Krishnan Ranganathan

Co-founder

Co-founder of Udhyam Learning Foundation

Krishnan Ranganathan is the co-founder of Udhyam Learning Foundation (2017)[1], an Indian non-profit working on education and livelihood from Bengaluru.

Krishnan Ranganathan is an Indian social sector leader and a co-founder of the Udhyam Learning Foundation, a Bengaluru-based non-profit that works on entrepreneurial education for young people and on raising the incomes of nano-entrepreneurs in the informal economy.

He moved into the development sector in late 2017 after some thirteen years in technology consulting, joining Udhyam first as a volunteer. He led the organisation's Udhyam Shiksha schools programme for three years and now directs Udhyam Vyapaar, its programme for nano-entrepreneurs.

Early life and education

Ranganathan holds a Bachelor of Engineering in physics and electronics from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. He is based in Bengaluru.

Career

Ranganathan spent about thirteen years in technology consulting before joining Udhyam in December 2017 as the first team member of its Udhyam Vyapaar programme.

In November 2018 he was asked to lead Udhyam Shiksha as the organisation began working with state governments. Over three years the programme grew from around 500 learners a year in one state to a million learners across ten states, and the team grew from eight people to sixty-five. He subsequently returned to Udhyam Vyapaar, which supports nano-entrepreneurs such as street food vendors and ironing vendors.[2][3]

Udhyam Learning Foundation

Udhyam Learning Foundation is a Bengaluru-based non-profit founded in 2017 by former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari. Its Udhyam Shiksha programme embeds entrepreneurship and 21st-century skills into government schools and ITIs, while Udhyam Vyapaar supports nano-entrepreneurs such as street food vendors and ironing vendors to grow their businesses.

Udhyam Learning Foundation reports the following, on its own site:

Building entrepreneurial mindsets and 21st century skills in 3.75 million students, training over 37,000 educators, in more than 9,000 government schools and ITIs across 12 states.
Supporting over 10,000 nano-entrepreneurs in 19 districts to scale their businesses, build resilience, and strengthen communities. The result? Over INR36 crore Annualised Income Uplift
The Istri Project has empowered over 9,000+ ironing vendors across six cities to improve their incomes and build an entrepreneurial mindset