On this episode of Innovator Speaks, we are joined by Anuj Prasad, a design entrepreneur, industrial designer, and innovator. With over thirty years of experience in the design industry, Anuj founded Desmania Design, a leading blue-chip design house with integrated design facilities. Anuj has been a recipient of several design awards, a founding member of CII’s National Committee of Design, and a jury member for the ‘India Design Mark’.

Join us as Anuj shares his passion for innovation through design thinking and doing, his experience as an entrepreneur, and his journey to pioneering new social and personal spaces.

In this episode, we interview the co-founder of PreSolv360, Namita Shah.

Namita began her career in Ernst & Young as an Article Assistant, following the same for around 5 years. During this time, she learned about the challenges a lot of small-time businesses face during disputes, especially in dispute resolution. Following this, she co-founded Legal Tech Asia as a platform that brings out articles on the latest trends in the technology and legal field. When she and her co-founders sat through a court proceeding, they were inspired to begin something new to ease mediation for disputes before they ever enter courts. And this started her journey of building PreSolv360. The existing ways of resolving conflicts are not conducive to the investment and business climate of the country - they are resource-heavy, time-consuming, and inefficient. Where 19th century laws still dominate dispute resolution, Presolv360 provides a 21st century solution to uproot such modern-day challenges. Presolv360 is a platform that puts into practice a unique approach to resolve commercial disputes at zero cost. They have made this possible by blending technology, human expertise, and innovation to provide a quick, effective, and enforceable outcome.

Given her work and experience, Namita is mentor for Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and The Sedibus. She is a member of Women Entrepreneurship Platform - NITI Aayog, She Breaks the Law, and Young Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration. She also has been recognized among the top 60 in the 'Women Transforming India, 2018' initiative of the Government of India.

In this episode, we interview Shikha Pandey. She is an entrepreneur, a yogini, and a podcaster. We learn about her growth over the years, her challenges, and her advice for entrepreneurship.

Henna Khan is the founder & CEO of Universe Simplified Foundation (USF).

Universe Simplified, a Mumbai based nonprofit, is setting up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) based Innovation Hubs within schools for economically challenged children in rural and urban slum areas. These hubs are low cost and run on a “once a week” basis. The Innovation Hubs empower children to apply Science and Technology to address real life local and global challenges and to create opportunities for themselves. The curriculum is implemented in a hands-on, inquiry driven manner to inculcate Innovation and problem-solving skills in children. Universe Simplified has currently set up 5 Innovation Hubs in and around Mumbai, two of which are within Zilla Parishad Schools.

Universe Simplified encourages and promotes an inquiry-based learning method which is very hands-on, and collaboration based. This is very much needed for children to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovative skills. They are pioneering efforts in conducting research in such educative interventions and open sourcing the same. Their work has been recognized widely for their unique and impactful approaches in democratizing STEM education. Universe Simplified has a STEM fellowship program for individuals to participate in USF's work. The USF STEM Fellowship is a full time, two-year immersive fellowship during which the fellow will take the ownership of setting up and running low cost, STEM based Innovation Hubs within low-income schools and community centers for rural and urban children. In addition to gaining an in-depth understanding of inquiry driven and hands-on STEM education, the fellows will also work on multiple social innovation projects during the fellowship.

In this episode, we get into the depths of the work done by her non-profit Universe Simplified, her motivations, and several other topics. Listen in for an interesting conversation.

Roli Pandey is the Founder & CTO of Zucate. Her role as the CTO includes Technology Research, Developing a Tech Strategy, Tech-Market Research, Social Media Marketing and Branding. As a result of her meticulous approach to technology management, Zucate has been able to establish itself as a proven player in the AR Edtech space being a part of XR Accelerator powered by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM)

Bhavesh Kothari has more than 20+ years of rich experience at middle and senior management positions across industry verticals such as Pharmaceutical, FMCG, Corporate Event Management, Business Information, Media, and IT & ITES industries. Bhavesh started his career in sales & marketing. While working with these companies Bhavesh has been instrumental in enabling some of these small companies to grow from a startup phase to a market leader in the industry by developing business models, partner networks as well as revenue generation streams. He is also an in-house trainer providing sales process & management training & mentoring new recruits & existing teams.

Shabia Ravi Walia, Founder and Owner of 'Wild Earth' has been a media professional for the past 25 years. Dabbling in production, direction, writing, she is proficient in all aspects of the media world.

Bethany Adams is an entrepreneur, and a consulting professional in the areas of business strategy, marketing strategy, web development, and content strategy. She began her journey towards becoming an entrepreneur at the age of eight. She is a very mature entrepreneur who began at the grassroots of building businesses around her community in Greenville, South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina. She began her upcycling fashion brand, Rhetorical Factory in 2010. Through her company, Rhetorical Factory, she promoted the ethos of sustainability by prompting customers to reflect on the choices they make in clothing. Her work as a Creative Director at Ilumivu helped scale their business and revenues by 3000% in span of 3 years through her strategies in streamlining customer acquisition, CRM development, and marketing strategy. Through her company, Lofty Goals which she began in 2016, she has helped local businesses in branding and budgeting.

Amit Modi is a tinkerer, educator, and entrepreneur. Amit is an alumnus of IIT Bombay. He became an esteemed LIF Fellow (Leaders in Innovation Fellowship) by the Royal Academy of Engineering, London. Through his love and passion for teaching children to tinker and build STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) projects, he started his Ed-tech startup TechShiksha Labs in 2014. Over the years of learning children's behavior and motivations, Amit and his team built the product WitBlox. WitBlox is a kit of modular electronics where children can build projects in anything including robotics, automation, IoT, and others. Apart from this, WitBlox has an app through which the children can interact with others. This app has managed to garner well over 300,000 users pan-India since its inception in 2020. It's inspiring to learn from this individual for his persistence and passion in building WitBlox over the years, while building an active and strong community around it. Amit and his team are trying to make it easy for young children to take the exploratory path of learning fueled by their natural instincts of curiosity and attitude for creation.