Subra Dravida Appointed Head of US Ekal Chapter

India-West Staff Reporter

CHICAGO, IL – Dr Subra Dravida from Qualcomm has been appointed as the head of Ekal Vidyalaya’s US chapter, a move which it said would usher in a new era of primary education “from slate to tablets.” The organization is known for its pioneering education methods in rural and tribal areas of India.

The appointment decision was made at Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation’s in-person ”International Conference” in Chicago for its USA, Canada, and India components to review and recalibrate the roadmap for the future, a press release said.

Dravida wants digital technology equipped with tablets and computers to transform education, train teachers, add vocational skills, and expand Ekal’s reach, it added. He has been associated with Ekal for some time now. He was the president of the New England Chapter of Ekal for four years, then a member of the Board of Directors and recently, an executive VP working.

Dravida received his B. Tech from IIT, Madras in 1979 and earned his MS and PhD from RPI, Troy, NY in 1980 and 1984. From 1984 to 1998, he worked at Bell Labs. In 1998, he moved to MA to work in a start-up, MaxComm Technologies, as the VP of Engineering before subsequently ending up as the VP of Technology with Qualcomm.

“I had been attending Ekal fundraisers for some time and it is Ekal’s concept of running a whole school for a mere USD 365 a year that pulled me in,” he said. “This modest amount permanently transforms the lives of about 30 children and indirectly that of the whole community and so what better investment there could be for the brighter future of India,” he said.

Ekal is the largest literacy movement globally undertaken by NRIs and Indians to provide healthcare training, economic empowerment, and integrated village development to rural folks.

Currently, Ekal runs 78,000 schools that are grooming 2.1 million students each year across rural-tribal parts of India.