About Mr. Anil Pradhan - Young Tinker Foundation

Anil Pradhan

CEO & Founder, Young Tinker Foundation

Mail: anil@youngtinker.org

Short Bio

Mr. Anil Pradhan, widely known as the “Ideas Man of India,” is an innovative engineer and trailblazing educationist. He is the Founder and CEO of the Young Tinker Foundation, an educational non-profit transforming STEM education for underserved children in India.

Born in Baral, a small island village in Odisha, Anil experienced firsthand the challenges of limited access to quality education. After moving to Bhopal for higher studies, he became the Chief Designer of Asia’s first university rocket team, VSLV. Inspired by the transformative power of STEM, he returned to his rural roots in 2017, choosing to launch an education revolution over lucrative job offers.

Starting in 2015 under a tin shed with School for Rural innovation, his efforts grew into Young Tinker Spaces, the Young Tinker Fellowship (for youth-led impact), and Tinker on Wheels (TOW)—initiatives that have now reached over 270,000 students, fostering curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving skills in rural and tribal regions.

Anil is a recognized young leader with numerous national and international accolades, including Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia (Social Impact, 2025), the National Youth Award (Govt. of India, 2021), 3M CII Young Innovators Award, Breakthrough of the Year at Berlin Science Week, and World Rank 3 at NASA Rover Challenge (2021)—where Asia’s first under-19 team made history.

He was also instrumental in policy design and drafting of India’s first Innovation Start-up Policy for school students—the School Innovation and Entrepreneurship Policy (SIEP) 2021, developed by the Innovation Cell, Ministry of Education, Government of India.

Today, Anil inspires thousands through lectures and talks at IITs, IIMs, CBSE, the Ministry of Education, state governments, TED Talks, and more, where he champions his I.C.E. approach—Intent, Content, Environment. Through innovative tools like tinker boxes and teaching aids, he continues to leave an indelible mark on STEAM education, innovation, and impact leadership worldwide.

The Story

Mr. Anil Pradhan, also known as the Ideas Man of India, is a pioneering Indian engineer, innovator, and trailblazing educationist. Born in the village of Baral in 42 Mouza, an island village in the state of Odisha, India, Anil’s early life led him to migrate to the city of Bhopal in pursuit of education. During his Bachelor’s degree, he returned to his village in 2015 and observed little change over the past decade, motivating him to advocate for hands-on education in rural areas, empowering students to address local challenges.

Anil Pradhan played a pivotal role as the chief designer of Asia’s first university rocket team, named “VSLV,” during his Bachelor’s degree in 2017. Despite lucrative job offers, he chose to follow his passion for education and founded “Young Tinker” with the mission to revolutionize hands-on learning. Through this initiative, he established tinkerspaces that focused on imparting skills, team building, innovation, STEM education, presentation skills, entrepreneurship, and leadership through practical tinkering curriculum. His patented products, curriculum, and programs have positively impacted 247,000 students across India.

In 2021, Anil Pradhan led a team of students from rural India and underserved communities to achieve the world rank 3 at the NASA Rover Challenge. His transformative impact on education, science, and technology earned him the prestigious National Youth Award from the Government of India in the same year. Anil’s contributions have been recognized with several accolades, including the 3M CII Young Innovation Award with a Special Impact Prize, the Award of Excellence from the Software Technology Parks of India, and the Winner of the Science Engagement category at the Berlin Science Week.

Anil Pradhan’s influence extends beyond national borders as he has represented India on various global platforms such as the One Young World summit in Manchester, UK; Berlin Science Week in Germany; the World Youth Forum in Egypt; Bauma Shanghai in China; and the NASA Rover Challenge in Huntsville, USA. His remarkable journey has made a lasting impression on renowned institutions like IIT, IIM, and State Governments, where he has been invited to share his awe-inspiring story of innovation and dedication to education.

Anil Pradhan has devised a teaching approach known as I.C.E. for crafting educational programs aimed at students. In this method, “I” stands for intent, where he motivates students to think critically, take initiative, and explore. The letter “C” signifies content, prompting students to participate in hands-on activities involving tinkering with kits and utilizing workbooks. Lastly, “E” stands for environment, highlighting the importance of specially designed spaces that facilitate effective learning. This method of teaching motivated him to create a range of educational tools, including tinker boxes, tinkerbooks, tinkerstations, and over 1200 teaching aids. These resources are designed to teach subjects related to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), foster innovation, and enhance soft skills.

According to Anil, “Creativity must become our nature, constructiveness must become our habit, and seeds of inquisitiveness must sprout every day and every moment. Then, innovation will become our practice. Enrichment of innovative activities must become a mission and goal for all of us.” To a question on his view of engineering, Anil responds: “Belonging to a middle-class family, I had faced many ups and downs in life. By solving those real-life problems, I learned the art of innovation. Those who can solve a real-life problem are real engineers. They can utilise their technical education to solve problems.

Elaborating on his school and its philosophy, the young engineer says, “Innovation in education can take many forms, like incorporating new technology or teaching methods, going on field trips, rejecting social norms, or partnering with the local community. Our school focuses on educating underprivileged students in rural areas, in particular. We believe that knowledge of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) can bring about a revolution in the modern education system.”

Encouraging a child to go from just saying “yes” to learning to ask “why?” Children must be encouraged to be curious and ask innumerable whys and why nots. Teaching children not just to look, but to observe: Keen observation of the environment has caused many breakthroughs in science and medicine and in the social and business worlds.

Children must be taught and encouraged to observe deeply, to look beyond the obvious. Shifting from passive learning to hands-on experiential learning and exploration: Hands-on practical experiments, which engage the child’s senses of touch, feel, smell, sight and sound, are extremely effective in helping him to grasp, explain and retain otherwise difficult concepts.

Shifting from being textbook-bound to being hands-on: In this era of easily accessible data, children are not given the chance to think or reason for themselves. Model-making workshops, audio-visual presentations, role-playing activities and exploring the physical world help to deliver the message of classroom lessons in a more interesting and effective manner. Shifting from fear to confidence: By encouraging children, we can train them to be independent and solve problems on their own, thus nurturing their confidence and self-belief.

Awards, fellowships, and recognitions :

Featured on Forbes 30 under 30 Asia List in Social Impact category, 2025
The Hindu- Businessline Changemaker Awards 2025
National Youth Award by Ministry of Youth Affairs, Govt of India
Winner in Category of Science Engagement at the BERLIN Science Week 2020, Germany
3M – CII Young Innovators Award 2020 – Special Impact Prize
Award of Excellence by STPI, Government of India
World Rank 3 at NASA Rover Challenge
2022 Deloitte Scholar - One Young World, Manchester
Fellow Delegate- World Youth Forum sponsored by Govt of Egypt
Impact Award (Badlav Humse Hai)- News18.
Hero behind the Heros- Sony YAY
Odisha Youth Award
Winner of XCMG Apprentice Program, China.
World Rank 3 at NASA Rover Challenge
Shambhavi Award 2020 Shambhavi Award 2020 by India Metals & Ferro Alloys Limited
International Education Education Award 2019 Issued by Global Education and Training Institute
Best Speaker Award by International Youth Fellowship, South Korea 2018
Winners of National bridge design challenge by NIT Rourkela · Oct 2015
National Junior Editor Award 2011 by Dainik Bhaskar · Sep 2011
3rd Rohini Nayyar Award by Nayyar Foundation
SHRIE Award Award in field of Education & Entrepreneurship by Parichay Foundation