Aparna Viswanathan

Aparna Viswanathan is an educationist and founder of Zocio, an organisation working extensively in the social emotional health and learning space. She works closely with children, teachers, public and professionals on topics relating to communication, gender, sexuality, depression, anxiety and diversity & inclusion. She is a social entrepreneur who has been facilitating health support through interactions and interventions specially during COVID times. She is an independent media contributor who now writes a column in Mathrubhumi newspaper and Economics Daily . She is a guest faculty in Business and Journalism schools too.

She is a post graduate and a gold medal winner in Journalism and Communication. She passed out of the prestigious business school IIM Bangalore with a second rank. Her thirst for studies saw her achieving an MBA in entrepreneurship from Pondicherry University and currently pursuing her research studies and a post graduate diploma in women and gender studies too.

A journalist by specialization, but an entrepreneur by decision, Aparna Viswanathan lives her dream every day. Founder of RACE, an experiential learning firm providing assistance to professionals and students; co-founder of Transstream, an online educational platform; and ideator behind the #TogetherWeCan campaign during Covid, Aparna never says stop. Her constant endeavour to innovate and contribute led her to re-launching RACE as ZOCIO INDIA with thrust on Social Intelligence, a subject she conceptualized and packaged according to the changing developmental challenges in Children and Youth of India. Her never say die attitude and zest for life and the urge to connect socially with people made her introduce Social Quotient under the brand Zocio.

ZOCIO deals with Social Intelligence, a topic she calls her biggest passion. The goal she lives now is to bring back the smiles on as many faces as possible. Technological advancements have made life easier and faster, but has also led to a lack of social connect among people, and this increasingly worries Aparna. Her mission to spread smiles by connecting people socially and through compassion is slowly gaining momentum through her coaching for children, youth, professionals, and teachers. Her exercise and efforts are spreading nationally now.

Along with social Intelligence, she does Women Entrepreneur and Empowerment programs, communication trainings, and gender sensitivity and parenting workshops to name a few.

Gold Medal winner in Communication and Journalism, she started her career with Doordarshan hosting Rangoli during her college and later moved to private TV channels to become the youngest live newsreader of those times. Though the entrepreneurial bug caught her after that, she continued to stay connected with her first love by hosting and producing shows that interest her. She played a vital role in the setting up of the yet- to-be launched App based English TV in India by co-producing and handling content for their flagship show titled “Celebrating People and Places”.

This serial entrepreneur passed out of IIM Bangalore with a second rank. She was a nominee for the Young Creative Entrepreneur in Communication- India 2010; is featured in ‘BizInked’ as a promising Woman Entrepreneur 2012; is one among the eight most inspiring stories of women entrepreneurship in the book titled ‘Women Who Ventured’, was one of the finalists for the ‘She News award 2019’ and was adjudged as one of the five change makers of Karnataka by Limca Book of Records and Chaipaani, a media collective jointly. A voice-over artist for radio and television advertisements, and a stage host for cultural and literary events, Aparna’s professional career is an eclectic mix.

One of the projects she curated for Kudumbashree and eWIT in Kerala was adjudged nationally as the second best case study in Social Entrepreneurship by Azim Premji Foundation 2019.

Her latest creation ‘KUTTAPPAYI’, is an animation series for children in Vernacular language that brings the best of yesteryear stories to children in a format they engage largely with. The soon to be released series’ title song was launched on YouTube to much reception and welcome.