A young boy in a remote village in Tamil Nadu carefully places a VR headset over his eyes. Instantly, his world transforms from a modest classroom with chalk-dusted blackboards to a futuristic landscape filled with coding simulations and immersive virtual experiences.

This isn’t a distant dream but a reality made possible by 22-year-old Harshini Kishore Singh, an entrepreneurship graduate, bridging the digital divide for rural children in India.

Harshini, originally from Madurai, is the founder of Rural Tech Rise, an initiative dedicated to bridging the digital and entrepreneurial divide for underprivileged children. By day, she trains and educates young minds; by night, she works as an IT employee to fund her mission.

From gift-making to providing the gift of knowledge

Harshini’s entrepreneurial spirit ignited early. At the age of 16, she started her first venture in corporate gifting. “I’ve been working different jobs since I was 14,” she says. During the pandemic, she personally delivered 100 Diwali gifting boxes, an experience that shaped her understanding of business and resilience.

“My first venture failed due to the lack of exposure and knowledge, but that failure pushed me to pursue entrepreneurship as a college degree,” she recalls.

Moving to Bengaluru for college in 2021 further refined her perspective. “Initially, business was all about profit and margins for me. But in college, things changed,” says Harshini. “We had evening classes from 4 to 8 pm, while mornings were spent on internships and brainstorming entrepreneurship ideas,” she shares, who pursued her BBA in entrepreneurship from Jain (Deemed to be University).

She also undertook a leadership CSR project, volunteering with Teach for India for 50 hours at a government school, teaching ‘social emotion’, which proved to be a turning point in her life. “I worked with children who had no parents, no background, and sometimes no home. That experience made me realise the deep gaps in Indian education,” she says.

She used her savings from various jobs she undertook,........

© The Better India