NAVEEN JAIN - an entrepreneur with passion to solve grand challenges
with innovations-Born September 6, 1959; grew up in Uttar Pradesh,
India, the son of a civil servant. He became a student of
entrepreneurship at a very age. " When you are poor " he says " and
basic survival is your concern, you have no alternative but to be
entrepreneur.. You must take action to survive, just as an entrepreneur
must take action to seize an opportunity". Jain's actions and
opportunities, ultimately put him on a trajectory to Microsoft, and
then, through his founding of Infospace and Intelius, onto the Forbes
500 list. " My parents drilled into me the importance of education. It
was a gift they themselves never had. I remember how my mother quizzed
me in mathematics first thing in the morning and would often demand,
Don"t make me solve this for you." Little did I know that she coldn't
solve it because she had never been taught math in school. Today we have
the technology , though AI, video games, and smart phones, to quiz
every child on the planet and assure them access to the best education
available. "
Jain signed on as the co chair of X PRIZE's Education
and Global Development Advisory Group, and is now focusing his wealth on
incentive competition to reinvent education and health care in the
developing world. " Technology allowed me to create the capital I now
use for philanthropy," he says, " and I can think of no better use of
these resources than to focus on eradicating illiteracy and disease
around the world. What is truly amazing is that today we actually have
the tools to make this happen."
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