When there is a talk about educational technology or EdTech, people usually think of a classroom full of students immersed in their tablets or smartphones--perhaps dissecting cyber-rats? That happens, undoubtedly, but EdTech goes beyond K-12 classroom engagement tools, and plays a very important role in the learning experience. That includes classroom assessment tools for teachers, education-specific fundraising sites, reader-adaptive e-books, and more. And catering to this need are edtech companies that are using new-age technologies to educate, entertain, and engage the modern student. This article features the top six best EdTech companies transforming robotics and artificial intelligence.

As edtech companies have taken a lead by digitizing education for the modern era, they have taken the stance to set up Atal Tinkering Labs in schools along with other services necessary for the budding'kidpreneurs'. To attract young minds towards fields like STEAM, robotics, IoT, and artificial intelligence, the company provides Custom Designed Patented DIY Kits, STEM-based Toys Innovative Pedagogy, World-Class Content, and Methodologies through a team of 200 innovation engineers. To create awareness about STEM education, the startups provide online courses, Robotic Kits, Online Workshops to motivate young minds to innovate. With its main focus on robotics, the startup also develops an in-school robotic curriculum for children and installs robotic and science labs in schools. As edtech companies have taken a lead by digitizing education for the modern era, they have taken the stance to set up Atal Tinkering Labs in schools along with other services necessary for the budding'kidpreneurs'.

India's edtech companies have unleashed their full potential in 2020. NITI Aayog, which concerns itself with developing a state-of-the-art resource center to promote research and innovation for the Indian government, initiated a program to enlighten young minds with entrepreneurship in 2016. Known as The Atal Mission Innovation (AIM), it aims at encouraging children to have a problem-solving mindset in school that can result in entrepreneurship in the future. While the COVID-19 pandemic, since 2020, has hampered the Indian education system by shifting it from on-premises to online, AIM could not be enforced to its maximum in schools. Despite the challenges, the need for practical learning has to be maintained for future adults.

With an imperative to empower the youngest minds of the country with the latest technologies, NITI Aayog, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in collaboration with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) today launched an AI based Module rolled out for students in Indian schools. The AI-Base Module has been introduced with an objective for students to leverage the full potential of AIM's Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) and further empowers them to innovate and create valuable solutions benefiting societies at large. The module contains activities, videos and experiments that enable students to work through and learn the various concepts of AI. Sharing his thoughts, CEO, NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant said that India can add 1.3% to its GDP on an annual basis through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. "Indians can find solutions to the challenges of a shared connected zero emission world, improving learning outcomes, disease like tuberculosis, cancer etc. If we are able to find solutions to these challenges for the 1.3 billion people of India, we can find solutions for the 7.5 billion people of the world too," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term saw a slew of initiatives started in order to adapt cutting-edge technologies in the economy. The Interim Budget 2019 discussed the national program for the development of emerging technologies like robotics, IoT and AI, among others. However, the Indian think tank NITI Aayog has clearly been at the forefront of looking at the adoption of new-age technologies for bettering government service. In this article, we list down the top 5 AI collaborations between the Government of India and the tech giants in 2019. After signing a statement of intent (SoI) last year, this year in March, NITI Aayog joined hands with ABB and organised a workshop in order to help the MSMEs to understand how the Indian economy can be digitised with the help of emerging technologies like AI, big data and digital connectivity.

In one season, it rains heavily, cities get flooded with water, and life comes to a halt. In another season, there is a scarcity of water and thousands of lives are affected every year with drought. Can I harvest the rain water and manage water scarcity? This is one student thinking differently, observing a problem, asking questions and challenging situations, developing a solution and creating an impact. As a society, we often discuss problems, share our views and opinions, but how many of us really contribute towards developing innovative solutions to address the problem?