How three IITians transformed education in Kashmir, sending students to IITs and NITs

Two young girls from Kashmir Sadaf Mushtaq and Simrah Mir, shattered barriers by securing 99+ percentile in JEE Main 2025. Sadaf achieved 99.50 percentile, while Simrah secured 99.39 percentile – a milestone for Kashmiri girls in competitive exams.

It didn’t happen overnight. There has been a slow but steady movement in the Valley towards STEM education and preparation for competitive exams.

One of the factors that led to this is three IITians coming together. One of them, Salman Shahid, received the Young Alumni Achiever’s Award at IIT Kharagpur last year. Mr. Shahid with fellow IIT alumni Mubeen Masudi and Imbesat Ahmad boasts of sending at least ten students to IITs and around 80 students to NITs every year from the Kashmir Valley.

The three IITians founded RiSE, a for-profit educational institute in 2015. Based out of Srinagar, they train students to perform well in competitive examinations. During the award ceremony at Kharagpur, Mr. Shahid met 15 Kashmiri students, some being his students. “That’s when I realised how much of an impact our efforts have made,” Mr. Shahid says.

Co-founder Mr. Masudi got into IIT Bombay in 2007. He was only 17-years-old and still remembers the moment he secured admission as if it were yesterday. As a young Kashmiri student, he felt overwhelmed. “It makes me emotional as before that I had never seen people from Kashmir making it to the IITs,” he says.

Though Mr. Masudi is a native of Kashmir, he grew up in other tier-one cities which brought better education opportunities. Due to his father’s transferable job at the Steel Authority of India (SAIL), he spent his formative years in Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi.

He discerned the stark contrasts between the academic opportunities that he had and those of his relatives back in the valley. “I spent some time with my cousins in Kashmi r— they were just like me, economically and intellectually. But the opportunities and circumstances they had were challenging, which to me was quite disheartening”, he says.

Mr. Shahid, originally from Delhi, had spent a few years of schooling abroad. While still in college, Mr. Shahid and Mr. Ahmad had been involved in teaching school students via NGOs in and around Kharagpur. Their passion for education led them to analyze the state of education in Kashmir after they met Mr. Mubeen.

They observed a genuine lack of awareness and access to quality guidance. They found that Kashmiri representation in IITs was nearly non-existent. Those who did make it were students who could afford coaching outside Kashmir. This glaring gap in access motivated them to create an institution that would level the playing field for Kashmiri students. “Why should every Kashmiri student have to go to Kota for JEE preparation? Why can’t they get good resources to prepare for it in Kashmir itself?”, they say.

What began as a small initiative with a handful of students has now become a platform that is able to allow hundreds of young Kashmiris to dream big. The trio initially thought to work on it for two years. “If it didn’t work out, we could always go back to corporate jobs,” says Mr. Shahid whose parents were not happy with this decision.

In 2015, starting an IIT coaching institute in Kashmir was not the done thing. Initially, they had a few supporters. “When we started, some people even called us frauds,” Mr. Masudi says. By 2016, four RISE students had made it to the IITs, and their success story made it to the front page of a national daily. Since then, every year, RISE students have been making it to the IITs. Around 150 students enroll at the institute every year.

Challenges before RiSE

Mr. Masudi who moved to Kashmir at the age of 21 to start RISE says it was an emotional decision for him. He had plenty of career options, and paradoxically, that made it easier. He knew that even if RISE failed, he had a strong safety net. He could go to IIM Ahmedabad, take CAT again, join a friend’s startup, or take up a corporate job. “But I wanted my students to have those same opportunities”, says Mr. Masudi.

One of the biggest hurdles RiSE faced in its early years was raising awareness about JEE preparation. Across most of India, students begin preparing for Engineering entrance exams as early as Class 6. However, in Kashmir, the academic culture has traditionally been different. Students primarily focus on board exams and start JEE preparation a few months before the test.

This late start put Kashmiri students at a severe disadvantage compared to the rest of the country. “How can a student from Kashmir compete with someone who has been preparing for years?” says Mr. Masudi.

Convincing parents to support early JEE preparation was another battle. Many dismissed the idea outright, skeptical of its necessity. “Parents used to call us crazy. They simply didn’t believe in it,” Mr. Masudi added.

Even when RiSE tried to demonstrate students’ potential through talent hunts, skepticism persisted. In one instance, the team conducted an exam for 500 students, and the results were promising. Several students performed exceptionally well. However, when Mr. Masudi went to discuss the results with a school principal, he was met with outright rejection. “The principal denied recognising the exam’s results and didn’t allow me to talk to the students.”, says Mr. Masudi.

Political disturbances

Beyond academics, political instability made operations difficult. In 2014, floods shut down the city for months. The 2016 unrest after Burhan Wani’s killing led to a four-month shutdown. In 2019, the abrogation of Article 370 resulted in a six-month curfew with no internet access.

The region’s instability also made it difficult to recruit and retain teachers. Since most of RiSE’s faculty members were from outside Kashmir, periods of unrest often forced them to leave. They have about 15 teachers, most of whom have relocated from different parts of India, are friends from IIT and other networks. After Burhan Wani’s killing Mr. Shahid fled to Delhi along with other teachers. Some never returned. “For outsiders, the perception of Kashmir is intimidating. It’s scary, and that can make them hesitant to join us”, says Mr. Shahid.

IITians turning teachers

The founders of RiSE and various such coaching institutes are part of a larger trend—graduates from India’s top Engineering institutes choosing to start educational ventures instead of taking the conventional corporate route. The stories are more or less similar.

Historically, IIT alumni have dominated the business landscape, founding companies like Flipkart, Ola, Zomato, Snapdeal, and Housing.com. But some have taken a different path. Vinod Kumar Bansal, an IIT-BHU alum, pioneered JEE coaching centers in Kota. The Bansal classes venture became synonymous with JEE coaching in Kota, Rajasthan, transforming it into a major hub for IIT-JEE preparation.

Suresh Kalpathi built a similar empire in Chennai. In 1997, Mr. Kalapathi, an IITian who had gone to the U.S. for a Master’s degree, returned to India and started a company called SSI (Software Solutions Integrated) in Chennai. He pioneered teaching coding and Java courses, and as demand grew, he turned it into a full-fledged brand. Eventually, he acquired Aptech, took an exit from the coaching business, and founded Veranda Learning, which today has both online and offline coaching centers across India.

Financing RiSE

RiSE operates as a for-profit institute, but its financial model is designed to ensure accessibility for students from underprivileged backgrounds. The institute follows a cross-subsidisation approach, where tuition fees cover not just operational costs and staff salaries but also funds scholarships for those in need. “We charge in a way that allows us to sustain ourselves while supporting students. The maximum fee is ₹70,000, but many receive financial aid,” says Mr. Masudi.

While the institute has managed to remain financially stable, the COVID-19 pandemic was a major disruption, they said. “Of course, if Salman or I had chosen corporate jobs like other IITians, we would be earning much more. But we manage smartly and live a decent life. This work is about more than just income — it’s about impact,” says Mr. Masudi.