We are a group of young, dynamic and creative individuals who are determined to improve the lifestyle of rural India. Our motivation comes from our exposure to the social problems and challenge for finding mentally stimulating and cost effective solutions. Most of our efforts are path breaking that redefines present mindset of people. Our out-of-the-box ideas are unconventional but we realize that they are necessary in order to bring about sustainable rural transformation. Every person associated with HarVa is a social entrepreneur with the ability to visualize and articulate new approach to problem solving. Our passion is to make a positive difference in rural India that faces significant social, economic and ecological challenges. We subscribe to the following principles in our work:
• Look for business opportunities keeping labor arbitrage as a backbone
• Persistence and Innovation to seize opportunities where the potential is yet untapped
• Confidence building in locals with positive team work
Honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader 2013-18, Ajay Chaturvedi, is an ex-Citi where he served in Strategy and Sales positions in Cards and Consumer banking verticals. Ajay begun his career with IBM Consulting in the US and has experience in Management, Operations and IT Consulting across Financial Services, IT and ITeS industries in US, UK, and South East Asia. Ajay is an Engineer from BITS Pilani and a Graduate in Management of Technology from the School of Engineering and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and holds a Diploma in Global Leadership & Public Policy from The Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Ajay truly believes in the power of cost effective innovation on all aspects that will lead to value creation across the world, especially in India and supports the Socio-Capitalistic business models as the drivers of inclusive growth. He also thinks that the real growth in rural areas across the world and in India is yet to come and is possible only when we get into the real fabric of the country and not just overlay thoughts and patterns from the developed nations. A voracious reader, an avid golfer and an ardent traveller, Ajay spent almost a decade living in the US and across the world and now lives in Gurgaon. Ajay was awarded CNN IBN Youth Icon / Young Indian Leader of the year 2011.
HarVa XPO entered the Limca Book of Records for being the first all women rural BPO in the world in 2011. HarVa has won numerous awards and accolades including the Manthan Chairman Excellence Award 2011, SKOCH Financial Inclusion 2011 and TiE Entrepreneurial Excellence 2011 among the latest recognitions. Earlier in 2011, HarVa was also identified as the 3rd most innovative company in India (next only to Tata Motors) by the Fast Company magazine of New York, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability & Empowered Woman Award by the Rockefeller Foundation / United Nations 2012.
Ajay was nominated as one of the Amazing Global Indian by Times Now News 2012-13 and Yahoo unsung Heroes 2012-13.
He has also been honoured as an Iconic Youth 2014 by Rotary International, picked as 50 most creative leaders across the world to attend THNK, The Creative School of Amsterdam's Accelerator program for Creative Leaders, and felicitated by the BITS Pilani in the golden jubilee celebrations as 50 most inspiring alumni in 50 years. Ajay is also an ambassador of the Power of Youth initiative of Scotland. He also holds a unique distinction of being identified as one of the four most innovative game changers by the Office of Advisor to the Prime Minister on Skill Development and Employability.
Ajay has also authored the bestselling book, 'Lost Wisdom of The Swastika' published by Times Group Books of Bennett Coleman & Co.
Passionate about innovation and hybrid business models at Base of Pyramid (BoP), Swagat is a strong believer in inclusive growth and innovation. In his role as a visiting researcher at HEC Montreal, he designed pedagogical case study and notes for new generation business models at BoP. He also co-authored a research paper at National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) on innovation models.
The out-of-the-box thinker in Swagat begets him novelty roles and experiences. He has a penchant for detail and his passion for photography & filmmaking keeps creativity at trigger. He loves to work in a dynamic and responsible environment to unleash the creativity in him and those around him. He has a penchant for detail and uses his creativity at the center of his practices. He is an avid reader and loves to tell stories via visual communication. Previously, he has worked with Network 18 and Disney UTV as a distribution manager, where he extensively studied the models for media inclusion and distribution. He has over 4 years of professional experiencing in the media industry.
He is a One Young World Ambassador Leader and Young Challenger at Global Social Business Summit. He is also the founder and former president of an internationally recognized youth run and led organization, YUVA. Swagat is also an engineer and science graduate from BITS Pilani.
Passionate about rural development, Vamsi Krishna started a rural employment program straight out of college and got hundreds of ITeS jobs in rural areas. With keen eye for detail and varied expertise in the field he brings extensive experience and expertise to HarVa. His portfolio also includes identification of new business avenues, business modeling as well as managing invaluable alliances and partners.
Prior to Harva, Vamsi was a Partner with a Logistics company and has over 5 years of experience in the field of Logistics and Port development.
Vamsi Krishna holds a Bachelor of Technology and MBA in Logistics from Coventry University, UK.
Shailendra Hazari is a visionary change leader and firm believer of empowerment with accountability. He trusts in using combination of PPP (Push+ Pull+ Permissive) leadership to inspire and drive his team to achieve highest levels of professional and personal success.
Shailendra is a P&L leader with multiple industry expertise. He did his Masters in Business Administration from Maharashtra University, Mumbai. He has 16 years of experience with proven success in Strategy, Sales, Revenue, Marketing, Operations, Customer Service and Financial Planning for organisational turnaround and profitable growth. He is recognised for his strategic thrust, change management prowess, focused approach and operational efficiency / speed.
In his previous avatar he has worked with Pepsi Co. India, Coca-Cola, Reliance, Merino Industries Ltd. . He has to his credits successful execution multi-million dollar milestone projects including IGI Airport Terminal, CSI Airport Mumbai, Commonwealth Games Stadiums - New Delhi , Buddha International F1 Circuit , Prestige Shantiniketan Bangalore and others.
Shailesh Giri , former Managing Director of DRASH Services, is a die hard social entrepreneur. He has been recognized for for his key contributions by various international agencies like IFRTD, ICISS(Center for Secure Information Systems, George Mason University-USA), Bhandari Association(USA), Arkelton Trust (UK).
On the social entrepreneurship front, he was the Local Program Coordinator in INDIA for prestigious “Energy Globe World Award 2010” wining project “Akashganga” that today serves 10,000 people with clean safe water. He was also the implementation partner of the Lemelson - MIT Award winner project, Kiosk-based health “clinics,” Arogya Ghar. Shailesh Giri led the implementation,operation and world bank reviews for the project actively.
As a part of his previous experience Shailesh also provided research support for ‘Business Expectation Survey’, a privileged & renowned publication of National Council of Applied Economics Research. Shailesh graduated with an M.Sc (Hons) in Economics and M.E. (Software Systems) from BITS Pilani.
Prasanta is well known for his pioneering contributions in the area of Plasticulture and is better known as the father of Plsticulture in india.He is the founder of National Committee on the Use of Plastics in Agriculture(NCPA) which is now renamed as NCPAH in the Minisrtry of Agriculture,Government of India.He has close to 38 years of close association with Indian agriculture and rural engineering.He served as Joint Secretary ,NCPA for more than 25 years-since its inception.His dedication and efforts have resulted in large scale adoption of modern technologies in the agriculture and horticulture sector such as drip and sprinkler irrigation ,green house and shade nets,lowtunnels,lining applications,post harvest technologies as well as a range of modern agriculture technologies leading to significant water conservation,improvement in quality and quantity of agricultural produce etc.
Earlier he had been working with Maharashtra Agro Industries Development Corporation,Indian Petrochemicals Corporation and had served as Vice President-all india plasticulture market development with Reliance Industries Limited
Prasanta is presently working as Chief Consultant to the Government of India in the Ministry of Agriculture.He is also a free lancing consultant to several organisations both in the private and public domain.His main interest is rural development,rural engineering for improving farm income,value addition in the agri sector,micro planning for farm sector as well as information networking using IT technologies for last mile knowledge sharing as well as end to end planning.
Prasanta is an Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur(1967-72 batch)followed by Management specialisation from Indian Institute of Management,Ahmedabad(1972-73).
Former CEO of SourcePilani and now heading Strategic Partnerships at HarVa, Manoj is one of the dynamic forces behind SourcePilani’s success. A first generation entrepreneur, Manoj graduated from `BITS Pilani in 2006. Manoj has been well recognized in India for his visionary leadership. An FYSE Paragon Fellow, and the recipient of IIM Lucknow’s inaugural Social Prerna award, among other accolades. In his free time, Manoj enjoys go-karting and running
A designer by nature and innovator by mind, Vipur look after the technology front of the company and is the junior most member of the organization. His love towards technology has made him a successful freelancer while in college and brings technologically unique and advanced ideas onboard. He is die-hard fan of late Mr. Steve Jobs also strongly believes in “think differently” and “non-conventionally”. Vipur is a BITS Pilani Engineer of 2007 batch.
Famously known as psudeo-perfectionist among his friends, Vipur is an avid listener of Joe Satriani and FM Radio. He has recently taken up cooking and plans to gain perfection in it.
Poshak Agrawal graduated from Princeton University where he studied Economics and History. He co-founded Athena Education, a pioneer in holistic education in India. Athena is dedicated to providing broad-based education to students and optimally preparing them to enter renowned global universities. Poshak previously worked at Fortress Investment Group - New York and TRW Automotive Systems - Germany. He started an investment management business with an emphasis on Indian equities with a global macro overlay. Poshak advises HarVa on company strategy and finance.
Rahul Subramaniam graduated from Princeton University, where he studied Politics and Economics. He served as Director at a leading education company in California. He recently moved to India, where he co-founded Athena Education. Athena provides holistic coaching for students, helping them to develop mastery of all disciplines, from science to philosophy, engineering to art, to the SAT and other standardized tests. Rahul is also interested in holistic economic development, and advises on HarVa’s strategic partnerships.