Not waiting to be hired, India's youngest interns are creating

• At Podar, the question isn’t just how to teach using Artificial Intelligence — it’s how to rediscover curiosity in the minds of sixth and seventh graders, those on the cusp of teenage wonder and worldly wisdom.

• Down a different road, in Lohum’s labs where lithium breathes its second life, the story is about the unseen cost of our convenience. Recycling a battery isn’t glamorous. But Lohum thinks it can be a revolution. So, they don’t preach; they invite. They show school kids how a spent cell lights a village lamp, or how reclaimed cobalt brings life to a smartphone.

• Then there’s Sphera, folded into Blackstone’s global holdings, doing what software rarely gets credit for—listening. It calibrates, guides, and tells a factory how to save water, nudging a brand toward better packaging, tracking a footprint before it turns into regret. In Sphera’s world, sustainability hums in the background like a conscience with code.

All of them have something else in common: they’re placing bets on the young—the ones who want to learn more than teachers teach, more than syllabi can hold. Those who don’t wait for a degree to begin working, and for whom the end of school is just the beginning of something else. Every year, close to 10 million students in India take the Class 12 exams. Some follow the line that stretches from campus to cubicle. But a few—fewer still—sidestep that path. They choose the harder question. The unexpected turn.

Across the ocean, Palantir recently announced a fall fellowship for the best and brightest high school graduates—an internship that could become a full-time job. But back home, there are quiet revolutions too. At Mumbai’s RN Podar School , startups working in AI, clean tech, and sustainability are already seeking out bright minds—before they graduate.

“Our toppers are picked early on for short internships. In fact, we’re picking some of our brightest students and placing them where they can build,” says Avnita Bir, director-principal of the school. “This year, some will use AI to design learning modules for sixth and seventh graders .
Others will scrape the internet for alumni data. A third group will produce podcasts on topics relevant to the school.” She doesn’t call them interns. She calls them explorers.

Anubhav Kumar, 19, is already charting his orbit. A former research scholar at UPL and intern at IIT Bombay’s green energy lab, he’s now interning with Sphera, in his first year at IIT Madras, studying AI and data science. “Internships don’t open up easily for the really young,” he says. “But if you bring value, they make space.” He is also an author and wants to start something of his own.

At 18, Arsalaan Alam has already redesigned a donation platform for PayPal in collaboration with Control Alt Delete, an international NGO. He’s won a $10,000 grant from Emergent Ventures, attended the math and rationality camp at UC Berkeley, and worked with California State University East Bay. Now, when he writes code as an engineering student, it isn’t for a classroom—it’s for the real world.Last year, Samarth Anand spent his internship at Gaussian Networks, not fetching coffee but analysing user trends and mapping competition. “What strikes me most about this generation is the intensity of their energy and the clarity of their purpose,” says Prof Rudra Pratap, founding vice-chancellor of Plaksha University. “They’re not waiting to grow older. They’re starting now—building, questioning, creating. Age isn’t a barrier anymore. If they come to us, our job is to match their urgency with opportunity.”

In the Indian tradition, age was never a barrier to education or attainment. Spiritual master Ashtavakra, the guru of Raja Janak, was only 12 years old.

At Lohum, the Greater Noida-based battery recycling company, the youngest interns are ten. They don’t come to build resumes. They come to ask questions—about waste, about energy, about why things must end when they can begin again. “Those who come after Class 12,” says HR manager Tushti Singla,“want to roll up their sleeves and take a closer look at what’s really happening out there.” Most such internships are, however, not paid ones.

But it’s a shift even institutions are noticing. “We’re seeing more young people wanting to build rather than be hired,” says Prof B.S. Murty, Director of IIT Hyderabad. “We’ve had 260 startups emerge from our campus in past five years. So now, we tell our BTech students—if you want to launch your startup after your second year, go ahead. We’ll give you a diploma. You’ll have five years to co