An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Ashok Kamath opted to leave behind a successful career in the corporate sector (semiconductor industry) and involve himself in the development sector. He is currently the Chairman of Akshara Foundation, which is a public-private partnership that aims to have ‘Every Child in School and Learning Well’. In the past five years alone, Akshara’s work has impacted over 4.5 million children at both the pre-school and primary school levels in the Indian states of Karnataka, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. With a strong belief in the Creative Commons, all of Akshara’s content is published in open source and made available nationally, as a public good. Its digital property, the Android-based Building Blocks was in the top three products in Ed tech for the Numeracy and STEM category adjudged by the International mEducation Alliance. He is also a Co-founder and Trustee of Pratham Books which is a public charitable trust that believes in A Book in Every Child’s Hand and publishes high-quality books for children in multiple Indian languages. His alma mater, IIT Bombay, presented him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013 for his various initiatives and contributions to the field of child education.