In 2019, Saurabh Nanda discovered the power of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and since then, has embarked on a journey to inspire social innovation and entrepreneurship among the youth. Armed with a diverse educational background in Computer Science, Engineering, and Psychology, Saurabh has become a driving force behind international projects with Youth United Nations Global Alliance (YUNGA) in Japan and Rise Foundation in the UK. His commitment to social change eventually led him to Purpose In Motion (PIM) in early 2022, where he discovered the Tech4Good program, a collaboration between PIM and Huawei’s Seeds for the Future.
Tech4Good’s Competitive Edge
Reflecting on the Tech4Good program, Saurabh highlights its efficient program design and incredible global reach. The Tech4Good program empowers students with the knowledge and skills to create meaningful social and environmental impact through technology. To achieve this, the PIM’s Tech4Good program’s robust curriculum features lectures based on methodologies such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Business Model Canvas. Coupled with this curriculum, all Tech4Good project teams are assigned a seasoned mentor like Saurabh who guides them through the entire process of understanding a social/environmental problem, ideating solutions, testing, and pitching their ideas. Since its inception, the Tech4Good program has impacted over 6,000 students in over 100 countries and helped students create and pitch over 2,000 different social impact projects focused on tackling the SDG goals.
Tech4Good & Student Empowerment
One of the things that drew Saurabh to PIM’s Tech4Good program is how the program shares his belief in the importance of empowering youth. Early on in his career, Saurabh made the crucial decision to leave a secure lucrative job in a corporate organization to become a career consultant because he noticed a severe lack of accessible career counseling services for youth worldwide. This was especially shocking to him as nearly 2.3 billion people need such services, however, no government or institution was willing to address this problem. Thus, Saurabh felt compelled to address this challenge and began a career as a youth counselor and is now in the process of developing an AI career counselor to amplify the impact that he can make.
Saurabh’s drive and commitment to empowering youth is equally evident when serving as a student mentor in PIM’s Tech4Good program. Not only has Saurabh participated in numerous weekly Tech4Good programs and mentored students in over 15 countries including Madagascar, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Austria, Cameroon, Ireland, and Slovenia, but Saurabh has also demonstrated a unique way of encouraging youth to pursue careers related to social entrepreneurship.
When asked about his unique approach, Saurabh says that, “There is no one way to motivate people to take on social entrepreneurship but one question I ask everyone is that even if you have a job that pays well, is the city that you live in worth living in?” With our communities suffering from a growing number of pollution and environmental problems as well as an increase in social issues, isn’t it more meaningful to invest your talents in sectors that can improve life on earth as opposed to slaving away to make rich companies richer? By taking on this approach, youth can also leave behind a legacy that they can be remembered for for years to come. “Social entrepreneurship is the solution if we want a planet to live on sustainably and healthily.”
The “Tech” in Tech4Good
In the newly emerging world of ChatGPT and AI, we also asked Saurabh about his opinion on new emerging technologies and harnessing them for social good. To Saurabh, the advent of the internet has enabled unprecedented connectivity between people and has, in a bidirectional manner, facilitated knowledge and skill sharing between people all over the world. This accessibility has made it possible to share ideas and implement them faster at lower costs than ever before and as a result, has opened up many doors for social entrepreneurship.
On the flip side, however, there are many negative aspects to the internet as well. Saurabh highlights the new social challenge related to the propagation of misinformation, ad-based revenue, and toxic algorithms. But Saurabh remains generally optimistic and believes that as more and more people use technology, the more chances there will be to realize and solve global problems by coming up with innovative ideas. “Whether we look at technology as a boon or bane, either way, we need to get involved with technology.”
The Future of the Tech4Good Program
Looking ahead at the future of the Tech4Good program, Saurabh stresses the importance of maintaining strong connections between mentors and students beyond the program’s completion. To boost success, ongoing engagement is vital. “We need to keep on motivating the participants by inviting and engaging them to participate in more [social entrepreneurial] programs,” says Saurabh. Through more engagement, students will develop critical thinking and complex problem-solving skills so that they will be able to implement their projects without the supervision of a mentor. Saurabh also mentioned that PIM could develop an in-house search engine by utilizing the vast repository of social entrepreneurship projects they helped develop to guide future social entrepreneurs. Such innovative tools he believes would take mentorship to the next level.
Lastly, Saurabh would like to encourage all Tech4Good participants to start thinking bigger and undertake projects that will contribute to the well-being of the world and its people. As for those who want to take up mentorship, Saurabh would like to remind future mentors that this is a “golden opportunity to fulfill the dreams that they were not able to implement themselves. By working with a group of young and talented individuals, it is possible to make our dreams come true together.
“Social entrepreneurship is the solution if we want a planet to live on sustainably and healthily.”
Saurabh Nanda
India
CEO of SN Mentoring
Saurabh Nanda is the Founder of SN Mentoring, a Career and Education guidance organization built on expertise, experience and results where passionate mentors bring out the best in you by providing highly customized career development services. Saurabh Nanda’s “Spheres of Understanding ” career decision making model is the world’s first comprehensive model on how humans make career decisions and is under copyright with the Government of India. His career counseling framework “Step Zero” and mentorship framework “Micro-Experiments” are also copyrighted. He has launched 2 AI chat bots for career guidance and mental health assistance. He aims to make India, ‘Career Guidance’ ready by 2030.
Saurabh jumped into the Education space in 2012 after leaving his cushy American IT job. Since then, he has impacted over 20,000 students, parents, teachers and aspirants across 35+ universities and colleges, 600+ schools, companies and education institutions in 35+ countries. As an international youth mentor, he mentors youth for multi-disciplinary projects in sustainability, tech4good, psychology and more for organizations such as Government of India’s Atal Innovation Mission, Huawei CSR, YUNGA Japan, RISE, NIT Jalandhar, Enactus chapters in Delhi University, Jagriti Yatra among others. He regularly writes for the media, hosts 2 podcasts and is a multiple TEDx speaker. For his work in cyber bullying awareness, he was awarded the Jagran Josh Education Award for “Best Initiative for Mental Health Awareness” by the Dainik Jagran group on 31st March 2022.
