In 1980, Pankaj K Phadnis, son of a District Judge and a school teacher-left Sikh Mohalla, Indore (India)– a lower middle class but highly educated locality, with nothing more than a first class degree in Mechanical Engineering from SGSITS, a premier engineering college. He went on to excel at the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, where he obtained Masters degree in Management in 1990 as a Dean’s Lister right through the multi-national program.

In the middle of a successful career in the unforgiving corporate world, in 1996, he happened to rent the flat where VinayakDamodarSavarkar once lived. This was to prove to be a life changing event for him. Savarkar  (1883-1966) had spent 27 years of his life in prison (1910-1937) as fought to free India from colonial shackles. As a practioner of Realpolitik, he was opposed to utopian non- violent struggle championed by Mahatma Gandhi. When Gandhi was murdered (1948) by a follower of Savarkar, the stigma haunted Savarkar for his life and beyond. Pankaj Phadnis, like countless others believed that Savarkar was wronged. Unlike others, he sought to undo the wrong and succeeded in getting Supreme Court of India to correct a historical wrong.

In 2001, he co-founded Abhinav Bharat as a public charitable trust with his wife – Manjiri,  a renowned Yoga Teacher and their close family friend Meena Prabhu, a Senior Corporate Executive. Another close friend Madhumita Bal,  a Chartered Accountant joined the Trust as a Trustee in 2007. Later Dr. Ashwini Sandu  also joined the Board of Trustees.

By 2008, Phadnis was in the top management echelons of a large Indian Industrial house. He turned his attention to Doctoral Research on  “Designing and Implementing IT Enabled Strategic Management Systems for Universalizing Primary Education”in  University of Mumbai. After earning his Ph.D in 2012, Dr.Phadnis embarked on post doctoral work on “Use of Information Technology to Facilitate Peaceful Indo-Pak Relations to Promote Global Prosperity“ The project resulted in a unique digital literacy course that uses UN Millennium Development Goals to impart social and collaborative skills across political and geographical boundaries.

By 2014 – Dr Phadnis came to a considered conclusion that the tearing apart of multi-religious society in Indian Sub-continent in 1947 amidst unprecedented savagery continues to fuel global terror today and which could any day escalate into Nuclear Armageddon. To him, the answer is revival of People to People contact between India and Pakistan with focus on collaborative education for children across borders by innovative use of technology.

In 2017, he came to be appointed as Senior Advisor Education and Skilling, Tata Education and Development Trust. On October 2, 2017, he managed to persuade the Tata Trust to give a grant for holding a Conference on Promoting International Peace and Prosperity.

During the deliberations that followed, the Trustees of Abhinav Bharat decided to focus on setting up a South Asian University. As a first step towards that, Abhinav Bharat is participating in the Global Outreach Program of the Southern University and AM College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA to offer world class skilling and education to the young in India through India Project. In crystalizing this project, Abhinav Bharat has received invaluable support from the Tata Trusts.