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A journey that turns you into an entrepreneur

Last Updated 27 December 2015, 19:17 IST

A 15-day train journey is not just visiting different parts of the country, but a life-changing experience for the ‘yatris’ of the Jagriti Yatra.

Mahendra Pyati, who went on the ‘entrepreneurial train journey’ in 2009 has started not one but two enterprises. He has launched an NGO, Nav Prabhuthi Trust, for providing vocational training to adults with autism. So far he has managed to teach over 22 such persons. Besides this, he started budgetary ‘backpackers hostel’ - AAO hostel in Koramangala - catering to travellers.  “The train journey is all about meeting like-minded people who are able go ahead in life despite all odds.  The journey will definitely inspire people to do something on their own and contribute to the country,” he added.

An IIT graduate, Gaurav Dahake, who took the train journey in 2010 has now started a portal ‘buyhatke.com’ to help online shoppers to buy products after comparing prices on a single platform. “We started this portal to help online shoppers and already have four million visitors to the website.  The capital was from the stipend we got while studying at IIT Kharagpur,” he added.

Prashanth Garapati from Hyderabad, who took the journey in 2013, has managed to set up commut.co, a company which provides transport to employees of smaller IT firms, who do not get company transport.  Prashanth says that even after the journey, the yatris keep in touch with each other and are always available to help set up enterprises.

Chintan Siriya, executive director of Jagriti Yatra, says the journey is mainly catering to the ‘middle India’ which account for a majority of the population, in inspiring them to set up their enterprises. The journey is not only for the youth from metro cities, but also to those from tier II and tier III cities and smaller towns. 

“The journey is also to tell people not to migrate to bigger cities and instead stay in their towns and villages and create something there to help one and all,” he said.

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(Published 27 December 2015, 19:17 IST)

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