Manas Dalai Foundation is a Section 8 not-for-profit. We began with one student in coastal Odisha. Six recognitions later, we registered a foundation to do it properly, and at scale.
In much of India, whether a bright child finishes school comes down to whether one adult can find the fees that year. Not ability. Not ambition. Cash flow.
That is a solvable problem, and it is small money against the size of the result. A sponsorship that costs less than a family's monthly grocery bill can be the difference between a child who sits their board exams and one who does not.
Manas Dalai Foundation exists to close that gap, and to keep closing it — year after year for the same child, not for a single photogenic term.
We would rather change ten lives completely than touch a thousand briefly. — Our founding principle
Give people the things that compound — an education, decent health, an income, and someone in their corner who knows how things work.
Sponsoring a child end to end — fees, books, uniform, exam costs — and staying with them year after year rather than for a single term. Alongside school sponsorship we support vocational training, digital literacy and skill development.
Health awareness camps, clean water projects, nutrition support and care for those the system tends to miss — the elderly, the destitute, and children without families.
Income is what makes every other gain stick. We back women-led enterprise, self-help groups and rural employability so that families can hold on to progress once we step back.
Our memorandum lets us do something most welfare foundations cannot: give real business guidance. We bring entrepreneurship, intellectual property and management advice to institutions and non-profits that need it and cannot pay for it.
Abantika was in Class IX at a government school in coastal Odisha when we took on her costs. In the 2024–25 academic year she came first in long jump, second in the 200 metres, third in the debate competition, and third in an international essay competition — then represented her school at the district-level Prerana Utsav.
She was also named Student of the Year.
The point is not the trophies. It is that none of this was unlocked by anything clever. It was unlocked by removing a financial obstacle and then not going away.
Manas Kumar Dalai is the founder and Chief Executive of InvestSphere. Vineeta Manas Dalai is a director of the foundation. Both are listed on the incorporation documents with their occupation given as social service — which is the part they would want mentioned.
They fund the foundation's running costs personally, so that money raised from others goes to programmes rather than overheads.
Sponsorship, CSR partnership, or an hour of your time — all three move this forward.