Roman Saini is no ordinary soul. The 24-year old completed his graduation from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi prior to joining the prestigious IAS. He left both. What made him do this? Lakhs of people our country dream of becoming a Doctor or an IAS officer.
In a Facebook post, Saini wrote, “In 2011, Gaurav Munjal, whom I have known since school as the closest friend, called and spoke about his new idea ‘Unacademy’ which he had started on YouTube by posting a bunch of videos. He (Munjal) had a vision of free education – and he asked me to join him. Four years later, ‘Unacademy’ is now India’s one of the largest YouTube channels with 1.1 crore lessons delivered and over 5 Lakh students benefited,” he said.
Roman was posted as Assistant Collector in Jabalpur. Jabalpur Collector S N Rupla said that Saini had decided to quit the IAS in September last year as he wants to do better at national level. The young IAS officer has started an online initiative “Unaccademy” to offer free tutorials to civil services aspirants, Rupla said, adding that his resignation is yet to be accepted by the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT).
Saini, in the Facebook post, termed the decision to quit his lucrative job as “difficult”, but said he will pursue his passion to take forward ‘Unacademy’ full time.
“Personally, it was a difficult decision to quit the civil services, as I have utmost respect for it. But I believe in Unacademy’s vision of free education, and hence, will be pursuing it full time from now,” he said in the post.