Payal Rajpal

Payal Rajpal a Futurist, Educationist and Entrepreneur – journey from an engineering graduate to Masters at LSE and now educating 25000 underprivileged students on future skills of STEAM, Coding, AI, IoT, Robotics at Robotex India.

An IT graduate from India with a distinct future vision, journey from London School of Economics to founding Hack a Cause and heading South Asia Robotex. Leadership experience of over a decade and a half with businesses across UK and Asia, Cable & Wireless, Caudwell Group, Hutchinson Whampoa in areas of Integrating Businesses, Strategic Management, IT, ITES, FDI, Executive coaching, Innovation, Skill Development, Digital Start-ups, Social Ventures.

Upon relocation from the U.K to India in 2010 her mission was to bridge the gap between Industry & Academia by setting up innovation centers with an aim to elevate success rates on employability.

In 2015 she also started advising Indian stock-listed manufacturing and IT companies on Foreign Direct Investment to Finland, Estonia and into India, a conglomerate of companies worth $2 billion in FDI’s.

She launched Study in Estonia to India in 2017 as a Spokesperson providing a platform for students to access advanced technology ‘Future Skills’ education in Europe. She spearheaded Industry & Academia collaborations, Education Ministry of Estonia and India multilateral ties for a collaborative ecosystem of research and innovation with a mission to elevate Indian Entrepreneurship, Enterprise and Start-up ecosystem.

She is a pioneer in bringing robotics, AL, Coding and STEAM education to government schools in urban, tribal and rural areas. Her vision with Robotexa non-profit organization, is brining future skills to remote villages in India. She believes that children from every village in India should have the opportunity to learn advanced digital emerging skills to help build an Intellectual, Innovative & Incredible India. Impact of RobotexInternational competitions is preparing young talent for a career in ‘Employable and Entrepreneurial Future Skills’. RobotexIndia has coached over 20,000 government school students thus far with a stupendous corporate ecosystem CSR support, ‘Girls who build robots’ ‘Robotexfor Rural’ as one of the patent programs. In the pandemic era hundreds of under-privileged students from government schools were educated digitally in an all online model, capstone projects solving real life world problems – environment, agriculture, waste management, social causes.

As a founder of Hack the Crisis, India which concluded two successful COVID19 solution finding Hackathonsin April 2020 ‘Hack the Crisis – India’ largest in India with 15000 participants and ‘Global Hack’ the first digital initiative with Ministry of Electronics and IT India MEITY, MyGovIndia, Digital India. Hack the crisis India mobilized top 50 solutions globally. Also forming a resilience accelerator in association with MEITY Start- up Hub.

She has coached corporate leadership in over 100 companies and spoken in over 500global platforms from educational institutions to business forums. She is the vertical head for FicciFlo Pune, empowering and impacted the lives of 10000+ women through various skilling projects and initiatives by raising 10 million since 2015. She is an advisor on Lets Do It, India and Ambitious Africa. The awardee of various accolades that of Women in Business Rising Star to Top Women in Technology, Top 100 Global Influencers.