New Delhi: Akshay Saxena, the founder of Avanti Fellows, was on Tuesday honoured with the prestigious 15th Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award - India 2024. The award, presented by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, recognises outstanding contributions to social innovation in India.
Saxena's work with Avanti Fellows, a non-profit organization focused on providing free education to economically disadvantaged students, claims to have a profound impact on the lives of thousands. By offering online and live coaching to students from government schools, Avanti Fellows has helped many achieve their dreams of pursuing technical careers.
In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Saxena emphasised the importance of supporting students from all backgrounds and expressed his gratitude for the recognition. "Winning this award increases my responsibility to work even harder for these students," he said.
Avanti Fellows' NEEV program, which aims to enhance Math and Science achievement among government school students, has reached over five million students. The organisation has also collaborated with nine major government school systems to provide intensive tutoring to over 30,000 students annually.
The Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award is a platform that celebrates social innovators in India. Other finalists for this year's award included Madhura Dasgupta Sinha of Aspire For Her and Hunny Bhagchandani of Torchit.
The award ceremony was attended by Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, who highlighted the growing potential of social enterprises in India. He praised the finalists for their innovation and commitment to addressing social inequalities.
