MUMBAI: India has no shortage of educated professionals. Yet millions continue to depend on a single salary, despite possessing years of knowledge, professional experience and skills that could potentially create far greater value.
For entrepreneur and Active Income Coach Deven U Pandey, this gap between knowing and earning has become a personal mission.
As the Founder & CEO of Ira Skills, Pandey is building an education ecosystem around a simple philosophy he calls K2I — Knowledge to Income: education should not end when a person acquires knowledge; it should help them convert that knowledge into measurable outcomes.
“India doesn’t have a talent problem. We have an implementation problem. Millions of people know more than they realise, but nobody has shown them how to convert that knowledge into value and income,” says Deven U Pandey.
A Journey That Started Long Before Ira Skills
Pandey’s relationship with entrepreneurship began unusually early.
He started experimenting with earning and selling at around the age of 11. His journey later took him through employment, entrepreneurship and an interior-design business before financial challenges forced him to rethink his own career and future.
Those experiences eventually contributed to the creation of Ira Skills.
Rather than positioning education purely around certificates, Pandey began focusing on a question that would later become central to his work:
Can learning directly improve someone’s career, income and independence?
That question ultimately evolved into his Knowledge-to-Income philosophy.
Beyond the Single-Salary Mindset
One of Pandey’s strongest beliefs is that Indian professionals need to rethink their relationship with income.
A job can provide stability and professional growth, but he believes individuals should also develop capabilities that give them greater control over their earning potential.
His work increasingly focuses on helping professionals explore opportunities in areas such as consulting, coaching, freelancing and skill-based services while continuing to strengthen their primary careers.
The objective isn’t to tell people to leave their jobs.
It is to help them become less financially dependent on a single opportunity.
“My message is not ‘quit your job.’ My message is ‘increase your capability.’ Your salary can be one income, but your knowledge should have the potential to create many opportunities,” Pandey explains.
Information Nahi, Implementation Chahiye
At the centre of Pandey’s teaching is another simple principle:
“Information nahi, implementation chahiye.”
In an age where tutorials, courses and information are available everywhere, he believes the next evolution of education will be measured by what students are able to do after learning.
That means asking harder questions:
Did the learner implement the skill?
Did it improve their career?
Did they create a project?
Did they acquire a client?
Did their income improve?
Did their confidence and professional identity change?
This outcome-first thinking has become an important part of the culture Pandey is attempting to build through Ira Skills.
Building a Larger Mission
Today, Ira Skills says it has trained more than 5 lakh learners across its learning ecosystem, with programs spanning AI, Excel, Power BI, SQL, data analytics, career development and income-oriented skills.
But Pandey believes the opportunity ahead is significantly larger than building another training company.
His long-term ambition is to contribute to a shift in the Indian education system — from information-led education to implementation-led education.
He envisions an India where professionals do not measure education only through degrees and certificates, but through capability, implementation and real-world outcomes.
“I want education to give people more than knowledge. It should give them confidence, capability and economic opportunity. If we can help millions of Indians discover what they are capable of and teach them how to convert that potential into value, that is the revolution I want to be part of.”
For Pandey, that mission can ultimately be summarised in three words:
Knowledge. Implementation. Income.
And his ambition is to take that philosophy to millions of Indians.
About Deven U Pandey
Deven U Pandey is an entrepreneur, Active Income Coach and Founder & CEO of Ira Skills. His work focuses on skill development, AI-enabled learning, career growth, second-income creation and helping professionals convert knowledge into economic opportunities through his K2I — Knowledge to Income philosophy.
