17/09/2026
Yesterday morning, our founders Darshana Joshi and Vijay Venugopalan sat across the table from Prof Umesh V Waghmare, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, at his office in Delhi.
For Darshana, the room carried history. Years ago, at JNCASR Bangalore, Prof Waghmare co-guided her master's thesis. This morning she returned as the founder of VigyanShaala, and the conversation picked up a thread he had helped her hold onto long before there was an organisation around it.
Darshana recalls an advice Prof Waghmare gave before she left to Cambridge for her doctoral studies. He said " Darshana, make sure your PhD is more than just your academic work. Meet new people, make friends from across the globe, learn from experiences beyond your laboratory and let it shape you as a better human and scientist". It was these experiences beyond the laboratory that also led to the foundation of VigyanShaala as a volunteer movement during their doctoral studies.
They talked about reach. A girl in Pauri Garhwal deserves the same STEM education as a girl in Hyderabad or Medak, not a smaller version of it, built and delivered with the same care. They walked Prof Waghmare through She for STEM and Rural STEM Champions, and what each demands on the ground, in classrooms, in mentor calls, in the everyday work of showing up in places most programs skip.
Prof Waghmare listened as someone who understands both the science and the distance a young researcher has to travel to get there.
Some conversations close a loop. This one opened a new one. They returned supercharged with a vision for young people from the grassroots shaping the frontiers of STEM and solving for the challenges their communities face.
