OUR MISSON

We are committed to build a world-class education system based on the principles of National Educational Policy 2020.

Train

24 Million

Students

Teach

100,000

Faculty

THE PEOPLE BEHIND IT

Balanced Leadership Team

Pupilfirst is led by an experienced entrepreneur, a teacher, a technologist, and an administrator, all of whom bring a passion to transform the national education system.

POLICY
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Sanjay Vijayakumar

Chairman and CEO

Sanjay is a serial entrepreneur, co-author of India's Student Startup Policy and Governing Board Member of Kerala Technical University.

OPS
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Suma Sundararajan

Chief Operating Officer

With a double masters from US and a decade of work experience at IIT Chennai's rural technology incubator, Suma has deep operational expertise across students, academia and industry.

TECH
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Hari Gopal

Chief Technology Officer

Hari is a full-stack software engineer with 14 years of experience and leads engineering efforts at Pupilfirst.

TLO
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Dr. Reena Singh

Head of Teaching Learning Operations

Before joining Pupilfirst, she was an Assistant Professor at MIT, Manipal. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from IIT Mandi, and now leads our teaching efforts.

MEET THE Team

Diverse skilled team

Our team bring diverse skills and experiences to the table, allowing us to tackle complex challenges and deliver innovative solutions.

Teaching Learning Layer

TLO
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Dr. Reena Singh

Head of Teaching Learning Operations

Before joining Pupilfirst, she was an Assistant Professor at MIT, Manipal. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from IIT Mandi, and now leads our teaching efforts.

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Nandhu Suresh

Manager, Course Operations

A mechanical production engineer by degree and a tech-enthusiast by passion who is ready to learn, adapt, upskill and contribute to the emerging technologies. Also, an avid follower of sports and loves to travel.

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Varun Sharma

Associate, Teaching Learning Operations

Varun has a Bachelor's degree in Technology from MDU University. With over 11 years of industry experience, he has honed his expertise in product and project management roles across diverse sectors, including banking, telecom, and travel.

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Mohd Saad

Associate, Teaching Learning Operations

Mohd Saad is a recent graduate with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Chemistry. Alongside his studies, his curiosity for coding led him to develop web development skills. Currently, he works as a teaching-learning operations associate, and prior to that role, he spent two years as a teaching assistant for web development courses.

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Gurudayal Singh Dalawat

Associate, Teaching Learning Operations

A recent graduate with a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from St. Francis Institute of Technology, he'd served as a Teaching Assistant, aiding in course content revision, student support, and the review of submissions for EV courses. His academic and practical experiences have equipped him with a strong foundation in mechanical engineering and electric vehicle systems.

School Operations Layer

OPS
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Suma Sundararajan

Chief Operating Officer

With a double masters from US and a decade of work experience at IIT Chennai's rural technology incubator, Suma has deep operational expertise across students, academia and industry.

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Aravind Mahadevan

Manager, Course Operations

Aravind is a programme manager handling course operations at Pupilfirst. With a PGDM in Marketing and Operations from SJIM Bangalore, he worked in the banking sector for 3+ years before joining Pupilfirst.

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Manika

Associate, Course Operations

Manika has 8+ years of experience in various sectors, and at Pupilfirst, her goal is to be a part of a positive change in the education ecosystem. An optimist by nature, she loves spending time reading and travelling. She also loves talking to people and knowing their experiences & stories.

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Jilu Joseph

Associate, Course Operations

An Electronics & Communication Engg. graduate from Kerala Technological University, aspiring to be a future leader & entrepreneur.

DPG Layer

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Bodhish Thomas

Senior Full-Stack Developer

A natural jack of all trades, Bodhish is currently focusing on building a repertoire of full stack web development skills. He's very active in the developer community, and is our go-to person for new & exploratory projects.

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Vignesh Hari

Lead Backend Engineer

Vignesh is a full stack web developer. He loves to contribute to open source projects in his free time.

Engineering Layer

TECH
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Hari Gopal

Chief Technology Officer

Hari is a full-stack software engineer with 14 years of experience and leads engineering efforts at Pupilfirst.

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Vinu T V

UI/UX Designer

Vinu is a designer at Pupilfirst focused on user interface design and branding with 6 years of experience. He thrives on the challenge of interaction and visual design efforts with the engineering team.

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Raj Suhail

UI Engineer

Raj is a User Interface Engineer with more than three years of experience. He has a passion for making UIs accessible and delightful.

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Yaswanth Kumar Bethu

Junior Web Developer

A recent undergraduate from the class of 2022 in Computer Science and Engineering, he was also a student and teaching assistant at Pupilfirst before joining the team full-time. He is currently focused on building web development skills, and he strongly believes in 'knowing something about everything and knowing everything about something.'

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Kaiser Sakhi Bhat

Junior Web Developer

One of our newest members, Kaiser has joined as a junior developer. Kaiser holds a master's degree in Computer Applications, and before joining us, he completed an internship in Android development.

Research Layer

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Dr. Leena Chandran-Wadia

Member NEP 2019 Drafting Committee

Leena received her PhD in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and did her post-doctoral work in high-performance computing at ETH Zurich. She has both academia and industry experience having worked at CDAC, TIFR, IIT Bombay, and Netcore Cloud, in India. As of 2010, she has been working in the area of policy research and advocacy, mainly in the area of education. She was a member of the drafting committee of the draft National Education Policy 2019 prepared by the Dr Kasturirangan committee. At present, she serves as Professor and Head of the Vocational Education Cell at The University of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU)

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Aparna Sivakumar

Researcher

Aparna has a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from College of Engineering, Trivandrum. She has worked in technology, education policy and advocacy, and community organising. With over 21 years of experience, she has worked at Infosys, Observer Research Foundation and at leading roles in Netcore Cloud & Free A Billion.

Administration Layer

POLICY
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Sanjay Vijayakumar

Chairman and CEO

Sanjay is a serial entrepreneur, co-author of India's Student Startup Policy and Governing Board Member of Kerala Technical University.

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Renjith Balaji

Head of Social Policy

Balaji holds a Master's degree in International Relations and Business from IESEG School of Management, Paris. With over 10 years of experience as a consultant in the development sector, he has collaborated with various multilateral governmental organizations, including the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the National Human Rights Commission, and K-DISC.

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Shanthi R

General Administration

Shanthi has over 9 years of experience in the field of business administration and office-management. At Pupilfirst, her expertise is used to manage our accounts, deal with day-to-day business needs, and to keep the office humming along smoothly. In her free time, she loves to play badminton & watch movies.

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Rajesh Radhakrishnan

Senior Manager, Finance

Rajesh is a finance professional with more than 15 years of experience. At Pupilfirst, he looks after the accounts and finance of the company.

Course creators

Meet the teaching fellows

Web Development Courses

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Vignesh Rajendran

Principal Engineer, Oracle

Vignesh is a seasoned UI technology evangelist with around 10 years of experience building and developing amazing user experiences across various platforms and domains. He works with Oracle as a Principal Engineer solving UI engineering use cases for their cloud and cloud-native products. The stack he works on covers everything UI, although now he mainly codes on JavaScript and TypeScript.

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Melson J Zacharias

CTO, Perleybrook Labs LLC

Melson is CTO at Perleybrook Labs LLC, where he primarily works with C++, Python, and TypeScript. In his spare time, he would be reading a book or can be seen answering questions in StackOverflow.

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Avishek Jana

Co-Founder, Principal Engineer, GEOGO Techsolutions Pvt. Ltd

Avishek is an Engineer, a full-stack developer and an open-source contributor. Currently, he is working at GEOGO Techsolutions as Principal Engineer. He started his professional career in 2013 and worked on technologies like Ruby on Rails, Node.js, React, TypeScript etc. Apart from work, he loves to mentor and train fresh graduates to enhance their skills as per industry demands; teaching is his way to contribute back to society.

Electric Vehicles Courses

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Swapnil Mankame

CEO, Founder at Mankame Automotive

Swapnil is a Robotics engineer with 6 years of experience in building multiple autonomous robots of various architectures. He also has a passion for motorsports which led him to work in multiple race teams building high-performance ICE and electric four-wheelers. He owns and operates Mankame Automotive, and works as a design engineer building high-performance electric vehicle components. He also uses his experience to work as a consultant for other electric vehicle companies, helping them find technical solutions.

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Kishor Kumar K

Leader - Electrical Design and Integration, Garrett Advancing Motion

Kishor Kumar K is a team lead at Garrett Advancing Motion. Throughout his 11 years of experience, he has been driving advancements in motor and controller development in the EV industry. Previously, he made significant contributions at SEG Automotive, Simple Energy, and ATI Motors. Beyond his professional endeavors, Kishor is passionate about giving back to society and co-founded the Athira Edutech Foundation, an NGO focused on providing STEM-based education to rural students.