HYDERABAD: While the world was slowly getting used to college students pitching their startups to government entities and high-profile venture capitalists, two school students managed to secure `8 lakh in seed funding from IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday. Their product, the Digi Gnan, is a platform ‘of the students, by the students and for the students’, the founders, who are the students of the Pallavi Model School in Boduppal, proudly declare.
The platform is aimed at digitally enabling knowledge sharing and creating a self-learning platform for girls and women living in Tier-2 or -3 cities, towns or villages. The young innovators, N Manasa Reddy and Nafeesa Anjum, students of Class 9 and 10, respectively, took part in the ‘Catch’em Young’ initiative by WE-Hub for young girls.
During a field visit, they observed the ‘digital divide’ and saw that their counterparts in smaller cities or towns were behind on digital literacy. However, the thing that propelled them towards creating Digi Gnan is finding the rate of cyber crimes in India. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, Telangana accounted for six per cent, registering a 19 per cent growth, of all the cyber crimes in the country.
To address this gaping divide, they are planning to impart digital literacy, employability skills and cyber security on a pilot basis to over 500 students from the villages of Pratapsingram, Kachavanisingram, Edulabad and Muthyalaguda over the next 12 months. As many as 50 volunteers will enable Digi Gnan to expand to 25 villages, reaching over 1,000 students in Telangana.
During the fifth anniversary celebrations of WE-Hub, Rama Rao had promised to fund the idea out of his pocket. On Saturday, Manasa and Nafeesa pitched their idea to Rama Rao, Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi, Special Chief Secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Department Arvind Kumar and others.
After they sought `10 lakh as investment, Rama Rao questioned them about the financial viability of the venture, who their mentor and advisor was and how they hope to get a return on the investment. After a few rounds of questioning, the minister offered them seed capital of Rs 8 lakh.