Mission

Dakshana is a Sanskrit word meaning to give or receive a gift. The Dakshana Foundation is a young philanthropic foundation focused on alleviating poverty. Education is the most powerful and enduring weapon to win the battle against poverty. Thus Dakshana is focused on providing world-class educational opportunities to economically and socially disadvantaged gifted children worldwide. Their initial focus is on providing 1-2 years of world-class Indian Institute of Technology- Joint Entrance Exam coaching to gifted, but impoverished students in rural India.

Dakshana's initial focus is on the 750 million people living in India's 640,000 villages. Large swaths of India's massive rural population live in extreme poverty and are mostly left out of the economic growth boom underway in the country. Rural India comprises 70% of the country's population. At institutions like IIT, less than 5% of the students come from impoverished rural backgrounds. At Dakshana, education is seen as having one of the highest return on investments of any charitable endeavor - especially when directed towards gifted rural impoverished children.