A local engineer who came up with a robotics training start-up last year, announced on Saturday he would adopt 70 slum children to sharpen their start-up culture.

A initiative was launched by young entrepreneur Akshay Ahuja under which these children will be trained on a fortnightly basis.

"Seventy slum children will be trained on a fortnightly basis at the co-working space, which has a number of start-ups working from its premises now," Ahuja told.

He said the participating children were brought in a radio cab to give the feel of an entrepreneur and were even trained how to use the mobile application to promote Digital India. They were explained the basics of robotics on the first day. They were also given away certificates to acknowledge their participation in the workshop, Ahuja said.

Trained by the Chandigarh-based RoboChamps, Tushar Sarin, a class VIII student of Vivek High School here, would be part of the training module.

RoboChamps is a sister concern of Robotics Education World being run by Ahuja and is engaged in providing robotics- and technology-based education to the young minds through schooling education in India.

Ahuja said this initiative would bring a smile on the faces of the slum children.

"I have always felt education is for everyone irrespective of the social status. I felt these underprivileged kids who are otherwise deprived of quality education must be trained. Who knows some of them turns out to be an entrepreneur one day," he said.

Former Indian Administrative Service officer Vivek Atray, who attended the training programme, said: "It's highly important for the society at large to encourage children from underprivileged background to shine and realise their potential."