After Class 12, many students attempt competitive exams, like JEE for engineering and NEET for medicine, to get into the top institutes in the country.

In 2019, four friends — Sumit Sharma, Robin Mandal, Dr Avanish Dwivedi, and Saurabh Santosh — from Mumbai started a non-profit called the Path Pradarshak Foundation to help underprivileged students receive quality coaching.

They conduct free online classes through their YouTube channel ‘Grow Bharat’, which has over 45,000 subscribers.

All four co-founders are also teachers at different coaching institutes in Mumbai. They conduct two free online classes daily — morning and evening.

Sumit teaches inorganic chemistry, Dr Avanish takes up organic chemistry, Robin teaches physics, whereas Saurabh specialises in mathematics.

Going beyond just classes, they are in regular contact with the students through their Telegram channel and monitor their progress through calls.

Since data is a big issue for students in remote parts of the country, these teachers pay for their data packs and send them test papers.

It was during their stint at Super 30 — a programme that teaches meritorious underprivileged students for free — that they saw how coaching helped students from underprivileged backgrounds.

So far, they have helped students obtain admission into IITs, IISc, NITs and other premier institutions.

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