"If small‑town India isn’t future‑ready,” he told me, “the nation never will be."
There is a company in Mysuru called RankBook. It provides internship opportunities to tier‑2/3 undergraduate students from Commerce, BCA, and Arts backgrounds, and operates in the districts of Mysuru, Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, and Ramanagara. I met Chirag R, the founder, yesterday evening in Bengaluru. I was curious why an engineer from Mysuru ventured into the training space targeting tier‑2/3 students, where the ability to pay for courses is very low.
Chirag narrated how it all began in 2017, when his brother’s friend started the initiative in Hassan to help students preparing for competitive exams. He was inspired by his friend’s commitment to quit a high‑paying job in Bengaluru, return to his hometown of Hassan, and work relentlessly to help local talent pursue competitive exams. All his life, Chirag wanted to run a business that created positive social impact, so he joined forces with his brother’s friend and turned the idea into a full venture by 2022.
Since then, RankBook has provided internship opportunities to more than 6,000 students across the five districts of the Mysuru region. Chirag continually approaches colleges to convince them to send students to these internship programs, which reskill them for entry‑level roles in knowledge‑based industries. He has also begun offering training courses in both technical and non‑technical streams and has already trained over 200 students in job‑relevant skills.
Now, he is gearing up to introduce AI skills into all RankBook offerings, ensuring tier‑2/3 students do not fall behind as the world rapidly adapts to AI‑driven change. Building a training business focused on smaller towns is never easy: local economies are small, and students and parents have limited capacity to pay for courses. Yet he refuses to shift focus to big cities, where he could probably earn more. He believes that, unless we reskill the vast masses of students in tier‑2/3 areas, equitable development across India will remain out of reach. Pushing everyone to metros, he argues, would only stunt the growth of smaller towns.
Chirag detailed daily challenges - from limited awareness about reskilling in small‑town colleges and among students (compared with their peers in cities) to government apathy toward ventures like his. Speaking with him felt like meeting a man possessed by his mission, undeterred by these difficulties.
This year, he aims to scale the AI‑infused internship track, expand online trainings, and make the venture self‑sustaining. More power to hustlers like him.
I’m helping Chirag review RankBook’s courseware and line up new internship partners. If you’d like to get involved, comment below and I’ll connect you with him.
#ReskillingIndia