- Published on June 4, 2025
- In AI Features
EkStep’s Plus One Philosophy for Building AI for Bharat
“We don’t want to end up building inferior tech for inclusion,” Shankar Maruwada asserts. “The best technology should be for those who need it the most.”
- By Mohit Pandey
While Indian startup founders and developers discuss whether building smaller, fine-tuned models is reasonable for the Indian ecosystem, EkStep is quietly building on top of its philosophy to make incremental changes to ensure that users are not bombarded with change.
Sitting down with Shankar Maruwada, CEO and co-founder of EkStep, you quickly realise that this social impact organisation is a continuation of India’s largest-scale transformations—and perhaps, its most ambitious one yet.
The company follows the design philosophy of “Plus One”—a principle that prioritises building products that feel both new and natural to users.
“Plus one means it’s radical, yet practical. It opens your mind, but it still feels familiar,” Maruwada said while speaking with AIM on its
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Mohit Pandey
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.
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