J A G R I T I Y A T R A 2 0 1 5Building India hrough Enterprise

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YATRASAAR2015

ContentsEditor’s Note .................................................................... 7

Yatra Saar 2015 Team ...................................................... 9

Building India Through Enterprise ............................... 11

Red Threads ................................................................... 20

Map of the Journey ........................................................ 21

Jagriti - Year in Review ................................................... 22

Key Stats ......................................................................... 23

Role Models ................................................................... 24

SELCO ............................................................................ 28

Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (KSV) ................................... 31

Art of Living ................................................................... 34

Mindtree ........................................................................ 37

Digital India: Innovation, Disruptions and Survival ..... 40

Aravind Eye Care ........................................................... 43

Meenakshi Temple ......................................................... 46

MSSRF ............................................................................ 48

Akshay Patra ................................................................51

Sustainability in Agriculture ......................................... 54

Navy Dockyard Visit ...................................................... 57

Gram Vikas ..................................................................... 59

Nalanda Ruins Visit ....................................................... 62

Nalanda University ........................................................ 66

Biz Gyan Tree ................................................................. 69

Raj Ghat Visit ................................................................. 73

Celebrating the Entrepreneur ....................................... 75

..........................................................78

Goonj .............................................................................. 80

Barefoot College ............................................................ 83

The Business of Art, Culture and Entertainment ......... 86

Resources on the Train .................................................. 91

Life on the Train ............................................................ 96

A Thoughtful Journey .................................................... 98

Women and Enterprise ................................................ 104

The Changing Equation - Women and Enterprise ...... 110

Celebrating 100 Years of Gandhijis Travel Across India111

Art on the Train ........................................................... 113

ERC - Engine Room Club ............................................. 116

Yaaron Chalo! .............................................................. 120

Operations Team ......................................................... 121

The Closing Note ......................................................... 122

Pre-Trip

e e tionsThe Journey

7

Editor’s NoteThis is the third Yatra for me. The most common question that I was asked during the Yatra was – What makes keep coming back? My short reply was “I like to be around young minds, group of people who are passionate and most importantly people who want to change”, but today sit to write this Editorial note- I want to say the answer has to be something more than that.

On 24th December, 450 young individuals assembled in IIT to embark journey which is one of its kind ittle

that they knew- the coming 15 days would be a momentous journey for them in various aspect . They were exposed to heat, cold, soil, dust, delays and all other uncertainties but all these didn’t matter to anyone of them, each one of them w convinced that they were born for higher purpose, they all believed that Change could happen- they were the Change. This belief was reinstalled every time the T-shirt saying – ‘We are India’, We are Change were flashed on the Yatris, every time we sang the Jagriti Geet.In the next 15 days we met incredible people all around. We met the role models whose story and ideology awestruc They taught us that path is lonely and difficult but worth it in every way. We met resources on the train who patiently kept repeating their story all over again each time someone new came to chat with them. We met Role model quite next to us amongst us, hundreds of stories of dreams, stories of cause unfolded as the day passed by. These stories made

Sandeep Bhavsar

8 9

us humble and at the same time gave us enough courage and reasons to take our journey on the path less travelled.

This document Yatra Saar is an attempt to record th wonderful learnings. We hope the Yatri this document and pick some gems of wisdom during their entre-preneurial journey. The process of drafting this Yatra Saar has been equally exciting. We announced the Yatra Saaron our way to Hubli and around 30 people volunteered to be part of the Yatra Saar team second meeting for Yatra Saar was then called for he team was asked to present their thoughts about Yatra Saar and on th basis we shortlisted a smaller team of 15 individuals. We met them personally to allocate the work close to their expertise his Yatra Saar is collective effort of the hardwork of all the Yatra Saar team members. A sincere thanks to all the Yatra Saar team members and also all others who contributed to this Yatra Saar in one way or another.

It is never easy to compile all beautiful moments of such journey! The smiling faces of housekeeping staff, the “ garam” call of the catering staff, the “keep moving” of the Disha team, “what’s your story” question of fellow Yatris may not be part of this Saar, but w remain in the heart of all the Yatris. The Group and the cohorts which were our own proud identity during the Yatra, the branding team running with their banners and our own W atsapp radio w bring smiles our faces when we look back on how this train was our little home for these fifteen days !

It is indeed experience that is difficult to put down Saar like this one ut we hope that we take with us the Yatris spirit throughout our personal journey. Xitij Kothi one of our panelist at Bangalore mentioned “All great people had one thing in common they refused to give up!” I hope this spirit remains with each one of us. Lastly I wish you have much fun reading this document as much as we had compiling it.

-Happy ReadingSandeep BhavsarResource- JY 2015

Yatra Saar 2015 TeamThe making of the Yatra Saar was an exicting journey!! Many people contributed by means of sharing their own journey , blogs, poems and by writing articles about the Role Model visits. Besides them, we had a dedicated Yatra Saar team working the background and even after the Yatra was over. This Yatra Saar is

collective effort of e who contributed to the Yatra Saar directly or indirectly.Mentor: Rewati Prabhu

Editor: Sandeep Bhavsar

Content Writing, Editing: Antara Choudhury

Resources of the Train overage:

Divyanshi Chugh Khushaboo Jha

Role Model Coverage: Deepika Goyal

Designing and Layout: Awais Hussain Shubhada Kasle

Yatri Stories: Saakshi Sharma

Through International Lenses: Xenia Raynaud

Photographs y: Pradnyesh Molak (Saaku) Elliot Bromley Abhirat Sinde Amisha Tirthani Awais Hussain

Artists: Blanche Ellis Temujen G Chitrakar Shyam Chauhan

Women and Enterprise: Batul Ha zji Sreemathy S

10 11

Building India Through EnterpriseShashank Mani

As we plan this 8th Yatra, change is in the air. After a number of years there seems to be a genuine desire to grow the country by promoting enterprise. Growth that touches not just the few but the many; growth that is people driven and growth that is sustainable. For an organization like Jagriti which has labored over the past many years in the cause of Building India through Enterprise this is a welcome change.

For many of the 70 years of independence our country was led in a direction that treated its citizens as mere voters and consumers. This brought an unnatural relationship between the citizen and the government resembl more the pre-independence colonial setup less republican approach a free India demanded. A mindset ordained that the govern-ment will take the country forward, while the voter will ratify this path once in 5 years. Following this political understand-ing, the private sector also continued to look at the citizen only

Shashank delivering a

el ome spee h to the Yatris on

the rst day at IIT Bombay.

12 13

as a consumer, a person who will buy the goods and services that the company produced.

Our Yatra over the past many years discovered a different India. An India where the young voter is also a builder,

consumer is also a producer. She will not only vote for the right kind of government, she will then take part in building the country in the ensuing period. She is not only a consumer, but through her enterprise she is able to produce goods and services too. She is not a passive citizen, she builds.

This change in approach and mindset has risen gradually to a point where it has started to enter the common language of the country. The process starts with citizens looking at themselves with new respect, and with more responsibility to build. Government starts clearing the path in front of citizens, enabling them, rather than attempting to pull forward. Instead of a few trying to pull the nation forward, a substantial mass of our 1.3 billion population, particularly young citizens push the country forward. Consider the locomotion this starts to generate in building, in growth. This new mindset also inspires the private sector to look at citizen as consumers, but also as small and medium entrepreneurs, innovators partners in growth.

Is this mindset shift pervasive not yet. But in every Yatra over the past 7 years we have seen a perceptible movement forward on this. This is allowing our republic to behave in a manner our founding fathers desired and our constitution foretold. Each citizen with the aspiration and possibility of reaching the top of the political or economic ladder as long as they demonstrate the talent, commitment and courage to move forward. Each citizen protesting less, striving and building more. Each citizen, no doubt a consumer, but also a producer of goods, services and ideas that will energize the economy. As his movement and mindset grows, 1.3 billion citizens, of which approximately 750 million are in the working age population, become assets. The task of nation building is multiplied manifold. uilding takes place in each city, town and village rather than dictated from top by a narrow set of administrators or planners. This is a moment that many call the second freedom struggle. Except this time the struggle is to shift the nation from protest to building.

We often talk of the economic bene ts of this approach, but there is a far deeper moral benefit. Happiness and self-worth does not come from getting things free, it comes when citizens strive and get what they have earned. Directionless youth from small towns find purpose meaning through enterprise. f we approach nation building through enterprise

are both economic and social.

This year Jagriti Yatra followed its own dictum and created a district level awareness program – JADE (Jagriti Ambassador for District Entrepreneurs). We have also started taking the rst steps in piloting our JEN - Jagriti Enterprise Network and JEC- Jagriti Enterprise Centre program in Deoria district, by helping local entrepreneurs. Our Alumni Yatris are spearheading these programs, and are demonstrating that they can stay connected, and journey on even after they have left the train.

By participating in the Yatra, you are now a part of this movement. Through this movement we can change this country in one generation. And one generation, your generation, is all we have. If we are to grow and bring prosperity to the millions in our nation, then the next 20 years are going to be crucial. If we fail to build, our booming population could turn into an existential threat for us. Over the coming two decades India will see one of the largest nation building processes on the planet led by its young citizens like you. There are many hurdles to this journey, much like the many hurdles to our own Yatra. Our systems are still opaque, our education system

our healthcare systems are weak the threat of food and water scarcity, the threat of even geopolitical security in a hostile neighbourhood are very real. However, the biggest threat to this journey is that from an old mindset mindset that looks for compliance and followership ather than building bias and leadership.

The Yatra is the life changing experience for you to catalyse that shift in mindset. Not only to you but through you, to millions of youth who are watchng this expedition as it curves across this great and beautiful land of ours. When you hear how our inspir-ing role models have created their institutions surmounting all odds when you hear of the stories of leadership and courage from your co-travellers you will discover an India that waits to be unleashed. You are that dynamic spirit that will unleash a new India. Your travels in the Yatra, we hope, are the first stage of a lifelong journey of Building India through enterprise.

14 15

The Jagriti Movement

Jagriti believes that the Indian demography is a diamond in the rough with in nite potential. And we need to awaken this potential in millions of Indians in the middle of the demographic diamond. These 750 million Indians, inhabiting the Tier 2 & 3 districts of India – we term as Middle India - have passion and talent, but lack exposure and support that can lead to a discov-ery of purpose. Our aim is to re-position enterprise not as the calling of the few but the vocation of the many – those 58% Indians living in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. Jagriti aims to inspire a new generation that recognizes that the only way they can discover purpose and nd meaning is by self-employment.

What is Jagriti?Jagriti is a non-pro t organization that has been a torchbearer of Enterprise Led Development (Udyam Janit Vikas) in Middle India for a decade. It is creating a national enterprise ecosystem to support the entrepreneurs in Tier 2 & Tier 3 districts in India.

We want to re-imagine the development of a typical district, by inspiring India’s youth who are able to devote their lives to enterprise led development in middle India districts. We will connect these districts to a national network of nation

builders. This middle up approach to development will ensure that solutions are local and relevant and have the citizen who shapes them driving this.

With this mission of Jagriti has created a unique model of bringing a national enter-prise ecosystem to the service of entrepreneurs in Tier 2 & 3 districts of India, facilitated by an on-ground army of youth, called Udyam Corps, and local physical infrastructure.

The development model is based on three pillars of Jagriti – Jagriti Yatra (JY), Jagriti Enterprise Network (JEN), andJagriti Enterprise Centre (JEC).

Jagriti Yatra is a national program that has created a platform of 3500+ alumni and continues to grow every year. Jagriti Enterprise Network (JEN) & Jagriti Enterprise Centre (JEC) are creating a district-development model that brings the expan-sive network of Jagriti Yatra (JY) to the bene t of entrepreneurs of Middle India.

Our mission is to nurture 1 Lakh entrepreneurs by 2022, the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence.

Jagriti Enterprise Network (JEN) & Jagriti Enterprise Centre (JEC)Through Jagriti Enterprise Network, Jagriti is building a collab-orative ecosystem of entrepreneurs, funders, academics large corporates and connect them to the entrepreneurs of middle India. The ecosystem is fed by an expanding network of like-minded individuals & institutions created by the Jagriti Yatra. JEN makes this enterprise ecosystem accessible in small towns & villages through its network of facilitators at the district level.

Type Number of Districts

Population in millions

%

Tier 1 25 118 9.1

Tier 2 54 209 16.1

Tier 3 165 550 42.3

Tier 4 396 423 32.5

Total 640 1,300 100

16 17

JEN provides the following key services to the entrepreneur A. Enterprise knowledgeB. Access to fundsC. Market linkages

These three services will increase the chance of success and catalyze enterprise led development at the district level. With 5 facilitators (known as Udyam Corps) in every block of the district, local support infrastructure connected vans (Udyam vans), JEN takes the spirit of enterprise to the last mile. JEN is currently active in Deoria district in Purvanchal, as a pilot.

Jagriti Enterprise Centre

Jagriti Enterprise Centre is a physical brick-and-mortar centre that will catalyse the growth of Purvanchal as it becomes the center for Incubation of SMEs, forward looking urban planning a place to bring communities together and a window to middle India for rest of the country. We h piece of land near the Banyan tree and created the architecture for the centr in an inspiring spiral form, conceived by Trupti Doshi, a Yatr who is a renowned architect and sustainability engineer.

The creation of the JEN JEC is part of a national mission of creating four dhamsor centres of enterprise in the four cardinal corners of the country – Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, Karjat in Maharashtra, Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and Ganjam in Odisha.

7 VERTICALS1.. Agricult e & Agro Business2.. Healthc e3.. En gy4.. Educati5.. ater & Sanitation6.. Manufacturi7.. Arts, Cult e & Sports

4 HORIZONTALS1.. Inf mation, Communication & Technology2.. Public- Private Partnershi3.. Financial ervices4.. Business ervices

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Experiental LearningThe journey was designed to take into the hinterland of India. We believe only when experiencing India on the move, in the company of other inspiring co travellers does the experience remain as a lifelong journey. In this exploration there are four key axes that define interactions and learnings:

Role ModelsWe interacted with 15 role model institutions and individuals spread across the 15 day journey. These role models and the visits to their institutions sought to understand how they have built their social or economic enterprises. These role models are experts in one or more of the 7 verticals JY focuses on. The key to this learning, which is the major axis of the Yatra is to be able to relate not only to the original idea that gave shape to their enterprise, but their courage, as they gave birth to their institution and kept going against enormous odds. Yatris InteractionsLearning from each other, formally and informally was an important axis of the journey. In the initial week we created processes where Yatris were able to share with each other their experiences and aspirations. Given the potential for enterprise was a common denominator, this learning amongst their peer group was always the rich seam of the Yatra, and over time has emerged perhaps as the most important learning element in the Yatra.

Panel DiscussionsFour panel discussions were organised at key stops of the journey – Bangalore, Visakhapatnam, Delhi and Ahmedabad. The topics for PDs were around the 7 verticals and aspects of entrepreneurship, social or business. These were aimed at inter-actions with well-known personalities, which project larger national messages through mass media across the country. The insights of these panellists and our active participation in the Q&As that follow provided us with key insights.

Biz Gyan TreePurpose driven enterprises thrive only when we expose Yatris to the realities of India. During Biz Gyan Tree, we provided a workshop environment where the Yatris, in a rural setting, c interact with the local people and under the guidance of local experts, understand their social and economic need. Based on the interactions, the participants created the initial stages of a plan which they further developed through a residency in rural India.

The focus was on seven verticals Agro, Water Sanitation, Energy, Education, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Arts, Culture and Sports. The four horizontalsFinance, Information Communication & Technology, Public Private Partnership and Business services. A separate booklet for BGT was provided in Chennai.

As we learnt from the above four ax s of learning, we took inspi-ration from the words of Jaishankar Prasad, the eminent Hindi poet talks of ‘who will kindle the fire’

The sacri cial res of actionWill reveal the heavens of our dreamsBut who will propitiate these res?Is a question that still remains

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Red Threads Map of the JourneyThe essence of the Yatra has been distilled in three anchoring red threads. There are many layers to this journey and many ideas oat within those layers. With time, however, as the Yatra simmered in our minds, we noticed that certain ideas kept bubbling up again and again. Our friend, philosopher and guide Dr. Sudhanshu Palsule saw these ideas as a continuing red thread that ran along the journey like a spine. The term stuck and the red threads came to life.

The three red threads were then spun, teased, and woven to de ne the fabric - the essential experience of the Yatra.

Innovation (creation + replication) is about doing thingsdifferently, spotting a unique opportunity, ea ing it and taking it to fruition. On the Yatra we make it a point to learn from the home grown innovations of Middle India which are positively impacting communities. For too long innovation has been pushed one way, from the top of the diamond downwards e believe this has to change and it has to be a two way dialogue with middle India.

Collaboration is about working in a team, optimizing individ-ual strengths to achieve a larger goal together. Particularly in India where nancial capital is often missing, it is bringing the positive human capital that comes with team collabora-tion, something we as Indians need to improve and learn to maximize collective strengths for a larger goal.

Transformation deals with the going out of one’s context, learning new and then returning with the conviction to make change happen. The concept is illustrated by the story of Rosa Parks’ outward journey and return to her hometown to cou-rageously fight racism. This transformational journey is seen in the life of Mahatma Gandhi and many other world leaders.

22 23

Jagriti - Year in ReviewRaj Krishnamurthy2015 has been a year of signi cant change for Jagriti. After the successful completion of JY 2014 we started in earnest with Biz Gyan Tree as the year kicked off. Seven teams attended the sessions which resulted in high quality business plans. Sakhi Udyogini followed and we had two eminent women entrepreneurs – Saloni Malhotra and Aditi Gupta speak about their experiences followed by stories of our own Yatripreneurs.

This year we formally launched Jagriti Enterprise Network and Jagriti Enterprise Centre . This was orchestrated with a change in leadership – Amit Raj joined as the Exec Dir for Jagriti Enterprise Network and Ashutosh tookon the role of Exec Dir of Jagriti Deoria, Jagriti Enterprise Center - Purvanchal which is our local development initiative with the Jagriti Enterprise Center (JEC-P) as a key element of this. Chintan Siriya joined us as the new Exec Dir of Jagriti Yatra. With strong executive leadership, we ambitiously launched into integrating Jagriti into a single focused program. We established a partnership with Tata Trust on conducting market research in Deoria under JEN. This was quickly followed by acquisition of a five acre piece of land in Deoria for the JEC-P. By August we had forged a partnership with School for Social Entrepreneurs for enterprise training and confirmed continuing association with Coca Cola for Jagriti Yatra.

The JEN team took further shape and we had four team members now with the induc-tion of Indrajit Shaw, Vivek Neekhra and Ram Narayan Tiwari. The August conclave was extremely successful with the attendance of Vanita Viswanath and Neelam Ch iber. The launch of Jagrit Deoria, Jagrit Purvanchal was executed with fanfare. The new high pro le Jagriti Advisory board was constituted with the inclusion of Rohit Bhagat, Vijay Mahajan, Sharat Bansal, AP Mishra, Ashish Chauhan, Chetna Gala Sinha, Vanitha Vishwanath and Murali Talasila. As the fever of gearing up for JY 2015 started we had landed two further projects for JEN on agri based venture creation in Deoria. New recognition came in the way of coverage in a NESTA report which identi ed JY as a unique program, a rare leader taking enterprise to rural India.

As the shoots of spring appear we can see several programs initiated last year taking root. If 2015 was about change, 2016 promises to be a year of transformation. Yaaron Chalo!

Raj KrishnamurthyJagriti Board Member

Key Stats4 participants and

facilitators were selected out of thousands of applica-tions. The participants and the facilitators have come

from all parts of the world.

The age pro le of the participants was 20-27

and facilitators 25-35 with a potential or an existing

air for enterprise.

We had people from 23 nations across the globe

participating and bringing a global perspective.

42% of the were Female and 58% Male

A good balance of urban, rural and semi-urban.

21% of the came from Rural parts and 33% of them

were from Semi-urban

24 25

Role Models

Aditi KulkarniSELCO

Shradha SharmaYourStory

Parul GuptaSpringBoard

Smt Anjali ChuriNisarg Nirman Agro Products

Adam WoodwardKalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya

Bunker RoyBarefoot College

Anshu GuptaGoonj

Joe MadiathGram Vikas

Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa Akshaya Patra

M.S. SwaminathanMSSRF

Dr. S. AravindAravind Eye Care System

Sri Sri Ravi ShankarArt of Living

Robin Chaurasi aKranti

Women of Barefoot College

Supriya Sharma

Dr. Gopa Sab rwalNalanda University

Mr N. S. ParthasarathyMindtree

Jude KellySouthbank CenterMy Parliament

26 27

DESTINATIONS

28 29

SELCOHubli-Dharwa

SELCO Solar Pvt. Ltd, a social enterprise established in 1995, provides sustainable energy solutions and services to under-served households and businesses. It was conceived in an effort to dispel three myths associated with sustainable technology and the rural sector as a target customer base:

1) Poor people cannot afford sustainable technologies;2) Poor people cannot maintain sustainable technologies;3) Social ventures cannot be run as commercial entities.

SELCO currently employs about 375 employees in Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Tamil Nadu and spread across 45 energy service centr s. Since 1995, SELCO ha sold, serviced and financed over 2,00,000 solar systems to customers.

Shanti and Aditi who w representing SELCO spoke with passion with the Yatris introducing them to the princip s, operational structures and key focus areas of the organization.

Problem Statement:The life of some people revolves around Sunlight. These are the people who do not have easy access to electricity and energy. Statistics show that ¾ million of the population uses only 10% of the energy. 43 million people die of indoor pollution. The oor are not just the market. Providing electricity to these people means more than just a market. It means that these people can now be independent, their children do not have to sit next to the candlelight to complete their homework, and the entire family and the society are healthy and self-reli-ant.

Customized Products:The key characteristic of SELCO Creating products based on end user’s needs: Going beyond being just a technology supplier and customizing the products based on individual needs. Understanding the needs of the end users are very important. Every family every village ha distinctly different heir circumstances are different and so are their energy requirements. SELCO builds each of product around customization to the local need.

After Sales Services:Mere Installation of the olar energy panel is not enough; these panel need to be sustained. SELCO has a high focus on after-sales service dedicated regional energy service cent s to ensure prompt maintenance and service. They reach out for local partnerships to provide the ongoing maintenance services to their customer. This also brings in the local owner-

Aditi from SELCO gives a ompelling

talk in Hubli.

Yatris going on a guided tour to get

a rst hand look at solar panels

installed by SELCO.

30 31

ship, accountability and self-reliance. SELCO trains the local electricians also seeks every opportunity of learning from the localities and the team that they are training. Financial Aids:SELCO aims to empower its customer by providing a complete package of product, service and consumer financing through local banks, cooperative societies, commercial banks and microfinance institutions. Creating channels for end users to afford systems based on their cash flow is very important. The income cycle of the government employee is monthly, the income cycle of the laborer is weekly or in some cases daily, whereas the income cycle of a farmer is based on the seasons. hus need different financial models based on the individ-ual income cycle. She later added how SELCO works closely with rural banks, co-operative societies, NGOs and microfinance institutions, to facilitate financing so that end users can afford their products. It is due to SELCO’s pioneering work that many financial institutions have created a separate line of credit for solar systems.

Impact:1. Increased productivity2. Creat pivotal financial schemes 3. Creating awareness and faith in solar power4. Improving quality of life5. Providing high quality customized products

Later Shanti and Aditi also took various questions that the Yatris had. Aditi spoke about her own story

The SELCO model has been developed to help improve the social livelihood of people by diverting the savings from solar energy to other necessary daily needs. For many of the families, their children’s education is seen as the primary bene t. By replacing other sources of energy such as rewood and kerosene, solar energy also contributes to an overall environ-mental bene t.

Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (KSV)Hubli-Dharwa

Founded in November 2002, Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (KSV) is located in a quiet valley near the city of Dharwad in Karnataka, South India. Established on three acres of land a short distance from Kalkeri Village, the school consists of simple buildings made from traditional materials. In this peaceful setting, the children enjoy the tranquility necessary for their academic studies, music practice and performing arts activities. KSV provides education in academic subjects, industani classical music, haratanatayam dance and drama; KSV is a residential school.

KSV: The ConceptAdam Woodward, Director at KSV spoke to the Yatris. Adam shared that the origins of KSV were basic but clear: through the medium of traditional Indian music combined with regular schooling, the lives of disadvantaged children could be trans-formed. For many of these children no formal education was available, so the first step was to set up a favorable learning environment for them. Teaching and guidance provided by a team of dedicated professionals then gave these children the ability and confidence to stand on their own two feet, ensuring

Adam Woodward, ire tor at KSV

shares his insights with the Yatris.

32 33

that in time they will become creative and resourceful citizens.

KSV is inspired by Ravirandra Tagore’s Shantiniketan. Adam shared “Follow your passions and dreams. Try to find a job where you don’t need a holiday”. He emphasized the school’s primary intention to enable the children to succeed in life by providing them killsets.

In its early development the parents had doubts about the pertinence of their children learning music on such an inten-sive level, but with time the methods have proven effective and have yielded very promising results indeed. The medium of instruction is Kannada; English and Hindi are taught to a high level as second languages. Other subjects include mathematics, science, and social science. Extracurricular activities include reading classes, conversational English classes, art classes, storytelling, moral education, library time, computer classes and games and sports. Each student is assigned a professional teacher for music lessons three hours a day, six days a week. In addition to these lessons, the students also practise hard every day for at least one hour. KSV firmly believe that, by perpetuating the Guru-Shishya Parampara in the music eld, KSV students will bring a noteworthy contribution to India’s culture and heritage. Some may become professional musicians themselves; others may choose a different path, but no matter which they choose, they will still retain aspects of the tradition and transmit some of this into their work or family life.

`

KSV Stories:Adam had brought with him three of the students and two volunteers to speak to the Yatris. The volunteer shared his experience on how working at KSV has been fulfilling and rewarding- He said “Children are naturally curious and connected to their emotions” he second volunteer shared with us how KSV is managing the sponsorship and how we Yatris can contribute.

There were three student and a girl with a very bright smile who said- “I want to be a good teacher” won the hearts of the Yatris. other student shared how during the initial days he missed his home but now KSV has be home. It was quite evident that KSV was providing all its student confidence to interact with the people all around the world. Impact:Up to present day KSV has had a 100% successful pass rate for

the nal year school examinations (SSLC). For the remainder of the school (1st to 9th Standards) the pass

rate is 92%. In music, for both the Karnataka Secondary Education

Examination Board and Gandharva Mahavidyalaya music exams KSV has a 100% pass rate.The Students are enabled with skill sets, confidence and access

to resources from all around the world.Noteworthy contribution to India’s culture and heritage.

session the KSV students presented enthralling performance for the Yatris ranging from chanting, singing, playing music and dancing.

KSV students posing in their

olourful fa e paints.

Some students from KSV en hant us with a musi al

performan e

34 35

Art of LivingBangalore

Few things can happen only in Jagriti Yatra. Speaking of Digital India, listening to the founder of Mindtree the leading IT service provider organization in a Ashram ! You heard it right the place in Bangalore was the Ashram of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi hankar himself made his presence for the Yatri

connected with the Yatris through his laughter and smile. The session began with 18 minute meditation guided by the Gurudev, which he shared the work that his community was doing.

The quality of youth is the ability to take up challenges. When we do something good and useful for people, nature will support. All projects started for the right purpose will have resources coming their way along its journey

Human Resources: Important Component of EnterpriseSri Sri Ravi Shankar is a humanitarian. In essence he deals with human minds and interactions with everything around

. Human resource is also a very key ingredient to the success of any Enterprise. Though Gurudev does not consider himself

as an ntrepreneur it was an impactful session for the Yatris learning about human minds and human resources that they eventually will deal with during their journey of entrepreneur-ship!

“It is important to have purity in the heart, clarity in the mind and sincerity in action. Be open to innovation. Being a leader alone is not enough, we need to create more leaders ” Gurudev added.

Gurudev later took questions from the he question were ranging from – What should be the purpose of Enterprise? to How to make spirituality as a part of Enterprise Gurudev patiently answered all the queries with his wisdom. Yatris also heard the stor of how Art of living was established and grown thereafter.

Meeting Sri Sri Ravishankar at

his Ashram in Bangalore.

Sri Sri leads a guided meditation

session for the Yatris.

36 37

In August 1999, Mindtree Consulting Private Limited was founded by ten IT professionals.Parthasarathy N. S. (Partha) The organization today stands as one of the leading IT compan across the globe employing over 15 000 minds and with annual revenue of $600 million.

Human Resource: The Critical ElementMindree as an organization treats uman Resources as the most important component of their organization. In Mindtree Human Resource function at Mindtree is called “People function” and the employees at Mindtree are called “Mindtree Minds”. There is no replacement for human resources in a successful organization.

n the initial days of Mindtree the founding team of individuals Otherwise quite a challenge but

it worked out well for Mindtree since these individuals had a common objective and principles- the results were manyfold.Mindtree emphasized the importance of Integrity at every step of organization formation and its growth. Work with all integrity even when nobody is watching you is in the blood

MindtreeBangalore

Some of the notes from Gurudev worth mentionin are “I am a teenager who refused to grow up”, “I never do anything that is not in my nature, so I never get tired”, “What others consider difficult is excitement for us”, “We are all made up of Love”, “Don’t just be a leader, create leaders”, “Entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey”

Back n the Train the Yatris had thoughtful discussions about spirituality, the role of human mind and resources in an organi-zation. The Yatris also discussed about how organizations like Art of iving made it presence across the globe in such time and how organizations like Art of

iving can sustain years to come

India is a BILLION stories if you looked with your heart,and grabbed on to the hand of a man who is frail yet strong, who is whole yet torn,who is pulled in a do en dire tions in a land that

is being reborn.India is you and me friendAnd 0,000 miles of railway tra ks separating us

and bringing us togetherIndia is me and you friend.

-Purvi Vora

The Art of Living Ashram.

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of Mindtree. Partha spoke about integrity in depth and as one important message that he wanted to pass over to this young generation.

Core Values Reduce otal Cost of Ownership for our customers Partnership is the cornerstone of our existence Respect individual contribution but, value eamwork higher Create an rganization based on learning, innovation and

quality Enable employees to rise to full potential and reward with

wealth creation Conduct ourselves with the highest sense of integrity

Innovation Stories:Mindtree has many nnovation stories to quote. w looking out for some exceptional logo- while they could have easily given assignment of creating a logo to a design firm the team decided to try something new hey went to a school hildren with cerebral palsy. These children are often blessed with fine minds that are trapped in a disobedient body. Some of them have limb coordination problems, speech and hearing impairment. These children were asked to make the logo for the organization. One of the

selected as their logo and the rest were digitally enlarged and put across the walls of the Mindtree office.

ircle of life is another such innovation. The magazine that

to the families of the employees working for Mindtree. Mindtree promotes inclusive environment and extends its reach to the families of their employees.

Sustainability: For Mindtree, sustainability is a business imperative, which aims to create and maintain the necessary conditions under which people, the planet and pro ts coexist in productive coherence. Mindtree concentrates on four major aspects for sustainability.

Ecological Sustainability is kept under check through projects on Waste Management, Energy Ef ciency, Water Management and GHG emissions.

Workplace Sustainability: Mindtree believes in a non-dis-criminatory environment that promotes equal employment practices, health, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion. With an occupational health and safety management in place they encourage and maintain a safe work environment by providing fair working conditions to all Mindtree Minds.

Governance and Advocacy: Mindtree’s values are very fabric of the enterprise and have been integrated into every system and process.

I used to stay away from musi and dan e from my hildhood due to reasons I never knew. But everything turned in a moment when Gouri Sharma Tripathi taught us Chalo Her passion was obvious and re e ting. I learnt that if you have passion for something, you an move people”

-Paul Mathew

Partha from Mindtree shares his

valuable business knowledge

40 41

h

Digital India: Innovation, Disruptions and SurvivalBangalorePanel Dis ussion with:

Shrad a Sharma, Your Story;Rahul Yadav,Housing. om;

Vijay Sharma,Belong;

Parul,Springboard;

Xitij Kothi,Par elled.in

Parul convincingly spoke about how IT platform is creating an evolution in the ducation field, enabling education to cross all boundaries that constrai the

Parul from Springboard and

Xitij of Par elled.in dis uss starting up and Digital India.

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Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy was a well-known Indian ophthalmologist. He was a person, who, at the age of 58, dreamt of removing needless blindness and founded an enterprise which we know today as Aravind Eye Care.

G. Venkataswamy’s mission was to ‘eradicate needless blind-ness’ which he did by propagating the idea of mass marketing and surgical processes resembling an assembly line. Although, start was very humble with just 11 beds, today Aravind Eye Care is known all over the world for its contribution health-care.

Aravind Eye CareMadurai

traditional school models.

“I realized most people on our train are related to musi and some form of art journey was full of fun, musi and dan e. One of the rarest o asion where the audien e outnumbered theartists”- Sethuraman Ta

The panelists were given tokens of

appre iation as a thank you.

Dr. S Aravid addresses the

Yatris.

44 45

Building an Enterprise:

“When we grow in our spiritual consciousness, we identify

ourselves with all that is in the world and there is no exploita-tion. It is ourselves we are helping It is ourselves we are healing ”

His simplicity and ability to see the future inspired all of us and made us more humble.

Financial model:Aravind Eye Care caters to people from all economic backgrounds irrespective of their ability to pay. There are essentially three types of patients: Patients treated free of charge Patients who pay a subsidized rate Patients who pay close to market rates

Impact: Each day is extraordinary, 15000 patients being examined and

1500 surgeries being performed. 400,000 surgeries and laser procedure performed in financial

year Apr 2014-Mar 2015. Outpatient visits during 2014-2015 year exceeded 3.5 million Over 50% of the surgeries were either free or subsidized.

Yatris get a han e to try out the

eye-examination equipment.

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Meenakshi Temple is a historic Hindu Temple in the city of Madurai. The Temple of Goddess Meenakshi (Parvati) and her consort Shiva stands amidst of the Temple city Madurai.

Dr. Arvind Eye Care had already inspired all the what was needed was- Divine Blessings The Jagriti Yatra team acquired special permission to arrange the visit the temple with help of local Police commissioner. The temple complex is divided into a number of concentric quadrangular enclosures contained by high masonry walls. It is one of the few temples in Tamil Nadu to have four entrances facing four directions.

Another thing worth mentioning here was- 450 left out in an already busy temple – Some preferred to visit the deity, few chose to see the Hall of one thousand Pillars, some chose to shop outside the temple and some decided to taste the local food; how then we would get all of them together back on the

train on schedule!

Meenakshi TempleMadurai

“You annot for efully stop the easeless rattling of the bogie when you pre ariously balan e on the pot. You annot hange the pa e at whi h the train de ides to hug into the stations. And you ertainly annot expe t to not share your most

intimate snore or bowel y les. But who says all that needs any hanging at all Doesn’t the greatest hange start from within ”

-Abhishek Ghosh

One of the many impressive

Gopuras at the Meenakshi temple.

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MS Swaminathan Research Foundation was founded in 1988 by Dr M. S. Swaminathan, who is chairman of the foundation. In 1970, C.V. Raman, the Nobel ize–winning physicist, urged Swaminathan to start an autonomous research center to realize his goals of sustainable development, which he now terms the “Evergreen Revolution”. In 1988, after receiving the World Food Prize, Swaminathan used the US$200,000 prize to start the MSSRF.

MSSRF has a beautiful campus in Chennai- The Train was delayed and we reached late than what was scheduled. The burning heat of Chennai made its presence to Chennai-wel-come the Yatris. The campus of MSSRF however was soothing and took away the heat effect.

MS Swaminathan is popularly known as Indian Father of Green Revolution for his leadership and significant contribu-tion in introducing and developing high yielding varieties of wheat in India.

Getting Science and Society Together:

MSSRFChennai

According to the Professor, one of the biggest challenges that we have in hand is to increase the increasing the productivity in reducing amount of the land. MSSRF through their research is doing a ground-breaking work to solve this problem using technology.

Other Initiatives of MSSRF

The impact that MSSRF is creating on lives of the community they serve, their

Dr. M. S. Swaminathan

speaks with the Yatris.

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The Indian economy has been delivering strong economic growth across most sectors for the last few years. However, to achieve inclusive and sustainable, it is vital to develop its infra-structure--power, water, roads, health, sanitation and education facilities--which serve as the backbone for businesses, liveli-hoods, and living. Infrastructure demand is expected to go up to $1 trillion under India’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017). The Government of India (GOI) has therefore focused on develop-ing several enabling tools and activities to spur private sector investments into the country through public –private partner-ships (PPPs). PPP is often described as a private business investment where two parties comprising government as well as a private sector undertaking form a partnership. According to the Planning Commission, an approximation of 8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product or GDP needs to be invested in such partnerships.

Based in the – City of Destiny- - Patra Foundation is a place- where PPP, Spirituality and Higher Purpose dwells happily in harmony. Looking out of a window one day in Mayapur, a village near Calcutta, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, saw a group of children ghting with stray dogs over scraps of food. From this simple, yet heart-breaking incident, was born a determination that no child within a radius of ten miles from our center should go hungry.

Akshay Patra

The man who quite rightly said- “The future belongs to the Nation having Grains, not Guns” inspired all the in the short time that he spent with us. By the time we were done with our session an honest belief in the future of the sustain-able agriculture and a great sense of humility and the honor of meeting the pioneer and pillar of the evergreen revolution was deeply engraved in the minds and hearts of all the Yatris.

All ame with some personal and some ommon goals,I saw in them all, leaders, ready to inspire future souls.Goals were different, personalities even far,To nd themselves was something always in

their heart.

-Puneet Choudhary & Mansi Dhawan

Our role model, Satya Gaura

Chandra Dasa, spoke eloquently

about the work Akshaya Patra is

doing by providing midday meals to

hildren.

52 53

This is how the Patra Foundation started. Our Role model- Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa was kind enough to share with the the journey and the model of Patra.

Model:Server the mid day meals at School to encourage children to attend the school

Vision Statement:“No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.”

Mission Statement:“To reach 5 Million Meals per day by 2020”

Analysis:Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa stated that this organization spends good amount of time to setup the model, but once the model is fully tested they expand exponentially. Making food for 1.5 million across the country is not possible without innova-tion and use of technology. There is a high focus on making Automated and semi-automated Kitchens. The team is always challenged to create more ef cient kitchens that can serve more and more children in the schools. They have stringent quality checks for ensuring quality and hygiene. 60-70% women are employed in order to encourage and empower women. The model is easily replicable and the foundation already has kitch-ens in 24 locations across 10 states in India.

It operates in two models:Centralised: Food is prepared centrally and then distributed Decentralised: Where Ingredients such as fuel, utensils, raw materials are sent to schools and food is prepared by local people.

Some Interesting Facts and Figures: Serves 1.4 million children from 10,845 schools across 10

states in India. Kitchens in 24 locations spread across 10 states in India. The entire process is managed so that children receives the

food which is ‘hot’. They serve 30 different menu’s throughout the month so that

children do not get disinterested.

Raising the bar by serving 3 food items per meal instead of 2 Food served by Patra in North India is different than

what they make and serve in South India. The cost of setting up a kitchen for North Indian menu is

about Rs.9 crores. The cost of setting up a kitchen for South Indian menu is

about Rs. 8 crores Secular, and inclusive, with the child as the focus Can cook 500kg rice in 30 minutes Can make 50000 roti’s per hour Food is ready by 9am everyday and then carried to respective

schools. Rupees 750 per year per child is the cost to Patra for

the meals.

Impact:1. Increased enrollment and attendance by children at schools.2. Improved health of the children.3. Leveraging the Government schemes through PPP model.4. Minimizing the food wastage5. Saving teaching time.6. Addressing the problems related to storage of food grains atschool7. Cleaner local environment.8. Women empowerment through women employment9. Social upliftment.

after listening to this inspiring institution was served delicious snacks prepared at the Patra Kitchens, the teams were then taken to visit one of the kitchens near by !!

Yatris get the han e to visit

a fa tory-like-fa ility where the meals are

prepared.

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In we had our second Panel discussion- The topic of the discussion was – Sustainability in Agriculture. The success of our agriculture in critical as our survival depends on it, the discussion was around many opportunities that present in the entire value chain of agriculture.

Varun Singh from the Mumbai Mirror was the mod tor of this Panel discussion. His deep study and awareness of the agriculture in India was clearly visible though his voice and his intensity. Varun shared his personal story about his grandfa-ther being a farmer and how eventually no one from his family is now in the farming business.

Smt. Anjali Churi (Director-Nisarg Nirman Agro): Anjali was our rst panellist. Anjali’s father Mr. Bhalchandra Patil was working as a teacher in the Krishi Vidnyan Kendra at Kosbad, Dahanu, Dist. Thane. Anjali often accompanied him and had

rst-hand feel & experience of the pioneering research that he did on Asparagus. She formed Nisarg Nirman Agro Products Pvt. Ltd., in 2005 and the supplies the exotic vegetables and fruits to 5 star hotels like TajMahal, Oberoi and President.

Anjali shared her story with the Yatris- How she was married to

Sustainability in Agri ulture

Panel Dis ussion with:

Varun Singh,Mumbai Mirror;

Smt Anjali Churi,Nisarg Nirman Agro;

Mr. Hemant DesaiPawas Canning;

A. Ramakrishna Raju,BREDS;

an Engineer and later requested her husband 2 acres of land so that she can experiment and implement the agro knowledge that she had. Her efforts in this 2 acres of land was so fruitful that her engineer husband eventually joined her.

Her company has now expanded and grows around 73 types of herbs. She emphasized on- Supporting small scale farmers, importance on agro based education and how we need to look at agriculture as a sustainable business.

Mr. Hemant Desai (Founder- Pawas Canning): Since 1967, Hemant alias Vijay Desai started plantation of Alphanso mangoes. After recognizing the need and opportunity for mango products in the market during the time of the year when mangoes are not available in the market, he embarked on new venture under the name, “M/S Pawas Canning” in 1978, where he started using technology to extract pulp from mangoes and making value add products like mango pulp, mango juice, mango slices packed in OTS cans to be sold throughout the year.

Mr Desai said- “Integrity should be of high importance in any business” he shared his story of how he refused a huge offer from a partner since he had promised another partner already. He also said that Agriculture in India needs justice- The British encouraged our country to go for job, instead of farming. We cannot ignore the fact that 70% of India still has agriculture related jobs. We need to bring Agriculture and farming back in the Mainstream.

Mr. A. Ramakrishna Raju (CEO BREDS): Raju started his career

56 57

The visit to Naval Dockyard, during the trip that is for – Build-ing India through Enterprise takes the Patriotism element of the Yatra to a new level and it makes the Yatra Complete.

At , we visited the Naval Dockyard. This Dockyard which is on south-east of India takes pride in cover-ing and protecting the entire South-east coast of our country. The were taken to the Auditorium where Commodore Parulikar addressed the Yatris. The presentation made was very apt to the theme of the Jagriti Yatra. Commodore spoke about various opportunities that Entrepreneurs have if they want to closely work with Navy and Marine industry. “We would be happy to give opportunities to our country fellow men than to get something from international companies” he said. He then gave various examples of opportunities - The color of the Ship for example needs some specifications and standards, if anyone of you would come up with a solution that meets our color standards we would be happy to give a tender to you- he added. He also mentioned about how designing a ship is time consuming affair and currently they opt for just buying designs from Asia Pacific countries- The Navy would be happy to give

Navy Do kyard Visitas a development worker in 1988, with a strong conviction to facilitate positive change in the lives of vulnerable communi-ties in Srikakulam District.

Raju shared with the on how he travelled extensively to see and meet the farmers of his area. Only after meeting and speaking with them – he understood the real needs and requirement of the farmer. He says- “Different farmers have different problems and thus need different solution” He spends good amount of his time on understanding the problem of the farmer before innovating a solution for him. Raju sincerely believes in Gandhi’s imperative to “be the change you want to see in the world.” He has been associated with BREDS for 18 years in different capacities, and specializes in innovative solutions for the needs of the farmer. He shared his stories about how he educated the farmers about – cold storage facilities, Pre-arranged pricing, crop rotations and other marketing training and awareness.

As the panel discussion progress the temper of the audience was totally charged up to explore the possibilities of the Agricultural domain. The questions ew in ranging from farmer suicides to future of the agriculture in the coming days. There was also a question of why does India have the mental-ity of – “Who will marry a farmer?”- answering that question Raju mentioned- “Work on creating our own identity and don’t worry about who will marry a farmer- rest will follow” As the session ended a whole new domain of agriculture was set open to all the to think upon, to act upon.

Painting by one of our resident

artists, Chitrakar Shyam Chauhan.

58 59

Joe Madiath is a social entrepreneur who started Gram Vikas in 1979 with the aim to improve quality of life of the poor and marginalized rural communities. Gram Vikas, which literally means ‘Village Development’, is an organization that was started to provide quality water and sanitation facilities for the poor people of Orissa.

Today, Gram Vikas helps marginalized tribal groups and scheduled castes organize themselves to solve a wide range of social and health problems. They strives to create high impact community driven solutions for rural areas. Gram Vikas has impacted over 400, 000 individuals and 70000 families through various programs and interventions.

Problem Statement:Water contamination accounts for 80% of the diseases in the rural population.

Model:The model that Gram Vikas has is - Gram Vikas rst approaches the village community. After a series of meetings & negotia-tions, sometimes ranging from months to years, they start the work only after achieving 100% inclusion i.e., only after all

Gram VikasBe hampur

such opportunity to our countrymen.

were then taken to the Dockyard visit. It was an overwhelming experience to visit the Dockyard, see the ships and sheer magnitude of nuts and the bolts made the

gape in awe !!

Joe Madiath speaks in

.

कुछ मेरे जैसा �दखता है

60 61

households in the village agree to have toilets & bathrooms built in their respective houses. “95% participation is not enough, we need 100% participation to succeed” he said.

Gram Vikas collects INR 1000 per household to ensure commit-ment from the members of the participating community. They procure local material & labor and start working. A toilet & a bathroom are installed in each household. The grey water rejected out is utilized in irrigation of gardens in the house. The toilet is based on double pit sock model, where one pit is rst

lled & then the second one is used while waste in rst pit is converted into manure. “Sanitation

Sanitation is not just about having toilets, it’s also about provi-sion of running water. Gram Vikas is an amazing demonstration of community based water distribution system and sanitation. They work in the most villages with tribal population largely ignored otherwise.

Joe later spoke about importance of the team- The biggest challenge that he has faced is having a big team. “We need people who are passionate and dedicated” he said. The good team can multipl the impact of an organization many folds. Joe later mentioned that - scalability is the concept of the west. He believes the ‘Vision’ should be scalable then the project itself. They are looking for rural entrepreneurs who can repli-cate this model in villages.

Joe also spoke about how to reconcile tribal traditions with modernity. In Joe’s words “Sanitation is more about dignity

than defecation”. He spoke about how Mahatma Gandhi, way back in 1925, stated that India needs toilets more than it needs independence.

Financial Model:The major source of Gram Vikas’s income is through various Government and Foreign grants. Around 34% of funding is coming from foreign funds that include “Charity waters”. Around 27% is coming from Government Schemes-WSS, Swach Bharat Abhiyaan (Recently added in scheme portfolio), MNREGA etc.

Impact:Social: Today, women don’t have to carry water from long distances. This saves their time and energy that they can invest in more productive activities.Economic: Villages where Gram Vikas has worked today are self-sustainable to a large extent. Good agricultural practices have increased the income of households in those villages.Health: Better sanitation facilities have reduced deaths caused due to water borne diseases. Also, various initiatives for housing and education have helped spread awareness about good health and have improved quality of life.

Yatris were overwhelmed hearing the stories of Joe Madiath who spen more than 30 years of his life amongst the tribal, understanding, educating and solving their basic problems and necessity. Joe has quite rightly stated “Poor people don’t need poor solutions, they need appropriate solutions”.

Yatris are greeted with a warm

wel ome from s hool hildren in

.

62 63

Nalanda Ruins VisitRajgir

Nalanda - the ancient seat of learning and one of the rst universities in the World. Nalan means lotus and Da means giving. Nalanda is, therefore, the place that gives lotus, lotus being a symbol of knowledge.

It is said to have been visited by both Buddha and Mahavir. The beautiful, serene and green campus is an expression of perfect harmony between man and nature. The completely residential University had a 5:1 student-teacher ratio depicting the value of student-mentor relationship and the concept of learning as a part of living. Scholars from places around the World including China, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Japan, South-East Asia, Tibet, Turkey visited the university in pursuit of knowledge. In the end of twelfth century, the university was destroyed by the invaders. The environment, however, still lls the heart of every visitor with feelings of tranquillity and introspection. While some Yatris found themselves lost in the picturesque environs, others wondered in the midst of lush green garden and remains of a structure that is an epitome of knowledge.

Almost all the Yatris did dissolve themselves in thoughts of Knowledge, rich history of our country, and sense of making efforts to restory India’s past glory!

-Nipun Jain

Posing with the beautifully

terra otta oloured ruins

at old Nalanda university.

The ruins of old Nalanda

University

आख� मे कुछ सपने �लये,�दल मे कुछ अरमान �लये..एक अनजान सफर मे,�नकले थे सब घर से..

लोग नऐ सोच नईचार� तरफ थे अदंाज नऐ,हवा नई, मौसम नऐ लगा जसेै आये हो �कसी अलग ह� द�ुनया मे..

लगता था हम बडी �चज हैलगता था हम बडी �चज है,ले�कन यहां अपनी ह� एक द�ुनया है,और हम उसका ऐक छोटा सा �हस्सा है ।।

64 65

66 67

Nalanda UniversityRajgir

Nalanda University is a newly established University located in Rajgir, near Nalanda, Bihar, India. The rst academic session began on September 1 2014, with 15 students and 5 of them were women.

Dr. Gopa Sabharwal is the founding Vice Chancellor, Nalanda University. She comes to Nalanda from India’s foremost liberal Arts college, Lady Shri Ram College for Women where she founded the Department of Sociology in 1993. Her wide ranging research has focused on ethnic groups in urban India, visual anthropology, partition and the history of society. She obtained a PhD in Sociology from the Delhi School of Econom-ics at University of Delhi.

She guided the Yatra on how this New University came into existence. Nalanda is a word known across the world and for centuries. It stands for a university which attracted students and scholars from across Asia and even farther away. It was a center of excellence not only for Buddhist studies and philosophy but for medicine and mathematics as well. After teaching thousands of students for centuries, Nalanda ceased its existence just as universities were opening up in Bologna, Paris and Oxford at the beginning of the second millennium CE.

Asian countries are coming together to forge a continent based on the foundations of peace and harmony. The decision of the East Asian Summit in 2007, at its meeting in Cebu, Philippines, to endorse the plan to re-establish the Nalanda University underscores the commitment to these values.

Dr Gopa further explained the direction and the belief basis which new University is being built- Nalanda must be a Centre of knowledge and a most excellent one. Its primary function must be to harness the best talents for the creation and dissemination of new knowledge as well as for the recovery and restoration of valuable old insights which have suffered unintended neglect. Nalanda has to be open to students from across the world chosen for their desire for and capacity to absorb knowledge in diverse elds. It must have once again, as it did before, the best scholars and researchers to create and recreate knowledge. It must afford them a vibrant living environment which will also be suitable for the nurture of the next generation – the children of those creating and recreating the Centre of excellence. It must be adapted to the rhythm of Nature where it is located and enrich the lives of the people in the neighborhood.

Dr. Gopa Sabharwal

addresses a lled auditorium at New Nalanda

University.

68 69

Biz Gyan Tree Biz Gyan Tree is an experiential exercise for the about conceptualizing the business model. Apart from the knowl-edge sessions and mentorships, the get a near real-life perspective of setting up an enterprise in middle India, includ-ing the challenges one faces with working with a diverse team. The Concept:Biz Gyan Tree is an event that happens in Deoria where get an opportunity to make and pitch the business plan in front of the panel.

The Process:BGT is designed to start slowly with fewer activities around Chennai and Vizag. Induction about the company formation and registration is conducted with the Yatris. It kicks the high gear after . The initial stage includes formation of company, assigning the key roles like CEO, CFO etc amongst the team members, registering the company and then working on the business model. Once we reach Deoria, the get an opportunity to visit the villages to evaluate and tune their business model. There is a competition, the winners and the celebrations!!

Dr Gopa then explained us the new logo of the Nalanda Univer-sity- As a graphic, the new logo is a “rebus” or visual pun. On the one hand, it depicts a tree, which is signi cant as a symbol of nature, signi cant because of the Bodhi tree’s importance to the story of Nalanda, and signi cant because the tree is a metaphor for life and of giving. On the other hand, it shows interlinked gures of the people who have come together to create this new university. In depicting the interlinking of different stakeholders, the logo thereby exempli es what is unique about this university – it results from the coming together of different countries, of people across geographies who are working together to create a new institution. It empha-sizes a different aspect of globalization: the exchange of ideas and people to expand learning and culture.

Dr Gopa took a pride in sharing the net zero campus concept of the New University. The University is complete environment conscious and they even make the bricks its own soil. Nalanda which was earlier a fusion of religion, ideas and travelers is being almost replicated in the new University. There is also lot of emphasis on the Pioneering spirit; the students are taught to read, write and think for themselves. “Ideas are the core of the University” she added. She further said that the University is research focus, interdisciplinary and experiential learning focused. The new University will become Engine of the Change in coming times.

We also met up with Kishorji

again at Nalanda.

Teams working hard on their

Biz Gyan Tree presentations.

70 71

Deoria: Field trips, Chai-Pakoda and the real business!!We reached Deoria in the late morning ! Deoria also happens to be the only place where we sleep outside the train. The

were welcomed with the drums, garlands and victory tilak on their forehead. The boys dropped the luggage at the school and girls Shashanks ancestral house! Post the welcome session and a warm lunch the teams were assigned a local leader who took them for the field visit. The field visit were the moment of truth! Many truths about the Tier-2 and 3 villages unfolded there, some business plans were even scraped after seeing the on ground reality, many business plan were changed drastically. The got an opportunity to interact with the villagers and learn from them.

When the returned back from the field visit their offices in the form of round table and chairs and their company names were ready ! The business began, participated, they spoke, they argued, they collaborated, they organized themselves as if their millions dollars were at stake. Chart papers started converting into business plans- 3 minutes were all that they would have to present their business pitch. Exercise was an experience, unknowingly learned how to single-minded work on their concept, how to eliminate the unnecessities, how to merge as one team and more than anything else how to apply all that they had learned so far ! The time to the pitching began. Three avenues were set to complete the entire BGT session within 2 hours. Three minutes

were all they had – the judges took their seat and the whistle was blown.

The team started presenting their 3 minute pitch one by one. All the hard work and preparations were re ected in their sessions. The ideas varied from Learn-in-a-minute mobile app, education on cycle, social toilets, sugarcane cans and many many more. It was an experience to see young minds delivering their passion, their dream and their intensity. The judges had 2 minutes to ask questions to the team on their business model. All the sessions end within 2 hours followed by relax faces of the Yatris.

Hero s behind the scene:BGT preparation starts much before even the Yatra starts. Vivek Neekhra: Vivek started JEN as a rst employee. He is a 2013 Yatri. His passion for nation building lead him to join the Jagriti Team. He was the mind behind the strategies and execu-tion of the BGT session.

Ramnarayan Tiwari: Ram is an energy behind BGT. He is blend of mastermind, district exposure and smile on his face. He was approachable and always available to guide the about the entire BGT cycle.

Presentation time on stage in

Deoria.As well as the words, teams

also prepared in depth visual aids

to help in their presentations.

72 73

Local Hosts: The BGT session cannot be complete without the support and participation of the local hosts from Deoria. From the grand welcome, the guide through the villages to arranging all the logistics behind hosting 500 people at the their beautiful village, we are thankful to the inhabitants of Deoria.

Winners:Winners were announced in Delhi the next day here

The result announcement session was no less than any inter college competition! The winning teams would be invited back to Deoria in Feb to further work on their business models.

Raj Ghat VisitDelhi

While were proudly celebrating the 100 years of Gandhiji’s travel across India- we couldn’t miss the opportunity to pay our tribute at the Raj Ghat itself.

Raj Ghat is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. It is a black marble platform that marks the spot of Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation, Antyes ti (Antim Sanskar) on 31 January 1948, a day after his assassination. It is left open to the sky while an eternal ame burns perpetually at one end. It is located on the banks of the river Yamuna in Delhi in India on Ring Road of cially known as Mahatma Gandhi Road. A stone footpath anked by lawns leads to the walled enclosure that houses the memorial.

Before we enter the Ghat, all Yatris of Building India through Enterprise - We all that India needs to be built at the level of Tier-2 and Tier-3 district, these districts would play an important part in building India in coming 20 years.

“Identifying with the ever- hanging parts of our Nature is like identifying with the pla es we see outside the window of a moving train, not realiz-ing that it is not the pla es we see, but rather the experien es we have that makes us alive; not realizing that the real journey is happening inside, even as we keep moving on the outside; not realiz-ing that the train is only an instrument, just like our mind and body to our beautiful soul”

-Divyanshi Chugh

Trupti Doshi speaks with the

Yatris near the Raj Ghat.

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Celebrating the EntrepreneurDelhi

The third Panel discussion of the Yatra happened at Delhi. This Panel discussion was unique and special as we had called our Ex- who are now Entrepreneurs as our Panelist. Rewati Prabhu, who joined the last leg of the Yatra from Delhi mod this Panel Discussion.

Supriya Sharma: CEO & Co-founder, M ParliamentSupriya is a graduate from BITS and has been working in the development sector for the past 4 years. Supriya is the co-founder and CEO of M Parliament, a social enterprise which bridges the gap between youth and governance by creating an ecosystem for youth to engage in governance and public-policy issues. M Parliament has engaged with more than 10,000 youth across the country and is currently working with Members of Parliament in various constituencies. Supriya shared her story about how she thought that the people in our country are not aware of their basic democratic rights and polic . “I wanted to connect people with government and policies”- she said. She also shared that Entrepreneurial

Panel Dis ussion with:

Supriya Sharma,M Parliament;

Robin Chaurasiya,Kranti Foundation;

Gunvant Jain,;

Trupti Doshi, The Architect of Jagriti Enterprise Centre (JEC) educated us about her grand uncle Vanu Bhuta’s contributions in the rchitecture of the Raj Ghat.

Nehru had a different idea of the Raj Ghat’s architecture but Vanu Bhuta were able to convince Nehruji that Gandhi would love to have his cemetery that will reflect his simplicity. We feel proud that our Architect of JEC comes from the same blood and family who designed the Raj Ghat !

-Aditya Patni

Raj Ghat memorial to

Gandhiji.

Robin Chaurasiya and Supriya

Sharma on stage.

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journey is not as glamorous a it seems, it’s a lonely path. She said – “there would be times during our entrepreneurial journey- that you would feel lost, but during such times when you have conviction in your purpose the path will follow.”

Robin Chaurasi a: Co-founder Kranti Foundation Robin is ghting to give a better life to the children of sex workers and similar kids from red light areas who have been affected by domestic violence. After graduating in psychology, Robin worked with United States Air Force and also volunteered with an anti-traf cking NGO in Uganda and came to Mumbai for six months for the same. The Mumbai experience later proved to be a de ning moment in her life, and somewhere a foundation for Kranti was laid into her mind.

Robin quite right started off by asking- “Can I help you with your question about what is the purpose of life?” She then added – “The Purpose of our life is to be happy”. She mentioned that through Kranti she has found purpose and happiness. Robin shared few interesting stories with the Yatris. She also mentioned – “The good news is that Yatra is forever” There would be times when there would be self-doubts in your mind, but if you understand “why” you do it, you will get enough courage to move on. She also mentioned that building enter-prise is not a solo act – when one is down other needs to pick up and that’s how we have fun ! She also said- “it’s important that we listen to our self and our inner voice and it’s also important we have compassion for everyone around us”

Gunvant Jain: Founder and CEO Shikshalaya is an active learning center, founded by Gunvant Jain- an engineer by profession and an educator by passion. Post his graduation from IIT Madras, he decided to pursue his passion and follow his inner call. Therefore he joined Teach For India and later an IIT Bombay educational start-up before he incepted Shikshalaya.

Gunvant spoke about his personal journey and how Yatra had a convincing impact on him. He said he could clearly differ-entiate his life into before Yatra and after Yatra ! He said – “It’s important to find your own story. You will be remembered for how treat the people”. He further said that the connection with our fellow will really matter in a long run. His organization is an active learning center which caters to after school academic needs of teenagers. Their flagship program includes full time coaching to secondary section (8th/9th/10th). Gunvant also mentioned about other programs involving academic support to higher primary section (6th/7th/8th) by subject/ skills specific camps and parenting support to parents. Overall his goal is to create an environment of excellence for a better and successful future.This session ended with the question-answers session and the usual – this time for our own Ex-Yatris.

“The best part is re e ting on inter ultural ommuni ation: there are things you initially

don’t understand and don’t like but gradually as you delve deeper into the value system you learn to appre iate and admire these same points of otherness”

-Anna Korepanova

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Ruben MascarenhasIndia is a nation of entrepreneurs and the spirit of enterprise is widely visible to the discerning eye. From risk-taking farmers to blue collar workers like rickshawallas to venture-funded

rst generation start-ups, India literally abounds in Enterprise. It is this courageous spirit of building an enterprise that we celebrated at the event at the Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi.

As part of the programme, we heard from senior Cabinet Minis-ters from the Government of India, Captains of Industry and our very own Yatripreneurs, who collectively created a compre-hensive view of what it takes to build a successful enterprise and the enormous impact it can have on individuals, commu-nities and nations.

“This Govt intends to do what it takes to enable enterprise and entrepreneurship.The best job creation is only possible by unleashing the full power of enterprise”. Shri Jayant Sinha, MoS Finance, Government of India

“Seeing all of you assures me of India’s bright future. Be bold, don’t be risk averse, own an idea, execute it and chase your dreams.We will stand rmly behind you.” Shri Prakash Javadekar, MoS Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India

“Why do we stigmatize failure? There are no failures, only learning experiences! Try and try till you succeed and succeed you will.”Shri Isht aque A d, Vice-President,

“I was never an entrepreneur in my career yet I always performed my duty as a corporate professional with entrepre-neurial zeal which is the essential ingredient to success” Shri J.P. Chalasani, CEO-Punj Lloyd

“Ethics is the core of any business proposition. There must be a higher purpose. Your enterprise growth story mustn’t be sel sh. Grow and help others grow too”. Shri Shiv Khemka, Executive Chairman, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation

Shri Prakash Javadekar,

Minister of State for Environment,

speaks to the Yatris.

Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finan e.

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GoonjDelhi

Anshu Gupta of Goonj – the Magsaysay Award winner our Role model at Delhi.

Goonj: Making Cloth MatterAnshu founded GOONJ in 1998 with a mission to make clothing a matter of concern and to bring it among the list of subjects for the development sector. Anshu’s work with GOONJ goes to a core challenge of our times; the growing gap between the urban prosperity & rural poverty. His work has a game changing element in many ways; he has taken the menacing growth of urban waste and used it effectively and efficiently as a tool to trigger large scale development work on diverse issues; roads, water, environment, education, health etc. in some of the most backward and remote pockets of India.

Building an Enterprise:On 1998 December night, when Anshu accompanied a ‘body collector’ – one who collects dead bodies of homeless and unidentified people Khooni Darwaza in Delhi- They found a few men, who had died due to cold as they were wearing nothing but a thin cotton shirt. Anshu was then shaken and realized that clothing as a basic human right was often ignored. This eventually led to the birth of ‘Work for Cloth’ - Goonj.

Matter of DignityAnshu brings to the table an instinctive empathy and connect with people. He is dignifying the act of giving. People earn clothes with dignity rather than getting it as charity. Similarly old school material goes as reward against a series of activities instead of traditional charitable way of giving which Anshu says – “It is an act of killing someone’s dignity at the childhood itself”

He is a strong believer in the dignity of people in villages of India, who according to Anshu, are ultimately pushed to urban slums to survive. The biggest asset of rural people is their self-respect and dignity. A so called poor farmer is the biggest giver to people like us, their dignity matters.

The fundamental questions raised by Anshu left Yatris numb- “why should we pay toll taxes? Why do we not feel safe to keep our daughters alone at home? Does the Mumbai and Delhi airport show the real picture of India? Why do we donate

A privilege to meet Anshu

Gupta at Goonj in Delhi.

Anshu Gupta gives his spee h

in Hindi to the Yatris.

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money to the temple when there are poor people just outside the temple”. The intensity in his voice was true and striking. He spoke about numerous stories of change. Building a road, building a well, building a bridge through work for cloth was appealing.

Not just a piece of clothMany women in India still can’t afford to buy sanitary napkins. Roughly 68% of rural women in India use pieces of cloth, or other unhygienic options, which according to gynecologists cause infections leading to cervical cancer. Through ‘Not just a piece of cloth’ Goonj turned waste cotton cloth into a viable and bio-degradable solution for sanitary napkins- My Pads.

The message was clear- We need to be a doer, not just a dreamer. We need to confront our realities. We need to be the change we wish to see in the world. “Once we have the purpose the path will follow” he shared with us. In his 60 minute talk with the he created a silence and the silence was shouting.

Barefoot CollegeTilonia

Sanjit “Bunker” Roy (born 2 August 1945) is an Indian social activist and educator who founded the Barefoot College. Since its inception, the long term objective of the Barefoot College has been to work with exploited and impoverished rural poor and lift them over the poverty line with dignity and self-respect. The dream that Bunker Roy had was to establish a rural college in India that was built by and exclusively for the poor.

Ever since then Barefoot College has trained hundreds of semi-literate and illiterate women – many of them grand-mothers – from developing and least developed countries to be solar engineers. And they have gone back home to install solar panels and batteries, maintain and repair them and change life in their remote villages forever. More than that, they have trained others in neighboring villages to do the same. The College has realized the best candidates were middle-aged women, most of whom were grandmothers

A standing ovation at the end of Anshu Gupta’s talk.

Women of Barefoot College

training to be ome solar

engineers.

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Empowering villages and women:Barefoot College believes that the village community has to be sensitized to manage, control and own the technology. Poor village communities can run solar units on their own if they are trained to make the solar equipment at the village level as well as repair and maintain it. Illiterate rural women have demon-strated that this is possible.

He seemed convinced that a Women works for her family and her society, they used the skillsets that they have learned for larger purpose, on the contrary men are likely to run to the cities once the skillset is obtained. Since 1972 thousand of women have been trained at this College

Literacy and Education:The Barefoot College believes that ‘literacy’ is what one acquires in school, but ‘education’ is what one gains from family, tradi-tions, culture, environment and personal experiences. Both are important for individual growth. At the College, everyone is considered an education resource, the teacher as well as the student and the literate as well as illiterate. Therefore, the Barefoot College is a radical departure from the traditional concept of a ‘college’.

Technology:Bunker Roy shared that sophisticated technology should be used in rural India, but it should be in the hands and in control of the poor communities so that they are not dependent or exploited.

The Barefoot College has demysti ed technologies and decentralised their uses by transferring the access, control, management and ownership of sophisticated technologies to rural men and women, who can barely read and write. The College believes that even uneducated poor have the right to use technologies to improve their life and skills.

Bottom up Approach:Bunker Roy further argued that until we begin treating people living in extreme and debilitating poverty as our equals, as potential solutions to the problem and heroes to their own stories - we cannot help them rise out of their conditions. “They have tremendous knowledge and skills which we have

completely ignored,” said Bunker. Only when we value those skills and form partnerships with those communities can we begin to put rural people in control of the tools and technol-ogies they need to improve their quality of life each and every day

Impact The impact of the Barefoot College is evident in the undying con dence seen in the women at Tilonia. They are skilled, intelligent and despite the language barrier are able to train hundreds of foreign women and spread their knowledge across the globe. It’s true to say if you train a woman you train a gener-ation.

Besides the talk with Bunker Roy, the students of the Barefoot College – mostly grandmothers were present to be a part of the evening. Some of them shared their stories, how initially the idea to travelling outside their village, living with people who don’t speak same language, eating the food that is not familiar was a challenge, but once they were her their life have changed beyond their imaginations. “We are treated like family- we become family” one of the grandmother said. We also had a puppet show for the Yatris. Jokhim Chacha- the puppet rightly told the that his age is 365 years – he doesn’t believe in the length of the life, but believe in

The then had an opportunity to shop some Rajasthani’s goodies from the store. This apparently was the last role model visit. On the long way back to the railway station most of the were reflecting on the series of great minds they had heard ever since their day one !

A song and dan e to mark the lose

of a wonderful day at Barefoot

College

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The Business of Art, Culture and EntertainmentAhmedabad

We had our 4th and nal Panel Discussion at EDI, Guj rat. The topic of Panel discussion was- Art and Culture through Entertainment. Rewati Prabhu was our mod ator for this Panel discussion. The Session began with the powerful note Art makes us Better Human Beings, Art is Human Right.Salil Bhatt: Our rst panelist was Salil Bha , creator of Satvik Veena. He is nominated for Canada’s topmost music honor the “JUNO AWARD” (considered as the CANADIAN GRAMMY) for his international music album SLIDE TO FREEDOM-2 in Best World Music Album category.

Salil looked the man who is closely associated with Art from head to toe; Salil had an event to perform at in around 90 minute’s time; he still chose to come and address the because he had an important subject to address to the Yatris. He candidly spoke our country’s state where Art and Culture are not considered necessary. He also spoke about how each

artist has to struggle alone in his journey. “What we need is a uni ed body that will bring all art together” he said. He also

Panel Dis ussion with:

Salil Bhatt,Satvik Veena;

Jude Kelly,Southbank Centre;

Rit m Bhatnagar,India Film Project;

Jatin Choudhary,eChai ventures;

mentioned about why Art and Music needs to be part of our educational curriculum. In ideal scenario there should not be any tension between the Artists wanting to get into Entrepre-neurship.

Jude Kelly: Jude Kelly was our second panelist, she is the Artis-tic Director of Southbank Centre, London, and Founder of the WOW-Women of the World festival, a global movement of festi-vals celebrating women and discussing gender equality. Jude is now quite regular on list as one of the UKs most powerful women.

“Humans like to tell their stories through Art” she said. She then quite rightly put across the question about – Where do we want the rich heritage of India to be at? India needs to tell her story! She educated us that Art, Culture and Entertainment are the 4th largest contribution to the GDP in UK. She said- “Do something you love and you are far likely to succeed” Jude also took this opportunity to speak about the gender equality. All the famous structures and Art form are claimed to done by - why do we not think that they are made by Women. She spoke about gender bias and how we need to be attentive of the same.

Rit m Bhatnagar: Our third panelist, An electronics guy, with a management degree, studied marketing, and ended up making lms and mobile apps. Ritam has founded India Film Project, which is the largest lm making event of India. Ritam Bhatnagar is the founder CEO of wWhere, and also a known Producer and Distributor in Indian Cinema Circuit.

Rewati hairing the dis ussion.

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quite right quoted- “India needs people to support the Artist”. He then spoke about how he himself is not an artist but is part of Art Industry. He spoke about the future of the short lms in the coming time; we would see a general trend of lms getting shorter and shorter in coming days. He claims that he is in business of connecting Arts with audience. He further said- “I don’t make lms but I help other people make lms” Jatin Choudhary: Jatin was our 4th panelist, he is the Co-Founder at eChai Ventures , an of ine-online social network of entrepreneurs. Every month over 5000+ entrepre-neurs, professionals, students and mentors come together at various eChai programs to connect, share and collaborate with each other.

Jatin addressing the spoke about his lead in the overall strategy and business development of Sweetly, an incredible venture which provides economic bene ts of employment to almost 50 women living in Dangs forests. He sounded very proud to be the catalyst to bring forward the Art of these 50 womens. He spoke about how to help nd the platform for those voices that are not heard. He spoke highly about Artist as Entrepreneurs. He gave example of South Bank providing 50% of their programme as free- the deserving artist are however unaware of this. Jatin also shared with the how his organization uses their network to propagate the Art that is found in remote places.

The panelists then took questions from the Yatris, the key takeaway was- be resourceful, take risks, have conviction, and let the art in you blossom.

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Resour es on the TrainYatra had various resource persons- experts from different verticals, travelling with us during our journey. Each was avail-able and approachable to the Yatris who wanted to take their expert advice. They patiently welcomed the Yatris, talked with them, heard their aspirations and also guided them with their apprehensions.

Yatris Divyanshi Chugh and Khushaboo Jha volunteered to interview these resource persons to document and share their stories and insights with the wider group. Antara Choudhury later helped to edit and capture the essence.

Mr. Andre LimWith a strong desire to bene t the people he was working for,Andre gave up his job in the telecommunications industry. and went on to volunteer in Cambodia in an orphanage. Here he soon realized that children were not really bene ting. He felt that it is crucial to professionalize the way in which NGOs are run. This landed him in several jobs where he was working with small and medium-sized social enterprises. Currently, he is working with Essilor—the world’s largest spherical lens manufacturing company with a strong social responsibility program.

He feels that at the heart of social entrepreneurship is entrepre- neurship and therefore, his message for young entrepreneurs is, ”You cannot survive on having a good heart, you really need sustainability, scalability, managerial competence and partner- ships.”

Mr. Vin l ReddyVin l Reddy is the founder of CollabHouse. CollabHouse grew organically out of Vinyl’s association with Mozilla Firefox. Vi l joined a volunteer program at Firefox in college and soon became a regional coordinator for Firefox. It was during this time that lack of convenient, amenable co-worker spaces greatly affected the morale and therefore the output.

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This acted as a source of motivation for CollabHouse, which has three key drivers: First is to educate people on technology, second is to create collaborative spaces and third is to help start-ups grow.

His message for young entrepreneurs is- ”Grow organically, research well and then give everything to what you choose to do”

Dr. Vanita ViswanathAdvisor to Jagriti Enterprise Network and the former CEO of Udyogini

Even after working for years as a leader in the eld of entre-preneurship , Vanita travelled on the Jagriti Yatra train with childlike curiosity for learning, enthusiasm for exposure and a keen eye for observing the young generation’s way of thinking.

Over the years she has tried to bridge the gap between theory and practice, retain respect for culture, language and local tradition amidst pressures by in uential organizations that abide by the western worldview. She has learnt that growth of GDP is never able to drive inclusion. Inclusion of the margin-alized and oppressed is not an option and thus, all enterprises must be socially drive , to some extent.

Her message for the budding social entrepreneurs is- “To not hurry because when you hurry, your heart takes a backseat” For her, empathy is the key driving force. It is important to ask to one’s inner guide, ‘Do I really want to do this?”

Cauvery Pal Cauvery is a pediatrician at National Health Service, London. She is also a part of Dream Fly, an organization that takes 192 terminally ill patients to Disneyland to give them a life-chang-ing experience. She was one of the judges for Biz Gyan Tree, a business plan competition held on the train and she felt that high quality, carefully thought-through solutions were proposed by the Yatris, though she felt that they needed to consider more challenging possibilities.

Broadly, her message for Yatris was to pay attention to details. Most people give us advice about how to become a good leader

and have a high self-esteem, but, she feels that what is often neglected is the successful execution of the various endeavors.

Mr. Shalabh Mittal

Shalabh has been a transformational entrepreneur for many organizations and a much loved professor. He is currently on the board of School for Social Entrepreneurs in India, which is launching a 9-month long fully funded fellowship. It will have four pillars--mentorship, expert sessions, action learning and witness.

His message for young entrepreneurs is – “To believe in yourself. He believes that if you do not love yourself, you will not be able to love anyone else” At the same time, we ourselves bene t from others and thus, ultimately he believes in the importance of helping. In short, loving yourself is the rst step towards giving back to the society.

T. Karuna aranFrom a child born in poverty in Kanyakumari to a stalwart in the eld of higher education and governance, Mr. T Karuna aran has formerly been a part of four IITs, acted as the Vice-Chancellor of three universities and has been an advisor to many government bodies. It was in the year 1982 that he felt that students are uninterested, misplaced and misguided. It was this observation, followed by the realization that India’s youth has not been exposed to the real challenges of India led him to fully concentrate his efforts on the rural youth. Since then, he has worked on entrepreneurship and employment develop-

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ment for the illiterate youth. His central insight has been that in the process of building India, villages need to be strengthened and integrated using IT. He feels that using outlived concepts such as FDI and urbanization can prove to be suicidal. Thus, his advice to the youth of the country is to resist falling for outlived and irrelevant concepts.

About the Jagriti Yatra he feels that the journey has shown the sky to the youth but it is for youth to feel connected to the ground.

Ms. Kart i Sub ra a

is the founder of OGHMA, a design consultancy rm whose aim is to bridge the gap between humans and technol-ogy.

notes that somehow India has come to become a nation of engineers, whose work is primarily focused on the left side of the brain. Thus, she very strongly feels that youngsters must keep the right side of the brain active. After all, intuition and empathy are always a step ahead of analysis. On the Jagriti Yatra, the lesson that she has learnt is that it is never too late to learn, revise and reinvent. She feels that a small Yatra before the bigger entrepreneurial journey is crucial.

Sanju PalSanju worked as a teacher at Teach First for two years and it was during that time that she felt a need to connect children in rural India with their counterparts in London. It was then that she started Rise, which is an organization that operates from West Bengal and London, providing literacy and social entre-

preneurship know-how to underprivileged students.

One of the things about which she would like the Yatris to learn is the art of recruiting people on one’s team. De nitely quality matters over quantity and thus, it becomes extremely important for an employer to be very clear about what the exact requirements of the job are. Conducting a rigorous recruitment process is a must.

Joanna KounaShe is truly a symbol of woman-power having achieved the pinnacle of success in the “Banking” sector even after hailing from a modest farming family in Greece. Her explorative attitude helped her adjust within different parts of world where she was transferred to live and work. She is presently on a sabbatical after having led a successful career in the corporate world. She’s on a trail to explore life from different perspectives and keen to devote her life for social causes. She advises all entrepreneurs to invest judiciously in each project undertaken by them.

`̀̀̀̀

- Illustration by Urvi Shah

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Life on the Train

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A Thoughtful JourneyDavis Cutter

Trains have a funny affect. They make you think. Walking through the sticky aisles of the Yatra Express, you’ll nd 450 young thinkers - each with unique streams of thought; on the yatra, these streams united to one congruent ow; a owing stream that traveled by train for 15 days and 8,000 kilometers to think: about India, about others, and ourselves.

We thought about family, friends, and food; we thought about development, innovation, and became it; we thought about the future, the past, and present; we shared stories: joy and tragedy, lifelines and lifetimes; we thought about sustainability and replicability, about inequality and balance.

We explored. We went beyond terminology, deeper than words; we smothered contrasts: rural, urban, old and new; we became problem-solvers, or at least tried; we listened to panel discus-sions on empowerment, business-technology and agriculture; we asked questions, some of which are still unanswered; we thought about public defecation and water puri cation, about freedom and solitude, or the power of one generation.

We saw needless blindness become enduring vision; we learned about the Art of Living, saw living art, and art as livelihood; we saw a village electri ed with no wires, sanitation pads made from recycled fabric; traditional music used as education, and mass feeding of impoverished schoolchildren.

We ate. Enough oil for a lifetime, countless pooris and endless heaps of rice; some with our hands and others with spoons; we ate on train platforms or under the shade of a tree – it never mattered; we had breakfast in bed, but had no other choice; we celebrated Christmas with strangers that became family, got drunk off chai for New Years, and honored birthdays with companionship in lieu of cake.

We talked. Transformation, conquest, and ISIS; we talked about

our hygiene or lack there of, about our dirty denim jeans, and our inside-out underwear; start-up tactics, cooperative models, investors and angels, VC’s and VP’s, heroes and ones that wish to be, even argued over who’s next to pee; we talked about seed-funding, incubation and acceleration, about political theory, economic theory, Marxism, sexism, and alcoholism; we approached approaches: bottom-up, top-down, trickle-down, bureaucracy and hierocracy; middle class, middle-men, movers and shakers, leaders, prisoners, and visionaries; we talked about toxicology in nanotechnology, the econometrics of civil engineering, about Donald Trump, about pollution, parties: political and social, parenting practices and pornog-raphy; we debated capitalism and consumerism, colonialism and casteism, communism and corruption; we contemplated censorship and the media, Hollywood and Bollywood; we discussed democracy and diplomacy, the UN, EU, and India’s role in BRICS; we talked until we lost our voices, then talked some more, until our chatter melted into a nightly snore.

We shared. A welcoming home of all religions: Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, atheists and more, people that have never left their village, and others that say at the Taj; we were cladded in tank-tops and saris, Nike and no-names, Ray-Bans and knockoffs; together, we slept on a dirt oor of a school, dreamt above and below each other, and shared everything: memories, toothpaste, a bathing bucket, songs, socks, and journal entries; we coughed, sneezed, crapped and vomited, then nursed each other back to health; we gave blankets and received warmth in return, disclosed secrets and trust; we looked different: white, black, brown and in-between; we spoke different tongues, but it mostly went unseen; we understood the same language of passion, we deconstructed stereotypes and appreciated diversity, got frustrated my minute manner-isms and learned to respect them.

We created: business models that failed before they were even pitched; others that show promise; we made revenue streams, excel spreadsheets, Google Docs, and Facebook friends; we WhatsApp’d, Tweet’d and Instagram’d the whole way, though nothing can tell the full story; we lled our notebooks with poetry, art, prose, X’s and O’s, even mission statements, slogans, and logos. People, too. Future prime ministers, entre-preneurs, Yatripreneurs and business connoisseurs; good parents, children, and grandchildren; people with future PhD’s,

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law degrees, and Biz Gyan Trees; Presidents, CEOs, and IITs; future engineers turned philosophers, role models, authors, champions, and MP’s.

We came together from 28 States, 6 Union Territories, and 23 countries around the world; we voluntarily came to one place – a claustrophobic space, where we rede ned quality educa-tion and teaching; we considered the prospects of technology, interconnectivity, and ef ciency in an era of globalization; we sought equality and observed simplicity; we empathized with traditions of the north and adored intellect of the south.

We remembered. Historians and scholars, politicians and pioneers: we walked in the footsteps of Buddha and Mahavira, called the teachings of Mao, Freud, and Lincoln to our aide; we experimented with the truth, and in doing so, discovered a Gandhian India while creating our own.

We fell asleep to the clicking of the rails below us; sang lyrics to music we didn’t understand; we took more sel es than photo-graphs and napped in auditoriums; we repeated the words yaaro and chalo – come, and friend – which will forever have different meaning; we danced, danced, and danced some more; we nudged each other in the back: in the aisle of the train, in the queue for food, and in recognition that we can always move forward – as individuals, as a yatra, a country, and humanity.

We saw change. A change of tangible nature, seldom found: in the landscape, in the climate, in our appearances and our thoughts: our truths became misconceptions, our values became obsolete; some struggled without meat, others with the heat, or simply crossing the street; our needs transformed from luxury to survival, friendship, and intellectual quarrel; we felt India pluck at our heartstrings like never before; we molded our own stories in outdated bogies of the Indian Railways; they’re still being written, today. And tomorrow. It’s a simple fact, and no longer strange: We are India; we are change.

Yatra Through International LensesXenia Raynaud, Yatri

Namaste, Hola, Bonjour are being proudly repeated amongst the Yatris, sparking handshakes and laughers. Selected coming from all parts of the world are sharing their minds, aspirations and this unique journey on the Train. Intercultural gaps, hilarious anecdotes, out of comfort zone experiences – the Yatra becomes a journey even more intense for us- foreign Yatris.

I do not know a lot about Indian hospitality, however I can tell that once you have the Yatra I-Card around your neck, a broth-erhood is born. All fellow are a family, they are friendly, curious and definitely makes us feel welcome and comfortable.Due to the number of languages spoken in a diversi ed country like India- communication at times takes a little longer than usual to be complete. You may understand “No” whenever they move their heads from side to side.. meaning in fact “Yes”. It takes few days to get used to it and a week to adopt the same.

Jared Perry, from Canada

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The language uniting India is Hindi and was commonly used for the people who could not speak English. English however drains most of the exchanges though with almost 450 differ-ent accents. The English to Hindi translation and also Hindi to English translation happens at every roles model visits – these language barriers seems insignificant when we 450

are setup on the journey of higher purpose.

You got it! India is a continent in itself. It has incredible amount of languages, traditions, food and landscapes. Through the window the mountain, forest, rivers, oceans, sunset and sunrise pass by – though do not expect the time to see all this- We are mostly busy working on presentations, business models, talking, eating, singing, sharing or sleeping. As overwhelming as it can be, this is a reality of the Yatra, always something to do in order to get the most out of these 15 days.

Blonde hair, blue eye, white skin people obviously more easily catch attention and our physical distinction relatively often calls for a photograph with the locals. This is one aspect to be aware of and take it easy. Besides bucket showers, hand wash laundries and everyday tasks on the train are part of the unique experience that happens during the Yatra.

During the visits to the role models, it is the chance to attend to the chaos of the Indian Street life which can be very different from the environment in our country. Rickshaws driving like in video games, buses honking, and incredible street food makes

its presence felt. It is worth noting how the odors change from street food to waste areas to the smoking incense stick without transition. It’s also worth noting how the bunch of 450 individ-uals manages ourselves as a group and takes care of each other.

Finally, the reality of India exposes you to the social, economic and environmental problems. It is important to face this reality that lives around us, it gives us more meaning to our entrepre-neurial aspirations and makes us realize the urge for change. A large journey across India as it looks, is also a deep journey within ourselves. You are asked questions about yourself that you never thought of – “What is your word?”, “What is your why” Bene ting from the traditional spirituality of the land of Gandhi, you will certainly come back with new perspectives on the world and yourself. The energy risen by these determined positive thinkers of India will ll you up enough to pursue your path to become a change maker- either in India or somewhere else on Earth

“A journey whi h makes you try adventure from the very rst day- and soon as the last day omes near- We realize that it would be almost dif ult to take off the Yatra from rest of our life”

Brendan Baker from Australia

Afnan Hannan from Australia

and living in the Netherlands

-

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Women and EnterpriseInterview with Ms. Jude KellyOn a sunny morning of January 7, Batul Ha zji and Sreemathy S had the opportunity of interviewing Ms. Jude Kelly, Artistic Director, Southbank centre, Britain’s largest cultural centre. The setting was by the window of the red AC chair car with the hum of the train and chatter of Yatris in the background. We did a online recce before the interview and were awestruck by her achievements and her commitment to improve the lives of people through art. In 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK by BBC Radio. She was bestowed with the OBE (Order of British Empire) and most recently with the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2015.

We were inspired by her life and charmed by her words. Read on to nd out more.

On Creative leadership vs managerial leadershipLeadership is a task of summoning spirit for endeavour and purpose. Leadership is a creative process as a leader needs to build experience based on the past and use it in present situa-tions. Being a good leader is a creative process – a leader needs to blend things afresh every time. When creativity is gone out of leadership, it falls apart. That’s when the “managerial” aspect comes into being. Which is why involvement with the

arts is required as creative leadership is the essence of good leadership.

The various disciplines of arts brings out a new way of seeing things. The arts helps one deal with emotions, builds empathy, changes perception, adds a new dimension and generally is instrumental in breaking the mould (convention). Creativity is an experience for others as well as the role of a creative leader is to make others creative.

On personal life – formal education in music Ms. Kelly had to ght many prejudices in her organisation while she rose up the ranks. When she became the Director, a position seen to be meant for men, it was pointed out that she had no training in formal music.

Here’s what she has to say: The problem with society is that people are cautious of breaking convention. A certi cate or a quali cation is serves the task of ticking a box on the checklist. One must possess the spirit to persuade others, to convince others that what you can do is more powerful than other people with the quali cation. It is of utmost importance to have a vision for what you want to achieve and the personal conviction to see it through. Eventually people’s determination to stop you isn’t as big as your determination to succeed.

Traits of a leaderFor a leader, the most important is vision, courage to lead and have a strong personal conviction which is not just an academic

Jude Kelly speaking at

Barefoot College in Tilonia

Honouring the work on women’s

empowerment being done by

Bunker Roy and others at

Barefoot College.

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idea.

I believed in making the world a better place through art and sought out a platform to make that change and to live the change.

On Metal and it’s role in community building Ms. Kelly founded “Metal” in 2002 which is a platform where people can come and pursue their creative ideas and even collaborate with others.

The arts are not a specialist subject meant only for experts, it’s for everyone.If we’re not careful, we may lose our art making part. Arts is a human rights issue and belongs to everyone. Artists create art in relation to community conversations to build environment and communities.

On glass ceiling at the workplaceThere would be sceptical / sneering people along the way who hold you back – It’s best to be generous, do your part and not defensive.

Women in a eld dominated by menPeople said there are no woman directors just the way women are left out of history books. History is there to be made. It’s important to not be a woman of crushed hopes. It’s about having potential and the courage to not let anyone stop you. To

nd courage to go against people’s notions and make an inner decision that you are doing this for yourself.

People are more comfortable with women being a docile, polite and passive leader as they are taught to behave in this manner. Women need to practise ‘self-love’, which is different from being sel sh and ambitious. We then need to extend the ladder to other women and give them the same opportunities.

Women need to realise that they are entrepreneurs for their own sake as they tend to negate their own needs. Having a social purpose is important; however women need to do things for themselves.

It is tougher for women to get to the top as women need to negotiate twice – one as a leader and the other as a woman leader.

The need for women role modelsA combination of theology, law and culture create equality and culture is the most hard to shift. Domestic violence is legally forbidden but culturally acceptable in some households.Critics are predisposed to be rather more skeptical about women’s work.

There are prejudices associated with women in the workplace. It is presumed that she may not be able to take on a leadership position if she is to bear kids as that would shift her focus.

A greater representation of women role models will not only help to rid of such prejudices but will also empower other women to take on leadership positions.

Yaaron ChaloSome of the

women on board the Yatra as

Yatris

Shradha Sharma,an

inspirational female role

model on the Yatra.

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Women should also participate in policy making. Equality isn’t just about justice, it’s about human potential not being squandered. Women make up half of the world, losing that potential is bad for everyone.

Women of the world festival (WOW) If you want change to happen then live the change- and that’s exactly what Jude has done.

WOW is a platform for women to share their achievements and their struggles. It is a festival that celebrates being a woman. It is being celebrated in 13 countries over the past 6 years and has been empowering women across the globe.

As a consequence of WOW, Britain now has it’s rst political party for women.

On arts not being given similar status to elds like technology in India and how to bring about that changeTechnology and engineering are perceived to be elds which are

nancially more rewarding than the arts. The rich heritage of arts and culture of India must be tapped and innovated upon to prevent the death of of these age old art forms, create sustain-able livelihoods for the artisans and to harness the potential of this eld to be nancially rewarding as well.

To do this, keep on raising this subject, provide platforms for others to talk about it, nurture artistic practices in the course, start art clubs. Put yourself in a position of power to bring about the change.

On cascading mentorship - Life is usefulWith Jude at the top mentoring a group of women, who in turn mentor their own groups of women. Mentorship includes the personal distribution of life to help others. Get people early, the setbacks and stories amongst the people in the group are useful lessons for the members. It includes peer-to-peer mentorship with no age-bar.

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The Changing Equation - Women and EnterpriseVanita Viswanath

Women in India are the backbone of enterprise – they labor away in villages, small and big towns that dot the landscape as the Jagriti Yatra chugs along all across India for 15 inspiring days. They multi-task; cooking, looking after children, growing vegetables, handcrafting toys, rearing poultry, creating educa-tional material for children and a lot else – all in or within manageable and safe distance from their homes.

This is the future for young talented entrepreneurial women in India for building the nation and inspiring more in their generation and the next in ways not seen before. Yet, the reality, whether in India or the United States, a country that has promoted entrepreneurship perhaps like no other, is that women are left way behind. So what are the problems and solutions? The enthusiastic group of men and women anima-tedly discussed this issue in a session during the Yatra 2015. The men wondered if women’s lack of aspiration and unwill-ingness to take risk was to blame for their slow movement in enterprise. The women countered that they were hemmed in by archaic beliefs in their families about women’s primary role of home and child rearing. They wondered if they would be able to carry their enterprises to the great heights that men are able to do. Many women in the group were already entrepreneurs but encountering growth challenges. Concepts like patriar-chy, discrimination, tradition, sexual harassment rang loudly among women through the length the Chair Car!

But, the willingness to break boundaries was clear. Young men too said they wanted to make a difference and were going to ponder on their own attitudes regarding women’s work and aspirations and work harder to bring the change for women. Women on their part were going to look within more deeply to analyze what was holding them back. As one young college graduate asked at another time and place on the Yatra “how can I become famous?” I have no doubt at all that she will!

Celebrating 100 Years of Gandhijis Travel A ross India

In the year 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was advised by Gopal Krishna Gokhale to travel extensively within the country in order to acquaint himself with the socio-economic conditions prevailing of India. Gandhiji then traveled India extensively, mostly by train in third class compartments in order to witness in person how the majority of his countrymen lived. It was a journey of enlightenment for him.

Our Yatra is no different, it is a similar journey that we under-take, to confront the realities of our country. This year we celebrated the 100 years of Gandhiji’s journey across India, the journey of self-discovery and enlightenment. We paid tribute to the Father of our Nation by designating a physical space within the train that housed some memoirs of his. We felt special to be able to follow in the Mahatma’s footsteps-to be able to take ourselves out of our respective comfort zones in search of a more meaningful purpose to which we could align ourselves. Yatra was a humbling experience, full with moments of introspection, of unlearning, relearning and re-discovering the country and also brand new self!

Just like the Mahatma had found himself better equipped to serve our motherland-to champion the cause of its people after our journey, we can now see clearer than ever the condi-

The Gandhiji ompartment

on the train. A spa e for quiet re e tion and

meditation.

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tion of a fellow citizen from our own middle India. We can now fully appreciate the diversity that is characteristic of our country. We can now truly realize the need for innovation at the grassroots-the need to promote indigenous goods rather than banking on imported ones. By way of the yatra we learnt the signi cance of breaking away from mainstream life and doing something that will positively impact the lives of other.

In the last leg of the yatra, as the train reached Delhi, we found ourselves at Rajghat standing in complete awe of the stalwart and re ecting on the magnitude of the sel ess work that Gandhiji had done for our nation.

Art on the TrainJagriti Yatra cherishes that Art and Culture resides in the core heart of our country. India has been known for long for its rich culture of Art- in form of dance, music, art and other art forms. Building India would be incomplete without recognizing that Art and Culture needs a precedence seat in this journey. As every year, we took a decisive steps to promote Art and Culture during the Yatra. Besides it being one of the key vertical, we had representation of disciplines like photography, visual arts, performing art and painting on the board in the Yatra.

Although the presence of cultural art is widespread, “creative art” is rarely treated as a serious livelihood option, resulting in the economic potential of the talents and our nation’s cultural heritage remaining largely untapped. To include the art and design in our vision of an entrepreneurial India, the Yatra encourages creative pursuits as visual arts, painting, paper arts, poetry, music and performing art, dance etc

Chalo is sung and performed by Yatris at every Role model location as a token of our love and gratitude. It also symbolizes the spirit of youth and ability to be part of Change. The Yatra also had 2 visual artist Blanche Ellis and Temujen Gunawardena from Creative Connections who took key notes of all the visits in the art form. Their ability to present the key

“The best part is re e ting on inter ultural ommuni ation: there are things you initially

don’t understand and don’t like but gradually as you delve deeper into the value system you learn to appre iate and admire these same points of otherness”

-Anna Korepanova

Raj Ghat memorial to Gandhiji in

Delhi.

Bla Ellis hard at work

on a beautiful visual diary of

the Yatra.

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notes in the art form was mesmerizing. They dutifully carried they heavy baggage all around and managed to nd a space in already occupied venues to present the role models in the art form. Not many knew but they both were heart throbbing singers too, and for many of us their signing in the compart-ment was a perfect way to unwind ourselves from the hectic day. Blanche Ellis also volunteered to share the pictures from her personal dairy for the Yatra Saar. Both of them also took sessions for the Yatris on creative art, they were present for Yatris who wanted to learn more and smile on the faces made them approachable to all of us.

We also had a local artist Chitrakar Shyam Chauhan travelling with us. He remained shy and let his art speak for him. Most of his drawings had a Train in it- quite perfect to the theme of our journey. His particular sketch of Madurai temple, train and Arvind eye hospital symbolizes his creativity of threading multiple aspect together in one theme.

We had a photographer- Pradnyesh Molak (Saaku) Popularly famous for his long hair and majestic beard, Shashank and Sahil capturing the Yatra through camera lenses and their individual creativity.

In-house poets, designers, musicians, performing artists, writers, and painters can always be found amongst the diverse group of Yatris; and they bring joie de vivre to what is other-wise an intense journey of self-discovery and transformation. Deoria, the only venue where we slept outside the train was a perfect avenue to showcase the art and creativity that we had amongst the Yatris. The cultural event started late after the tiring day of Biz Gyan Tree exercise- we had presenting their own compositions, their own poems, BharatNatyam performance and also sizzling lavani !! The Anchor of the event found it challenging to restrict the number of who wanted to perform their art form due to restriction of time that we had- The message was quite clear- Art is in our heart, we all have it, we all have our own rhythm to which we tap our feet ! and how significant it would be when we marry the Art and the Work together in our entreprenueal journey

A page from Blake and

Tem’s visual diary.

Chitraker Shyam

Chauhan’s painting at

Madurai.

Just some of the art that was

produ ed on this in redible

journey

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ERC - Engine Room ClubThe Jagriti train is a home, it’s a classroom, it’s a college canteen, a pressure cooker of ideas, sometimes also a personal space, and it is the biggest train journey on the Planet Earth. Emotions show, Ideas evolve, minds and sometimes souls meet, there is drama, fun, patriotism and creation. There are tears, there are out of comfort zone experiences, there are confron-tation of realities, there is truth, there is humbleness. There is silence, there is chaos, and it moves forward, it moves inward. There is food, there are parties, there are birthday cakes, and New Year sweets. Who binds all these elements together? - The Super 30 ERC (Engine Room Club)

The ERC is a team behind the scene- the team who runs the Yatra successfully. These are all ex- with passionate heart and smiling faces- no wonder they form a Club- the Engine Room Club. ERCs execute a wide range of functions that is critical in the success of every Yatra. Below is a small snippet of the kind of work ERC do quietly in the background while the Yatris are experiencing it.

Operations: maintaining the schedule, cleanliness, electrical services, catering, direction, transport and branding, house-keeping, health and bathrooms

Media and Marketing: Social media, traditional media, customer management

Programming: Responsible for the soft learning that happens throughout the yatra

The ERC team undertakes indepth training before the Yatra and that is clearly re ected in the camaraderie and integration with which the team operates. There is also a great legacy of the ERC. Some veterans have done all the 7 yatras after their rst one in 2008. This depth in experience is critical in ensuring the best practices are delivered continuously while being improved upon the execution of each yatra.

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Punctuality · Chinmay Vadnere· Nakul Gupta· Vinod Kumar Lokku

Programming · Avishma Matta · Jignesh Talasila· Mohit Garg· Priyanka Khandelwal

Electrical · Mayur Kurhade· Muttu Manikante

Media · Artika Shah · Rohit Gupta

Social Media · Mittu Tigi. Archana Nair. Sundaram Oza

Catering · Amit Kalukhe · Abhijeet Oza · Sunita Mekale

Disha · Manish Bajaj· Madhusmita Brahma

· Hari Prasad K· Tushar Gupta· Pooja Sahi

Branding · Akshay Koli · Ashwini Bhambal

Stores · Vipul Patil· Raju Kendre

Transport · Sagar Unde

Advance Team· Sumit Khude· Aditya Charegaokar· Ganesh Motkar

Housekeeping · Babeeta Faujdar

Bathroom · Abhijit Kadkade · Sandipan Shinde

Doctor. Dr. Umakant Khedekar. Dr. Priyanka Khatod

Here are our Hero’s:

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Yaaron ChaloYatra Geet

TRANSLATIONSome of the things are changing, and some we will changeThey will change only when we change;

Some of the things are written, some we will write;Let’s go friends, it’s the season of change!Let’s go friends, it’s the season of betterment!The wind is asking us not to stop;The sky is asking us not to melt,The earth is asking us to touch and feel it; Look into my eyes, and don’t fear the truthLet’s go friends, it’s the season of change!Let’s go friends, it’s the season of betterment!

Operations TeamThe Yatra would not have been possible without the discipli-narian oversight of Col Bhaya, Suyog and the rest of their team. The Yatris were incredibly grateful for the Colonel’s efforts and energy and gave him a standing ovation at the closing Ceremony in Ahmedabad!

Col. Bhaya speaking at the losing eremony in

Ahmedabad.

Suyog keeping things running smoothly with

his walkie-talkie.

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the Yatra would be our own ex-Yatris! The session with our Yatripreneurs reaf rmed this vision. In time, I know they will grow to create enormous impact. They are already well on their way!

Another rst on JY 2015, was the leadership session for facil-itators in the nal leg of the Yatra. Over the last 7 years, our facilitators have been learning hands-on leadership skills through the Yatra. Facilitators perform the dual role of being a mentor to their cohort while also being the bridge between the organising team and the Yatris.

In the nal facilitator session, we asked, “How has the Yatra made you a better leader ” Facilitators spoke passionately about learning to be better listeners, to be less judgemental, to set clear boundaries, to acknowledge when things are going wrong, to use crises for teambuilding and so much more. Jude Kelly, the formidable artistic Director of the South Bank Centre London (the largest cultural institution in Europe) spoke about leaders needing emotional stamina. She described a leader as a facili-tator, who knows when to step back for individual members to perform as soloists.

On the nal valedictory day my message to the Yatris was simple: The Yatra is not just a journey of 15 days. It is an attitude. An attitude of problem solving, of working together for a larger goal, of reativity, resilien e and of humour. Keep this attitude when you return to start on your own journeys. Stay in tou h with the vast Yatri network, for it will a t as a safety-net as well as a network of genuine friendship, when things are dif ult. It will help ensure that the inspiration you have felt on the Yatra is not short-lived.

- Rewati PrabhuJagriti Board Member

The Closing NoteRewati Prabhu

Each year, as the Yatra ends, I am rst ooded with relief. The responsibility of safely bringing home 450 Yatris after the 15 day adventure, is not insigni cant. Then, exhaustion and exhilara-tion surge in equal measure. My voice is hoarse from overuse but I can’t stop smiling. Another Yatra accomplished! Another group of 450 young minds awakened to the power of enterprise, inspired to collaborate and create. With these Yatris, our enter-prise ecosystem spreads further, deeper and wider across India. As in the previous Yatras, this year too, the entrepreneurial talent from smaller towns and villages was outstanding. Yatris learned as much through peers as through role models. This year, we had 42% women among both Yatris and the role model entrepreneurs. This ratio matters, because it makes the Yatra experience richer and helps us nurture more women entrepre-neurs. It also has some unexpected impacts, as Prabhat, a Yatri from rural Bihar once explained to me – “I had never worked with women as equal olleagues before, the Yatra taught me that.”This year, we hosted a special session for Yatripreneurs – past Yatris who went ahead to build their own enterprises. Supriya Sharma (founder of My Parliament), Robin Chourasiya (founder of Kranti) and Gunvant Jain (founder of Shikshalaya) shared their experiences of building an enterprise. Supriya challenged the Yatris “You are inspired by role model stories but what is your story?” Robin, with wisdom far beyond her age, asked “Find out what really makes you happy- then do it”. Gunvant spoke movingly about overcoming the acute challenges of fund-raising. Each had an honesty which resonated deeply with the Yatris. To me, it was a moment of near – maternal pride to see how far their Yatra had taken them.

As the session concluded, I recalled a moment 8 years ago when designing the route of the rst Jagriti Yatra in London: Plotting the role model stops of Aravind Eye Care, Gram Vikas and Tilonia, I had a vision: one day, all the role models on

Jagriti Yatra is an ambitious train journey of 8000kms travelling the length and breadth of the ountry, arrying 475 young minds: and exposing them to individuals and

enterprises who are developing unique solutions to India’s hallenges.

1 Train15 Days

12 Destinations15+ Role Models

475 Yatris8000 kms

A journey of dis overy and transformation...

The Yatra Saar is an attempt to re ord the key learnings from the Yatra. We hope that Yatris, while embarking on their own entrepreneurial journeys, will look ba k at this do ument and

pi k some gems of wisdom from it.

Thank you to everyone who was part of this in redible journeyYaaron Chalo

For more information, visit www.jagritiyatra. om