EDUCATION
Lack of access to affordable education and rapid advancement in technology have created an under-skilled global workforce, high long-term unemployment, violence and increase in crime.
Mission
WHEELS Education Council’s mission is to spread IT training in Schools using Spoken Tutorials.
Leaders
Dr. Kannan Moudgalya
Dr. Kannan Moudgalya is an Each and Meheroo Mehta Advanced Education Technology Chair Professor at IIT Bombay and the Chair of Education council at WGF. He has a Ph.D. (in Chemical Engineering) and a Master of Electrical Engineering degree from Rice University. He has a B.Tech in chemical engineering from IIT Madras. Kannan was a visiting professor at the University of Alberta during 2003-04. He has written four textbooks and several papers in international journals and conferences. He works in the areas of control, simulation, and modeling. Kannan is now devoting his time to spreading education on a massive scale, without quality dilution.
He has been focusing on spoken tutorials, open-source software systems, and affordable tablets and laptops. He believes that it is possible to provide high-quality education to all our children through a combination of education, and information and communication technologies, making India a developed country in the process. Kannan has held the posts of Associate Dean (R&D), Head of Application Software Cell and Head of the Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme, at IIT Bombay. He was a Member of the Standing Committee of the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT), MHRD, Government of India, for five years. Kannan received the Google MOOCs Research Award for developing the offline capability in Spoken Tutorials. He was nominated for the HT for Mumbai 2015 award. The Spoken Tutorial project received the best price in the Reimagine Education Award, instituted by QS and Wharton School, in the Nurturing Employment category. Kannan received the Pt. DeenDayal Upadhyaya Recognition for Reengineering India 2020
Bipin Junnarkar
Well known for his pioneering work in the area of Knowledge Management, Bipin is an internationally renowned public speaker on the subject. He served as the Chief Knowledge Officer at Gateway and led Knowledge Management efforts at Monsanto & HP. Bipin is the Co-Chair of the Education Council at WGF.
Throughout his career, his work evolved into the deep specialization of knowledge synthesis. He focused on Knowledge Monetization and Decision Dominance—architecting the systems that allow organizations to extract maximum value from information and make superior strategic choices.
At the core of Bipin’s work is a framework he developed that maps Clarity of Understanding vis-à-vis Completeness of Information. Within this space, he defined two critical pathways:
Adaptive Learning: Relying on a high degree of informational completeness to achieve a high level of understanding.
Generative Learning: Achieving robust understanding even when information is incomplete, done by synthesizing the collective intellect.
By operationalizing Generative Learning, teams can achieve Decision Dominance without waiting for perfect data.
Today, in retirement, he applies these same principles to mentorship—counseling high school and university students. He teaches the next generation not just to adapt to the information they are given, but to generatively synthesize knowledge. and navigate uncertainty with clarity.
Nitesh Kumar
Mr Nitesh Kumar is the founder of Sukhlahi Capital LLC, an investment advisory firm that manages a hedge fund and a venture fund. Before founding Sukhlahi Capital LLC in 2019, Nitesh spent more than 13 years on wall street working for large banks like J.P. Morgan and BNP Paribas in New York and London trading Commodities.
Nitesh has been an active supporter of many social impact initiatives in education and health for a number of years in several States in India, including Bihar & Jharkhand.
Nitesh holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay and a Master of Financial Mathematics from NC State University.
Umesh Dhargalkar
Umesh Dhargalkar is the Founder Director & CEO of Dhargalkar Technoesis (I) Pvt. Ltd. established in 1997 at Mumbai, India. Technoesis is a consulting firm with domain expertise in the construction field acquired over the past 20 years. Technoesis is accredited by the Consultancy Development Centre, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.
Umesh Dhargalkar has the requisite professional licenses, and memberships of professional bodies and has published technical papers at national and international conferences and in technical journals. He has a keen interest in research, development & training and has constantly remained in touch with leading institutions and industry experts. He has organized many short/long-term professional training courses, seminars, workshops, and expert lectures and has trained more than 2000 engineers.
Kapish Saraf
Kapish is the Founder & CEO of KidEx & masterNAUKRI by KidEx an experiential learning platform for school & college students that partners with IIT, IIM, NSDC, NITI Aayog, etc. KidEx is awarded by Google, MeiTY, and TiE. He is Ex-Board of Director, Rivigo (a tech & AI startup in Logistics); Ex-CEO, Rivigo Freight Pvt. Ltd. (Uber-like marketplace for Trucking Services; Grew to INR 200+ Cr monthly revenue & made breakeven; filed a patent in US for an AI engine as a 1st author); Ex-Project Leader, BCG (a leading Strategy Consulting Company). He also worked in Healthcare & Industrial Goods practice areas across India, US, Europe & Africa.
Kapish is a Young Alumni Achiever 2023, IIT Kharagpur.
He did his MBA from IIM Calcutta (Major in Economics & Finance; Minor in OB) and has a Dual Degree (M.Tech & B.Tech (H) in Biotechnology & Biochemical Engg.), IIT Kharagpur.
