Doing More Than Maths

With its app solving problems in real time, Doubtnut is looking to crack a student community beyond urban, brick-and-mortar classrooms

- Varsha Meghani

AAMIR MOHAMMED RAZA is determined to crack the IIT entrance test and become an engineer. But Bhagat Public Senior Secondary School in Alnia, a dusty town in southern Rajasthan’s Kota district, isn’t known for churning out toppers. “By the time I was in the 11th [standard], I had lost interest in math… I wasn’t able to understand the concepts well,” says the 18-year-old, who now studies in class 12.

Three months ago, he happened to run an internet search for a mathematical concept he wanted clarity on and chanced upon a video by Doubtnut on YouTube. It gave him a step-by-step solution to his query. Pleased with the explanation,he downloaded the Gurugram-based startup’s app. Today, he simply takes a picture of the math problem he can’t understand, uploads it on to the app and receives a video solution within moments. “Now, math is so much more fun,” says Raza, adding that he uses the app for 40 minutes to an hour every day.

Set up by the husband-wife duo of Tanushree Nagori and Aditya Shankar, Doubtnut uses AI technologies for image recognition, natural language processing and proprietary machine learning algorithms to throw up solutions to students’ queries. The app is Nagori and Shankar’s second entrepreneurial venture in the education space. The IIT-Delhi alums worked in strategy and consulting across India and the US for a few years before setting up Class 21A in 2009, where they taught math and science to students between class 9 and 12. “Education was always close to our hearts,” says Nagori.