Adarsh Kumar, the son of a farmer and a Class 12 student from Bihar, is on a mission to build one of India's largest free skill development movements, powered only with a laptop, free Internet and his relentless determination.
"Have you heard of Champaran?" Adarsh Kumar asks me.
"It is where Gandhiji led the satyagraha movement. It is also the birth place of many great people like George Orwell..." he explains.
When I acknowledge I am aware of this history, Adarsh tells me about his humble childhood and what it was like to grow up in a different India.
"My father is a subsistence farmer and mother is a homemaker," he begins, while citing examples of how he grew up in Motihari, unaware of the big dreams and challenges of life in a city.
His family earns about Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 a month; part of this money is rent from a house they own near the town.
"My beginnings are humble. Since ours is a small town, the highest aspiration among my peers is to secure a job as a sarkari teacher or clear the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission Examination) and qualify for the civil services."
The Internet intervention
Adarsh says digital connectivity opened up new avenues through which he could learn and groom himself.
"Thanks to free Jio Internet and the digital innovation, I became interested in and learnt basic coding. I kept updating my skills."
In Class 8, he co-founded his first start-up 2Trillions. Unfortunately, within three months, it succumbed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mission Badlao
Adarsh spent the next 10 months on a project called Mission Badlao, where he surveyed 1,300 homes across Bihar ahead of the panchayat elections.
"I realised that most families in Bihar lacked basic awareness about government schemes like Ayushman Bharat or how to apply for a pension. I did my best to help them by telling them how to fill up and submit the application."
During this time, he campaigned for a relative during the panchayat elections, where he learned about the existing gaps in rural government policies and welfare schemes.
"The candidate eventually lost but the learnings were immense. I realised that education is the basic need. Even if 100 people from our city were to get a good job, it will change the fortune and future of the entire community."
Kota: The Turning Point
After Class 9, Adarsh moved to Kota, Rajasthan, to prepare for the competitive engineering entrance examination, the IIT-JEE. His family had planned to arrange the fees through loans from friends and relatives.
"My dream was to crack JEE and study at one of the IITs. Though I studied hard, my parents weren't able to arrange the funds.
"I couldn't take admission at the JEE preparation institute but I didn't want to come back home as a failure," he says.
Instead, he stayed back, signed up for internships and kept learning new skills through free online resources.
"My mother had bought me a laptop. I started building my network and learning entrepreneurship skills. I found some good mentors who guided me in the right direction."
Skillzo Is Born
In 2023, with a zero budget, a laptop and free online resources, Adarsh founded Skillzo -- an online platform offering free mentorship and skill development for students.
"The aim was to help less privileged students like me get exposure to the 21st century, to opportunities so that they could start something of their own."
His initial subscribers were students within his network. Slowly, through word of mouth, more learners joined. As of today, according to Adarsh, 20,000 students have benefitted from the programme.
His efforts gained recognition.
He was invited to judge an event at IIT-Guwahati despite not clearing JEE himself and, in February 2025, selected as a Google Youth Advisor via Canvas8.
"Sometimes, I correct people when they say I am an entrepreneur. Honestly, I am not making any money because that was never the intention behind Skillzo. I would like to call myself a social entrepreneur."
Back To School
In 2024, Adarsh -- who had finished Class 10, decided to resume his formal education. He wrote to the top schools in India. His perseverance paid off when Jayshree Periwal International School, Jaipur, offered him a full scholarship.
"The yearly fee is approximately Rs 15 lakh. I was the first scholarship student to be a part of the school's IBDP programme," he says.
"It has added five more students since then," says Adarsh, who is one of the top contenders for the Global Student Prize 2025 (an international competition where students from over 145 countries participate), the results of which will be announced in September.
"I'm deeply grateful to Ayush Periwal, CEO of the Jayshree Periwal Group of Schools, for believing in my potential. Despite my four years of interrupted education, he saw something in me and gave me a chance. I hope to make him and JPIS proud."
Managing Studies And Entrepreneurship
Adarsh, who is currently in Class 12, admits that it's not easy to balance regular studies and scale his start-up.
"For the first time, I am looking to build a team who can look after the daily operations," he says.
Currently, Skillzo is a non-commercial start-up which has partnered with IIT Guwahati's E-Cell, IIT Madras and IIT Bombay, TreeForest Capital, JJ Foundation, Institute of Marketing and Management, the India Network and the WYN Studio to conduct skill and learning development programmes.
The long list of mentors and donors includes Mohit Satyanand, chairperson, Teamwork Arts; Rishi Khanna, managing partner, TreeForest Capital; Rahul Narvekar, founder and CEO, India Network; Shradha Sharma, founder and CEO, YourStory; Arjun Vaidya, venture partner, V3 Ventures; Siddhartha Chhajer, director-customer delivery, network infrastructure at Nokia; Arunabh Sinha, founder and CEO, UClean; Prof Gaganjit Singh, director, JJ Foundation; and Professor Mridula Goel, BITS Goa among others.
"When I turned 18 in July, my mentors suggested that I should look for a socio-economic business model which will benefit students by offering scholarships by percentage."
"My aim for this year is to upskill 100,000 students for free in the next six to 12 months. If I am successful, it will be the largest high school development programme in India so far," he says.
Life Learnings
For an 18 year old, Adarsh has a clear vision for himself and the country he hopes to contribute to.
"I may be too young and I have a long journey ahead," he says.
"I feel people in India generally complain a lot. Instead of figuring out a solution, we are always busy finding an excuse or something/someone to blame."
"I want to tell everyone who may be reading this: The Internet is free. It is full of resources and opportunities of what you can do. There should be no excuse for you to not do something useful with it."
© 2025