“Entrepreneur Report on”

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“Founder of DRISHTI IAS Coaching: Dr. Vikas Divyakirti”

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“By”
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“Anubhooti Sharma – DIV: ‘A’ PRN: 18010323024”

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“Submitted to”
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Assistant Professor, Dr. Kishore Kumar Yathamsetty

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“Faculty in charge of ICTT II”

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BRIEF INTRODUCTION
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The entrepreneur selected for analysis here is famous teacher, mentor and philosopher Dr. Vikas
Divyakirti who happens to the founder and director of Drishti IAS Coaching Institute in Delhi.
Dr. Divyakirti released that there was a serious dearth of study material and guidance for
preparation of civil services for students from Hindi medium. There was lack of equal
opportunity for students from Hindi medium and their confidence level was low because they
were not fluent in English language. With the establishment of Drishti Coaching Institute in the
year 1999, hundreds of students from Hindi medium backgrounds qualified UPSC and got
selected in civil services. Today, Drishti is regarded as number one coaching institute for civil
services for Hindi medium aspirants and one of the top coaching centers in Delhi for preparation
of Civil Services.
Dr. VIKAS DIVYAKIRTI: EARLY LIFE, MOTIVATION AND QUALIFICATIONS
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Dr. Divyakirti was born and brought up in a middle class family residing in the State of Haryana.
His parents were lecturers of Hindi Literature in Delhi University. Divyakirti as a child thus had
a good exposure with Hindi Literature and Language. As a growing child, Divyakirti was
interested in Hindi poetry and literature. But as he grew up, his dreams transcended and he
wanted to gain knowledge and to do something for society. His appetite for service made him
into a civil servant aspirant. Divyakirti worked hard and qualified civil services in his very first
attempt. However, he was not selected for IAS.

Initially a teacher and writer, Divyakirti has very diverse interests to follow. He was an avid
reader and loved to research about new topics having historical, social or political significance.
He got a BA degree in History from Delhi University. Later on, he changed his subject and did
his MA from Hindi Literature. He also did MA in Sociology and Mass Communication and was
an L.L.B. M.PHIL and P.HD degree holder too. The list does not end here. Divyakirti had a
serious affiliation towards work of translation. Hence, he did his Post Graduation in English-
Hindi Translation. He has also done Diploma in subjects such as psychology, cinematic arts,
philosophy, social issues, and political science with special focus on the Constitution of India.

THE TURNING POINT

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After qualifying civil services in the year 1996 in his very first attempt, Divyakirti, from there on
began to work for the Central Government in Ministry of Home Affairs. This continued for about
one year. But he was not convinced. In one of the interviews, Divyakirti recapitulates, “Though I
had a creamy job and position, my passions were neglected. After a lot of late night
contemplations, I got an answer. I knew my passion was teaching and I decided to return”.
Divyakirti resigned from his job and applied for a job of professor in Delhi University. Later, he
came to know that it will take a while before he can teach Hindi Literature in University of Delhi
as no vacancies were there. Divyakirti decided to wait. But the period of joblessness continued
which made him restless and impatient. Not that he don’t had options with him. He could have
began practicing law, or be a public speaker or could have a made a career as a Hindi writer. But
these were not his true calling. He knew he had knowledge and he wanted to share it with people.
The best way he knew of doing this was teaching, the driving passion which makes him the man
he is today.

DRISHTI: A NEW VISION

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Dr. Divyakirti was eager to polish his teaching skills. The expectations he had of being a
professor in Delhi University could not be seen getting fulfilled in near future. He had to do
something on his own. Vikas kept pondering for a few months about the choices and the
decisions he will have to make soon. Meanwhile, he applied for a job in other universities for
teaching. But the response he was expecting was not realized. After a point of time, Vikas grew
restless of this uncertainty. He was frustrated of writing applications for a job. Soon, he was
convinced that he probably has opted for a wrong choice. He should have continued with his job
as a civil servant and should not have run after his vague and unrealistic ideas of success. But the
unemployment period was taking its toll over him. In spite of so much effort, after two years of
resigning from his job as a civil servant, he had no source of earning and livelihood.
The uncertainty continued. Divyakirti was tired and frustrated and thought that the only thing he
could do cheerfully at a time like this was – to teach. Thus, he decided to take tuitions of students
for various subjects. Vikas was dynamic and he had command over a range of subjects. His
initial hard work for civil services made his concepts clearer and he was good at explaining
them. After taking private tuitions of a couple of students, Vikas goodwill as a teacher began to
flourish. He got feedbacks from his ardent students of setting up a coaching institution where
they can sit together, learn together.

Vikas connected with the idea and in a couple of months, he made all the arrangements. He
rented a small flat in the main market area in Delhi and invested his finances in getting the setup
done. However, the coaching business did not showed up well. Few students came but largely
the business was running into losses. Vikas had to face a setback again. But this time he was not
perplexed. After all this experiment, he knew where exactly was he lagging behind. It was
absence of an integrated organization and a system of management along with marketing and
promotion that held the business back.

Dr. Divyakirti identified the loopholes and started afresh. He contacted his college friends and
people from his inner circle who were ready in making investments and taking efforts of
organizing and promoting the coaching institute. This was led by establishment of DRISHTI in
the year 1999.
THE INITIAL CHALLENGES
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In 1999, Drishti was formally set up as a coaching institute for UPSC aspirants of Hindi
Medium. The institution faced a set of challenges in its initial years. These were as follows:

1. Establishing a systematic organization and ecosystem for preparation

The idea was new and so were the people. Building an educational institute for
preparation was an entirely new experiment for Divyakirti and his team. Those times,
Divyakirti and his team consisted of young people. Young people meant more energy and
will power but less experience. Work had to be divided and departments had to be
separated but simultaneously coordinated with each other.
2. Competition with other well established coaching institutes
Drishti was new into the business of UPSC coaching. When it entered as a coaching
centre in the market, it had to compete with coaching institutes established years ago such
as Vision and Vajiram having much more experience in UPSC teaching methods. These
institutes had a systematic course to offer aspirants and had a team of experts who took
various subjects for both Prelims and Mains examination.
3. Arranging Content and study material
Drishti entered into the coaching business with a promise to aid the preparation of
students from Hindi medium. This meant a lot of extra effort for searching and editing
study content for students in Hindi language. Till now study material and reading content
is much more printed and sold in English than it is available in Hindi.
4. Giving best facility to students and generating results
The most difficult task was to offer quality teaching to students to aid them to crack
India’s toughest competitive exam, i.e. the Civil Services. For this, roadmap of teaching
course had to be made systematically keeping in mind the constraints of time and
management. For coaching institute to expand, it was not just important to offer quality
teaching but also to generate results. Hence, the competitive approach had to be adopted
and a strategy had to be made.
Initially very few students turned up for enrolment. This indeed disappointed the entire team of
Drishti. For the first seven years, Drishti stood nowhere when it was about generating toppers or
qualified candidates for UPSC. The other institutes were doing far well than what Drishti had to
offer. Drishti was unheard and unrecognized and its network remained limited. Drishti won the
attention of aspirants in 2006, exactly after seven years of its establishment when finally; a hindi
medium student from Drishti Coaching secured Rank 3 in the UPSC examination. This managed
to gather a lot of attention of Hindi medium aspirants who wished to compete and succeed in the
race. Popularity of Drishti increased multifold and enrolment rate boosted with a rocket speed in
the next batch.

THE DIGITAL BOOM: A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

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After 2005, technology witnessed an advancement and digitalization of things increased

multifold. Though internet came way back in 90s but its usage became popular amongst the
general public at this time. With digitalization, came a lot of ease and comfort for Drishti.
Divyakirti, a person who understood the process of marketing and promotion knew its
significance. Gradually, Drishti shifted its focus towards building its online base and attracting
aspirants.

Along with digital promotion and marketing, Drishti launched new online courses for ranging
from a crash course of four months to a foundation course for one and half years for preparation
of prelims and mains respectively. Through online communication, doubt clearing sessions for
students were now held more frequently. Online Apps were launched simultaneously to facilitate
students with online study materials, PDFs of current affairs and previous years question papers.
Towards the end of 2008, Divyakiti decided to expand his coaching business and started teaching
courses for aspirants of both Hindi and English Medium. Popularity grew, team of Drishti
expanded, and more people joined in.
VIKAS AS AN ENTREPRENEUR: SKILLS WHICH LED TO GREAT SUCCESS
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The Teacher

Popular within his educational fraternity for his explanation methodology and excellent
vocabulary, Divyakirti has a phenomenal range as a teacher. It is not just his knowledge that
grabs attention but the atmosphere of learning he creates in his classrooms.

Divyakirti likes to teach in depth, to get into the core of each topic, and then finally goes even
beyond connecting other significant events and topics which are relevant to know and
understand. This is what his students call as ‘practical learning’. Divyakirti does not only explain
a topic for writing answers for mains. He likes to create a discussion around that topic and likes
to extracts opinions from his usually mute audience. This process of discussing ideas and
concepts leads to formation of new opinions which becomes a part of an active learning process.

Divyakirti understands the importance of having opinions on different subjects of social,

educational, political and administrative relevance for a civil service aspirant. He loves the
process of analysis and interpretation. According to Divyakirti, the real fun part of studying is
analysis of information and formation of ideas. The craze of Divyakirti’s teaching is so much
that at a time he takes class of approximately 2000 students. Students who fail to grab a seat
stand patiently for long hours just to listen and learn from him.

The Strategist

For a teacher, generating results from his student lobby is as important as imparting them quality
teaching and making them understand the twisted concepts. For this, effort has to be made from
the student end as well. But most of the efforts of the aspirants are not well strategized and well
directed. Due to the unending vast syllabus and difficult pattern of examination, students often
get confused on the areas they need to focus upon. A lot of time gets wasted and little is done if
all this is not strategized. Divyakirti understands this and thus believes in sharing strategies about
the approach to be adopted, time management and the sources to be referred.
For example, in one of his concept note sessions, he guides the students about the information
which needs to be carefully filled in one’s DAF. In another instance, he puts across a scheme of
entire fee return for the course for students who will write all mains paper given in the test series.
This way, he makes his students do the practice of answer writing, i.e. one of the essential skills
an aspirant needs to master in order to qualify the Mains Examination.

The You Tuber and the Influencer

Dr. Divyakirti successfully runs his Drishti Youtube Channel. This channel is very popular
amongst the UPSC aspirants and people who are preparing for other competitive exams.
Presently, the channel is having a subscriber base of approximately 56 lakh. This huge subscriber
figure has been possible only because of the initiatives and efforts of Dr. Divyakirti. Dr.
Divyakirti, along with his team uploads various videos on different concepts and subjects
ranging from history, polity, ethics, economics, and law and so on.

However, the channel doesn’t curtail itself with sharing of study-related content. It analyses
topics having political or social significance which benefit viewers from all sectors of life. Very
recently, after the suicide of Late Bollywood Actor, Sushant Singh Rajput, Divyakirti, who felt a
social responsibility towards his students and well wishers, shared a video on You Tube,
explaining “Depression” as a Mental Illness, its causes and symptoms and methods or activities
which can be applied in order to prevent or fight depression. Another recent video made was
about tips on spending the lockdown period wisely.

His ability to speak with utmost conviction, explain his viewpoint in the most practical and
systematic way, and interact with his audience even when speaking behind the camera has made
him a celebrated figure in You Tube’s educational fraternity. Each of his videos are viewed,
liked and shared in millions and he has inspired and positively influenced lives of thousands of
people through You Tube.
The Multitasker

Dr. Divyakirti is an inherent dynamic personality. He likes to do work and lots of work. Even in
Drishti, where he could just run the organization as the Director, he chose to teach and be
amongst the students. He is also positioned as the Principal Editor for “Drishti Current Affairs
Today” a monthly magazine of Drishti which provides a gist of current affairs relevant for
preparation purposes. The media and promotional work is also being done under his able
guidance. Along with all this, Dr. Divyakirti continues to write and edit books of his interests.
His ambitions are all about serving others through his work and he plans to work in future on
some of the social enterprises relating to media sector and education.

CONCLUSION
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Today with the efforts and credit of Dr. Vikas Divyakirti, Drishti Coaching Institute has been
recognized as the best institute for civil services preparation in Delhi. On an average, every year
20 to 25 students who qualify for civil services are students of Drishti Coaching.

Students who are into self study or from some other coaching institutes also join Drishti after
Mains for interview preparation. Drishti Coaching each year organizes an expert panel of five for
conducting mock interviews of students who have qualified Mains Examination. The videos of
these mock interviews are subsequently uploaded on the You Tube Channel where others
aspirants are benefitted in respect of analyzing mock interviews and identifying the appropriate
personality and behavioral traits that is expected during the interview process. A portion of
revenue which is generated by the Institute is spent of philanthropically. Scholarship programs
are regularly launched to aid and assist aspirants coming from poor financial backgrounds.

Dr. Divyakirti’s Drishti has been a blessing for UPSC aspirants, especially for those who belong
to Hindi Medium category. The service of Dr. Divyakirti has enriched lives of thousands of
aspirants. The institute which was established to come out of a financial instability and
unemployment is now known to be an epitome of quality education, knowledge and service for
India’s toughest competitive examination – UPSC.
BIBLIOGRAPHY / ENDNOTES
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1. Ravish. (2017) All About Vikas Diyakirti. Retrieved February 27.02.2021 from
https://www.dreshare.com/dr-vikas-divyakirti/
2. Supriya. (2019) Biography of Dr. Vikas Divyakirti: Life, Family, Income, Success
Retrieved February 27.02.2021 from https://arealnews.com/vikas-divyakirti/amp/
3. Drishti: The Vision (Official Website) Retrieved February 27.02.2021 from
https://www.drishtiias.com/ (last updated on 21.02.2021)
4. Kamath. (2020) Civil Services Prep: Educationist Dr. Vikas Divyakirti Urges UPSC
Aspirants To Go Digital Retrieved February 27.02.2021 from
https://www.republicworld.com/india-news/education/upsc-prelims-dr-vikas-divyakirti-
covid-19-coronavirus-online-education.html
5. Divyakirti. (2014) Appeal for Changes in UPSC Pattern Retrieved February 27.02.2021
from https://www.aajtak.in/india-today-hindi/rashtra/story/how-to-roll-back-change-
217070-2014-08-05
6. Dhanesh. (2017) Success of Divyakirti’s ‘Drishti: The Vision. Prabhandhan