Prashant Chaudhary Wins Rohini Nayyar Prize

Technology educator Prashant Chaudhary from Dehradun has won the fifth Rohini Nayyar Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Rural Development. Former NITI Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant presented the award in New Delhi on 31 October 2026. It comprises ₹10 lakh, a citation and a trophy.

CodeYogi’s rural reach

Chaudhary founded the CodeYogi Foundation and began teaching technology to village students after graduating from IIT Delhi in 2010. He was the first person from his village near Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, to enter an IIT. In 2020, he began scaling the initiative. Its 30-day applied AI fluency programme gives students practical experience using AI tools for study and family tasks. The platform runs on family smartphones and in Indian languages, without computers, laboratories, English or trained teachers. Over the last three years, the model has reached more than 350,000 students in nine states and 120 districts.

Prize background

Instituted in 2022 by the Nayyar Foundation in memory of scholar-administrator Dr Rohini Nayyar, the annual prize recognises people under 40 for contributions to rural development. A jury drawn from civil society, academia and government selected Chaudhary.

Important Facts for Exams

• Community participation: Rural development relies on residents’ participation, since outsiders may not understand local settings, cultures and languages.
• Development priorities: Education, entrepreneurship, and both physical and social infrastructure are recognised as important elements of rural development.
• Locally tailored approaches: Rural areas differ markedly from one another, which underpins the use of varied rural development approaches around the world.