Spokesperson Profile Rishabh Khanna Rishabh Khanna is the Cognitive Scientist and Co-founder of Suraasa, a teacher training and accreditation platform. He belongs to Karnal, Haryana, a city widely regarded as an education hub. Rishabh has earned a degree in mechanical engineering from a leading college in New Delhi. After graduating from college in 2008, Rishabh joined Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) one of the largest and most prestigious IT companies in India. While he excelled at HCL, Rishabh keenly felt he had a higher calling. This prompted him to start a research company with a friend. The firm he started enjoyed considerable success. It counted the Ministry of Defence among its list of illustrious clients. In 2010, while working on a research project for an education company, Rishabh got a taste of the education system in India. He worked on the project for three months and having understood the education industry better than most, Rishabh fell in love with its possibilities and grasped its shortcomings. That’s when he decided to do something in education. He didn’t realise then that his decision would lead to him founding his own company in the learning space. In 2010, Rishabh founded Les Transformations, an education company, and began delivering programs to students and education providers. The following year he began to learn cognitive sciences. His interest in research led Rishabh to collect evidence about whether Les Transformations activities were having an impact on the lives of those it touched. He envisioned Les Transformations as a company with a purpose whose actions met an objective and served a purpose. He wanted the company to reflect his personality by making sure it asked “Why?” before undertaking an activity. While delivering programs to students and schools, Rishabh had at the top of his mind the need to know how his work was impacting students in the long term. He wanted to know what Les Transformations was delivering that would change the course of students lives. Rishabh soon realised that teachers are the ones who have the most impact on students. Upon this realisation, he switched his focus to training teachers so they could positively impact students. Rishabh and his organisation began focussing on collecting data about teachers, and began working for and with teachers. In 2013 his organisation was awarded a project by the CBSE and trained over 20K teachers in just one year. Training 20K teachers gave the organisation massive insights into what teachers across the country were feeling. Les Transformations was training teachers from across rural, semi-urban, and urban areas, so it got a good feel of the challenges faced by a wide range of educators. It also understood what teachers required. Having gained many crucial insights into the worldview of teachers, Rishabh probed further. He wanted to learn what can help a teacher create magic as soon he or she enters a classroom. Rishabh successfully identified a few things and incorporated them into sessions he took. Subsequently, Rishabh and his team saw magic happen as soon as they entered to take a class. Buoyed by their findings, Rishabh and his team began to study the most effecting ways of teaching. They also started studying international teaching standards, began talking to professors across the globe, and connecting with professionals in the education space. In 2016, by mapping their global finding to data from India, Rishabh found that India was a laggard in education. He found that in advanced countries, teachers spent an average of 100 to 150 hours every year learning new things. By contrast, in India, teachers spend a mere 6 to 8 hours every year learning new skills. From his past research, Rishabh knew that Indian teachers spent so little time learning because they have a hefty workload. By this time, Rishabh had a sophisticated enough understanding of cognitive science to create a technology-enabled platform that could teach educators. In 2017, this understanding prompted Rishabh to create Suraasa, a platform that trains aspiring educators and teachers who are in service. Suraasa teaches educators skills that prepare them for teaching. As a result leading schools, that pay well, recruit Suraasa certified teachers. In 2018 Rishabh took Suraasa to Dubai, and the same year, launched the platform in the Emirate. In 2019, Suraasa launched its teaching qualification PGCTL in Dubai and the UK. PGCTL is mapped to international teaching standards. Today Rishabh leads Suraasa’s research and development team, content team, and growth and expansion team. In his free time, Rishabh loves to write and read. He is working on a few books related to education which he soon expects to publish. Also, Rishabh loves travelling. He has travelled to many parts of India and backpacked across several overseas destinations. He has a good command over French and knows enough Arabic to get by. He also has a keen interest in psychology.

Rishabh Khanna is the Cognitive Scientist and Co-founder of Suraasa, a teacher training and accreditation platform. He belongs to Karnal, Haryana, a city widely regarded as an education hub. Rishabh has earned a degree in mechanical engineering from a leading college in New Delhi. After graduating from college in 2008, Rishabh joined Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) one of the largest and most prestigious IT companies in India. While he excelled at HCL, Rishabh keenly felt he had a higher calling. This prompted him to start a research company with a friend.

The firm he started enjoyed considerable success. It counted the Ministry of Defence among its list of illustrious clients. In 2010, while working on a research project for an education company, Rishabh got a taste of the education system in India. He worked on the project for three months and having understood the education industry better than most, Rishabh fell in love with its possibilities and grasped its shortcomings. That’s when he decided to do something in education. He didn’t realise then that his decision would lead to him founding his own company in the learning space.

In 2010, Rishabh founded Les Transformations, an education company, and began delivering programs to students and education providers. The following year he began to learn cognitive sciences. His interest in research led Rishabh to collect evidence about whether Les Transformations activities were having an impact on the lives of those it touched. He envisioned Les Transformations as a company with a purpose whose actions met an objective and served a purpose. He wanted the company to reflect his personality by making sure it asked “Why?” before undertaking an activity.

While delivering programs to students and schools, Rishabh had at the top of his mind the need to know how his work was impacting students in the long term. He wanted to know what Les Transformations was delivering that would change the course of students lives. Rishabh soon realised that teachers are the ones who have the most impact on students. Upon this realisation, he switched his focus to training teachers so they could positively impact students.

Rishabh and his organisation began focussing on collecting data about teachers, and began working for and with teachers. In 2013 his organisation was awarded a project by the CBSE and trained over 20K teachers in just one year. Training 20K teachers gave the organisation massive insights into what teachers across the country were feeling. Les Transformations was training teachers from across rural, semi-urban, and urban areas, so it got a good feel of the challenges faced by a wide range of educators. It also understood what teachers required. Having gained many crucial insights into the worldview of teachers, Rishabh probed further. He wanted to learn what can help a teacher create magic as soon he or she enters a classroom. Rishabh successfully identified a few things and incorporated them into sessions he took. Subsequently, Rishabh and his team saw magic happen as soon as they entered to take a class.

Buoyed by their findings, Rishabh and his team began to study the most effecting ways of teaching. They also started studying international teaching standards, began talking to professors across the globe, and connecting with professionals in the education space. In 2016, by mapping their global finding to data from India, Rishabh found that India was a laggard in education. He found that in advanced countries, teachers spent an average of 100 to 150 hours every year learning new things. By contrast, in India, teachers spend a mere 6 to 8 hours every year learning new skills. From his past research, Rishabh knew that Indian teachers spent so little time learning because they have a hefty workload. 

By this time, Rishabh had a sophisticated enough understanding of cognitive science to create a technology-enabled platform that could teach educators. In 2017, this understanding prompted Rishabh to create Suraasa, a platform that trains aspiring educators and teachers who are in service. Suraasa teaches educators skills that prepare them for teaching. As a result leading schools, that pay well, recruit Suraasa certified teachers.

In 2018 Rishabh took Suraasa to Dubai, and the same year, launched the platform in the Emirate. In 2019, Suraasa launched its teaching qualification PGCTL in Dubai and the UK. PGCTL is mapped to international teaching standards. Today Rishabh leads Suraasa’s research and development team, content team, and growth and expansion team. 

In his free time, Rishabh loves to write and read. He is working on a few books related to education which he soon expects to publish. Also, Rishabh loves travelling. He has travelled to many parts of India and backpacked across several overseas destinations. He has a good command over French and knows enough Arabic to get by. He also has a keen interest in psychology.