A day with Ratan Tata

Explaining about LEAD to Mr. Ratan Tata Ji

January 30^th, 2013 one of the memorable moment and quite excited to curate the talk with young leaders for Mr. Ratan Tata. It was LEAD’s 3^rd annual Yuva Summit, where thousands of students and educators gathered to commemorate the LEADers on their projects and their accomplishments.  The Yuva Summit is one of the opening events for the Deshpande Foundation’s annual Development Dialogue, an annual, international conference that features some of India’s greatest pioneers in entrepreneurship and development

Addressing leadership stories to Tata

While 60 inspirational projects were showcased at the event, 5 LEADers were present the “Best Leader” award for carrying out projects that exemplified innovation and led to significant impact.  The best LEADers were awarded in the valuable presence of Mr. Ratan Tata, Mr. Narayan Murthy, Mrs. Sudha Murthy, Dr. Gururaj Desh Deshpande and Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar.  Mr. Tata presented each student with his or her award.

Gulshan Banu (Govt First Grade College, Sirsi)

Hutgar, a village near Sirsi, had a poor drainage system. Gulshan addressed the problem by contacting the government and demanded a solution.   Initially, the public was not supportive and even criticized her efforts.  Gulshan, however, did not give up.  Instead, she took initiative and approached every villager and Gram Panchayat herself.   As a result of her perseverance, the local Panchayat finally agreed to fund the construction of a drainage facility for Hutgar.  Gulshan’s project, costing Rs. 1,40,000, was completed in just one month.  Over 300 villagers now make use of the drainage facility.  Gulshan’s accomplishments have also extended beyond her project and Hutgar, as her work has inspired two other students to join the LEAD program and take leadership initiative.

Prasad (Shri Kasgateshwar Degree College, Talikoti)

Prasad began his project with intention of teaching the women of Hunasagi, Bijapur , how to read and write.   After starting his project, Prasad soon realized that he could help these women even more beyond literacy.  Prasad conducted 20 training sessions and taught the women about how to access banking facilities and  apply for loans.  He additionally provided the women with self-employment training.  Prasad’s project made an immense impact; 34 women were able to get loans from banks to start their own sustainable businesses in areas such as animal husbandry, tailoring, and handicraft. 

Santosh Kaveri (Samiti BBA College, Belgaum)

In the village of Shedbalin, Belgaum, farmers used any extra money they had to pay laborers to help them peel and clean the carrots that they harvested.  After six months of designing, Santosh invented a machine to help with this process.  With the machine, carrot preparation only requires the help of one or two people and requires a limited use of electricity and no water.  Moreover, Santosh’s machine allows 100 kg of carrots to be harvested, cleaned, and peeled in only 15 minutes.  Eight farmers now use this machine and have spared the costs of employing six laborers.  

Anuradha Bandari (Govt First Grade College, Sirsi)

There was a water problem in Anuradha’s village of Bommanalli, at Sirsi.  Anuradha assembled her villagers and encouraged them to take initiative themselves.  She helped the villagers, as well as members of the Gram Panchayat, approach the government and demand water tanks.  Within a month, the government sanctioned Rs. 2 lacs for the construction of four water tanks.  The government even agreed to fund the construction of streetlights for the entire Birumbe village.  Through the completion of her project, Anuradha not only inspired her local community, but she also inspired her peers; four other students at her college were motivated by Anuradha’s hard work and started taking initiatives and solving problems in their own respective communities.

Shreedevi R. Paschapur (BLDE BBA College, Jamkhandi)

The village of Sidhapur, in Jamkhandi, possessed no proper bus facilities.  Because of this, school buses did not stop at the village, and students would be forced to walk 9 to 10 kms per day.  Many students were missing their first two classes, and some students were not attending their classes at all.  Shreedevi brought this issue to the attention of her college principal and the local authorities.  One month later, permission was granted to allocate a bus stop in Sidhapur.  250 students are now regularly attending their regular classes.