Welcome to Ramdoot Innovations! First, before you jump to any conclusions: this is a non-commercial site! No ads, no commercial mumbo-jumbo :-) And it is run by an individual — simply on a code-name “Ramdoot Innovations”.
Why then, is the name “ramdoot”? What is the significance of this?
When I decided to get on to the web — in the year 2007, I did not want to reveal my name out (crazy idea, but this was what it was). I needed a fancy name by which I run my blogs, my thoughts, etc. on the web. This name happened to be “ramdoot”.
And what’s that “innovations” doing here?
From a very young age, I have been always fascinated with learning and creating. Creation for me spanned over both physical items - working on electronic projects, complete with PCB creation upto the casing - and, when I learnt basics of BASIC, already beginning to work on creating things that amused me. The first computer that I was lucky to lay my hands on was a BBC-micro in 1987 - something that was not easy in India. It had only BASIC as a language with which you could program in - but that was a great introduction to the world of programming in general.
In the early 90s, it was easy to adapt to an IBM PC, with MS DOS. This was a superb jump into operating systems and internals, and the possibilities that this opens up.
At the hindsight, these were the formative years for creative economy (well, if you consider Software is crafted, not just programmed), and paved the way for a lot of innovations - both in technology as well as in business models! A wave that I was lucky to ride into.
The seeds of ramdoot were sown then, with ideas of owning a space on the internet - it was just not callled "Ramdoot Innovations" - it was simply named randomly. The internet had not penetrated much in India then, but again I was lucky to come across a government run initiative for proving dial-up services to people who would want to experiment with the internet. This is where we - my brother and myself - ran a website for conducting an online test for new software job aspirants. The unique aspect of this test was that you could go online, download your test, fill up the test (via the browser) completely offline, and then go online again to submit. This could sound crazy now - but those were the days of "dialup" - you need to dial into the internet to stay online, and were charged as long as you were online that way - so it made a lot of sense that job aspirants need not stay online for writing the test itself. The software was able to calculate the marks, as well as to make sure that the test is submitted in time - all without any kind of today's infrastructure in place!
That website was taken down after some years of experiments online - because I could no longer afford this volunteerism (yes, all that was FREE, and expenses born by self) but then already gave me enough reasons to remain creative - and hence motivated me to create the next big thing.
Thus was born Ramdoot Innovations. This time, also FREE, because, as before, this is still a voluntary effort - and this time, will remain for long years to come. The idea is to transition this to a supportive-paid structure if I am not able to bear the expenses - but as long as I have my day-job to pay my bills and weekends are available for me to work on this, it will remain FREE!
So, what can you find here?
Pretty much my online presence — which in direct terms means my blogs on the topics of Software Engineering and Technology.
Ok, got it. One final question — is this a personal site?
Well, yes!
Year 2020 — and I am now joined (occasionally) by my family members to help in my next big mission: Ramdoot Innovations has an additional purpose, but before I get there, a bit of history.
It was started with a passion for teaching, the seeds of which, as mentioned before, were sown in the year 2007. Originally, it contained only blog articles in the field of Software Engineering and Technology.
In the year 2020, when there was a large-scale need for quality distance education (thanks to COVID-19) at affordable prices, in keeping with the original theme of the site, we started a huge project of creating online-courses in Physics for 10, 11 and 12th Standard CBSE syllabus. The prevailing rates for taking a tutoring class, especially for Physics, was very high — in the range of ₹300-₹400/hr — and a minimum of 12hrs per month. And that comes to ₹50,400 annually — only for Physics! When you compare this with the fees paid for a regular school (which offer much more than just a subject), these rates are exorbitant!
This high price puts a great deterrent in front of a student wanting to take that additional help to prepare for an exam. And we set out to break this — a mission to bring quality education affordable to all students, regardless of where they are.
In early 2021 was born a brand-new site as you see here. We will build courses in Science (9th and 10th) and Physics (11th and 12th) - complete with video and supplementary materials, as well as conduct online tests that help the students assess themselves.
What is more affordable than FREE? Well, that’s our mission — so this continues to be a non-commercial venture!