MUMBAI: For the first time, Shankar Mahadevan brought the Annual Global Meet – Sangam – in Mumbai to announce the launch of the skill development program ‘My Country My Music’.

The initiative, a result of collaboration between Shankar Mahadevan’s academy and Connect India, announced of its newly found partnership at the prestigious NCPA in Mumbai.

The purpose of the collaboration would involve connecting rural India to the world through the medium of music, believes the Founder and CEO of Connect India, LR Sridhar. “Our objective is to reach 500,000 villages in India, who would otherwise have minimum or no access to music professors and classes.” Connect India would handle the logistic side of the initiative, whereas Shankar Mahadevan Academy would undertake the responsibilities on the musical front.

Founder and CEO of the Shankar Mahadevan Academy, Sridhar Ranganathan said, “The academy has reached 62 countries till date. Now, we will focus on expanding within India. The idea is to set up computers and be virtually present to teach these students about various genres of music. Apart from that, we have tied up with schools where the program would extend, and wherever necessary, physical networking would take place in order to achieve our goal.  “My Country My Music”. We believe our technology coupled with that of Connect India’s distribution network will do wonders to this endeavor. The academy will also look forward to partnering with Meghshala as a CSR initiative to provide skill development to the unprivileged”.

Mahadevan’s active participation towards the initiative boosted the cause further. The composer commented, “We started the Shankar Mahadevan academy five years ago, and after reaching 62 countries, we can proudly say the academy has turned out to be one of the most effective ones. We will continue to work with NGOs and schools to ensure more kids get exposed to music.” On the importance of music and the role it plays to the characteristic shaping of an individual, Mahadevan added, “Kids learn certain rhymes because of its tune. For example – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. What we would do, is to learn these kids the basics of music through these tunes. And we won’t restrict the fundamentals to that. Another good example is how we taught Kannada and Tamil songs to the kids from Jagrati School in Noida. We would use the tool of music to teach Physics, Geography, Politics and so on. It’s a unique initiative.”

Mahadevan acknowledged the need for introducing music schools in the school syllabus. “Yes, the music community has already approached the government for the same cause. We would further push the idea, in fact, also provide the government our syllabus that would be suited for the kids at younger age.”

‘Sangam’ would be a two-day event henceforth, and NCPA hosts an event on July 7 allowing the participating students from across the country for an entire day of performances and interaction.