Bio

I returned to India in 1997/98 after spending 25 years in academia in Hong Kong. During this time, my work was focused on simulation, technological development, studies in cognitive engineering, research into accidents, and chairing various professional organizations. That experience, when complemented with the findings of recent research in the field of neuroscience, makes it obvious that much can be done to enhance the quality of education in India. I first set up Vidyashilp Academy in Bangalore with a colleague in 1998 where the beginnings of Howard Gardner’s theories began to be practiced - but aided by technology. The technology aspect was designed to aid the scalability of learningprocesses. I believe we can provide a scalable, measurable, effective and affordable mechanism which can satisfy the needs of thousands of schools.In the period from 2000 when I parted ways with Vidyashilp, I toured the country working with children in difficult circumstances in Tamil Nadu, Kashmir, Rajasthan, Delhi and Maharashtra as part of a DFID HIV project. With my colleague we developed the role of Social Equity Audits for NGO’s, and conducted an evaluation of a Child Rights project in Vietnam, in addition to preparing projects ranging from the reduction of MMR and IMR in Madhya Pradesh to Child Rights in Burkina Faso. I also worked with Janaagraha where we developed courses and extended the Balajanaagraha program to 40 schools in Bangalore in some of which I taught young children the concepts of democracy within local government. I assisted in the creation and delivery of the Citizens Awareness Program and worked on the submission to the Administrative Reforms Commission. For several years, I visited many international schools in different parts of the country to monitor their conformance with thestandards of the University of Cambridge International Examinations.In recent years our team has developed our own wireless keyboards which can be assigned one to each student to allow all students to answer questions displayed on a projected display in parallel. We conducted a pilot project to assess the effectiveness of the approach. The reports are available under "Pilot Study at Maria Niketan School" at http://agem.in/resources.html.The results were far better than we expected.