, which as a concept here in India, we don't have, and one particular incident where I literally got a big fat ‘F’ on one of my papers got me thinking that why in the world as a good student or as a good going to a good school or how is that something where you're not able to go out there in the market and really survive?

So it really comes down to thinking about how do you look at education?

How does one understand that? Even though if you're teaching a particular concept to a child, instead of looking at just pure text, mugging it up and kind of remembering it just for the sake of an exam, how do you make that learning joyful?

So it's the whole curiosity, the whole discussion around it, asking that why question, and once you really understand why, then the learning just comes automatically.

There's no real reason for you to memorize so much information because you've understood the bare concept of any subject that you're studying.

Be it any language, be it, math, be it any of the sciences, history, geography, I think it's just the way you learn, the way you are taught, it's so, so critical and so important, and I think where the journey began to transform the education that our kids are receiving in this country in the ways that we can.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): So growing up I think the, the value of the questions we asked was far more important than the answer or the solution that was the end goal.

The discussion around, again, the kind of questions we were asked to ask or we were the questions that were told to us the way we learned different aspects of things that are around the things that are even around us and how it works.

I think it comes down to curiosity, It makes, it made us very curious and curiosity is something that's absolutely beautiful when you see it in a child. When a child comes and asks a question of why is it daytime here at night time in a different country?

You're not talking about smaller kids who are trying to understand these concepts.

I mean, that is where the learning happens, that one spark of why, and then it turns into multiple layers of understanding, a deeper understanding of any subject.

So I think for us, that is something that was instilled in us very, very young.

So for me to think about how do we then make this world of where the child can get excited, get curious, and create around that ecosystem, I think is what's important.

The more questions they ask, they're just more they're trying to form those layers in their own head and the way they understand the way the hope world works. I think it's extremely important that a parents encourage that constant questions when a child asks you, engage with them, it's beautiful.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): We started Indian Girls Code, which is our program for the underprivileged communities solely because when you're looking at the vastness of the country and you're looking at where the world is moving with AI and this whole tech driven world, that's been ever expanding over the last decade.

The kids in any underprivileged rural areas in our country do not even have access to good education, then comes the point of this whole digital transformation that's happening everywhere, and if we're unable to give them basic education, let alone relevant ones, which where the world is moving, then they are going to lose even more so, how do we go in and give them the requisite skills that are actually needed for where the world is moving and for the future skills for themselves, which is why we wanted to focus on this purely, again, it's Indian Girls code because we are also focusing on girls.

We are looking at bridging that gender gap in STEM, giving them that right opportunity at a very young age, and developing and building those skills from a very young age. So, it started as Indian Girls Coding. Yes. Our, my deep passion, I have two sisters with three girls. So something that again, personally passionate about is to build greater programs, STEM programs for girls across the country.

Over the course of our journey, we've also worked with different organizations where the boys are included in our programs, and it's been pretty fantastic because the boys at that age, young age are seeing their counterparts, girls who are able to create and do as much as they can and that's where the whole conversation about gender equality has to come in at a very young age where they see themselves as partners and equals, and a cohort at work with each other instead of having any other form of it.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): So do you remember as a child, anyone, if you just go back to when you were a child and you remember a grandparent or an uncle or an aunt coming home and giving you a gift? Be it that He-Man, be it a Barbie, be it a kitchen set, be it Play-Doh, just receiving that box in your hand, opening that box.

Like going into a complete world where maybe hours can go by, where you're just playing your imagining, your pretend play.

You are getting lost in the entire world of toys, now that joy of, I mean, I also remember having endless hours of pretend play, but what, what's happening now is with screens other than just eyesight and your other basic issues.

I think the world of imagination is getting lost because you're presenting the world to them. You're presenting information to them, so what is it that they are able to even imagine? if you're, if they're spending so much time in somebody else's designed world, what about a world that they can think of? What about solutions they can think of? And I think that's where our focus is that we want to bring the joy of playing with toys back into the hands of children, and then thereby as an additional, you build so many different types of skills, like your fine motor skills, your bits are grip, the grip that you need to even write.

I think right now with this whole conversation about screen and tech and AI, it's inevitable. The children will be in that world, but then here is the actual skill that they need in order to survive in that world, which is the thinking skill.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): Sure. So we did have a story that was shared with us.

One was with this, we have a PictoMath card game, so it starts with age six and then it goes up all the way.

So when adults can play it, it's basically math made fun, we had a grandparent and a child who played this game, so you're talking about, I think I want to say about an 8 or 9-year-old with a 65 plus grandparent.

Obviously you will think that math skills are very high with that generation, but the child beat the grandparent and a few games, and the joy of the defeat of such an experienced person who the child really looks up to, something that was it was exciting for I think both the grandparent and the child in terms of Wonder Bricks, which is our construction blocks, we have personally seen kids who have, so we have a pack where we'll say it's a vehicle pack, for example, so you can make these number of vehicles with that pack.

Then we've seen kids who have gone in, opened that pack, seen all the blocks and win curve make completely something that they want, but they're able to apply saying, this and these two pieces will make this shape and hence, if we try to use different blocks together, we can create something that we want and we don't have to follow that pack, which for us is gold because that means they are, again, getting lost in a world of their own creation, their idea, their creation, and some solution that they get excited about.

So, we are empowering them right there.

I can give a personal experience, which I've faced with my own children that when they wanted to pick up some of the products and when it came home, they were absolutely completely focused and centred around building.

I kid you not our have gone by where they were just want, they just wanted to keep on making. So they were excited about what they were able to create, and they got lost in that little world of, creating and building their own toys.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): We are a complete made in India, built in India brand.

Extremely proud of it, right from our design, our manufacturing, and end to end, the entire process is being done, in India.

There's been a lot of support from, various people at during this entire process, but we have kept a lot of factors in mind while building this brand. We do want to take our brand global. That is definitely the goal. If you look at functionality, design teams, pricing, certifications, We are building global brand that is made in India.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): So I think that is one of the single most important mindset, what we can give to a child is agency, so they will start to believe that, I can build it, right from idea building it, creating and solving for that problem , they can do it completely on their own.

Once they build that basic skill sets, then all the other skill sets are kind of layers on top of it.

So when they go out, whether they're going to be an engineer, whether they're going to work as a designer or a leader, or anything that, any work that they are going to go out and do into this world, I think once they have that ability to have their own confidence to say, I can do it and I can, even if I fail, which again, building and this whole play, play-based learning teaches you that even if you make a mistake or you, fail during that process, you could fix it.

So there's a way of thinking about a different solution for that same problem. So when that mindset gets developed, then no matter what they're going do out in the world, it's that foundation that we have set.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): I think it's a fine balance in many ways, I think that there are some excellent screen-based learning tools that are available, but that again has to be done in its own particular way. A lot of schools are using technology now to make learning more efficient and effective.

I think those are ways where screen is justifiable or like giving them the access is great, but when you look at play, when you look at leisure, when you look at just free time it's like saying playing cricket versus watching cricket.

It's like you would rather go out there, teach them how to play the game, Swimming, Football, whatever it is a child is interested in, you would rather do that than make them sit and watch the screen.

So why is that? Why is that coming into learning? Why are we necessarily substituting it?

It's great in a way to give them exposure to that limit where you're playing the game.

You watch a match, great, you have it fun, but it's not substituting learning the game or the physical need for stamina and etc.

So I think it's the same with learning. We use screen-based tools where it's important and necessary, but it should never substitute play.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): So I think it's a great synergy of different professional backgrounds and experiences, where she comes from the more engineering and science background I come from the more legal business policy mindset.

Very honestly, it's been a great, the perfect synergy to have it all in one between both of us.

Aditi Prasad (Guest): I think giving them a space to completely be able to express themselves freely, to not have frameworks and structures in every way that they are learning to accept that there are no right and wrong.

I think that is one thing Indian education system can do much better at. Is to have the teachers as well as the child, have that classroom discussions and have an open environment where they're allowed to speak, they're allowed to share, no matter how extreme a thought could be or now how anything can be.

I think the more open the child is in a classroom environment and the more open the teacher is to accept that information, the greater the learning can be because a child at the end of the day, spends as much, if not more in a school environment.

So it is so critical to have a good unit of both the teacher as well as the all the children around to make learning a lot more fun, and there are numerous ways to make learning fun.