Future belongs to those who see possibilities even in failures. Alex Andrews George, an engineering graduate from upper Kuttanad, was unable to clear the Union Public Service Commission interview twice but it did not dither him from launching a successful online start-up, ClearIAS, for Civil Services aspirants.
Drawing on his experience, Mr. George, 31, decided to host his own website offering free online coaching for Civil Services examinations (CSE). Creating websites was a passion for Mr. George while he was doing B.Tech. in Biotechnology at the Sree Chithira Tirunal College of Engineering in Thiruvananthapuram. His web baby clearias.com was born in 2012, providing hope to scores of civil services aspirants who were unable to join expensive coaching classes.
Mr. George says his ClearIAS is a social start-up with a noble vision and mission of educating India. With 15 lakh page views a month, clearias.com is now one of the most popular online coaching initiatives, he says.
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“Free or affordable education is my mission. I am getting support from a group of friends in the civil services as well as academics and IITians in updating study materials and preparing question papers,” he says.
Taking cue from the success of his online venture, Mr. George launched its mobile app ClearIAS in 2014, which has more than 3,50,000 downloads.
“The ClearIAS Facebook page with more than 3.5 lakh followers is also one of the most popular social media pages of an online education initiative. The ClearIAS Mock Exam platform with more than 1,00,000 registered users is India’s biggest mock exam platform for the CSE,” he says.
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“We got thanksgiving messages from 10 successful candidates in 2016,” he says.