Pawan Kumar Chandana, whose company Skyroot launched India's 1st privately built orbital rocket Vikram-1, had once scored only 51 marks in Mathematics. Born and raised in Hyderabad, Chandana developed a deep interest in science and engineering. He cleared IIT exam on his first attempt, completed his studies at IIT Kharagpur, and was recruited by ISRO. He founded Skyroot in 2018.