Named the ‘youngest headmaster in the world’ by BBC in October 2009, at the age of 16. Babar Ali is an Indian student and teacher from Murshidabad, West Bengal. He started a school, Ananada Siksha Niketan – Home of joyful learning, in his backyard when he was just 9-years-old, now with 300 regular students. It is an outdoor school and counts a total of 10 teaching and non-teaching staff who are providing their voluntary service. There are no tuition fees, thus making it affordable for the poor in this economically deprived area and thereby helping increase literacy rate there.
In 2009, Babar Ali won a prize from the program Real Heroes of the Indian English news channel CNN IBN for his work and was awarded the NDTV ‘Indian of the Year’ award. His story became a part of the syllabus for the CBSE 10th standard English textbook, PUC English textbook for Govt. of Karnataka, and also in a curriculum in Luxembourg, Europe. He was featured on Aamir Khan’s TV show Satyamev Jayate in July 2012
Dina Buchbinder Auron is a social entrepreneur reshaping education through playful, experiential learning. As the founder of Education for Sharing (E4S), she pioneers innovative methods that transform passive learning into active global citizenship. E4S engages children, educators, and communities worldwide through its unique play-reflect-act approach, empowering participants to develop empathy, teamwork, and social responsibility while addressing critical environmental and social challenges. Since launching, E4S has reached over 1.5 million beneficiaries across multiple countries, demonstrating measurable impacts on both personal growth and community engagement.
Beyond E4S, Dina is a recognized thought leader and advocate for educational innovation. She is a National Geographic Explorer, Ashoka Fellow, and BMW Responsible Leader, and has held fellowships at MIT and the Schusterman Foundation. A graduate of Harvard Kennedy School, Dina collaborates globally, shaping policy discussions and championing education that inspires changemakers prepared to tackle our world’s most pressing issues.
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Gautam is an inspiring teacher skilled at reaching global audiences, creating meaningful connections, and artfully guiding people through self-awareness exercises to reach a higher purpose.
He brings the right balance of experience, empirical evidence and anecdotes to his audience.
At the very core of everything he creates, lies the playful, adventurous, and passionate energy that Gautam brings to the table.
With his vision of building the Disneyland of Learning & Education, Gautam has built an international reputation as a high-performance entrepreneur, community architect and Keynote speaker.
He has spoken at stages such as Mindvalley, TEDx, UNESCO, AIESEC, IIT etc and his TEDx Talk has over 7 Million views”
Guillermo Rivero turns brands into a phenomenon. Since 2019, he’s led Netflix’s Social Marketing in Latin America, skyrocketing followers from 60M to 110M by tapping into fandoms and local trends. Before that, he shaped Vice Mexico’s brand appeal, crafting campaigns for giants like Nike and Coca-Cola. With an expertise in data-driven strategy, Guillermo keeps redefining entertainment marketing.
Kenta is the Founder and CEO at GAKKO, a collective of thinkers and makers working through design, technology, and pedagogy to question the way people learn. GAKKO’s mission is to craft experiences that inspire reflection and action, and through education, to form compassionate and engaged citizens of the world. GAKKO aims to make education richer and more accessible by re-modularizing it through thoughtfully designed digital learning tools and experimental summer camps created by collaborators around the world.
Prior to this venture, Kenta worked at Palantir Technologies and a handful of start-ups as a designer and engineer. He is also a professional magician, and a magic trick inventor
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Madhumita Halder, a Computer Science engineer from IIT Bombay, is redefining education by making learning innovative and fun for children. Her journey began as a teacher at an alternative school, where she explored science through games, play, and hands-on activities with students. This experience, combined with her technical expertise, inspired her to design personalized learning frameworks that cater to individual learning styles.
Madhumita has developed learner-centric curricula across various subjects and age groups. She is the founder of MadRat Games, the creators of Aksharit — the world’s first Indian language word game.
Madhumita also founded SLAM Labs, a company dedicated to creating interactive and impactful learning experiences for children. SLAM Labs specializes in educational tools and games that integrate Science, Language, Arts, and Math, fostering creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking.
Madhumita developed SuperSuit, a futuristic wearable gaming platform that merges physical activity with digital play. For this innovation, she was recognized by Fortune India as one of the ’40 Under 40′ Business Leaders of 2016.
Madhumita also runs a YouTube channel called Apni Teacher, where she is on a mission to eliminate math anxiety from children.
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Pranav Kothari is the head of the Large Scale Education Programmes division at Educational Initiatives (EI). He leads EI’s work in student assessments and the implementation of their adaptive learning software (Mindspark) in vernacular languages in government and affordable private schools across India. He has spoken on various platforms advocating the need to leverage the twin levers of cutting-edge educational research and technology-based solutions to revolutionize how children in the K-12 space learn. Pranav is an alumnus of Georgia Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School and has previously worked with GTI Capital and Boston Consultancy Group.
Richa Gupta, CEO and co-founder, Labhya, has been selected as an INK Fellow for her pioneering work in improving the social and emotional well-being of vulnerable children through education. In partnership with state and local governments, Labhya integrates well-being education into public school curricula, driving sustainable, systemic change in underserved communities. By creating locally relevant curricula, offering teacher development, and ensuring rigorous program evaluation, Labhya addresses the diverse needs of both students and educators. Currently implemented in 22,000 schools, Labhya’s programs positively impact 2.4 million children. Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals on quality education and well-being, Richa’s vision to reach 30 million children in India by 2030 reflects her commitment to scaling this critical impact nationwide.
Selene Biffi is an Italian social entrepreneur, educator, and humanitarian committed to empowering marginalized communities through education, storytelling, and technology.
In 2005, long before online learning became the norm, she launched a free education platform that reached thousands of young people across 130 countries. Her innovative approach has included video games that introduce children to cutting-edge science, algorithms that simplify complex news, and chatbots designed to combat hate speech.
She founded Plain Ink and Youth Action for Change, to use storytelling and digital learning to drive social change. Her humanitarian work spans the globe, from collaborating with the United Nations, World Bank, and Council of Europe to establishing a storytelling school in Afghanistan, preserving cultural heritage while creating economic opportunities. She was also recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and an Ashoka Fellow.
In 2021, Biffi founded She Works for Peace (SWFP), a non-profit dedicated to supporting women’s micro-entrepreneurship in challenging environments like Afghanistan, further cementing her legacy as a champion for global change.
Shashwat co-founded Robo Shack Microtronics with the aim of making learning about technology fun and engaging. Electro Bricks, the low-cost electronics kits designed for children by Robo Shack do not need any prior skills in programming or soldering. The bricks are pluggable with each other and one can create complex circuits using a number of different combinations of the bricks.
Shashwat has also worked in fostering the makers movement in the small town of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He is passionate about bringing elements of the maker culture into primary and secondary education in India.
WEBSITE: electrobricks.in
Shravya works as the Director of Transformation and Strategy for a school in a tier-2 town in Telangana. In addition to transforming the learning process, Presidency School has leveraged on innovation in process automations, people and talent management and customer support management to build schematics for school operations.
Her immersive experience in a tier-2 town over the last 3 years has helped her understand the fundamental problems and challenges to successfully implement innovative programs in education in rural India. Her vision is an open source blueprint – Schools 2.0, that schools across the country may use to upgrade their existing systems and processes ensuring sustainable education reform and get on an equal footing as the best schools in the world.
Before relocating to Nizamabad, she worked in Oilfield Operations and Business Development in Africa, US, Mobile East and India.
Varun Sivaram is the Philip D. Reed fellow for science and technology at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a professor at Georgetown University, a senior research scholar at Columbia University, and a member of the advisory boards for the Stanford University Institutes for Environment and Energy. Forbes named him one of the 30 under 30 in Law and Policy, Grist selected him as one of the top 50 leaders in sustainability, and Rise ranked him as one of the top 5 global thought leaders on solar energy. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Taming the Sun (MIT University Press, February 2018).
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