Overview

• The award was announced in London on Oct 1, with Kumar, a student at Jaipur’s Jayshree Periwal International School, accepting the honor.
• Raised by a single mother in Champaran, he learned coding on a laptop bought with her savings after traveling alone to Kota at 14 with Rs 1,000 seeking IIT-JEE coaching.
• He co-founded Mission Badlao, which helped families access welfare, vaccinations and schooling, and later launched Skillzo to deliver mentorship and entrepreneurial training.
• Skillzo reports supporting more than 20,000 underserved students, with alumni winning scholarships, starting ventures and earning national recognition.
• Kumar says the prize will seed SkillzoX, an AI low-bandwidth mentorship platform for rural learners, plus an Ignite Fellowship accelerator, as Chegg and the Varkey Foundation praised his impact.