Karnataka boy with no internet builds space startup working with NASA

Karnataka’s Awais Ahmed is now emerging as one of India’s leading young entrepreneurs. Recently, his startup, Pixxel, secured a NASA contract. tThe company he co-founded, will provide hyperspectral Earth-observation data to the civilian space agency. Interestingly, the 28-year-old CEO grew up in a quiet village where the internet had not reached many years. So, what bridged the gap between a small village and outer space? The answer began at home. Awais’s parents help nurture his curiosity with something more powerful than the web.A childhood shaped by booksAwais’s childhood tells a different story. Instead of relying on technology, his father invested in books. Recalling his childhood, Ahmed told The Hindu that his father, Nadeem Ahmed, who runs a pharmacy in Aldur, regularly bought him books on science. “I was fascinated by the solar system, nebulae and black holes. Those books sparked my curiosity about space,” he said.