RDES Philosophy of Vigyan Ashram ; Vision and Mission of Vigyan Ashram
‘Development through Education and Education through development’ is a motto of Vigyan Ashram . VA believes intelligence is developed and not inherited. Activity-based thinking is the source of intelligence. Good education must be based on diverse experiences; for this, real life is the best educator. VA believes it is necessary to use technology to increase pace of our rural development. Therefore VA has developed an educational system that integrates education and development, one that is close to the real everyday life.

‘Rural Development through Education System (RDES)’ philosophy was spelled out by Dr.S.S Kalbag.
Technology :
For the development of our needy population, we need to increase the pace of our development efforts. We need to develop, adopt, and disseminate new appropriate technologies to increase efficiency and productivity in every field. Therefore, Vigyan Ashram works in the area of ‘Technology Development’.
Education :
To disseminate these technologies, we need to train people and use of these technologies. Vigyan Ashram uses schools as a medium to transfer these technologies to the community. Students are involved in the use and dissemination of these technologies to their community as part of their Skills and practical training.
Entrepreneurship Development :
Only developing technologies or educating students is not sufficient. We need new technology-based entrepreneurship in our community. Such enterprises will help in developing the economic activities and leads to ‘Rural Development’.

Programs of Vigyan Ashram
Vigyan Ashram is implementing various programs to realize our vision of ‘Rural Development’.
i) Technology Development:
We are undertaking various projects for the development of new technologies. We also collaborate with research institutions for collaborative research. We have Fab Lab, Tissue culture, Microbiology lab, precision farming lab, Food processing lab, product design lab etc.
ii) Education Program:
We have several programs for students of various academic backgrounds
→ DBRT (Diploma in Basic Rural Technology) : Agr group 16-20 years
→ Vocational education in schools / STEM Education / ATL support program / Pre-vocational program etc
iii) Entrepreneurship Development program :
Vigyan Ashram is supporting people willing to start their own enterprises. Support in the form of training, mentoring, making a business plan, marketing etc
Vision of Vigyan Ashram
Our founder Dr.S.S.Kalbag spelled out his vision for Vigyan Ashram. We at Vigyan Ashram are taking inspiration from this vision and trying to interpret it again and again in the new context and changing times.


Vision of Dr.Kalbag
“ I would like to see India prosper and be a pathfinder to the rest of the world. This will happen only when everyone can reach his or her own full potential. Hence raise the lowest.
My stress is therefore on the education of the rural people. I believe intelligence is developed and not inherited. Activity based thinking is the source of intelligence.
Good education has to be based on diverse experiences and for this, real life is the best educator.
In our society, we need to develop courage to act on our convictions and be willing to pay the price. Many of us do not act on our own beliefs and we seem to be “stage acting” for all the time. We believe only in symbolic acts not acts for results.
I feel like an inventor. My invention is the educational system that integrates education and development, one that is close to the real everyday life and which costs so little to implement.
My vision is that one day I will see this invention spread all over India in all the schools.
My vision is that every village will have the equipment and the skills that are the basis of all modern industry. My industry, my invention will achieve this at a very low cost.
My vision is that youth coming out of this system, in villages all over, will be handymen, who are at home with a variety of skills and can concretize their ideas. They are inventors at their level.
My vision is that a majority of the rural section will thus get access to most modern techniques and this will spur development from the grass-roots and ultimately, propel India into the new age.
My vision is that India will, one day, be at the forefront of a new civilisation. Now I have put my vision in black and white, as clearly as I can. But it is not possible to describe a vision in words. I hope I can show a glimpse of it in my own action “.
– Dr. S. S. Kalbag
Present programs of Vigyan Ashram are guided by this vision. We are also excited by the possibilities of ‘Third Industrial Revolution(TIR)’. We believe India and especially rural India will benefit from the emergence of third Industrial technologies. Which are mainly renewable energy, energy grid across the globe like internet grid, distributed manufacturing, 3D printers and every house and farm becoming a power plant.
We believe India cannot afford to loose this opportunity presented by TIR. Our education system needs to be geared up for TIR. Vigyan Ashram therefore wants to play a role in this transition.
We want to integrate education with development. We want to use absence of development in the community as an opportunity to give hands on training to our students. We want to encourage use of technology to solve our development problems and also to increase pace and efficiency of our efforts.


To achieve this Our mission is : To strive for development oriented society having scientific temper through Education. To achieve this, we want to become national resource center for research, development and training for transformation towards ‘Nai Talim’ system of education and related social policies.
Read more about the Philosophy about Vigyan Ashram in the book. Click here to download the book.