A Solar Powered village who won 5 National Awards 

Situated amidst lush green trees and mountains, is a village named Mukhra K in Telangana which has gone massive transformation from a backward, remote village to five times national awardee. It has become a model village for nearby villages and the chief motivation behind it is Sarpanch Gadge Meenakshi - the lady with a vision. 

The Personal Story

When Meenakshi was a growing kid, she herself faced many challenges and lack of basic facilities in the village. She was able to study upto class 5 in the village and for further studies she has to go out. Most of the girls dropped their studies at that point those days. She somehow managed to study up to class 10th. To pursue her studies she has to walk for kilometres up to highway road to catch the bus for the school.

The Plight of Village

As per Meenakshi ,there was no proper drainage system in the village. Dreams overload on the Pathways making it difficult to walk. That created a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other microorganisms. People defecated in the open and doctors were not staying in the village for long. Littering was another bad habit prevailing in the village. There was nobody in the village to listen to the complaints as the Sarpanch was living far from the village. 

From Plight to transformation

The village remained in this pathetic condition till 2019 when Meenakshi was elected as Sarpanch of the village. The first priority under took by Meenakshi was to stop open defecation completely by building toilets in each household of village so that women should not get embarrassed as they have to go for defecation in the open fields daily. Gram Panchayat finally built toilets in all 210 households in the village under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Apart from it, she constructed soakpits in every house to prevent leakage of water on roads. 

The second important decision taken by her was collecting the waste from village and preparing vermicompost from it. Interestingly, now the village is earning lacks of rupees revenue by selling this vermi compost fertilizer. Gram Panchayat distributed two separate dustbins to every household for collecting dry and wet waste. 

From Solar Power to free Bus Service

The village has also installed two solar powered grids on the rooftop producing 6 kilowatts of electricity. This has made the village self sufficient in energy. Panchayat has installed solar lights in Anganwadi, schools, roadside and Gram Panchayat Bhavan so that the power bill has reduced to zero up till now.

A digital library has also been started by Meenakshi for the school going students so that nobody should get deprived from education due to lack of basic facilities. She has also installed 1000 connections of tap water under Central government's Har Ghar Jal mission scheme. 

She has been the mentor behind planting about one lakh fruit bearing trees along road side. She also encouraged people to use eco friendly cutlery in the weddings. Apart from it, she provided free bus service for pick up and drop for village students to the city so that they should not leave their studies in between. What a spirit!

Achievements

In this process of transformation ,she has used 36 crores of fund from Central and State government to implement various schemes and programs. The village has been awarded several times on national level with awards like Swacchh Sujal Shakti Samman, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Puruskaar, Swacchh Sarvekshan Award and National Gram Urja Swaraj Award. Meenakshi Gadge is a perfect example of will power and spirit to serve the community which has transformed a village in plight to a role model.The society owe to them deep from their heart!

 From a Failure to a Bamboo Entrepreneur

The world is now shifting it's focus towards renewable products and resources more and more as the energy demands are rising and resources are getting depleted. Satyam was once called a "failure" and "Junglee" but now this Bihar based entrepreneur  - Satyam Sundaram is a bamboo entrepreneur earning 25 lakhs per year from his company . After identifying the potential of bamboo as a strong alternative to plastic, this bamboo based business transformed satyam's life altogether. 

Childhood Days and Studies

Satyam belongs to a small village called Lakhanpur of Munger district of Bihar. He completed his pre primary education from a government school where he was carrying his books in a jute sack or Bora. His father was in Bihar police. By the time he was seven, his father get transferred to Purnia and the family also got shifted along with him. When he got enrolled in class 1,he failed in few subjects. As his base was not clear ,he continued to fail in class 2 in maths and English also. He was called a failure. Further his parents admitted him in a convent school but he was thrown out from school stating him as Junglee as he came from village and was not having manners. When her mother tried to be re admit him, she was also insulted. He somehow cleared his board exams from a local School. Satyam shifted to Kolkata for higher studies and completed his BCA degree successfully. Like other individuals from Bihar, he was forced to take up government job for which he appeared in state PCS exam but failed to pass.

Enrolling for MBA - a new start

In 2020, Satyam enroll himself for an MBA course where he felt for the first time that he took the right decision. In his classes of Business Administration,he started raising doubts and was interested in course deeply because the subject resonated with his interests. The MBA course helped Satyam built up good marketing skills, presentation skills and communication skills. During his internship, he worked with companies like ITC and Britannia. He was one of the few good students who got the chance to work with them. He got a free placement offer from ITC and Burger paints also however he decided to start from scratch instead of taking the job. It was actually turning point in his life.

Turning to Bamboo Industry

Instead of accepting the job offer, Satyam wanted to use his business skills by starting his own business. " during my college days, I got introduced with the bamboo industry in the North East. I started researching on bamboo products which one can make by their own. Although I was getting job but I wanted to be the first person to establish bamboo manufacturing unit in Bihar. "Says Satyam. 

During covid period, there was an increasing demand for bamboo products which insisted him to start this business. He started his business by taking 15000 rs from his younger brother and set up a table in the busy market by putting bamboo bottles on it. He was trying to understand the willingness of people to buy the bamboo products. He also wished to promote this eco friendly products and create awareness for them among people. He stood in busy market Street showing posters avoiding plastic use and adopt eco friendly practices. 

In 2022, he got a financial aid of 8 lakh rupees under the scheme PMEGP( Prime Minister Employment generation program) . In mid May, after 1 month of semester examination he launched his company along with his mother.

Company and the Product

Within a time period of one year,he made his customer base across india in states like Maharashtra ,Delhi, Gujarat ,Kerala and Telangana. Presently he is selling about 150 bamboo items including a variety of products like pen holders ,tongue cleaners, tooth brushes, necklaces, lamp Shades, Dandiya sticks, intricately carved art pieces and temperature display flasks. Priced between Rs40 to 40,000. So far, he has sold 25000 units of these products pan India. His company's annual revenue is Rs 25 lakh at present.

Looking Back

Satyam recalls back his old days that how he was scolded and threw out of the school. The same school is now calling him as a guest speaker however he prefer addressing children of government schools as they relate with him and his story. Sharing his story with them not only instills a great sense of satisfaction in him but also fills those students with enthusiasm and inspiration. We salute this spirit!

 From ISRO Scientist to an Organic Date Farmer - a unique story

An ex ISRO scientist and a pioneer in the field of organic date farming ,the story of Diwakar Channappa is a tale of sheer determination and love towards farming and nature. In an effort to grow something unique, he became the first farmer to grow organic dates in Karnataka. 

Towards the Roots

Belonging to an agricultural family, Diwakar comes from a small village Begur in rural Karnataka. Their village lost it's existence due to unprecedented expansion of Bengaluru city. They were forced to take farming land 100 km away from Bengaluru which was no way profitable to them. His father was a farmer growing Ragi, corn and Toor daal but somehow never found farming profitable hence he always wanted Diwakar to move away from roots and excel in life through education.Respecting her father's wish, Diwakar bagged a Masters degree in social work and also worked as a visiting faculty at Tumkur University. He also worked with ISRO as a Project scientist in a social project till he set on to a new life journey in 2009.

Embarking to a new Journey

In 2009, his father suffered a stroke which paralyzed him significantly. Diwakar decided to return to his roads and he came back to his village. When he spent first year with his father, he realised that he was not at all willing to live a city life. However the major catalyst for shifting towards agriculture was the book 'One straw Revolution' written by a Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka. After reading the book for few days,he got the courage to visit his father's farm which he was never allowed to visit. He then decided to move towards farming.

Cultivating a Desert Crop

Initially Diwakar cultivated local crops like to Toor daal, Corns and Ragi. The output was however very poor. At this moment his mother reminded him that why his father didn't liked that he should not opt for farming. Even his In laws were also very upset as they married their daughter to an ISRO scientist and now he opted for agriculture. It was a very tough face for Diwakar. 

He finally decided to take up date cultivation which was actually a crop grown in arid and hot desert region of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt. Before taking up this new venture, he met a Date farmer at one Krishi Mela which was organised in Bangalore. The farmer was from Tamilnadu and was distributing pamphlet on how to cultivate dates in India. Diwakar traced the farmer and went to Tamilnadu to learn all about date farming. Diwakar says" it is a myth that dates can grow only in deserts. All they need is ample sunlight and a lot of moisture. " Diwakar then purchased 150 saplings costing rupees 3000 each with an investment of 4.5 lakhs. He was mocked and people laughed at him however he continued with his decision. He dug 2x2 pits  in the farm and put river sand in it. He then nourished each pit with castor cake, vermicompost, neem and panchgavya and planted saplings in it.

Yielding of Dates

It was in 2013, nearly 4 and half years after planting dates saplings that he saw the first flowering. It was an in memorable moment in his life. In first year, he extracted 800 kg of dates which multiplied to 5 tonnes till now. He is able to generate an income of 6 lakhs per acre from his 2.5 acre farm. As per Diwakar, farming comes up with its own challenges. It was not at all an easy task to take up farming from by switching the job of ISRO scientist however for him a slow and peaceful life was more valuable than any other assets.

Other Initiatives

Diwakar also organize harvest festival two times annually which attracts numerous visitors and sets up a unique connection between farmers and consumers. Apart from dates, Diwakar is also cultivating traditional crops like Ragi, Sugarcane ,Millets and many varieties of paddy hence presenting a sustainable model of farming. He has also collaborated with Udhbhavaha, a  special school in Bengaluru providing alternative education in which he invites students to his farm hence nurturing them with the unique experience of farming and connecting them with the roots.

People like Diwakar are unique examples of those persons who listen to their life's calling and  follow their passion by keeping mental peace over luxuries and greed!

 The Architect Duo from Bengaluru - Houses designed by them are Saving Lakhs of Litre of Water

If I say that I am going to construct a house in which there will be zero water bill , almost negligible electricity bill and the cost of house maintenance is also minimum, what will be your response? Ecocological architecture answers this question very effectively. Meet the Architect duo Chitra Vishwanath and Vishwanath S whose green buildings are setting standards in the field of green architecture and they are a popular name in this field.

Introducing the Amazing Personalities

Chitra Vishwanath has completed her diploma in Civil engineering from Nigeria and degree of Bachelor of Architecture from CPET University, Ahmedabad. She started practicing architecture in 1990. She got married to S Vishwanath, a civil engineer by profession specialized in water harvesting structures and water management and is also the founder of their architectural firm BIOME Solutions along with her wife Chitra. Chitra is currently the Principal Architect and Managing Director of BIOME Environment  Solutions.

Starting BIOME Environment Solutions

After starting her practice in 1990, Chitra noticed that about 50% of the world total energy consumption comes from field of construction and it is one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases. As per Chitra once Gandhiji told Lorry Baker that all the materials needed for construction of house should be obtained from a 5 km radius from the existing site." but why from 5 km radius why not just below your feet? You can collect the soil just below your feet to make your house. " with this belief , she laid the foundation of BIOME Environment Solutions in 1991 - a multi disciplinary firm providing a complete solution to ecological issues established with a mission to built eco friendly and sustainable structures with minimum energy demands.

Challenges Faced

Chitra is one of the pioneers in the field of eco architecture but this incredible journey was challenging indeed. When she started her journey, her peers considered this thought as unworthy and awful. " It was rather disrespectful. " She smiles. Her first project was their own house built in 1995. With a spark in her eyes, she says " My house is a laboratory for me. Before we teach the world , we designed our own home in an eco friendly manner. It is closest to our heart."

The Sweet Home

They built their sweet home in 1500 square feet plot about 33 year ago from locally available resources. The walls are made up of locally available mud and mortar crushed bricks providing insulation and strength to the house. The house outlines low bamboo gate and recharge well at the front door for water harvesting. Most fascinating feature of the house is that it is naturally ventilated and it has no fan and well planted with trees all around. Most of the wood used in house is recycled. The house uses each and every drop of water in a city like Bengaluru where water comes from Kaveri ,100 km away from the city. Grey water from Green toilet is used for growing rice and irrigating other plants at the rooftop. Segregation of biodegradable and degradable waste is done for composting and this manure is used to feed kitchen garden. 70% of energy needs are fulfilled by solar panels and rest by a biomas heater installed at rooftop in cloudy days.

Unique Initiatives

So far, the architect duo have designed more than 800 ecofriendly houses so far which are saving more than 1 lakh litre of water. They have also dug 2 lakh recharge wells in association with a local community called "Mannu Vaddar "involved in the digging of traditional wells near Bengaluru. When people started digging borewells, they became jobless. Biome started a mission called "Million Wells for Bengaluru" in 2015 and dug wells with the help of  this community. They are aiming at digging 10 lakh recharge wells in Bengaluru. 

The architect duo is setting standards in the field of Green Architecture by their initiatives and leaving a legacy behind for future generations.Hats off to them!

 Iha Dixit - A Green Warrior and environmentalist at the age of 10

An environmentalist ,a green warrior and an awardee of international Young eco Hero award - Iha Dixit, is a name which is echoing amongst all environment and nature lovers throughout the country at just the age of 10 years.

Introduction

Iha Dixit ,a nine year old is studying in St Francis World school in Meerut  in class 1. Her mother Anjali Choudhary is also a teacher in one of the private school in Meerut where as her father Kuldeep Sharma is running a coaching institute. She has been a brilliant girl in academics as well as fond of planting trees.

Starting a Plantation Drive

Reminding the old days, her father Kuldeep Sharma says that her daughter was always fond of doing something different. When she was 4 years old, she watched a TV cartoon showing the importance of planting trees. Iha started insisting her parents to plant a tree. Finally she planted a lemon sapling with the help of gardner in her home garden. When it sprouted later on, she was filled with immense joy.

One day she heard honourable Prime minister Narendra Modi in one episode of Mann ki baat insisting on planting trees to save environment and to reduce pollution. She now started planting trees every Sunday. As it was a noble deed, her parents has to agree for that.

Opening of Green Smile Club

Initially Iha planted trees alone by digging the holes by herself. When sometimes these plants were damaged by animals or due to weather, Iha was much discouraged but soon started planting saplings again with new zeal. As Iha planted more and more trees, her parents kept on sharing this information on Facebook and other social media platforms. In 2018, she established Green Iha Smile club and several other children joined her in this venture. Seeing her passion, her father organised a bigger event in Meerut at a site provided by Housing and Development board where 1008 saplings were planted. That was a turning point and she was noticed in local media and later on by Prime Minister's office and throughout the country.

Other Initiatives

Due to great passion of small Iha, Child volunteers are now associated with Green Smile Foundation which are preparing mini forests, parks and green belts in their surroundings collectively. She has also prepared a Plant Bank by collecting plants which are being donated to her by others. She is also developing her own seeds and distributing it to the aspirants of plantation in future. She wants to become an IPS officer. She plants 5 saplings every Sunday on regular basis.

Awards

Iha Dixit has got first place in the competition organised by Action for Nature, a California based NGO which recognises Eco Heroes every year from all over the world. She has been awarded with International Young Eco Hero Award in August 2023. Iha has also been awarded Pradhanmantri Rashtriya Bal puraskar in 2019.

The story of Iha is a live example of passion and enthusiasm for a noble cause. It also reflects that doing something different and unique for the sake of humanity has no relation with the age. Passion can be nurtured in any age provided that suitable environment is provided !

 Deep Narayan Nayak - Raastar Master, a Unique Educator

A mentor, a social worker but above all a revered educator for under privileged children - Deep Narayan Nayak is a respectable name in Bardhman district of West Bengal. He has put forward a 3G learning model in education also known as Raastar Master (Teacher of the street) which has got iconic success in the field of primary education. 

Deep Narayan Nayak - Another name of excellence in education

36 years old Deep Narayan Nayak is a primary school teacher at Tilak Majhi Adivasi free School at Jaba village of Jamudia in Bardhman district of West Bengal. Deep Narayan himself comes from a humble background where he faced several adversities in getting formal education where he lacked a proper uniform, books and copies. Even when he got old books to read and study, he used them joyously and got educated due to his dedication for education. As he himself has gone through tough phase in his life, he decided to pave the path of education for the less fortunate and under privileged ones.

Raastar Master- A Novel Journey

Deep Narayan recalls that he started his journey in 2010 when he saw several Adivasi,Muslim and backward tribal community children leaving the school and education. There were many reasons behind it which included financial problems,poverty, lack of awareness and losing their parents. With an impersonal motive, he started operation blackboard inclusive model in 2014. He painted the outer mud walls of houses along the streets in the villages and converted them into blackboards. Due to this novel idea and efforts to educate these poor children ,he popularly came to be known as Raastar Master.

Raastar Master- A Wholesome Learning Model

During 2020, when Covid 19 broke down, it became a golden opportunity for Deep Narayan to implement this model even more intensively. He started teaching maths and Science on village streets and very soon it became popular. However Deep Narayan has a greater intention then merely teaching children. He aimed at creating a 24 hours learning cycle along with teaching their guardians by these children only. First of all the children, those who have not got any formal education earlier are provided basic education through this street model. These children then educate their parents and grandparents at home so that three generations are simultaneously getting education by this model. Deep Narayan deeply believe that this model can educate a village in less than 5 years which may otherwise take 50 years to do so.

Inculcating Scientific Attitude

With technology opening new horizons everyday, it becomes essential to get updated with it. With this belief, Deep Narayan tries his best to use technology in his lectures by using laptop, phones, projectors and even microscope daily in his classroom. The most important part of this learning model is that he records his lectures with children daily and shows these recorded lectures to their parents through a projector which gives them a great sense of satisfaction. He is also aiming at reducing school drop out rate and promoting adult literacy rate.

A True Altruist

Deep Narayan is more than a teacher ,rather he is a leader and serving the community by going beyond his role. During Covid 19 ,he took the responsibility of vaccination of elderly and pregnant women in the village.He often promotes girl education more than that of the boys to reduce gender inequality in rural areas in his classes. He also designed a mobile library on cycle containing books on various subjects like science ,Ayurved ,fiction and many more to promote reading among children.

Following the Heart's Calling

At present there are about 50 centres in West Bengal and 5 centres in Jharkhand which are running under the model of this teaching. In these centres, children of age 4 to 18 years are getting educated in five languages namely Hindi,  English ,Bangla ,Urdu and Olichiki with 50 teachers and 100 assistant teachers working with him. 

Deepnarayan got awarded with Global teacher award by AkS in 2022, best teacher award by Institute Of Scholars in 2020 and his school got Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar award in 2021 by Ministry of Education, Government of India. Clicked by photographer Saurav Das, one picture of his project Rastaar master got UNICEF photo of the Year 2021 and first position in prestigious Global peace photo award. An innovator, a true leader ,a community worker and an extraordinary educator ,Deep Narayan Nayak is a name which will be sung across generations for his unique work!

 Ashok Chakradhari - an Artisan from Chhattisgarh, the creator of Magic Lamp

Just forget Aladdin's magical lamp ! Ashok Chakradhari ,a Potter from Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh has made a magical lamp which can light up continuously up to 24 hours. Ashok has paved a new path for all the porters and artisans by designing this creative lamp and increased the prestige of clay art. 

A Childhood filled with Struggle

Ashok lives in kumharpara area of kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh. He belongs to a potter family and his father was also involved in making clay materials and equipments. He was hardly able to study up to class 4th and eventually he got involved in clay art with his father which was his ancestral work also. He was visiting villages and was installing clay tiles at the roofs of houses. This became his ultimate profession. Since then Ashok has been practicing pottery for about 40 years. One decade ago, Ashok's parents passed away and he has to took the responsibility of the whole family.

The Problems Faced

" After the arrival of equipments made up of Steel, plastic and plaster of Paris ,people have become least interested in purchasing clay items. " says Ashok."Even if the people buy these items, they don't pay full money for these items. Apart from this, the business of clay items is also affected by whether changes ,less durability and water scarcity. Many of my fellow potters have left this work and advised me also to do so however I was continuously searching possibilities in that work." he continues. 35 years before, in an exhibition organised in Bhopal ,I met an artisan from Sarguja who had done many innovative experiments with clay. Seeing this I was also searching for limitless opportunities in clay modelling from there only. " says Ashok. Ashok started working over the concept of Magical lamp and after 1 year of continuous labour he was able to design the magical lamp. Formerly Ashok has seen the idea of a similar lamp in YouTube. After failing 3 times, he finally designed the lamp in his 4th attempt. 

What is this Magic lamp? 

This magical lamp is divided into two parts. The lower part has been given a circular base in which the wick is placed. The upper circular part is looking like a tea cattle in which oil is filled. To pour oil from it ,it is connected to the lower part through a clay pipe. The upper chamber is filled with oil and is covered upside down over the lower part by fitting it in a mould. The lamp is designed in such a way that the stream of oil starts automatically towards the lower chamber when oil is less in it. This magical lamp become a boon for Ashok. As he uploaded the photo and video of the lamp on Facebook, he became a celebrity overnight and started getting orders for lamp from all over the country. With increasing demand he has increased their production by hiring 10 more fellow potters including the widows.

From Innovation to Recognition 

Ashok has made this lamp available at E-Commerce platforms also like Amazon. The core purpose of Ashok in designing this lamp is not only to earn money but also to rejuvenate this old age art form and tradition. Ashok is a master trainer at Jheetko Meetki Art Centre, Kondagaon where he is training other artisans also. He has also been felicitated with a merit certificate for his unique work by Ministry of handloom. Apart from this Magic Lamp, he make a lot of other clay products which have a good demand in the market. An NGO and Forest Department have provided him with a mechanised kiln and necessary equipments to ease his business. 

One day, Ashok wishes to upload his Art on YouTube also. He is really a noble potter with shear love for soil and the associated art. " we have originated from earth and one day we will perish into it. " what a spirit, salute to him and his spirit!

For business enquiry, you can contact Ashok on 91-9165185483

 Nageshu Patro - A Coolie at Night, a Teacher in Daytime, a story of a Philanthropist

Ch Nageshu Patro, a 31 year porter has been a face of change for 70 children of Ganjam district of Odisha who are deprived of better education and guidance due to financial difficulties,by providing them free coaching. Due to his altruism and the philanthropic efforts for these children, he has become quite popular.

Nageshu's Story

Nageshu belongs to a cattle grazer family whose income mostly came from grazing goats and sheep. He got his elementary education with difficulties however he was unable to give his high school exams in 2006 due to financial difficulties as his parents were unable to pay his fees. In order to have some income, he shifted to Surat in search of work where he worked in a textile plant for two years . He also worked as a salesman in a mall in Hyderabad but finally he returned to home. Meanwhile he passed his class 10th exam through the money which he earned through his job. He passed his higher secondary exam with correspondence and completed his graduation and post graduation from Berhampur University.

Shaping of A Philanthropist

In 2011, Nagesh's brother informed him about a vacancy for porter in Indian Railways. He cleared all physical and medical tests and got the job. However he was having a strong quest for knowledge and he continued reading and writing at the same time. 

Shaping of a philanthropist

During covid-19, Nageshu's job was adversly affected as the trains were not running in that period. He noticed that many students left their studies during that period in his neighbourhood due to financial difficulties and lack of proper coaching and guidance. Nageshu not at all wanted these children to leave their studies as he himself was a victim of financial difficulties at one time. Suddenly the idea of a free coaching sparked in his mind.

Free Coaching

He started teaching with only 3 children in his neighbourhood. Gradually other students also started joining the coaching and finally at present, there are 70 students studying in Nageshu's coaching. Initially he took a room at rent when started teaching Hindi and Odia and hired teachers for other subjects. To manage the expenses, he is working as a guest lecturer in a private college . He is imparting education to students in his coaching centre up to class 12th.

The Motive Behind

Nageshu is spending most of his salary to pay to the coaching teachers which he is getting by working as a coolie. He is facing a lot of difficulties in teaching these children. He frequently overlook his own needs and inspite of all the difficulties, he is dedicated to give a better future to them. Hats off to the men who is so dedicated towards education of underprivileged children. Let's join hands for such a philanthropist and help him out.

From 12th grade to a 20 Crore Jamun Empire : Rajesh Ojha's Remarkable Journey

Can you ever imagine a start up based on black plum popularly known as jamun in India? With the core purpose of empowering tribal women community of Rajasthan by using their expertise and knowledge on Indian herbs and medicinal plants, Rajesh Ojha laid the foundation of Tribalveda ,an enterprise based solely on jamun. It is one of it's kind of innovative and creative approach in the field of agri based products. 

Early days of struggle

Rajesh Ojha has completed his formal education and passed class 12th from his hometown near

Udaipur. In the search of livelihood he shifted to Mumbai. With this basic level of education, it was quite hard to get a better job in Mumbai. He worked there as a salesman for 14 years however in year 2017 with hardly 1000 rupees in his pocket, he and his wife left Mumbai with a dream to uplift the Grasiya tribal women near Udaipur. 

He took a loan of 2lakhs from his friend and started his entrepreneurship journey with absolutely no knowledge of agriculture.

The Difficult Journey

Rajesh recalls that once he didn't have enough money to support his family. He also faced a lot of hardships in his entrepreuneal journey as he was mocked by his own family members and relatives for opting an agriculture based career. He was disapproved multiple times to leave the comfort of a metropolitan city and reside in forest area. Moreover it was quite difficult to communicate with tribal community and convince them to sell their produce to an unknown person. Despite these challenges, due to his humbleness, simplicity and the purity of intentions ,he gained trust of tribal people and built up strong bond with them with time.

Founding of Jovaki

Jovaki in local language means to enlighten. In 2017,Rajesh founded Jovaki Agro Foods India Private Limited which is the parent company of brand Tribalveda. It is a source of income and livelihood for more than 1000 tribal families. Rajesh noticed that the region was rich in a variety of natural herbs, fruits and medicinal plants however due to lack of storage and processing facilities ,a lot of forest produce like custard apple and Jamun pulp was being wasted. He foresaw a great opportunity in processing these fruits and built up a successful enterprise around it. In Jovaki,  the tribal women are first imparted rigorous training on various steps involved in the processing of fruits like harvesting and collection of fruits, their storage and grading, sorting and washing of quality produce and finally their processing and packaging. The whole process is being done by tribal women.

The products

The company is involved in making of a variety of innovative products like flakes ,strips, vinegar and green tea from Jamun. After making these products,the leftover Jamun seed is sun dried and converted into powder and utilised for medicinal purpose. Also the custard apple pulp is sold in market to caterers and ice cream and dessert industry. The waste which is remaining after processing is used for vermi composting and a part of seeds remaining is used for plantation of same plants. Such a great vision!

Uplifting the Tribal Community

On and average,  70 tribal women are involved in each unit for processing of fruits while another 150 tribal women are supporting them in the collection of fruits there by engaging more than 1000 tribal women in the whole process. Jovaki intends to intervene the remotest parts of forest and provide a sustainable livelihood to the local tribal community, specially women. The 60% of total profit of company goes to these women in such a way that 25000 families are supported indirectly from this innovative business model. The company has also created a general awareness about the significance of local forest produce in the community and is also involved in extensive plantation drive in the region. The company has setup village level processing units not only in Southern Rajasthan but also in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Company Profile and Awards

At present ,Jovaki has a valuation of around 20 crores and expected to grow about 10 times more in upcoming 2 years. After the setting up of the brand Tribalveda, company has started selling it's products on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart also. Jovaki has been awarded with the 'DBS Foundation Special Enterprise Award 2021 'which is being awarded to only19 companies worldwide because of its innovative 'Socio economic development 'model. With an aim to process 50000 kg of wild vegetables and fruits annually and selling 125 metric tons of forest produce , Jovaki  is targetting to provide livelihood to 18000 tribal families in upcoming years. The company also aims to plant 15 Million trees in the coming years.

Seeing their creative approach, many supporters have come ahead by joining hands with them like CCS NIAM centre for Innovation, Villgro Innovation Foundation, Knowledge Partner RKVY RAFTAAR, Gol Upaya Ventures, IIM Kolkata and ICICI Foundation. 

Rajesh Ojha is gleaming example of entrepreneurship clubbed with a true leadership having a great vision for welfare and upliftment of the society.

 Dharambir Kamboj - From a Rickshaw Puller to a Grassroot Innovator, an Incredible Story

An entrepreneur mind set can work wonders and can transform not only one life but life of thousands of people. One such grassroot innovator whose multipurpose food processing machine is not only changing the lives of thousands of poor people and promoting entrepreneurship in Indian rural women is Dharambir Kamboj. From a rickshaw puller to an innovator, Dharmbir's story is an example of his dedication to emerge as a farmer entrepreneur from abject poverty. 

Family Background

Dharambir Kamboj was born in Damla village of Haryana in 1963. He was the youngest kid among all his five siblings. Just like other poor families, Dharambir was forced to earn a living by quitting his studies in between to support his family. In an early age ,he migrated to Delhi and started working as a rickshaw puller there. 

The Journey of Learning

In 1980's, Dharmbir worked in Delhi by taking a number of small jobs including rickshaw pulling. While working as a rickshaw puller, he got a little space in a public library near Old Delhi Railway Station. Due to his urge for knowledge, he started reading various books and journals on farming related topics like cultivation of crops like broccoli ,shatavri ,foreign crops and many more in his spare time. However he met with a small accident in Delhi and went back to his ancestral village. After he recovered, he decided to remain in village only. He also took a six months training program on improvement in farming practices organised by Village Development society. 

Shaping of an Idea

In 2004 ,he visited Rajasthan on behalf of horticulture Department of Haryana. In this visit, he talked to various farmers regarding the aloe vera crop and its future prospects to obtain medicinal products from it . After his Rajasthan visit ,Dharmbir was searching for ways to set up an enterprise to process aloe vera and other medicinal plants and manufacture and market their products in an attractive manner. Previously in 2002 ,when he visited a bank manager regarding it ,he quoted an amount of Rs 5 lakh for the machine in auction. It was a quite large amount for him so he decided to develop his own food processing machine.

The Multipurpose Machine

Dharambir kept on working on the development of his own food processing machine with shear dedication. After hard work of 8 months and and initial investment of  25000 Rs, he  successfully launched the prototype of a multiple purpose food processing machine.

Dharambir's machine is portable and works on single phase motor. It is unique in the sense that it can process various fruits,herbs and seeds with great efficiency. It is equipped with temperature control and auto cut off facility which works like a big pressure cooker. This is one of its kind of machine which can not only powder but also mix up, can steam ,can do pressure cooking as well extract oil/ juice/ gel from various fruits ,seeds and herbs. The machine comes up with two models - smaller one of price 70000 rupees and larger one with price 1.5 Lakh rupees. It works in hybrid mode - both with electricity as well as solar energy.

The Innovator Inside

Dharambir was having entrepreneurial and innovative attitude right from childhood. He was having great affinity towards herbs from childhood when he keenly observed her mother making natural colour from Palash flowers during Holi. When he was in class 7th, he prepared small heaters from old and used tin and coil and sold them at the rate of rupees 15 per piece. He also developed an Automatic Broom for cleaning the roads. Due to his creative attitude, he experimented cultivation of hybrid tomatoes, mushroom, strawberry and baby corns also. Dharambir imparts an extensive training to his customers on how to use machine who purchase it from him . He himself is giving employment to 35 rural women in his food processing unit in the village. His machine is being used by several self help groups pan India which has helped the poor rural women in raising their income a lot and processing the products faster.

Honour and Recognition

His machine has gained whidespread recognition and popularity and he got patent for his machine from National innovation Foundation. He is importing his machine to 15 countries including USA , Italy ,Nepal, Australia ,Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Uganda. He has been awarded with National innovation award in 2009 by for his innovation. At present he is the CEO and director of Dharambir Food Processing Technology Private Limited. His life story and achievements have been also included in CBSE class 12th business studies subject which is a very proud moment. 

We just bow to Dharambir Kamboj for his dedication, patience and perseverance in spite of all the odds which made him stand here where he is today and inspiring thousands of lives.

 Agriculture University to design AI enabled App to provide solutions for smart farming

Today AI is emerging in almost every field offering innovative solutions and making the world a better place to live in. Keeping in mind the difficulty of farmers, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur has designed an AI enabled app for providing solutions for various agricultural problems and helping farmers to initiate smart farming.This is a joint venture of IGKV and NIC and the app has been named as Crop Doctor 2.0.

The Inspiration Behind

Farmers usually confront a variety of problems during farming ranging from getting good quality seeds, use of proper manures and irrigation facilities ,removal of weeds to harvesting and storage of crop. Many times they are unable to get an expert advice on time and this suffer a lot. Crop doctor 2.0 is a complete farming solution application powered by AI which will provide information to farmers at one click.

Working of App

A dedicated team of IGKV including Dr Ravi Saxena , C Abhijeet Kaushik ,Kalpana Banjare, Sandeep Khateek, Jitendra Chandrakar and Rakesh Pal has developed the app Crop Doctor 2.0. First the farmers have to download the app from Play Store and login the app after signing up. They will have to click the photo of the problem and then upload it in the app. As soon as the photo is uploaded, the app will recognise the problem using AI. It will then share the detailed information about the problem and suggest remedies for it. The problem will be shared with experts also. The experts will then share their advice with the farmers.

Benefits of Using the App

Crop Doctor 2.0 is an app equipped with AI ,machine learning, cloud computing, internet of things, expert system, data analysis ,mobile application and exclusive features like online marketing platform. The farmers cannot only get an expert advise about farm insects, choosing right kind of medicines and information about new technology but they will also get valuable tips by the scientists to improve the crops sitting at the home. The students of Agriculture University will also get expert advice from this app which will enhance their learning greatly. The app is providing solutions with 99% accuracy.

Machine learning and AI has been increasing its importance day by day and the use of AI in agriculture can prove to be a boon for humanity as agriculture is the basis for survival of human race.

 Govindbhai Dholakia - A businessman by profession, A philanthropist by Heart

From a diamond cutter to a business tycoon, Govind Bhai Dholakia has under gone a long journey ahead. He is recently in news due to release of his autobiography 'Diamonds Are Forever, so are morals.' But above all ,he is at present famous, due to his ambitious philanthropic project of installing solar systems in 750 martyr family all over the country. 

Childhood Days

In a remote village of Dudhala located in Gujarat, Govind Bhai was born in a poor agricultural family of seven sisters and brothers. His upbringing was very simple and the childhood days were struggling in the absence of proper education and basic facilities like other poor children. As belonging to a poor family, Govind Bhai was working for 14 hours in fields in terrific summer. He has little formal education and is just literate. At the age of 13,he came to Surat in 1964 to support his family and started working in a diamond company as a labour. He worked for 14 hours a day just like other workers in the company.

Triggering of an Idea

While polishing diamond in early days, only 28% of the stone was convertible into diamond and rest part wasted as ashes . Working with dedication and scientific technique, Govind Bhai increased the polished part of the stone from 28% to 34% there by reducing the waste which increased the value of diamond greatly. When he reported this to his owner ,instead of becoming happy he instructed Govind Bhai to cut it more and convert it into a smaller diamond. Govind Bhai denied to do so. At this point ,he realised that if he can get 6% more diamond from stone, he can start his own business instead of doing job. This laid the foundation of SRK Diamonds in 1970 along with his two partners.

Establishing an Unbeatable Empire

When Govind Bhai came to Surat in 1964 to meet the needs of his family, he was resonating with a higher purpose to do something different and big. His eyes were shining with bigger dreams! As per Govind Bhai" utilizing the full potential of diamond was not only an art but it was a proper and skilled science also. To be a skilled Diamond cutter and polisher ,it took years of training however this part is still a puzzle for most of the caftsman. " At present, SRK diamonds is one of the world's leading diamond cutting and polishing company. Around 6000 people are working in the firm which is increasing day by day. In year 2021 -23, companies turnover reached to 16000 crore. Company has direct contracts with companies like Rio Tinto, D Bears, Tanishq and Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Limited for processing of rough diamonds. Due to his immense growth mind set and dream of establishing an advanced Research Institute for imparting knowledge about diamonds, he setup SRK Institute of Diamonds(SRKID) in 2014. Moreover to impart training in various diamond and the skills related to it, SRK Institute of skills (SRKIS)was also launched  on 15th August 2021 under SRK knowledge Foundation.

Giving Back to Society

Govind Bhai is a man of morals. He has a deep sense of social responsibility and great inclination towards spirituality and religion. In Business School circuits also, Govind Bhai is much popular and influential however his speech is mainly focussed on growth and values. A part of company's income is regularly contributed to hospitals, schools, colleges and relief centres. Apart from this ,he is much concerned about the welfare of company workers. Recently Govind Bhai is in limeLight as he has installed solar panels in 750 martyr families throughout the country. So far till August 2023,data of 3000 families is fetched but due to non availability of contact sources ,the work is going slow. One solar panel is costing between 80000 to 1 lakh rupees. Govind Bhai says that it will save their electricity bill by 15000 to 20000 rupees per year. The foundation aims at helping needy martyr families on priority basis.

Govind Bhai has been awarded with 'Hurun Most Respected Family of the Year ' by Hurun Global at Mumbai in February 2023.

The greatness of such personalities doesn't lies in their achievements but the legacy they leave behind for incoming generations . Salute to such leaders!

 Shridhar Vembu - From Silicon Valley to a village Entrepreneur in Tamilnadu

Situated at the foothills of the Western Ghats, Mathalamparai is a tiny village in Tenakasi district of Tamilnadu which is about 650 km from Chennai. The village is much popular today as it is the headquarters of Tech giant 'Zoho Corporation' which is the native village of Indian entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation Sridhar Vembu. Shridhar is one of the most underrated CEO'S known so far. 

Approaching Roots

Shridhar was born in a farmer family  and got graduated in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras. He completed his Ph.D from Princeton University in New Jersey. For a brief period ,he worked at Qualcomm and finally co founded AdventNet in 1996 along with his brother and friend. They produced software solutions and products when IT services were at the apex. In 2000, there was IT Bubble Blast and the company lost his 80% clients. In year 2002, they renamed the company as Zoho corporation and the company emerged as an online innovative application provider.

What is Zoho

Although Zoho is the top Software as a service Company (SaaS) and much popular name among business persons but still unknown to common man. Today Zoho is providing cloud based CRM solutions and designed about 40 apps in the areas of online accounting, inventory management and human resource. Small scale and medium scale companies are the target customers of the company who cannot purchase costly softwares. The company also provides about 55 softwares and apps in the field of marketing ,sales,help desk, finance ,IT, legal, customer solutions and project management. Nearly half of the business of Zoho comes from upmarket companies which have more than 1000 employees.Zoho has recently launched 13 AI applications and integrations which are powered by chat GPT. Zoho has also launched its own private server Ulaa by blending third party Intelligence with its AI engine Zia which operates on their own secure cloud. The new private browser of Zoho is having pre build capabilities that can block website servillance and tracking. Ulaa  is not sharing data with any third party. They are also going to build their own large language models similar to chat GPT.

The philosophy behind

Shridhar decided to come back to India in 2019 just before the outbreak of covid. When the world welcomed Work from home policy ,Vembu went for Work from Village. That Tagline of Zoho is - 'Made in India, Made for World'. Vembu firmly believes that world class products can be designed anywhere. He dreams of people working from villages catering to the global requirements and learning new skills. Currently Zoho has two rural offices- Tenakasi and Renigunta in Andhrapradesh. In one of his interview with Forbes India, he emphasizes that his employees should be mostly from the village as they will not only stay connected to the roots but also have a work life balance. The company plans to higher 50% of employees from small cities in future. He also hopes that city people will mentor and coach local rural youth for employment and recruitment in Zoho. He himself teachers Maths and Science in a local school as well as indulge in farming.

Stats to Reflect On

At present there are about 108 unicorns in the country. These are those companies which are not listed in share market.17 out of 18 unicorns have gained profits in last financial year. With the tremendous profit of 2700 crore rupees, Zoho ranks at the top among them. Zoho has no debt and it has also not  raised money through investments or selling the equity. The world's 300 Fortune companies out of top 500 companies have great reliance in Zoho. Zoho has 10 crore users with 15000 employees working worldwide. Company sales more than 55 products in more than 150 countries. The company has generated 6.7 crore rupees revenue in the previous year and marked 65% annual growth in upmarket. 

What's Special? 

Zoho has not entered the market with any extraordinary service or product. Company only focused on small businesses. Zoho provides services and solutions at cheaper rates to small businesses which are sold by big companies at higher rates. Zoho doesnot spends much on marketing instead it spends three times more on research and development which can maintain the quality of it's products. Company has collaborated with their customers as channel partners. These channel partners only fetch new customers by mouth publicity for them.This is all possible you to the philosophy of it's mentor Sridhar Vembu.

Honour

Vembu  has been awarded with Ernst and Young entrepreneur of the Year award 2019. He was earlier awarded with Padmashree, India's fourth highest civilian award. This village enterpreneur has been recently appointed in the board of National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of India. 

Vembu is a great entrepuner having immense affinity for rural development. The world Looks for such great people eagerly!

 Annadurai G - An Entrepreneur Auto Rickshaw Driver

An auto driver by profession, Corporate trainer, motivational speaker ,social entrepreneur and 7 times TEDx speaker Annadurai G, a miraculous person from Chennai is the role model for all the entrepreneurs today. After being appreciated by Anand Mahindra, he has become a hero in the eyes of the countryman.

Early Days

Anna started his career as a waiter. In 2010 he started working as an auto rickshaw driver. Gradually he started keeping magazines and newspapers in his auto. Initially the family members of Anna were are not ready for these expenses. In 2013 ,he was called up in a local event to give a lecture on management and he became famous overnight. 

Services Offered

This tech savvy driver provides free Wi-Fi ,iPad, Google home ,Alexa, laptop, an 11th inch smart TV and swipe machine in his auto. The services are not limited here but he also provides Amazon echo and an AWS deep lens video camera which enables hands free calling and playing music in the auto. 

Apart from it , Anna also prepares snacks and provides them along with water and Juice which he stores in a mini fridge inside the auto!

From a Driver to a Superstar

Anna offers all the services to his customers for free however he charges same fair for travel. Although most of his customers are people working in IT sector but he also offers free rides to doctors, nurses, teachers and sanitation workers. When asked about the motive behind this act, he just stated "customers are my real gold. " This 37 year old driver has hardly studied class 11th but he talks on marketing, management ,startup and innovations ingeniously !This passionate driver has now become a public figure with more than 20000 followers on various social media platforms. Anna has his own app and website from where people can book his services!

Management Lessons

"My only motto is  loyalty towards customers and providing best services to them. " As stated by Anna when asked about his business secret. Anna also organizes customer relationship development competition once in a month in which the customers have to answer 5 questions. The lucky winners get a coupon of thousand rupees. Anna also distribute tokens to his customers. After collecting 20 coupons, the customer gets a discount of 250 rupees in auto ride. He also offers discounts at special occasions like Mother's Day father's day and more.

Honour

This wonderful driver now conduct seminars for companies like Google and Microsoft. Countries top institutes like IITs and IIMs have called him to deliver lectures multiple times. He has so far delivered lectures in 320 big companies and 205 colleges. He has marked his presence more than seven times in TEDx talks at different locations in the country. 

After being praised by Anand Mahindra he has become an entrepreneurial Hero! As per Anand Mahindra " this man is not only an auto driver--------- he is a professor of Management. Let's learn from him. "Such a honour! The man with a vision in customer relationship and management and an inspiration for many.

 Lahari Bai - The Millet Queen of India

On a proud morning on February 9,2023 Narendra Modi ,the Honorable Prime Minister of India has declared Lahari Bai as the Brand Ambassador of Millets in India due to her remarkable work done towards preservation of Shree Ann or millets of India. This 27 years old tribal women has been an inspiration for the farmers of 54 villages near by and set an example in the cultivation of millets! 

Introduction

Amidst dense forests of Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh ,lies the village Silipidi which is the native village of Lahari Bai who belongs to Baiga tribal community of the region. Lahari has never taken any formal education not went to school but she learnt the importance of millets from her grandmother right from childhood days. Her grandmother's lessons have such a great influence on her that she started collecting seeds of millets from the age of 18 and decided not to marry but to dedicate her life towards serving her parents and preserving the millets. She started collecting seeds of numerous varieties of millets from nearby villages and prepared a seed bank. In this noble process of collecting the seeds, she was mocked by the villagers multiple times but she continued working recklessly with an immovable intention. Due to her enormous efforts, she has been able to preserve the seeds of more than 150 varieties of millets so far!

A Marvelous step

Lahari Bai collected the millet seeds from wherever she can and sowed them in the fields after collecting them .She then recollected them by harvesting the crop. In this way, through years of hard work and huge efforts, she prepared her own seed bank of more than 150 varieties of millets. What a wonder! 

Gradually the villagers started supporting her and a positive atmosphere was built around for millets. They understood the importance of millet farming as well as their nutritional value. People started approaching her for seeds. She distributed those hard earned seeds to farmers for free. Presently ,she sows 16 varieties of seeds in a single farm to cultivate and collect more and more seeds of millets. At present, she lives in a small two room house made under Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana with her old parents with one room dedicated to the seed bank only.

Applause Worldwide

Lahari Bai has preserved the seeds of millets like Kodo ,Kutki, Kangni ,Jowar ,Sama ,Madwa and many more. She has been acclaimed from Dindori Collector to Prime Minister's office and has been honoured by United Nations as well. After getting rewarded by United Nations ,Dindori Collector Vikas Mishra did her branding by putting her posters throughout the district. With a motive to felicitate her ,after seeing her noble efforts to preserve Shree Ann, Dindori Collector has forwarded her name for scholarship to Indian Agriculture Research Institute ,Jodhpur.

A poor tribal women has revolutionized not only her community but the whole world through her powerful intentions with minimum resources available. She is a leading figure in the farming of millets for farmers of nearby villages. Hats off to the millet queen and her passion!

 Kalyan Verma - an Engineer to BBC Earth Champion

The co founder of peepli.org, a collaborative effort on long form visual story telling on crucial environmental issues as well as the co founder of India Nature Watch, an online community dedicated to wildlife photography - Kalyan Verma needs no introduction at all. A film maker, specialist in environment and Science and an eminent Wildlife photographer - Kalyan is known for his passion for nature photography.

Childhood Days

For Kalyan ,wildlife photography was a childhood dream which got manifested now. Right from childhood days, he was spending hours sticking to television ,watching wildlife programs on BBC Earth and National Geographic. He was mesmerized by observing these programs. Soon he realized that this was something which was giving him an opportunity to explore the wonderful wildlife and reveal it in front of everyone. " As I remember, I loved wild life from my childhood days and was kindly interested in photography. " Kalyan says. However as belonging to a middle class family ,he was not having the choice to follow an unconventional career , so he completed his mechanical engineering from Bengluru and started his career from Yahoo.

Transition in Career

In 2001, he joined Yahoo and worked as Security Division Head there. He also worked for open source software and LINUX community in India. During his job in Yahoo, he enjoyed his work a lot and was also awarded by 'Superstar Award ' which is presented only to 10 selected candidates all over the world. He was promoted and also sent to US but his heart was swinging in photography only so he finally quit his job in 2004 for his passion.

Migrating to the Wild

When Kalyan left his job, he decided to follow his dream and turned up to nature photography. He packed his bag and  migrated to B R Hills, a small wildlife sanctuary amidst dense forests in South Karnataka. He started understanding the relationship of human beings with nature and photographed many natural events. In his endeavor, he was helped a lot by Soligas, a community of local people living in wild for centuries. In this process, he got many valuable experiences and his entire vision about nature got transformed. As per Kalyan " we live in a country where we need protected areas. Our relationship with nature is very bad."

Royalty Free photos

As photography was a true falling for Kalyan, he took a breakthrough decision of keeping his photographs free. When he was in college, he was much inspired by the idea of free software and creative commons as these tools can be much beneficial for all. As per Kalyan, the idea of creative commons is wonderful in itself as you are putting forward your creative work in front of others for free so that they can consume it and improve also. Inspired by this idea, Kalyan has made his 10000 + photos on internet free which are ready to be used anywhere. He is not charging anything for them. He firmly believes that the people eventually pay you for your services.

His Works

As a child, Kalyan craved for being a part of a filming team. His dream came true when BBC asked him to work with them. Since then, he has worked both for BBC and National Geographic on many of their Blue chip programs. Kalyan has photographed lion tail monkeys which are found in Western Ghats in South India whose population is only 2000 worldwide. In his project, when he photographed them in an album and sent it to the project engineer showing that how their project was killing the monkeys, the construction work was stopped. He also documented several crucial wildlife projects namely Million snake bites and secrets of wild India and Mountain of the Monsoons. He also freelanced with Lonely Planet ,GEO, The Guardian ,Nature and Smith Sonian. 

Setting up World's largest Photography Platform

Kalyan is the co founder of India Nature Watch, the largest online photography community in the world. Decades ago when Kalyan started his work, he found that many other photographers were doing amazing work in nature photography but had no platform to share their work. Along with three other co-founders ,he created a web platform to share their wildlife photos and built a flourishing community around it. It has an active member base of 10000 + members with thousands of photos shared everyday. He also formed peepli.org, a collaborative visual story telling platform focusing on critical environmental issues  . He has now turned up to photo journalism by filming various landscapes changing over the years and making people aware about them.

Awards

Kalyan has been awarded with Century Wildlife photographer of the year 2005 and BBC Wildlife photographer of the year 2013. He has also got National Film Award for best exploration or adventure film for movie Wild Karnataka. His documentary on the Sundarbans Tiger for the BBC series super cats was nominated for the Emmys. He regularly give lectures on digital and nature photography. 

Passion has no body but only wings. It can create wonders. Kalyan Verma is a perfect example of it!

 Tondra - The Organic Village of Jharkhand

The organic revolution is now becoming a familiar face to the country. One such inspiring story comes from a small village from relatively less known state of India - Jharkhand. The 12 villages of Jharkhand including Kasamar and Jaridih near Bokaro are on the path of organic farming. The 1200 acres of land in these villages don't use any kind of chemical fertilizer for farming and the leader of all of them is Tondra village of Bhaski Panchayat near Bokaro.  

Going Organic

The first totally organic village of Jharkhand near Bokaro has a population of about 1200 people. Out of which nearly half of the population - 600 people are farmers. These farmers have not only initiated organic farming in their fields and successfully growing crops but also demotivated other farmers nearby to use chemical fertilizers. The impact seen was quite majestic which revolutionized the lives of people there.

Start of a Change

Noonibala Devi of Tondra  recalls " under the guidance of Agriculture Scientist M S Swaminathan, the leader of Green Revolution ,we took it on a serious note to adopt organic farming and related practices when he told us about the severe consequences and harm done to the environment due to use of chemicals". 

She elaborates " Our village panchayat Bhaski put up the slogan "No chemical ,go chemical" for the first time in the region. In village Bhaski itself, a total of 125 acres of land is cultivated under organic farming. It includes paddy ,maize , tuar daal and vegetables. Vegetables are grown on a large scale organically in the village.  

The Sarpanch of village Mantu Marandi and Ex Sarpanch Sunita Kumari are both very active. Sunita attends every meeting related to organic farming. Panchanan Mehto of Durgapur Panchayat says that we have totally adopted this beautiful practice to conserve our land and water resources realizing its power.

Consequences of Organic Farming

Organic farming have started leaving its positive results now. Due to this practice, not only the biodiversity of the village has enhanced but there is a remarkable improvement in the overall health of the villagers also. The women told that there is no one in the village who is seriously ill. 10 -15 years ago, people were suffering from cold and cough only however during covid period ,3 cases of diabetes were also detected in the village. After adoption of organic farming, their glucose levels have improved drastically. There are no cesarean deliveries is in the village .Moreover the village children also rarely become ill !

Effect on Farming

Initially the farmers have to work hard and invest more but they start getting benefits within eight months. Contrary to chemical fertilizers, whose intake has to be increased continuously year by year, the use of organic manure decreases with the increasing time span as they replenish the soil naturally. Although the production increases to 10% of its present value using chemical fertilizers but 15% product decompose or rot also . Moreover they degrade the health also. One such result was clearly seen in the village by the presence of tomatoes in the month of may when the flowers of tomatoes were shed away all over the state and tomato prices were raised. 

The villagers have firm belief that it's only a matter of attitude. If someone is dedicated to adopt organic farming ,he has to just change his mindset and the amazing results are in front of everyone through the example set by Tondra village of Jharkhand. Infact ,it is a perfect example of team spirit and community service !

 IITians to Make Face Recognition Software

The students of IIT Bhilai have got splendid success by designing face recognition software which can prove to be a landmark in the history of  smart policing. It can prove to be very beneficial to police in identifying and catching the criminals and finding their location. 

Introduction

All the students who have designed the software belong to IIT Bhilai. They include Vipin Gautam ,Vansh Raj Singh, Shubham Bhagat, Raja Singh and Pratham Sahu. All of them are the students of second semester in IIT Bhilai in computer science branch. Along with their efforts, they also took the help of police experts for making this software. After successful completion of designing of software a , successful demo was also given in front of police officials. 

The Software

The software first has to be uploaded with photo and data of the criminals and then to be connected with a camera. Even a rough sketch of the criminal downloaded in the software can identify the original person as soon as it comes in contact with the camera. The most wonderful feature of the software is that even if the person faces the camera by changing the get up, then also the camera will identify the person with the help of software and will inform to the control room immediately. As per students, this is the first ever software in the country which sends immediate message to the control room after identifying the accused. 

The Technology Behind

Student Vipin Gautam told that a person has roughly 64 such points on his or her face which are not matching with anybody's face. The software has been prepared on this basic principle only. The software recognizes the accused by scanning those 64 points in his or her face which has to be uploaded in the software. The activity and ways of movement are also the additional factors which contribute to the recognition of the accused. Even if the system is uploaded with thousands of photos ,the software can identify the particular accused amongst them.

Successful Demonstration

So far the software has an arrangement that it can provide response within the range of data stored in the software only. The students have successfully demonstrated the software in front of present Superintendent of police Divyang Patel. The demonstration was done at a large scale by uploading the photos of police corps in the software. As soon as they faced the camera, they were identified and message was sent to the control room. The software is in use by police now. 

Innovations need for creative call and a small support to get unveiled publicly. This story is a perfect example of it !

 Rajiben Vankar - The Artisan Entrepreneur

Rajiben Vankar, a renowned artisan and entrepreneur from Kutch, Gujarat is the face for all women who amidst all odds, are changing their lives and contributing to the progress of nation as well. Rajiben is a noted personality in the field of weaving as she is creating beautiful handicraft products from discarded plastic and so far upcycled 100,0000 single use plastic bags. She is not only saving the environment from hazards of plastic but also empowering women. The tagline of her brand is 'crafting a better planet.'

Childhood

Rajiben belongs to the Vankar community of Kutch which has been practicing loom weaving for centuries in the dry landscape of Bhuj in Kutch. Her home was in Kotay village along the shore of grand Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. In her childhood days ,she was keenly interested in weaving as she saw her family members weaving beautiful woolen clothes on loom. Although weaving was considered as no woman job, seeing her interest for weaving, her cousins secretly taught her weaving when her father went for farming on a small piece of ancestral land. By the age of 14, she was an expert in weaving. 

In 2020,when there was a severe drought in Kutch and her father faced great losses in agriculture ,it posed a big problem for their livelihood. It was a total surprise for her father when she told him that she knew weaving. He finally gave her permission to start weaving with acrylic wool on the loom.

Hardships in Life

She got married at the age of 18. Very soon she was a mother of two boys and one girl in quick succession however she was denied from weaving due to societal norms and traditions. In 2007 ,her husband got a cardiac arrest at the age of 30 and passed away leaving family responsibilities on her. 

She was in absolute shock. Being mentally broken and financially burdened, she was unable to brought up her three children so she shifted to Avadh Nagar where her elder sister resided. Unable to pay the rent, she put up a bamboo tent and started working as a farm labour to support her family. Rajiben was however not enjoying her work.

Turning to Weaving

Working as a farm labour for 2 years, she once heard of a local NGO Khamir which was providing platform to the heritage and crafts of Kutch region by providing employment to the artisans of the region. When Rajiben approached them they asked her to join and offered her a salary of rupees 3000 which was raised to rupees 10000 in the third year. Here came a U turn in her life! She was not only enjoying her work but meeting various people who were visiting the NGO to learn Kutch art and craft . She was praised much for her work. 

One day Rajiben got struck with an innovative idea that single use plastic bags which are discarded and simply polluting the environment can be upcycled and various items can be prepared from them through weaving. This will not only generate income but also reduce pollution.

Start of a New Journey

With this new approach, Rajiben started  collecting, cleaning and breaking down plastic bags into a form which can create new items. She trained 30 women for performing this whole process. Due to her innovative approach , she went to London to exhibit her weaving skills and showcase the products prepared from the upcycled plastic.

Initiating Her Own Enterprise

After her London trip, Rajiben realized that she can start her own enterprise. She united 30 women from nearby villages to prepare planters ,plastic bags, spectacle cases, pouches ,trays and other products on loom. She was however lagging design and marketing expertise. This gap was bridged by Kaarigar Clinic- an Ahmednagar based bussiness firm which connects urban buyers and rural artisans through technology. After training women across villages, she is also now creating products like yoga mats, laptop bags ,shopping bags and table mats also. Their annual revenue is about 10 lakhs.

From a Labour to President Award

After years of hard work, Rajiben is a successful entrepreneur leading a glorious life with two awards in her bag. She has been awarded with President award for her Social entrepreneurship in the field of weaving and saving environment and also bagged Swachh Sujal Shakti Samman as well. Her two sons have settled in corporates and her daughter has joined the loom business after graduation. Hats off to the lady with such a powerful will !

 Zero Circle

Ever heard of an algae entrepreneur ? Sounds incredible? Neha Jain, the founder of science startup 'Zero Circle' is in news for her innovative startup which aims at offering an eco friendly solution for the increasing plastic crisis by making eco friendly plastic films through sea weeds. 

The Professional Journey

Her professional journey is quite lucrative. From being a journalism student to her career in Google, she was quite innovative in nature. In year 2020 , she decided not to use plastic in the house when she was working as a tech consultant for a sustainability firm. She however realised that the changes cannot be brought on mass scale if it is implemented at the at the individual level but a noticeable change in carbon footprint can be brought about if this awareness is spread among the masses .This gave birth to the startup 'Zero Circle'.

The birth of Zero Circle

After leaving her job and saying no to plastic, Neha was in search of an eco friendly solution to the devastating plastics when she came across seaweeds. During her research ,she discovered these unique species that could change the whole scenario of plastic use in the country. This marine plants absolutely do not require any soil, freshwater or fertilizer to grow but they grow by their own. Moreover they act as cleansing agents of sea. In 2020 ,with a team of eminent environmentalists and scientists, the 'Zero Circle' came into existence. They started converting different species of seaweeds into low cost bio packaging films. They first procured sea weeds from sea shore and marine farms in Gujarat and Tamilnadu.

The Products

After processing sea weeds, they are turned into powder through proper technology and then used to make films for food preservation and packaging, handbags, tea bags and more. The most unique thing about these products are that they dissolve in the ocean without leaving any plastic, even in the micro form causing no harm to the environment. Zero circle provides packaging solutions which are 100% home compostable, marine safe ,food safe ,heat sealable and printable. They do not emit carbon dioxide or methane on degrading in the ocean.

Key Features

The Enterprise aims at finding energy efficient solutions, investing in renewable energy and reducing carbon footprint by using marine safe technology. They help the brands to go carbon neutral and find  sustainable solutions for their industries. They use locally sourced materials and use low cost green processing technology to produce carbon efficient solutions. There core belief is that seaweed based products possess the caliber to replace the traditional fossil fuel products. Moreover, the cultivation of seaweeds provides a secondary source of income to the locals also.

Awards

Zero Circle has won Tom Ford prize worth $1.2 million in the field of plastic innovation by converting seaweeds into biodegradable, sustainable packaging films. It comprises of of cash as well as direct investment which is launched by designer Tom Ford in collaboration with Lonely Whale in 2020. They are dedicated to find companies which are aiming at finding biodegradable alternatives to thin film plastics by utilizing marine waste for this purpose. They also help in scaling sourcing such enterprise.

innovations seek for patience, creativity and passion. Zero Circle is one of those examples!