S D Shibulal and Kumari Shibulal take social commitment to the next level through their educational outreach and startup incubator programs
Few have attained the heights of success that SD Shibulal, former CEO of Infosys, has reached, yet few can be the epitome of humility that he is. His inclination to tinker with things, his vision
for entrepreneurship and his magnanimity towards philanthropy have left an indelible mark on the world as have his achievements. Having started off on his path towards greatness began when he along with six others quit their jobs to start a company of their own, Infosys, he went on to become the MD and CEO of the bellwether of the Indian IT Industry. Stepping down from the company in 2014, he along with his better half Kumari Shibulal, began a new innings of philanthropy and mentorship. The FWD team caught up with them to discuss life after Infosys.
What made you look into education, a complex and dynamic field? What are the challenges and opportunities you see in the space?
Mrs. Kumari Shibulal: Both Shibu and I hail from Kerala and belong to humble backgrounds. Despite their limited means, our respective parents laid great emphasis on education. We owe them a lot as this education has taken us a long way. Ours is a clear example of how education can transform lives. We have been very fortunate in our life and we feel responsible to share the same. The Sarojini Damodaran Foundation came into being as a result of this sense of responsibility. We noticed that students drop out after tenth grade for various reasons including getting employed to support the family. Our endeavor is to support financially challenged, meritorious students to achieve higher education. We believe this will transform their life as it did ours.
Mr.S. D. Shibulal: Our country is in need of more doctors, entrepreneurs, engineers and many other specialists who can lead it to a path of higher growth. Education is a tool that can make this possible.
Tell us more about your Foundations and their initiatives.
Mrs. Kumari Shibulal: We have two Foundations. The Sarojini Damodaran Foundation and The Advaith Foundation. SDF started off on a small scale, providing scholarships to a few underprivileged students in Alappuzha, Kerala. Today, SDF is a constantly growing entity expanding its reach to various causes including education, children’s health and other social initiatives. The Advaith Foundation was formed to make education inclusive and accessible to all. It comprises of two soulful programs, Ankur and The Samhita Academy. ‘Ankur’, meaning sapling, is a comprehensive residential education programme for children of the underprivileged sections of the society (children from families who earn less than $2 a day i.e. approximately Rs 130 a day). The harsh realities of inaccessibility, lack of facilities, lack of educational support at home, and the need to contribute to the family exchequer from a young age have made it almost impossible for such children to continue education. Under Ankur, children aged 6 and above are provided residential education of the highest quality (CBSE) in The Samhita Academy. The Samhita Academy is a school driven by a vision to nurture creative, socially responsible future leaders in a value-based, equitable model of educational excellence. It is currently present in two locations, Bangalore
and Coimbatore and together has a student strength of about 1200.
Vidyadhan is the meeting point of two of your passions – technology and education. How does this online platform seek to change the way education is funded for the underprivileged?
Mr. S.D. Shibulal: To understand Vidyadhan, you should know the story of its inception. Each year, Kumari personally selects students for SDF. She conducts the interviews and shortlists candidates. In 2014, she came to me and said, “I have shortlisted about 160 students” (as opposed to 100). I could not refuse her, despite the fact that we had 60 more students to support. It was then I came up with the idea of building a ‘direct sponsorship platform’ for external sponsors,Vidyadhan. Under Vidyadhan, external sponsors and students come together under one single platform. We look at this platform as a way to scale up the scholarships to 1,00,000 and support 10,000 students. The program involves a three to six year commitment for every child. In addition to sponsoring students, sponsors have the ability to mentor the students as well.
Many of our students who have graduated have carried forward the baton of sponsoring other students within the platform. While the contribution is small, the satisfaction to make a difference is immense. We invite external sponsors to contribute. It is a great way to stay grounded.
The Samhita Academy follows a model of social inclusion. What led to the creation of this model?
Mrs Kumari Shibulal: The Samhita Model is a one of its kind socially inclusive model of education.The Samhita Academy (in Bangalore) was built in 2009 to provide bestin- class education to our children under the Ankur program.We wanted to bring together students from underprivileged backgrounds with those hailing from middle class/ upper middle class backgrounds to create a sense of responsibility in both. The Samhita Model encourages our Ankur students to strive hard. In turn, the paying students learn how to be more caring and grounded by mingling with the Ankur students. In an interaction, it is tough to differentiate between any of our students. All speak very fluent English and are extremely well-mannered kids. In the long term, we hope that the Ankur students will create a positive impact to their communities. In 2015, we have launched the Coimbatore campus.
Mr. S.D. Shibulal: The Samhita Model is a high touch, high impact model. Globally, there are very few such schools. We believe, that this model can be duplicated by other passionate
academicians. By building more such socially inclusive schools, we can provide education to the many deprived children in our country.
The Samhita Academy is currently based in Coimbatore and Bangalore will you look into expanding to other states?
Mrs Kumari Shibulal: The Samhita Academy is a commitment to nurture future leaders for our country. We are definitely keen to expand the Samhita model. However, we will only expand, when we find equally passionate academicians who believe in the model, like us. We are exploring the possibility of expansion in Vizag, next.
You have launched a startup incubator, Axilor Ventures, along with your Infosys Co-Founder S Gopalakrishnan. Could you tell us more about what Axilor does to promote and nurture startups in
India?
Mr. S.D. Shibulal: Axilor is a new generation platform for supporting early stage entrepreneurs. It was founded by Kris (Gopalakrishnan), Srinath (Batni), Professor Tarun (Khanna), Ganapathy (Venugopal, also the CEO) and myself. Axilor is about fifteen months old. It runs three programs: the 100 day accelerator, a scale-up program and an early stage funding program. Thereby giving an early stage startup the leverage to graduate from all three programs which can last anywhere between a year or two. Each of these programs are clearly aligned to the stages of any start-up, namely, idea to pilot, pilot to launch and launch to scale. Our areas of focus are, healthcare, cleantech and e-commerce. Even within e-commerce, we select e-commerce enablers, niche market places and other capital efficient models. I am particularly keen to foster healthcare innovation in India.This year, Axilor has partnered with Narayana Health and C-CAMP to launch a virtual platform for healthcare entrepreneurs. We launched our first directed innovation challenge for healthcare, Healiate 2016, which received a tremendous response. The first edition of Healiate focused on diabetes. For more details, one can refer to www.healiate.com
According to you, where does Kerala stand on the entrepreneurial map?
Mr. S.D. Shibulal: I am aware that the number of startups in Kerala is rapidly increasing. Initiatives such as the Startup Village have given the right impetus to the State’s entrepreneurs to build their ideas.I laud the Government’s many initiatives to support entrepreneurship. I read somewhere that about 60 startups have been set up by students from IIM-K.While talent exists, entrepreneurs should have access to experienced mentors who can help them scale their ideas and put them on the national and international maps.
It’s been seventeen years, and now that you have created a learning environment what’s something you have been learning too?
Mrs Kumari Shibulal: With so many children around us, every day is a day of learning. Each child is unique and our Foundations have taught us to celebrate their uniqueness. I sincerely want to
The Samhita Model is a high touch, high impact model.
Globally, there are very few such schools. We believe,
that this model can be duplicated by other passionate
academicians. By building more such socially inclusive schools, we can provide education
to the many deprived children in our country.
spread the message of the importance of education, as with each passing day, my belief is reinforced by the children in our Foundations. Mr S.D. Shibulal: Learning is a process. You learn new things every day. My biggest learning about learnings is that you have to be at it. Do not give up. Pursue your dreams and success will be yours.
What next for both of you?
Mrs Kumari Shibulal: We want to see more and more underprivileged students blessed with education in our country. I am involved in scaling up Vidyadhan from about 1000 students today to 10,000 students and a lakh scholarships in the next seven to ten years. The Samhita Academy was recently inaugurated in Coimbatore. We are constantly looking to expand the Samhita Model and support about 1000 students under our comprehensive residential programme, Ankur. I am also passionate about organic farming as I hail from an agricultural background. We have instituted the Akshaya Sree awards for organic farming in Kerala and will do so in other States too. I work closely with many NGOs like Mantra, Samarthanam in Bangalore. During my recent visit to Kerala, we have also supported the Deepthi Special School in Mohumma.
Mr S.D. Shibulal: I spend considerable time mentoring start-ups and entrepreneurs at Axilor (a new generation platform to support early stage companies). I meet a bunch of young people who are talented and creative at least once a week. This is what I call a session of ‘knowledge exchange’. Entrepreneurs these days are fortunate for the many opportunities they have. I travel extensively, being on the board of international universities like the Boston University. I am associated with the World Economic Forum and the rest of my time is occupied with the family business.
You had recently visited your alma mater, Boston University Metropolitan College, for their 50th Anniversary celebrations to deliver a lecture. How did it feel to be back there and what message did you have for the student/ academic fraternity.
Mr. S.D. Shibulal: Being on the board, I visit Boston University extensively. Boston University has come a long way in the last ten years. They are the 4th largest private university in the US. Recently it is ranked number 32 as per the US News university ranking. I am very proud to be associated with the Boston University.
Interview: Arun Balachandran Text: FWD Media
Photos: Jinson Abraham Styling: Lakshmi Babu
Makeup: Blessy Mary Chacko
Assistant Photographers: Arun Menon & Sreejith
Location: Courtyard Marriott, Kochi Airport
Special Thanks: Marks & Spencer, Lulu Mall, Ernakulam
Courtyard Kochi Airport