VigyanShaala, a grassroots STEM education movement working across India’s most underserved regions, has been awarded the Nikkei Asia Award 2025, one of Asia’s most prestigious honours recognising transformative social impact.
Conferred by Japan’s Nikkei Inc., the Nikkei Asia Award celebrates individuals and institutions whose work has reshaped Asia’s future through innovation, inclusion, and long-term societal change. Past recipients include C. N. R. Rao, Nandan Nilekani, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Muhammad Yunus, and Saathi, the India-based social enterprise pioneering biodegradable sanitary pads.
Founded by physicists Dr. Darshana Joshi and Dr. Vijay Venugopalan, VigyanShaala was born out of a deliberate choice to return to India after elite scientific training abroad and build pathways for young people—particularly girls from rural and first-generation backgrounds—to access world-class opportunities in science and technology.
To date, VigyanShaala has impacted over 30,000 students across 330 districts in 28 Indian states, including 14,000+ girls pursuing STEM careers. Through partnerships with welfare institutions in Telangana, the State Council of Science and Technology in Uttarakhand, and hub-and-spoke pilots in Kerala, the organisation is reimagining public colleges as engines of scientific aspiration and community leadership.
Students mentored through VigyanShaala have gone on to pursue advanced studies and research at leading global institutions including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Cambridge, and the Max Planck Institutes. Many are first-generation learners for whom science has shifted from being distant and abstract to personal, possible, and within reach.
The Nikkei Asia Award 2025 recognises VigyanShaala’s role in bringing voices from rural and underserved communities to the frontiers of science, and in demonstrating how willpower, purpose, and community can reshape the future of innovation in Asia.