WPP Foundation Inaugurates Its First Community Tinkering Lab in Mumbai With Ramanathan Ramanan, Mission Director – Atal Innovation Mission

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India | 17^th February 2020: Working towards a strategic partnership with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, WPP Foundation, the CSR entity of WPP in India, is launching a Community Tinkering Lab at Vidya Varidhi Vidyalaya and Junior College, a school supported by WPP Foundation in Nalasopara, Mumbai. Community Tinkering Lab, a creative innovation workspace was inaugurated by Ramanathan Ramanan, Mission Director – Atal Innovation Mission, Additional Secretary – Government of India; CVL Srinivas, Country Manager – WPP in India; Rama Iyer, Director General – WPP India CSR Foundation; along with Mr. Santosh Singh, School Principal – Vidya Varidhi Vidyalaya and Junior College and teachers and students.
 
Realizing the need to create scientific orientation and cultivate a spirit of curiosity and innovation among young minds, the Community Tinkering Lab is aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and skill development amongst the underserved youth. In its first phase, the Community Tinkering Lab will reach out to 4000 children from under-served communities to enable them to pursue their passion to solve social problems leveraging innovative technology solutions
 
Speaking on the launch of Community Tinkering Lab, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager – WPP in India, said, “At WPP, we believe that innovation is a key driver for human progress and a catalyst for change. We are delighted to inaugurate our first ever Atal Tinkering Lab, aimed at providing holistic learning ecosystem to nurture future innovators and entrepreneurs. This launch marks a special milestone for WPP Foundation, envisioning to benefit children from under-served segments of society spurring ‘out of the box’ thinking and fuelling their aspirations. In our efforts to strengthen our strategic partnership with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, we are thankful to Mr. Ramanathan Ramanan for taking out time to unveil/launch the Community Tinkering Lab with the children of Vidya Varidhi Vidyalaya.”
 
Mr. Ramanathan Ramanan, Mission Director – Atal Innovation Mission: Additional Secretary, Government of India said, “I would like to compliment WPP Foundation for spearheading this initiative, setting up a world class Tinkering Lab facility in one of Mumbai’s remotest suburban areas. We are proud to partner with WPP Foundation, collaborating with them for this innovative workspace targeted at young minds who often deprived of such opportunities. The dedication of the Foundation and its partners towards this program has been commendable. We wish the Foundation and school success.”
 
“India has 1.5 million schools and 150 million students who will be entering workplaces. Unless we stimulate innovative thinking, entrepreneurial mindset, problem solving capabilities amongst our young students, we will not be able to achieve the potential that India can truly achieve. It is this young generation of 150 million people that are going to be carrying India into the future. We strongly believe that implementation of these initiatives will make a tremendous difference to the growth of our young generation,” he further added.
 
Commenting on the new innovation workspace, Mr Santosh Singh, Principal – Vidya Varidhi Vidyalaya and Junior College said, “We are really thankful to Mr. Ramanan and Rama Iyer from WPP Foundation for their incredible support in envisioning and bringing world class education facilities. For the school and its students, the launch of the Community Tinkering Lab is a moment of pride, enabling increased access to digital and technology education to make the children future ready.”
 
Bringing digital transformation at the forefront, WPP Foundation strives to make the children future ready. As part of the Digital Education program, WPP Foundation has introduced experiential digital interventions enabling children to hone vast technical capabilities including building computers and understanding KANO, robotics and code and design 3D models and much more. With its flagship programme, Education to Livelihood (E2L), WPP Foundation has seen several successes bringing behavioural change, improving learning outcomes and strengthen employability of children to drive long term positive impact in society.