Aapale Prashna Aapale Vidnyan

आपले प्रश्न आपले विज्ञान (Aapale Prashna Aapale Vidnyan, abbreviated as APAV) is a flagship programme of Unnat Maharashtra Abhiyan. It was conceptualised by Prof. Milind Sohoni in 2021 based on his prior experience of working in the development sector and his association with the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay. Prof. Sohoni argues that science is not just limited to laboratories and big scientific discoveries — it may be studied in the outside world, in our surroundings, using sound and systematic methods.

The idea of the APAV programme is to make students of local higher education institutions step outside the classroom and study their surroundings using sound scientific methods. It aims to:

• enable students to interact with their surrounding society in a constructive manner
• develop suitable interdisciplinary understanding and skills of fieldwork, systematic documentation, analysis and report writing
• strengthen the connection between the community and local colleges through curricular work on local developmental problems

The APAV programme also attempts to take the first step to fill the gap of knowledge products that exist at the local level. This gap is essentially about the lack of systematic documentation and analysis of key developmental needs and challenges such as roads connectivity, electricity, drinking water, water for agriculture, solid waste management, and more.

Prof. Sohoni has been the flagbearer of this idea and has delivered many lectures and written articles to promote it. Some of these lectures and articles may be found here →

Newspaper article titled 'विज्ञानाच्या सामाजिक बाजूबद्दल अनास्था का?' in लोकसत्ता.

Newspaper article titled 'लघुदृष्टी उच्च शिक्षणाची' in लोकसत्ता.

TedX talk on 'Vernacular Science' delivered at IIT Bombay.

The IITB-UMA team supports each college through an orientation session for the principal, HoDs and senior faculty, followed by a one-day in-person faculty training workshop at the college. Faculty are trained using the flipped classroom method — students watch video sessions and work on exercises before in-person meetings with faculty. The team provides course material (video lectures, presentations in English and Marathi, lecture notes), on-demand handholding (in-person and online), and feedback throughout the semester.

In 2024–25, 63 person-days were spent in-person and 65 person-days online supporting 11 colleges through the course — 10 of which were running APAV for the first time.