THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, listened in awe as a team of bloggers who visited the school told them inspiring stories of youngsters who quit plum jobs to establish hugely-successful startups.
The bloggers, under the banner of ‘All India Digital Skill Mission’ are currently on a country-wide tour. Starting from Srinagar on January 15, the team has covered scores of villages, towns and cities with the aim of motivating youngsters to explore various internet-based career options.
The idea of connecting with like-minded youngsters and going on an all-India tour to spread the message prompted Sai Ramesh, a professional blogger from Vijayawada and Kapil Anand, a digital marketing consultant from New Delhi to launch the initiative.
After making informal contacts through Facebook, the ‘All India Digital Skill Mission’ was born with over 50 active members. Along with Sai Ramesh and Kapil, the team that’s currently touring the country comprises of five more members - Pawan Kumar, Yogesh Mankani, Sachin Bharadwaj, Jay Paudyal and Vinay Mehra. Vinay joined the team from Amristar.
“While on our visit to the villages, we focused on making the people aware of the benefits of digitisation and cashless economy. During our interaction with students in schools, IITs and IIMs, we motivated them to become self-made entrepreneurs,” Sai Ramesh said.
During their interaction with students of K V Pattom, the team told them about Roman Saini, a young medical doctor, who quit the IAS to start a hugely-successful online learning platform named Unacademy. Saini is now a leading educator and motivational speaker. His startup, launched just a year ago, had recently raised funds to the tune of Rs 4.5 million US dollars.
“There are many more success stories. There are many youngsters who have used their blogs and YouTube channels to earn millions. We just need to tell our youngsters that internet is not bad altogether and it offers a lot of career options,” Sai Ramesh said.
The team which is now in Kanyakumari, will proceed to Central India and then to the Northeast before ending their trip in New Delhi. The entire expenses for the trip were shared by the members. “We have been offered funds by various institutions but we have politely refused it,” said Sai Ramesh.