Rishabh Kaul's Weblog » Opportunities

[Jobs]: Technology Business Incubator Manager at BITS Pilani

Rishabh — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:31:32 +0000

Every so often there comes an opportunity where one has the power to make a HUGE impact. The one I am sharing below is one such opportunity.

BITS Pilani has had a massive entrepreneurial culture and with the young blood on campus already charged up (on an average BITS passouts are churning out 10-15 enterprises every year). This is a great opportunity to support the increasing number of companies on campus as well as help increase the impact of TBI on campus and beyond.

–

Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani is looking for qualified and results-driven applicants to fill the under-listed
position:

Job Title - Technology Business Incubator Lead at BITS PILANI, RAJASTHAN

Please refer to attachment for required role and functions of TBI manager Please click at http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/pilani/TechnologyBusiness/TechnologyBusinessIncubator to know more about Technology Business Incubator, BITS PILANI, RAJASTHAN.

Technology Business Incubator – Lead

Role and Functions

Role

Business Incubation Lead shall be responsible for building an appropriate and self sustaining incubation model at BITS campuses across the country by incubating high impact technology driven enterprises.

Functions

Identifying and attracting incubates to BITS incubators and extend them with support system by leveraging best practices, incubation frameworks and processes for their success.
Build and manage virtual and physical infrastructure and support systems necessary for business incubation activities.
Facilitate networking with mentors, fund providers, experts, consultants and advisors for the incubate companies.
Identify technologies/innovations which have potential for commercial ventures.
Liaison and strengthening relationships with government, other incubators, venture capitalists, angel funders/ seed funding institutions in India and abroad.
Undertaking consultancy activities in the field of technology based innovations.
Market BITS developed technologies towards their commercialization.
Project Management and monitoring of TBI’s and incubates.

Experience and Qualification

The candidate would be young and dynamic having both business and technical background, and experience in program management and cross-functional team facilitation.
A strong interest in identifying, evaluating, and launching successful new start-up businesses.
At least 5-7 years relevant experience as an incubation manager, product manager, investment banker, venture capitalist, or as a proven strategy and business consultant with strong collaboration and influence skills.
Ability to analyze market opportunities and develop go-to-market strategies

Compensation

Selected candidate will be placed in appropriate stage in a grade of Associate Professor or Assistant Professor with other perks extended to faculty members such as medical reimbursement, children education, Leave Travel Concession, Housing subject to availability; as per institute rules.

Brief on Technology Business Incubator

Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani in association with Department of Science and Technology (DST),
Government of India had established a Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in the area of Embedded Systems and VLSI Design to promote entrepreneurial leadership across all disciplines, facilitate entrepreneurial activity on campus and commercialization of R&D
efforts at BITS. Institute is in the process of setting up TBI’s at Goa and Hyderabad campus. The incubation set ups would include
physical as also virtual incubation facilities and the incubates could be located in either of the BITS campuses or even outside.

Rishabh Kaul is Economics & Engineering student at BITS Pilani who is interested in entrepreneurship and social innovation. Check out his profile at Linkedin or buzz him at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com

On volunteering

Rishabh — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:17:13 +0000

People often work tirelessly towards a cause they deeply care about. In MANNA in the Wilderness of AIDS, a book about how the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA) was set up; an organization which supplies food and forms a support system for those suffering from AIDS, co-founder Prof. Kenwyn Smith (one of our faculty at the Young India Fellowship) writes about how a lot of people who volunteered there were people who had family members or friends affected by AIDS.

Which makes me think, what are the other motivations for people to associate with a particular cause? Are there any stories of sustained volunteerism in smaller organizations? This brings two important factors.

How to reach out to those who would most likely identify with a particular cause because of some personal experience which is directly related to that cause?
How to reach out to those who haven’t had such an experience?

Personal experience as well as talking to folks who run such organizations tells me that the first has a much higher chance of succeeding. The latter however, presents an exciting opportunity and an interesting topic for further exploration.

Any leads, research, organizations of success stories?

Parting note: If you are someone or know someone who would be interested in volunteering at an organization which works towards alcohol/substance abuse (very hands on and grassroots level) in Delhi, do ping me at rishabhkaul[at]gmail[dot]com.

Frugal Innovation: The Case of Zari

Rishabh — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:17:19 +0000

First published on Nextbillion

Zari embroidered saree

Nearly a decade ago, I visited Australia with my mother for a conference that she was to attend: the ISCEV. My mother’s colleague, Dr. LS Mohan Ram (he has since then shifted to Singapore) who was a young optometrist at that time, accompanied us and eventually won the Eberhared Dodt Award. This, I presumed was equivalent of the TED Prize (at least in fame, if not fortune) for those engaged in electrophysiology for vision.

To fully understand the impact of his discovery, let’s excavate one of the articles published by The Hindu soon after he won the award:

PART OF the every day duties of an optometrist, working in an eye hospital involves checking whether the retina of the patient is working satisfactorily. This is done by measuring the electrical signals that are generated when light falls on the retina and transmitted from there to the brain by the optic nerve. Called electroretinograms or ERG, these signals are measured using a special type of material called the DTL electrode.

L. S. Mohan Ram, optometrist at the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, was concerned about the cost of importing the DTL electrode (Rs. 2500 per metre of the fibre), and set out to find an inexpensive, but equally efficient indigenous replacement.

The replacement Mohan came up with was Zari.

Embroidering silk sarees with zari, which simply put, is the art of wrapping silk threads with flattened gold or silver strips, is an age-old practice in India.

The result? Mohan brought down the cost of the DTL electrode from Rs 2500 ($55 USD) to a little over $1 USD.

Now comes the interesting part. I asked my mother about whether this innovation spurred the growth of the zari electrode industry and she said “no.” Eye institutes even today (a decade since this discovery) still make their own zari electrodes (or import the DTL or alternative electrodes), since there are no wholesale suppliers in this market. Organizations such as LV Prasad are even willing to train folks in zari electrode making (the technique obviously fine-tuned to suit their requirements) who could in turn make this into a business. The technique of making a zari electrode, I’ve been told, is quite simple.

I see this as a tremendous opportunity, not only to provide employment to the unskilled labor force in the future but also add direct value to large eye care organizations such as Arvind, LV Prasad Eye Institute & Sankara Netralaya. The trained zari electrode makers could reap up to 10x the return on their investment.

The reason I say “in the future” is because, the ERGs are mainly used to detect hereditary retinal degeneration, which currently doesn’t have any cure. But with stem cell research in progress, the future will see many more uses for these ERG tests and hence will have a much greater use for zari electrodes. Currently the zari electorde market is about 300 patients/day all over India.

The bigger point I am trying to make is that, there are hundreds such frugal innovations (or Jugaad as we Indians love to call it) that are taking place in India (and around the world).

These frugal innovations interest me for two reasons. Firstly, they are bringing the cost of products and services down, and hence democratizing them. But secondly and more importantly, also expanding the B2B market of the raw/finished materials that are used to drive these innovations. And more often than not, the power of the next billion can be harnessed to drive production of these materials.

Pic courtesy: rx_kamakshi via flickr

Here’s what you should know about the World Business Dialogue

Rishabh — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:31:46 +0000

2 days left for the thing, and I am seriously getting overburdened by the thing. I have received no fewer than 35 people (!!!) who have mailed me, called me, stalked and so on for this event asking them to help them with the application.

So I am going to publish this doc to redirect the last minute peeps towards something that can help them out.

Let’s do it in a FAQ style so that:

0. Is the WBD worth it?

a:Is an MBA worth it? Is an MS worth it? Depends yo! Ok fine so maybe the comparison was awful, but what my point is, is that there are 2 ways to look at it. One is that it’s a free trip with great alcohol sponsors, another is that its a great chance to meet interesting folks and to network with some cool corporates. Sadly, you will have to make some effort for the second, due to the first point. Last time I attended, it was tough to interact with speakers, the job fair was pretty much only useful for German speaking folks (for everyone else, the company representatives asked us to visit their website, sheesh!) and most folks came to have a good time. That being said, I made some really good friends, whom I am still in touch with and found some mentors in the corporate sector, who to this day give me advice. That is invaluable to me.

1. There is no place to upload my resume, what do I do?

a: I understand that. It was there last time. But then unlike last time, this time they have put in separate slots for your college activities, work ex etc, which pretty much makes uploading the resume redundant.

2.What kind of answers do they appreciate?

a: Smart, intelligent ones.

3.What do I do about sponsorship?

a: Be creative. Last time, I wrote about Latin America & Recession, another guy drew some thing, another guy made some video about some random stuff, we all got full travel grants. But yes, being creative helps. So that means, that my essay on latin america’s strategies to cope with the recession was competing with with person’s cartoon and some other guy’s iPhone app.

4. What exactly is their selection criteria for candidates (if they didn’t mention it then what acc to you were the factors that they chose particular candidates and not others)

a:I don’t quite know for sure, because last time there were only 3-4 people from India, but I would say they have high regards for creativity. That being said, Indian, I’d advise you that play the “I am an Indian so pick me coz of the culture etc” card wisely, since this is the second round and chances are a lot of the other folks from India have already tried that gotten in

5. I don’t think I am meant for this. What should I do?

a: Apply for other stuff. Or better still sleep.

Vision 2020 Mission 2012 – BITS Strategic Plan

Interactive Q&A session with Vice Chancellor, Campus Directors

Blogging on Beyond Profit

Rishabh — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:57:19 +0000

As promised in the last post, my writings are being showcased on numerous platforms and the latest of them being BeyondProfit, a publication of Intellecap.They recently introduced me on their blog as a guest blogger. This means that while I am a staff writer for Nextbillion, in my free time time I contribute exclusive content to a variety of other publications, and since Beyond Profit is a platform that I admire, I decided to forge a relationship with them and provide them with content. Of course they were kind enough to give me the opportunity to do so (Thanks Adrienne!).

My first article for them is an interview I had conducted of Dr G N Rao, the MD of L V Prasad Eye Institute.

Beyond Profit’s twitter round ups are especially useful by the sheer number of companies they’re profiling. Do check that out, it’s written everyday.

Selected as a Delegate at the World Business Dialogue!

Rishabh — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:25:59 +0000

Yep you heard it right. Just got the news that I have been selected as a student delegate for the 13th World Business Dialogue at the University of Cologne in Germany, one of the most prestigious student symposiums in the world.

So how is this one different from most of the symposiums out there?

Well for one, the speaker line is simply mind blowing. Yes I know that is what the brochure of every student symposium would say, but don’t take my word for it, check it out your self. Another important thing to look for in these student symposiums is the legacy and this one sure has a great one, 25 years strong.

This years theme is Crisis Demands: The End to Anything Goes”

The efforts demanded by crises are tremendous. Especially in the current global economic crisis this fact became obvious. The 13th World Business Dialogue wants to portray and discuss important questions and tasks dealing with this topic.

The conference will deal with the dynamic status of our world today, what has changed in the way we look at businesses, what needs to be done.

The application process was pretty simple but I suppose that made it all the more competitive. I am told the applicant pool was 1400 and about 300 were selected finally, which is a lower selection ratio as compared to other equally awesome symposiums such as St Gallens (whose application is also open, in case you’re interested).

The trip is in mid March(16-18), which also means that I don’t miss out on BITS Pilani’s tech fest APOGEE and the TEDxPilani, an event I am personally involved with and am really excited to attend.

Finally I would like to thank my buddy Abhishek Nayak, who has possibly made the largest impact on me here and is one of the coolest and smartest chaps I have come across during my college years.

Have you applied to Grassroutes yet?

Rishabh — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:04:59 +0000

This Summer.

Go on a road trip.

Get your hands dirty.

Why a road trip? Because it’s about being on your own and exploring the hinterland. It’s about surviving with approximately 2 USD per day. It’s about realizing how your skills can benefit others.

Why getting your hands dirty? Because when you meet changemakers, the best way to truly understand the impact they are making, one has to taste the broth they’re cooking. One has to interact with the communities they’re working with.

It’s about bringing untold tales from the grassroots. It’s about creating a more responsible class of citizens who are socially conscious.

This summer, embark on a road trip, and you might just discover something new. Yourself.

Heard enough? So what are you waiting for? Seal the deal HERE.

Any other queries? Contact me at rishabhkaul at gmail dot in, or team at grassroutes dot in

Opportunity: Essay competition

Rishabh — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:52:00 +0000

The Goi Peace Foundation is running its annual essay competition. This years theme is “The role of science in building a better world”.

Here’s basically the gist of the topic:

Scientific progress has brought many benefits to humanity, while some applications of science have had adverse impacts. What kind of science and technology do you think is needed for realizing a more equitable, prosperous and sustainable world for all? Please express your vision for the future of science, including examples of studies or researches you wish to engage in.
(Source)

What’s the booty? Winner gets an all expense paid trip to Japan. Last year’s winner got to chill with Mr Gates. Now a lot of you might have differing opinions about the man (esp the linux guys), but I would still want to rub shoulders with him. And yes, they throw in a little cash prize of 1000 USD as well.
I missed out on this competition last year but this year I am doing it. Here’s wishing you all the best kid.

First few days at work

Rishabh — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:35:00 +0000

Three days into my internship, and I can already get a feel of how hectic it’s going to be in the coming 2 months. But maybe that’s not how I should’ve started this post because it might mislead some of you.

So let me go in a systematic order. The work that ICARE is doing is fabulous. Through their pyramidal structure (that includes eye care at Primary, Secondary and Tertiary level) they provide their services to more than 3 crore people (estimated from the brochure and other reference materials). This includes eye check up, referral to a high centre if the problem cannot be cured at a particular centre, spectacle delivery etc. They also have tie ups with companies such as Vision Spring (erstwhile Scojo).

On my first day I went through the paper that started it all, called the Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study[APEDS] (The paper can be found here ). The study gave a comprehensive analysis of 4 areas of Andra Pradesh (one urban and 3 rural of which one was well off) and showed the prevalence of blindness there. The results were also presented on the basis of sex, socio economic status, age etc. This study gave rise to the ICARE models which have set up centers in almost all districts of Andhra Pradesh and whose models are being adopted by organisation all over the world (For example Australian Government’s “Avoidable Blindness Initiative” recently decided to implement the Vision Centre model of ICARE).

The projects undertaken by the center are also massive. At present they have some 12-13 projects running which include Community Linkage for Integration of Primary Health, Rapid Assessment of Refractive errors, Sight for Kids, Diabetes prevention programmes amongst many others. The projects (a lot of which are CSR initiatives) are funded by some of the biggest organisations in the health as well as financial services.

What I am interested in though is sustainability of these centers since LVPEI is a not for profit organisation. LVPEI has always believed in quality eye care and equity and hence the services provided to the poor and the rich are the same. At the secondary and tertiary level, 50% of the services are paid by patients who have the ability to pay in a three tier fee structure and the remaining 50% services are provided free of cost to under privileged patients. LVPEI claims that the centers can provide services upto 70% to non paying patients and yet be sustainable.

If true, then this is an awesome initiative for they have a revenue model in place but with a philanthropic touch to it. I find this really fascinating and the fact that LVPEI and ICARE have been in existence for so long bears testimony to the fact that this model is sustainable. However, I would like to examine this from a closer level to validate that.

Apart from that, I am also brushing up with a lot of statistical and econometric models to further assist me in the project that I take up. Some pretty exciting projects are lined up for me here, the trouble being I can take up only one due to the time constraint.

ICARE this summer

Rishabh — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:25:00 +0000

So another year comes to a halt as the summer beckons.

After a rather uneventful last 2 summers(unless you count the trip to Egypt), I am hoping to become more productive this time around.

This summer I shall be working with a fantastic organization, The International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eye Care (ICARE). Responsible for trying to come up with ways to remove blindness from rural unreachable parts of India and the developing world, ICARE looks at long term solutions at a large scale. They also manage and plan the community health care initiatives of L V Prasad Eye Hospital, another giant in the health care industry.

So what is my work going to be? Broadly I shall be working with a lot of economics related aspects, such as cost-benefit analysis of their Vision Centers vs PHCs as well as bordering over to marketing where I try to analyze various community eye programs and newer & effective ways of spectacle delivery. Apart from this there might be other things in store that I am not yet aware of.

Why did I choose this?

Well mostly because over the past year I have been increasingly becoming attracted to the developmental sector. Its evident by the proportion of social entrepreneurship related items in my feeds.

Seriously speaking, I never thought this sector would excite and it’d be naive of me to think that this is my true calling, but for whatever reasons there might be, right now this is the place I want to be in. Lets see how the gig goes.

P.S: At the same time I have been working on a couple of other ideas in the field of community health and nutrition and am also most probably volunteering for Kiwanja, a champion organization trying to use ICT for development. Check out their product FrontlineSMS.

Grab onto one (or more) of these

Rishabh — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:11:00 +0000

Some awesome opportunities to look forward to:

You want to start up. So what excuses are you going to through? Can’t get a B Plan in shape? Can’t get venture funding? How will I manage it with acads?

Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani has come up with a solution. All you need is a good idea. And if you have a team in place, that’s just kick ass, but if you do’t that’s alright as well, just jump aboard the train.

Sounding too vague? Check THIS & THIS.

Last year I remember that Vivek was telling me how he doesn’t really want to startup, but what he actually wants to do is just gives ideas to people to start up.

If you have got ideas for the next big start-up, come share them in an innovation brainjam. The event is called Idea Cafe. More Info about it HERE

Summer in a Start-up.

Creating more opportunity in the social sector amongst the youth

Rishabh — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:28:00 +0000

Nitin Rao, a NIT Surathkal alumnus started E4SI (while still in college!), a unique fellowship program that helps the engineers from top institutes to spend their summer interning in an organization that’s working for a social cause.

Now in its second year, the number of applications that the folks at E4SI received this year increased by a phenomenal amount. Most of the publicity was word of mouth. But the point I am trying to address is a different one.

Now that E4SI is expanding, it will start receiving even more number of entries. With 400-500 people fighting for the 24 coveted slots, many good (and deserving) candidates are bound to lose out. Clearly after a point of time even the judges can’t be objective.

At such a juncture it would be a great idea to create a group (say on Facebook) with the profiles of the candidates who just missed out. These are high potential candidates who would fit in other similar organizations as well. Social enterprises looking for high potential talent will find this resource highly beneficial. The students will also be grateful for its only the facilitation that is lacking in this space. The students are willing and the organizations I am sure are in need of brain power.

This is something world famous marketer and Acumen Fundsupporter Seth Godin did when he announced his internship for college students. This helped spread goodwill as well as showed the candidates that Seth cared for the initiative they took to apply for his internship. Obviously the Seth Godin brand name helped the others find decent offers for their summer as well.

And that’s something Taya over at Next Billion has blogged about.

What strikes me most about the opportunities at these organizations is their exclusivity-in the sense that they cull the “best of the best” through limited edition fellowships. Just to be clear, I have no problem with the notion of wielding the power of the “best and brightest” to tackle the world’s problems. In fact, it’s a rather poignant reversal of fortune; usually the least powerful members of society are stuck with the worst resources. However, after the superstars are chosen, I wonder what happens to the “best of the rest” and the “rest of the rest.” Presumably, the folks who apply to these programs are smart, ambitious, values-driven, change makers in the making. What I wonder is, “what happens to these people?” Is their energy and enthusiasm lost or is it simply redirected? How can we tell? Do we care?

While I have taken E4SI as an example, I would extend the suggestion to other similar initiatives as well such as Kiva, Acumen Fund etc. Using an already existing brand name to indirectly vouch for equally deserving candidates to enter into the developmental sector.

Cross posted on the Mutiny

Grassroutes 2009 Summer Edition

Rishabh — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:44:00 +0000

This winter some my friends from the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and myself went on a road trip to the Nilgiris (read more about it here).

Now you can too.

And not only to the Nilgiris to understand the plight of the tribals, danger to the animals and discover different viewpoints belonging to the scientists and the environmentalists. You can also go to Pochampally to witness a dying industry or to Eastern India to see a group of committed medicos dedicating themselves to rural India. And some more too.

Grassroutes, a roadtrip for social change, an initiative of Yofa is coming up with its Summer Edition. Applications have started pouring in and from what it looks like , its going to be very competitive. I suggest all of you to go for it.

Tribal concepts of assets and “forest dwellers”

Rishabh — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Though I can’t really hand pick the “best” moment from my trip, there are parts which stand out. And meeting Stan Thakaekara was surely one of them. (More about him Here).

We went to his office and just sat there while he went on and on, hopping from one issue to another. I didn’t blink once.

When you look at Tribals, the first things that come to your mind are that they are uncivilised, they live on trees, eat leaves, go around strutting, illiterate and so on.

-Stan Thakaekara

He further said that all these were highly negative ways of describing the community, leave alone stereotypical. Tribals are social groups with territorial affiliation yes, but their idea of property is very different from the conventional idea. To tribals, the concept of land ownership doesn’t exist, (s)he thinks of himself as an integral part of the ecosystem while using its resources in a minimalist way.

So how is this relevant?

Look back through history. So like we discussed there was no concept of land as an asset for the tribals. So what happens when people start treating it as an asset? The issue of inheritence comes up. This is the real problem. The inherited land is passed on mainly to the male member of the family and this is one of the fundamental causes of gender inequality. It’s only the man who is in possession of the assets where as the woman becomes a child bearing device.

When I had gone to Chembakuli I had seen that the men and women were both equally vociferous in their opinions. I suppose it all makes sense now.

Now for the interesting and tragic part. The tribals never sought to acquire the land or try to get documents to back up their claim on this land because they never felt the need to. As far as they could remember they’d always been here and the forest had always been nice to them, taking care of all their basic needs.

Coming back to the present:

When the government goes ahead and passes the laws such as the Forest Rights Act etc, they don’t expect the Scheduled Tribes of that particular area to show the documents but instead use wells, small check dams etc as a proof of their existence. That part is alright.

But when the migrants came to this region, they started claiming the land as their property (and the tribals were obviously not aware of this).

Now of these migrants, “forest dwellers” are defined as those who had claimed the land as long as 75 years ago, and they are on the safe side. The tricky part is relating to those migrants who claim to have owned the land for less han 75 years. They are the ones with vested interests and who want the policies to favour them. Obviously, opinions differ on this.

Some people feel that 75 years is too long a time. Imagine a person who has owned the land for only 73 years

Syndicated from the Grassroutes Blog.

To know more about what we did and what we’re upto follow the HUNGRY FOOLS Blog

Extra Innings at WAT

Rishabh — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:42:00 +0000

For the last 2 years I have been actively leading a virtual life, spending a lot of my time online, trivia crunching. A lot of the info has been feaces, but in between I also managed to gain insight into a few things here and there. I have taken a particular liking to Social Media and the Web and wanted to reach out to a larger audience and that is where WATBlog comes.

I shall be blogging about Social Media, Technology and the Internet over here. Do check it out if you’re into that sorta stuff. And visit this link to see all my posts at WAT. If not, well, this will aways be basecamp. You can chill here.

Grassroutes: My plans for this winter

Rishabh — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:57:00 +0000

My original plan for this winter was to look for a brief internship and invest all my time in it and gain some valuable experience, preferably in the field of social media. I was almost certain about my plans this winter but that’s when I got to know about Grassroutes.

So what is Grassroutes?

Grassroutes Fellowship Program sponsors teams of adventurous, passionate young people on their road-trips to discover change-makers at the grassroots and understand first-hand the problems that plague our nation. From their journeys, these social journalists will bring back stories of ideas, inspiration and change, that we believe, will get the rest of us thinking of ways in which we can do our bit.

-Grassroutes Blog

At first glance the fellowship seemed fun and had a certain RDB-esque feel to it, to break free from the shackles of the routine that we’re so used to and just DO something. Grassroutes seemed like just the thing. But as the deadline approached and the more I thought about it, the more I realised that apart from whatever personal gains my team and I might derive out of the fellowship, we have a responsibility to document everything we see and experience, to support the cause that the NGO concerned is fighting for.

We have been mapped to environmentalists in the Nilgiris who are out there to preserve the landscape and wildlife of the Mudhumalai forests. Check this link to learn more about the issue concerned.

As part of the fellowship we will be making a documentary (a social activist’s roadies? Nah), compiling reports and writing tons of articles about the same after spending 10 days on the road and absorbing all that we gather along the way.

Will be come out of this trip as more responsible citizens and bloggers with lesser typos, probably not. But will we give this documentary our best shot (and obviously excel at it) and help spread the word to thousands of people out there, you can count on thatfor sure.

With Grassroutes I am so confident (overconfident?!) that I will have so many stories to tell.

Only recently did we find out that we’re off to down south for our road trip. More about that later in subsequent posts.

Follow our pursuits on

Our Team Blog: hungryfools.grassroutes.in

Twitter: @Hungryfools

As a parting note for this blog post, a person whom I really admire told me, “In fact, you’re living many people’s dream”.

Here’s a team snapshot, I’m the fat guy.