Agastya International Foundation
| Industry | Education |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Bangalore, India |
Area served | India |
Key people |
Ramji Raghavan (Chairman) Mahavir Kumar (Managing Trustee) Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Alok Oberoi Dr. V. K. Aatre H. N. Srihari Manish Gupta Adhirath Sethi |
Number of employees | 850+ |
| Website | www.agastya.org |
Agastya International Foundation (Agastya)[1] is an Indian education trust and non-profit organization based in Bangalore, India whose mission is to spark curiosity, nurture creativity and build confidence among economically disadvantaged children and teachers in India.[2] A team of scientists, educators and entrepreneurs led by Ramji Raghavan founded Agastya in 1999. Agastya runs hands-on science and art education programs in rural and peri-urban regions across 18 Indian states. It is one of the largest science education programs that caters to economically disadvantaged children and teachers in the world.[3]
By making practical, hands-on science education accessible to government schools, Agastya aims to transform and stimulate the thinking of underprivileged children and teachers.
Programs
Agastya has a "Creativity Lab" located on a 172-acre campus in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh,[4] which houses science and art centers including an astronomy center and planetarium, center for creative teaching, an innovation hub, a science model-making center and open-air ecology lab. The campus receives over 500 children every day and also trains teachers from three states in India.[5] Agastya's programs across India are delivered by over 150 Mobile Lab and iMobile Lab Vans, 59 Lab on Bikes and TechLaBikes, 63 Science Centers and nearly 300 night village school centers. As of March 2016, Agastya has directly reached face-to-face over 7 million children (50% girls) and 200,000 teachers, from vulnerable and economically disadvantaged communities. As a charitable trust Agastya's programs are funded by corporate CSR, governments, foundations and high net worth and other individuals.[6]