Rajan

This is the story of Santosh Kaveri- a boy who carved his own road out of a remote village in
Karnataka, to one day find himself being rewarded by Ratan Tata for his invention. Read on
to know how he turned his problems into opportunities.

Santosh was born in a poor family in Shedbal village. He used to walk 10 kilometers every
day just to attend school. In order to support his family, he also had to assist them on the
farm.

However, Santosh knew that education was important for his future and he could not drop
out of school. So, he attempted to create a balance: he worked on his familys farm in the
early morning, starting at 5 AM, and then he would continue the farm work immediately after
classes every day. His continued to struggle like this to further his education. His hard work
paid off when he managed to obtain admission to pursue his BBA in the city of Belgaum.

However life wasnt all rosy for Santosh after he moved to the city. He spent the first six
months of his college life sleeping in college classrooms as he wasnt able to afford the cost
of staying in a hostel. The government eventually agreed to cover the expenses of his
accommodation, and it was at this point that Santoshs life seemed to gain some normalcy.

During his first year in college, Santosh joined the Deshpande Foundations LEaders
Accelerating Development (LEAD) program. The LEAD program provides funding assistance
and guidance for college students to implement their own community improvement projects,
thereby allowing them to practice their entrepreneurial, leadership, and innovative thinking.

Santosh started working on his first project that was aimed at improving the life of farmers.
He reflected on the struggles that he and his family faced as farmers, and identified a specific
problem in carrot cleaning. Before farmers can sell their carrots at the local markets, the
carrots must be cleaned to make them appealing to customers. However, carrot cleaning is
a lengthy and demanding process; cleaning one quintal of carrots requires usually the labor
of 12 people.

Santosh pondered and searched determinedly for a solution to this problem. His epiphany
came at last one day after observing a washing machine, and he realized that he could apply
the same concept to devise a machine that could quickly, and efficiently, clean carrots.

Being a Business student and having no prior experience with engineering, Santosh struggled
to develop a technology that could effectively and affordably clean carrots. He persevered,
and after developing 11 unsuccessful machines, he finally devised the Carrot Cleaning
Machine.

Santoshs Carrot Cleaning Machine can clean a quintal of carrots in just 15 minutes and
requires the labor of only two people. Whats more, the Carrot Cleaning Machine uses no
electricity, and very little water. The Carrot Cleaning Machine is now helping farmers
throughout 10 villages.