Vidyagyan was established in 2009 by the Shiv Nadar Foundation, as India's first rural leadership academy for meritorious and underprivileged students from the state of Uttar Pradesh. A residential academy, VidyaGyan aims to drive transformation in the country by investing in the youth and catalyzing them into future leaders. It combs all the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populated state, to identify meritorious, rural students from economically underprivileged backgrounds.