WHEELS Global Foundation Gala 2025 – 4th October

Marriott Marquis New York

1535, Broadway, New York, NY 10036

Working towards sustainable development through Rural Transformation

Be a Part of Our Journey of Impact At-Scale

The COVID pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and supply chain disruptions have increased prices and inflation, creating economic uncertainties and hardships in many nations. With two-thirds of the global population living mostly in rural areas, the impact on these underserved communities has been especially severe. One of the key pillars for development in the next decade would be transforming these rural communities to become engines of global economic growth and future markets. In this context, we invite you to join us in our fundraising Gala on October 4th in New York City to help expand our efforts in Sustainable Growth through Rural Transformation. 

WHEELS Global Foundation, an initiative of the alumni of Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), with more than 500,000 strong alumni base worldwide, was inspired by the former President of India, the late Dr Abdul Kalam, to solve ‘big’ problems of rural India. Since its incorporation in 2013, WHEELS, an acronym for Water, Healthcare, Education, Energy, Livelihoods and Sustainability, is actively driving several dozen aspirational technology-led transformational initiatives in rural communities.

Vision, Mission, Proof-points

Transform 20% of Rurban India by 2030 by harnessing the full potential of the technology heritage & massive ecosystem of highly regarded IIT system & its well-resourced alumni community & aligned professionals. Select NGOs with promising proof-points and help them achieve scaling ramp to millions of beneficiaries by augmenting their model via technology and business acumen of 500,000 strong IIT alumni, several hundred Physicians and other professionals. Some examples of deployment of WHEELS’ catalytic resources to achieve desired scaling & speed:

WATER: After the success of our pioneering Collaborative Governance model in rejuvenation of underground aquifers in Himachal Pradesh, we replicated it in YEIDA (U.P.) to help rehabilitation of 27 villages, applying innovations such as TaralTec (for lifetime bacteria-free safe water from handpumps for less than $100). Our BarterWater pilot completed successfully in remote Dumaria Panchayat (Bihar) to address Arsenic contamination using technology developed at IIT-Kharagpur, paving the way for a massive scaling ramp in nine States. 

HEALTH: Integrating pioneering research on root causes with mass communication & learning innovation from IIT Bombay and a purpose-built orchestration technology, aided by innovative public-private partnerships at-scale, WHEELS is driving our most ambitious initiative to tackle pervasive newborn malnutrition & stunting afflicting >50% of kids in 0-5 age group across entire rural & tribal India. With statewide deployments in five large States, we aim to impact the lives of nearly 200 million babies and mothers. Now working to apply the same models for other at-scale impacts in postpartum depression, palliative care, breast cancer wellness, nursing education, menstrual health, and preventive medicine. 

EDUCATION: Flagship program from our portfolio, Spoken Tutorials for IT Skills enablement has now benefited 10 million learners, including such underserved school networks as Navodya Schools, Eklavya Schools and tribal villages in Aravalli. We have also taken the program to several places outside India: Rwanda and Zanzibar. Other innovative efforts included advanced STEM education in robotics and aviation for poor middle-school kids to take on emerging careers. Another signature initiative of School-in-a-box is addressing chronic under-staffing that pervades more than a million rural schools, with new implementations in Ekal Schools and others in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. 

ENERGY:  Augmenting our existing energy solutions RuKart and BioGas plants, we launched an ambitious initiative to support the quadrupling of the income of women weavers of humane-silk (Eri Silk) in the northeastern State of Meghalaya, with an opportunity to make it 20% of the State GDP. The solution model has scalability to another nine States.

LIVELIHOODS: Our signature project, Ideal Smart Village in tribal Aravalli District (Gujarat), has accelerated with intense training of 50 SHG women & 7 Youth and Women New Age Digital Entrepreneurs (YWANDE) in rural entrepreneurship, leveraging Digital Learning Lab and proven models of partner MSS (having built 1700+ Self Help Groups).

SUSTAINABILITY: Along with supporting marketing/scaling of partner solution for Smart Tree Plantation, we launched another innovative solution ‘BioChar’ – helping farmers in the Aravalli district of Gujarat transform their invasive-plants ravaged farming lands into premium quality bio-fertilizer with high-value carbon-credits, creating a self-sustaining model for large-scale across more than six large States – a great example of an innovative solution delivering benefits across agriculture, livelihoods, and environment.

We invite you to be part of our technology-enabled philanthropy to transform the lives of hundreds of millions in rural India and globally. Your sponsorship and other contributions are vital to our mission.