Jagriti Yatra Diary - G.Vijayaraghavan (Technopark) and Usha.S & Jay Kumar (Thanal)

Dec 27 - We travelled to Trivandrum by buses where we interacted with two role models.

G.Vijayaraghavan founder of India's first and currently the third largest IT park - Technopark, Trivandrum narrated the story of how he founded technopark, his experience of dealing with the bureaucrats and his further ventures. He also had some pearls of wisdom for young entrepreneurs.
What was striking was the man's resolve and value systems. My group also had a separate interaction with him as were supposed to make a short presentation on him on Dec 29.

This was followed by a session on Jay Kumar and then Usha.S of Thanal, a non-profit dealing with various environmental issues. Mr.Jay Kumar made a presentation on their Zero-waste management initiatives and support to various local women self-help groups. I didn't find it very interesting probably because I was hungry :P

Post lunch, Ms.Usha held us in rapt attention with her commentary on the status of Indian agriculture.
She covered various topics including GM foods, Organic farming, the downside of aping the western world for our green revolution, the ill effects of increasing urbanisation etc. She delivered a captivating lecture while painting an extremely bleak picture on the status of Indian Agriculture, which enlightened us on the way forward and the scope of youth entrepreneurs in the same. Check www.thanal.co.in

We ended the visit with a drive through Technopark followed by a brief session with V.P.Singh of EkGaon Tech. and Acharya Sachidananda Bharathi followed by dinner. My group then kick started our planning for our presentation which went on till 1 AM

PS: I'll update the blog with some pictures later