Pankajkumar Shah

Introduction of

Mr. Pankajkumar K. Shah

An Activist and Promoting Jainism as the most Environmentally Friendly Religion

Pankajkumar K Shah (Pankaj) is an owner of a small nuclear Engineering consulting company providing international consultations for the design of nuclear power plant components, specifically nuclear reactor vessels. Please visit Magnus Engineering Services, Inc. to learn about his professional background.

As a member of the Jain community, he believes that it is the responsibility of each Jain person to make our voice heard for all global and national issues that are an integral part of Jainism. He firmly believes in animal rights, protecting bio-diversity, eradicating meat based diets, and protecting the planet from climate change. He has been a member of numerous organizations for over 25 years that support his views. His favorite organizations which he regularly supports by donations and membership are: Sierra Club, Green Peace, Natural Resource Defense Council, Nature Conservancy, World Wild Life Fund, Audubon Society, etc. He also encourages all Pathshala students to join such organizations in their adult lives.

About Me

  • Education

    BS (India),
    MS (Tulane Uni.),
    MS Electrical (Uni. of Tenn.),
    MBA (Uni. of Tenn.),
    P.E., Professional Engineer License in Massachusetts

  • Assist in Eradicating Illiteracy in Gujarat by the TMST - A Jain Organization:

    Pankaj is an avid reader of the magazines such as Economist, Time and Bloomberg Business Week. He is appalled to repeatedly read, year after year, about the deteriorating and alarming education system in India. India ranks in the bottom 15% among the developing countries, let alone in comparison with the developed countries. He has felt compelled to address the situation, whatever little he can do. The rest of this article describes his untiring journey.

    Several years ago, his parents passed away, and his childhood house stood empty in Godhara (India). He wanted to keep his parents’ house in their memory and did not want to sell it. He started free tutoring classes for grades 5th through 8th in the house five years ago. Five teachers started tutoring mathematics, English, and science. There are four rooms in the house are used as classrooms. This program, from the start, became popular and also successful. Around 40 students attend in shifts with a total of around 80 students. All teachers are fully paid at the going rate of compensation.

    During this process he has filed paperwork to start a trust named “Tirthankar Mahavir Shrutgyan Trust” (TMST). This name was blessed by a renowned Jain Sadhu.

    All the students who attend are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who cannot afford private tutoring. It is an unfortunate trend in Gujarat that most all students attend private tutoring classes if they can afford it, due to a shortage of qualified and experienced teachers in regular schools.

    After successful running the free tutoring program for nearly two years, he opened other two centers in different parts of the town where there was a large population of the economically disadvantaged families. Each center ran one shift and had around 30 students. Note: These classes were closed for nearly 15 months due to the pandemic, and now they are being re-opened.

Launching of Free Video Tutorials by TMST – Phase I

Pankajbhai, seeing an urgency in the youth education, hired three companies to produce e-Learning video tutorials for mathematics, English, and science for grades 5th through 10th.

Our Goal: “The Tirthankar Mahavir Shrutgyan Trust (TMST) is a privately funded organization. Our goal is simple: No child in Gujarat should fall behind in their education because of a lack of resources or inadequate facilities because of where they live. We want to put self-learning tools directly in their hands using modern technology. All they need is a smart phone with internet connectivity. All e-Learning videos will be freely available.”

After an effort of one year the first part was launched in February 2021 in Ahmedabad. This event was organized at a premier location, The Gujarat Vishvakosh Trust, in Ahemdabad and it was well attended by dignitaries involved in education.

Launching of Free Video Tutorials by TMST – Phase II

“A significantly extended version of the free e_Learning Video Tutorial was launched in November 2021 at the Gujarat Sports Club in Ahmedabad. Our efforts focus on to make at least 200,000 students as regular students in the first year”. After five years The TMST should be known to all students attending Gujarati medium school.

He says “We have very ambitious goals to prepare the Gujarati youths as the most learned and talented youths in India in five years. We have set our own standards of basic literacy. At this time, especially with the pandemic, this is extremely critical. The economically disadvantaged families who cannot send their children to Pre-KG or KG and have lost nearly two years in early education because of the pandemic, these children most likely will never pass higher secondary exams without the self-help of e-Learning tutorials.”

Future Goals of TMST

Pankajbhai has so far declined any financial supports by others at this time. He does not either accept any voluntary services from anyone, except by his family members. All teachers and e-Learning tutorial developers have been paid professionally going rates. TMST is truly a charitable organization. He plans to significantly broaden the management structure and bring outside professionals to manage TMST organization. Please visit www.TMStrust.org to learn more about TMST.

Final Notes

He is an avid lover of Hindustani Classical Music. He enjoys playing violin, flute and piano. His single most favorite artist is Ustad Vilayat Khan. While it is a dream of his to start free e_Learning tutorials for music, he also understands that there is no substitute for learning music personally from a highly trained teacher.