9 rural entrepreneurs who changed India
Entrepreneurs from rural India – some with the most basic education and some with professional qualifications – make life easy for many people, especially those in villages, with their innovations.
Rural entrepreneurs are reshaping India’s economy, leaving an indelible mark regardless of the scale or nature of their ventures. These grassroots visionaries have not only built lucrative and inventive enterprises but have also spearheaded the emergence of social entrepreneurship.
These enterprising individuals are not merely profit seekers – they are change makers who navigate and respond to the intricate tapestry of social, cultural and environmental challenges unique to rural India. By doing so, they pioneer a model of entrepreneurship that is holistic in its approach, going beyond conventional business metrics to encompass the broader well-being of the community.
The significance of rural entrepreneurship goes beyond the creation of jobs and revenue. It is about fostering resilience, inclusivity and sustainability in communities that have long been marginalised. These entrepreneurs serve as beacons of inspiration, illustrating the transformative power of business as a force for good.
Making cool clay refrigerators
Mansukhbhai Prajapati is renowned for inventing Mitticool, a sustainable and affordable clay refrigerator. His innovation addresses rural communities’ needs, providing an eco-friendly cooling solution. Prajapati’s inventive spirit exemplifies grassroots entrepreneurship, combining traditional materials with modern ingenuity.
Born in a family of potters near Rajkot, Prajapati started his journey in a tea stall. Then he took a loan of Rs 30,000 to set up his earthen plate manufacturing factory.
With a desire to grow in life, he developed a machine to produce 700 earthen roof tiles a day. The devastating earthquake of 2001 destroyed half of his products. But it also sparked an idea that led to the birth of the Mitticool fridge.
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This terracotta refrigerator works on the simple principle of circulating and evaporating water, to keep the contents fresh for up to five days. Today Prajapati makes and exports terracotta items including refrigerators, non-stick pans, low-cost water filters and thermal water bottles among others. Prajapati has won many awards. He also features in the list of Top Social Entrepreneurs of India.
A cotton processing machine
Mansukhbhai Patel, born into a family of farmers in a small village, was always interested in knowing how mechanical and electrical appliances worked. After finishing high school, he worked as a helper in a steel tube manufacturing company in Ahmedabad.
Then he invented Chetak, the cotton stripping machine. This has significantly changed the way cotton farmers process large quantities of cotton while saving time and cost.
Eventually, this led to Patel diversifying his business and inventing cotton baling machines, automatic ginning machines and conveyor belts.
Farm innovations
Dadaji Khobragade, of Nanded village in Maharashtra, with no formal education in agriculture, experimented with breeding a new variety of rice. After years of trial and error, he developed HMT rice that yields 80 percent more compared to conventional varieties. Presently HMT is grown all over India. Khobragade made it to the Forbes list, thanks to HMT.
Born in a family of carpenters, Madan Lal Kumawat had to quit school after class IV due to financial constraints. Carpentry work that involved lifting heavy materials and being exposed to sawdust affected his health. When his health deteriorated, he decided to do something on his own and developed a fuel-efficient, multi-crop thresher. Farmers benefit greatly from the threshers – available in different sizes and models – that yield cleaner grains, eliminating the cleaning cost considerably.
Also Read: This Maharashtra village is home to 10 aromatic rice varieties
Forays into the tech world
Kailash Katkar, born in the small village of Rahimatpur in Maharashtra, had to quit school after completing class X due to family circumstances. Working at a calculator repair shop, he became adept at repairing gadgets and appliances. In 1993 he founded CAT computer services, now known as Quick Heal Technologies. Today, the company employs more than 1,200 people and has a customer base of 17 million across the world.
Jyothi Reddy, born as the fifth child in a poor family, grew up in a welfare orphanage. Married at 16, she worked in the fields to sustain her family. But her desire for a better future led to her volunteering at NYK – a central government scheme – teaching, stitching petticoats at night and various other odd jobs. Determined to succeed, she obtained a BA and started working as a teacher. But her passion for reaching the top took her to the United States, where after switching many jobs, she started Keys Software Solutions Inc, her own consulting company.
Also Read: A rural woman’s ‘toy story’ towards success
Ease from mechanisation and electrification
Mallesham was born to a poor weaver family in Sharjipet village of Andhra Pradesh. He had to discontinue his schooling, to assist his family with weaving. Weaving the traditional silk sarees involved a painstaking process (asu) of the weavers moving their hands up and down thousands of times a day for a single saree. Mallesham invented a device that mechanised the process and reduced the human effort to a bare minimum. This patented invention helps weavers increase their daily production from one saree to six sarees.
Gyanesh Pandey grew up in a remote village in the West Champaran district of Bihar, a region devoid of power and lacking rural development. With a desire to electrify his village, Pandey quit his engineering job in Los Angeles and returned to India in 2001. After five years of failed experiments, Pandey and his friend started generating power from husk, a farm waste. Now their company Husk Power Systems runs numerous power plants across different villages.
Expanding food empire
PC Mustafa, born in Chennalode, a small village in Wayanad, worked with his manual labourer father in a coffee plantation after school hours. His work added to the meagre family income.
After failing in Class VI, Mustafa realised the importance of education for succeeding in life, worked hard and stood first in Class X. He worked extremely hard, graduated as a computer engineer from National Institute of Technology, and worked at Manhattan Associates, an Indian start-up in the USA.
Mustafa decided to relocate to India in 2003. Back in the homeland, he desperately looked for a business venture, and finally came up with the idea of ID Fresh, to sell idli dosa batter. He started the company with his cousins, with an investment of Rs 25,000.
From selling 100 packets a day, ID Fresh has grown to produce 50,000 packets a day. With 1,100 employees, the company caters to various cities across India. Recently expanding its operations to Dubai, ID Fresh is now a Rs 100 crore company.
The remarkable feature of ID Fresh is that it recruits people from rural areas, providing them with wide opportunities to grow and succeed in life. Mustafa is regarded as one of the top food entrepreneurs of recent times.
Also Read: Kanakapura’s idli king shares secret recipe
The lead image at the illustration of opportunities in rural India (Photo from Shutterstock)
Shaumita Dasgupta is a BA LLB student at Kirit P Mehta School of Law, Mumbai.
