Takanobu Tanaka, a senior official of the Tokyo-based Ricoh company, called on Anand Kumar at his Super 30 academics and discussed their partnership in imparting quality education at the primary level to students studying in government schools and those who cannot afford to go to public schools due to poverty.
Ricoh strives to solve social problems through technology, products, services and human resources and to support community development efforts in developing countries.
"In the first phase, we will focus on primary education and later take it forward in other directions, including environment education," Tanaka said.
He profusely praised Anand Kumar's efforts to help students from deprived sections qualify for IITs, which he said, he saw in a feature on Super 30 on a Japanese TV channel.
"India has the largest population of young people in the world. Many children cannot study due to poverty. We want to make technology accessible to schools and make them use it effectively by ensuring capacity building," Tanaka said.