Hi Santosh, welcome to Scattered Thoughts. You are a successful writer. You have co-authored a bestseller like “She, Ekla Cholo Re”. But, still, you’ve ventured into a different sector completely, that is, robotics. What made you do that?

(Smiles) Thank you for the interesting question to begin. Writing has come larger because of intrinsic factor. That is something Sr. Victoria my teacher identified during secondary education. I have been versatile in terms of taking up a position, responsibilities and given up sooner than otherwise in some cases. After few years of experimenting I identify myself with Training & Development; Recruitment; Marketing & Sales and definitely writing! I was in awe of the kind of product QtPi Robotics has iterated and designed. I found their training and product to be seductive. Among all the factors that I weighed the objective to make children as ‘Progressive Thinkers’ was something of my understanding. This role was more of pull factor rather than push factor (laughs).  

Tell us something about your journey from an educator to an entrepreneur. 

I’m still far from being to call myself as an entrepreneur. I would still enjoy the academic activities because that has room to experiment, iterate, fail and bring newer perspectives. Industries do support such thought process but it eventually needs an output, commercials and value claim. That perhaps marks the difference between science and engineering! (smiles)

Do you think robotics help to improve the creativity of a child in a scientific and logical way? If so, why? 

The kind of workshop offered at QtPi is from Top to Bottom approach. Where the participant ideate, experiments, builds a projects, tests and presents. In this process, they’re exposed various terms related to Design, Electronics, Software and Integration & Innovation. That’s we call it as DESI model. The design aspects will not limit the kind of geometric shape one like to build and this helps in building motor skills. With varying age group, the exposure to different sensors will help in understanding the fundamentals. Programming is something fun here because of the plug and play kind of tool is used. I had aversion to programming but I started to enjoy seeing children playing with it. I hope to learn programming (laughs)! Subjects like Robotics should enter schools in India at the early stage so that children are exposed and I see that children are capable of learning it. 

What problems are generally faced by a start-up in India? 

(Thinks) You see, ‘several ideas fail in mind than on paper’. Start-up in India seemed to have backed with government initiative of Make In India. I see two things that need attention; firstly, as leading institutions are funding for R&D, individual ideas need similar support. Secondly, a start-up has to break the perception – ‘whatever comes from outside is best’. Other challenges can be met and solved!  

What are your plans to solve those problems? 

Partnering with the mindshare people and organisation can solve half of the problem. Being a value creator for the business to grow, solves the better half! (smiles) I think, ‘Hope is hopeful’.

From twenty years now, where would you wish to find yourself?

(Grins) I would be happy if God keeps me alive for another 20 years! My mission through QtPi would be to see children becoming progressive thinkers. I’m saying so because the present and future generation is capable of making India as a happy and developed nation.

Thank you so much, Santosh, for sharing your thoughts with us.
For my readers, hope you’ve enjoyed the conversation 🙂 Robotics for children is an interesting subject and, we’ll delve deeper into it in the future.