One of the largest, hands-on science education programs in the world, Agastya is a movement led by entrepreneurs, educators, scientists, teachers, and children. Its goal is to revitalize and transform primary and secondary education in India and provide an affordable education model, replicable anywhere in the world. The MurthyNAYAK Foundation has provided a grant to rebuild the Agastya website, and worked with Site2Sight Productions on a documentary film, Spirit of Agastya, which vividly illustrates Agastya’s efforts to spark curiosity in India’s rural children. The film was a gift to Agastya from the MurthyNAYAK Foundation. Click here to view the film, http://agastya.org/albums/albums/spirit.html%20.

The MurthyNAYAK Foundation also has served as a facilitator to introduce Agastya’s leadership to scientists, nonprofit organizations, educators, and artists in Baltimore, Maryland to build partnership opportunities. Financial contributions have gone towards building five models for the Discovery Center in Kuppam, A.P., India. MNF’s in-kind contributions have provided state-of-the-art professional video equipment to the educators and scientists at Agastya’s main campus in Kuppam.

In the fall of 2010, the MurthyNAYAK Foundation made a substantial long-term funding commitment to Agastya, to extend the reach of their transformative programs and help more rural Indian children to unlock the vast potential of their imaginations.

In the past decade, Agastya has reached over 2.5 million children – half of whom are girls – and 80,000 teachers in several Indian states. In 2010, two of 24 winners of the prestigious Intel India Science Award were young women from Agastya, who competed successfully against a huge field of competitors, representing the cream of India’s private schools. This is bold, transformative work, and we are proud to play a part in Agastya’s success.

Learn more at www.agastya.org.