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Why we exist

India has one of the youngest workforces in the world, yet nearly half its graduates are not considered job-ready. Only 54.81% of graduates were found employable in 2025 (India Skills Report 2025). Industries can't find the skilled people they need, and young people from under-resourced communities and schools are the one most likely to be left out.

Much of this gap begins in school. Schools that serve India's under-resourced children focus on exams and rote learning, and rarely have the labs, tools or trained teachers needed for hands-on, real-world learning. Only 5.6% of rural youth aged 14–18 have taken any vocational training (ASER 2023).

As a result, students finish school without ever having designed, built or solved a real problem. They know little about the careers that exist, and nothing connects what they learn to how they will earn a living.

In our conversations with 140+ students and parents in Bengaluru, 52% of students had never used a tool or designed anything from scratch to finish.

Aastra LABS equips learners from under- resourced schools & communities with world class, hands-on education, skilling, training, mentorship and pathways to livelihoods, so they can grow into curious creators, capable problem-solvers and the builders of a self-reliant India.

How it all began

After years of working as an engineer in different roles & organisation, I wanted to do something meaningful with my life, and for me, that was education. So I joined the Teach For India fellowship.

The moment I walked into the classroom, one thing hit me hard: nothing had changed. Children were learning the same things, in the same way, that I had been taught 10 to 15 years ago. Meanwhile, the world outside was changing faster than ever, with new technologies, new jobs and new problems to solve. I knew we were preparing children for a world that no longer exists.

My students were bright and curious, but they had never been asked to build anything. One day, during a class, a student named Nava stood up and asked:

"Sir, why are we learning all this? Why can't we learn something useful and build something? There are so many problems around us to solve. Why are we just sitting in class doing all this for the sake of marks? what will we do with those marks?"

I didn't have a good answer. But I knew I had to do something about it.

It didn't start as the Aastra LABS you see today. I simply brought the tools I had at home into my classroom and began running small sessions, building on small ideas with my students.

As I researched the problem, I realised this wasn't just my classroom's problem. It was happening in schools across Bengaluru.

That's when I decided to start Aastra LABS. We cleaned up a store room that had been left unused for years and turned it into a design studio: a space where children could explore real questions, real ideas and real learning.

Watching small changes in my students, or a question turning into a working prototype, gave me the courage to take the next step: to bring this kind of learning to as many learners as possible.

Nava's question deserved a real answer. So does every learner. That's the promise we're working towards, one classroom at a time.


— Ajay Kumar,
    Founder

Belief that guides everything we do at Aastra LABS:

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

— Often attributed to Benjamin Franklin & Xunzi, Chinese philosopher

Support the next generation of Indian creators and problem-solvers, one learner at a time.

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