Meet PM Modi's 'Imran Khan', a teacher who donated 52 educational apps to MHRD

Meet PM Modi's 'Imran Khan', a teacher who donated 52 educational apps to MHRD

"My India is in that Imran Khan from Alwar," said Narendra Modi in Wembley Stadium in London while addressing Indian diaspora and the audience rolled in cheer with pride.

Imran Khan, a Sanskrit teacher from a small town Alwar in Rajasthan has all the reasons to get a mention by the Prime Minister as he donated 52 educational apps to Ministry of Human Resource Development for free, contributing his part in Digital India and E-learning. Not only that, his apps have got more than 30 lakh downloads and four crore screen views every day.

Praising his efforts, HRD Minister Smriti Irani enthusiastically tweeted, "Imran Bhai has done a stupendous job. Dedicated his educational apps to d Nation on d 7th of November in Delhi."

A timid man with undying determination started developing educational android apps for the students after a close encounter with the, then, district collector of Alwar, Ashutosh AT Pednekar. Giving credits to Pednekar, Khan tells that it was him who was his inspiration and motivation for developing apps. "He saw my website gktalk.com and asked me to develop apps as the future lied in it," Khan told India Today.

Here's the full interview of Imran Khan with India Today, where he tells about his journey and his future plans in taking forward the app-based education and learning.

First of all, congratulations on being mentioned by the Prime Minister on such a big stage! How does it feel?

Shandaar! It feels great that my little initiative has been recognised by the government. I never had imagined while I was developing these apps that I would get praise from Modi ji and Smriti ji. I just initiated a small step in contributing, the little I could, to the education in my home state.

You donated 52 apps to MHRD for free, what was the thought behind it?

See, I am a teacher and a teacher is a teacher, all he wants is to make the education system better. When I developed these apps, I got a good response from students in Rajasthan. It was my opportunity to contribute to Digital India and e-learning at the nation, so I did. Nothing would make me happier if students of this country get benefitted through my apps.

How did you get the idea of developing educational android apps? Where it all started?

It started just with simple curiosity. My younger brother had left his Computer Science book at home which I started reading in my free time. This is where my knowledge on HTML developed and I designed my first website gktalk.com in 2005. When Pednekar ji saw the website, he encouraged me to develop apps. I had no clue what an app was but I continued learning and launched my first app in 2012 'NCERT Learn Science' - for Class 9 students which got great response from students in the state. This motivated me to create more apps, especially in Hindi as there are abundant already available apps in English.

Since, now, when your apps will be available soon on MHRD website fro free downloading, how do you think it is going to help students of rural India, as only 12 per cent internet access is through smart phones? 

I agree that right now there are very few people having access to internet or mobile phones but the expansion is accelerating really fast. Moreover with digital India and e-learning intitatives by the government, I am sure, it won't take much time. Moreover, the apps that I have developed also have offline support. Moreover, the content can also be shared through bluetooth and wifi, enabling students from economically weaker sections to have access to the content. 

The apps are also computer friendly. By installing some softwares, these apps can also be accessed on the computer.

You mentioned earlier that your focus is on Hindi-based apps, what about local language? As many as 40-45 per cent people prefer to use mobile services in their local language.

We are trying to connect with people all over India to include as many local languages as we can, someone who can translate the content in Marathi or say Tamil. However, it is going to take some time but our aim is to make the app student-friendly and reach as many students as possible.

Currently how many people are in your team? Have they all contributed in developing the apps?

No, the apps have been created and developed by me, but yes 10-15 people are there across India who contributed in the creation of content. Since, I could not be an expert at everything, I took help from experts of different subjects like medicine or physics for creating the content.

How you met them?

I haven't met them yet, it is all through social media and online networking that enabled me to connect with these people who were also passionate about innovating the education system in the country. 

What's next?

I will continue working towards maintaining these apps as they require constant updation on the backend. Besides, I also plan to bring diverse e-learning platforms for facilitating self-study among students. Moreover, my biggest aim is to create a platform which boosts creativity among students and not just passive learning.

Source | IndiaToday.in  New Delhi, November 14, 2015 | UPDATED 15:24 IST

Regards

Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co