Social Entrepreneur

Core Objectives and Contributions:

The fundamental objective of his journey in social entrepreneurship is to build an inclusive society by focusing on rural, tribal, and semi-urban India through innovation, global foresight, and local activities. In this journey, he has made significant contributions in the fields of Skill India, Digital India, Startup India, education, arts, and culture.

To promote rural entrepreneurship, he established Atal Incubation Center; to preserve local culture and traditions in 177 locations, he founded Vanmali Srijan Peeth; and to promote India, Indianness, and Indian languages, he established the Tagore International Centre, which provides a platform for a network of over 50 countries. He has also written and edited over 70 award-winning books on science and literature.

AISECT’s Reach and Impact:

Santosh Choubey has led all the key initiatives undertaken by AISECT in education, skill development and training. AISECT today provides skill development training and ICT-based vocational education through a network of more than 37,000 rural centers across 28 states and 6 union territories. These centers have a reach across 650 districts, 3,000 blocks, and 11,000 panchayats. This network has 3000 women entrepreneurs who worked in the semi-urban and rural areas.

Established by trained rural entrepreneurs, these centers have so far provided essential modern skills to 1.7 million youth, facilitated opening of 5 million Jan Dhan bank accounts, and created over 10 million Aadhaar IDs. More than 7,800 AISECT centers provide financial inclusion services in rural areas. Massive efforts have also been made to develop training material in Hindi and Indian languages and to provide employment through online portals.

To promote technology and employment in backward areas, AISECT organizes IT and employment yatras. Thirty-four Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra play a crucial role in this effort.

www.aisect.org

Policy Level Contributions

The Government of India adopted the AISECT model as a national strategy and established Common Service Centers across the country. Santosh Choubey also established the State Literacy and Continuing Education Resource Centre, Bhopal, which received the National Literacy Award from President Dr. Pranab Mukherjee in 2014.