7/28/2019 Kumar Ankit HIndustan Times Delhi Edition
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10HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELH I, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012
Kumar Ankit was clear fromthe first term itself that he
wanted to work in thesocial sector. He used the learn-ings from
his MBA to work effec-tively in areas such as supplychain, finance
and management.
The rural immersion pro-
gramme at XLRI, wherein wetie up with 10 NGOs inJharkhand, helps
our students
work with them in villages andstudy the problems and
issuesthere. XLRI also has coursessuch as social
entrepreneurship,sustainability, development eco-nomics, and
public-private part-nership which gives a wider per-spective to a
student. This helpsin giving students an exposureto the social
sector.As told to Gauri Kohli
ABOUT XLRI Founded by Father Quinn Enright, SJ, XLRIstarted its
journey in 1949 in Jamshedpur. Its postgradu-
ate diploma in business management has been recog-nised by the
Association of Indian Universities. The PGdiploma in personnel
management and industrial rela-tions has been recognised as
equivalent to a mastersdegree of an Indian university in the
corresponding area
INFLUENCER I wanted to contribute to solving prob-lems such as
migration, unemployment, and inefficien-
cies in the agricultural supply chain. I always had thispassion
of working for Bihar. Gaya is my hometownand I have seen vast
stretches of wastelands in whichfarmers were not able to do
anything and thus had tomigrate. So, I decided to start this
project, says Ankit
PROGRAMMESXLRI offers a range of full-time andpart-time
programmes. The flagship programmes are
the two-year full-time post graduate programmes inbusiness
management and human resource manage-ment and the full-time general
management course. Italso offers a doctoral-level programme and a
distancelearning one-year certificate course via satellite mode
JAMSHEDPUR It is Indias first planned, industrialcity, founded
by the late Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata
It is known for the Tata Iron & Steel Company
It is one of the most populous cities in Jharkhand
This area is rich in mineral resources
ADMISSIONS To get admission to the flagship pro-gramme,
candidates have to take the Xavier
Admission Test (XAT) conducted in the first week ofJanuary every
year. The candidate has to first registerfor XAT and use the XAT ID
and password to apply toXLRI. The process starts from mid-August ev
ery year.Visit www.xlri.ac.in for details
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FIVE FACTS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
AGE: 25
BORN IN: Gaya
FAMILY BACKGROUND: Father
is professor of chemistry atGaya College; mother is a
school teacher
CURRENT OCCUPATION:Entrepreneur
BASED IN: Gaya
Gauri Kohli [email protected]
What was your project about? How muchtime did you spend on
it?
At Green Leaf Energy Pvt Ltd, wework as facilitators for
convergingbiofuel and horticulture plantationwith MNREGA (Mahatma
GandhiNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act) under the
socialforestry model. The social forestrymodel involves linking 200
plants(one unit) with four rural house-holds as Vanposhaks, who
take careof the plants for five years. Thisprovides them with
continuousemployment. The elderly, womenand differently abled are
given pref-erence in appointment as
Vanposhaks and are provided 100days of employment for taking
careof the plants. We conduct aware-ness programmes in villages
aboutthe benefits of social forestry,ensure selection of drought
proof-ing schemes in Gram Sabha, pro-
vide technical and material support
to the gram panchayat to raisethese plantations, enter into
buy-
back arrangements to solve supplychain issues and finally
forward-integrate into biodiesel production
and food processing to completethe value chain. This way, we try
to
solve problems such as migration,unemployment,
wastelands,Naxalism, access to energy andinefficiencies in
agricultural supplychain.
How did you grow?We were one of the first companiesin India to
converge plantations
with MNREGA. We were appointedas project
proponents-cum-facilita-tors for pongamia plantationsunder MNREGA
by the rural devel-opment department, government ofBihar, in June
2010. We have beensuccessful in establishing partner-ships with
gram panchayats anddistrict rural development agenciesfor scaling
up and model replica-tion. We have been successful inestablishing
partnerships withGreenBodhgaya and Up2Green whofund plantation
initiatives acrossthe world for securing alternativesources of
funding.
We get regular mentorship and
guidance from the XLRI faculty andIIM Ahmedabad. For
technicalguidance in raising saplings andnurseries, we have tied up
with sci-entists in Indian Council of
Agricultural Research. We are alsogetting technical support from
pro-
fessors in IISc, Bangalore and R&Dcentre of Bharat
PetroleumCorporation Ltd, Greater Noida, forestablishing a
biodiesel manufac-turing unit.
How was your team set up? What madeyou choose this project?We
have a core team of eight peo-ple. I chose this project because
Ialways had this passion of workingfor Bihar. Gaya is my
hometownand I have seen vast stretches of
wastelands in which farmers werenot able to do anything and
thushad to migrate. So, I decided tostart this project.
Why is this project important? Tell us abouta major impact it
has had on society?The specific social challenge thatthis project
is attempting to solveis unemployment. The project iscurrently
running in severelyNaxal-affected areas of Bihar. Thepeople who are
going to benefit
from this would be from the below-poverty-line rural population,
land-less labourers and small and mar-ginal farmers. In the past
two
years, our project has completed
plantation of 80 lakh saplings,impacting around 1.5 lakh
families,
which has helped increase theiroverall income.
Some of the points we track withhelp from our team of block
officersinclude the number of saplingsplanted; survival rate of
saplings;total area of landreclaimed/utilised; and total num-
ber of families impacted.
Elaborate on your current areas of work.The project started
operations inJune 2010 with one gram panchay-at in Gaya district
with one nurs-ery. We scaled up to six gram pan-chayats in two
blocks by 2010-11and completed plantations of one
lakh pongamia saplings. We diver-sified into high-density
horticul-ture plantations on governmentand private land and built a
teamof locals as village mobilisers and
block officers in 2011-12. We scaledup to 45 gram panchayats in
eight
blocks by 2011-12 and completedplantations of 10 lakh saplings.
Wehave now scaled up to around 800gram panchayats in 80 blocks of
10districts in Bihar and complete acolossal plantation of 70
lakhsaplings.
We have completed studiesabout the topographies of
variousdistricts in Jharkhand, HimachalPradesh and Gujarat that
wouldsuit the replication of our modelalong with research of
variousschemes like NREGA, NRLM(National Rural LivelihoodsMission),
and NHM (NationalHorticulture Mission) for conver-gence. We have
presented our ideato senior government officials in
these states and sent ourproposals.
How/why did you choose the institute?I chose XLRI, Jamshedpur,
because
it was my dream to start my ven-ture in Gaya, Bihar. I had heard
alot from seniors in XLRI about get-ting a lot of support from
profes-sors and the institution for studentsstarting social
enterprises.
How did you prepare for the entrance?I had joined a coaching
institute toprepare for my MBA entrance. I
was always good with numbers andthus quant was fairly easy for
me.
Verbal was not too difficult. A regu-lar habit of reading news,
maga-zines and current affairs alsohelped in handling
interviews.
How was life in the management institute?How did you cope?
It was initially tough to manageacademics along with my
projectin the first two terms, but gradual-ly I learnt better time
manage-ment. I tagged even my academicprojects with subjects
related tomy venture, say, like I had to makea project on
communication, so Idesigned the project like an IMC(integrated
marketing communica-tion) for convincing farmers in myproject. I
was also a part of thecommittee SIGMA which gave mea lot of
exposure while working
with NGOs. Organising eventsgave me wonderful insightsinto how
to develop asocial enterprise. Wealso have a two-termcourse on
socialentrepreneurship,and anEntrepreneurshipDevelopmentCentre at
XLRI.
I wanted to do something
for rural people
Studentsget exposureto the socialsector here
The context that is built hereallows students to use skillsfor
creating a social impact- Madhukar Shukla,
professor (strategicmanagement) and
chairperson of Fr ArrupeCentre for Ecology and
Sustainability, XLRI,Jamshedpur
Driven by a passion to do something for Bihar,XLRI alumnus Kumar
Ankit founded a company
that aims to eventually root out problems such asmigration and
unemployment
Driven by a passion to do something for Bihar,XLRI alumnus Kumar
Ankit founded a company
that aims to eventually root out problems such asmigration and
unemployment
Making a difference: A plantation site in Gafa Khurd Panchayat,
BodhGaya block of the Gaya district in Bihar. Kumar Ankit (third
from right onground) with members his team, some of his associates
and villagers
