Shankar Maruwada

Shankar Maruwada is the Co-Founder and CEO of the EkStep Foundation which he co-founded with Nandan and Rohini Nilekani in 2015. EkStep strives to drive societal transformation through digital public infrastructure, open networks, and AI. A founding team member of Aadhaar, (India’s digital identity program which reaches 1.4 billion people), Shankar also named the initiative.Shankar has served on multiple government committees including the National Curriculum Framework Steering Committee, DIKSHA, NDEAR, iGOT, and is currently a member of NITI Aayog’s ‘Expert Council’ for ‘Digital Public Infrastructure @2047’.

A strong advocate for early childhood care and education, Shankar has led EkStep in building digital public goods such as AXL, an AI-powered language and math learning program that helps children practice and gain proficiency in regional languages, English, and Math. EkStep is also orchestrating a nationwide initiative called ‘Bachpan Manao’, which brings together 100+ “Collab-actors” to ‘celebrate and enable growth and learning opportunities for children in their first eight years.’

An IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, Shankar has co-founded one of India’s first data analytics startups – Marketics – and continues to mentor startups, social entrepreneurs and not-for-profits. Shankar also serves as Co-Chair of the Centre for Open Societal Systems (COSS) at IIITB, as a board member of the Centre for Exponential Change, and is on the advisory boards of India Leadership for Social Sector (ILSS) and Udhyam Learning Foundation.