Aakar - Earn to Learn
The rationale behind this initiative was to provide students with the opportunity to work at the interstices of design education and design services, to understand the link between creativity and business sense. Students participated in a learning experience that extended beyond the regular classroom into real-life, real-time, client-driven design projects that demanded quality work. Aakaar seeks to provide a doorway to future professional practice and that its earnings meet part or whole of the cost of various student needs in areas like generating prototypes, undertaking grassroots field projects involving travel and stay, participation in national and international competitions or conferences and international study tours. The participating students utilized the initiative to do a global study tour covering art and design institutions in the UK, Scotland, Ireland and Italy.

The wider vision of Akar is linked to the need for finding institutional mechanisms and structures that will enable all students access to materials, conferences and rapid prototyping in a way that also encourages them to earn the right to the access. It also provides a means of supporting students who need financial help by providing a way in which they can earn tuition waivers.