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Friday 15 January 2016

How One Entrepreneur is Applying The Bhutanese Principles of Happiness in Business and Creating Livelihoods

Image: Rushabh with Hans, a specially abled individual who also works at the workshop

A term coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s fourth Dragon King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck .The phrase was coined as a signal of commitment to building an economy that would work on increasing the country’s Gross National Happiness(GNH) instead of the western material development that was represented by gross domestic product (GDP). Could that same philosophy be applied to an organisation? Where happiness was the goal?

Meet Rushabh Gandhi, founder of Handmade Hope. A social entrepreneurship venture which nourishes individuals and organizations who are highly skilled craftsmen at creating artistic souvenirs. Then it bridges the gap between the market and the artisans increasing their sales and helping them achieve self sustainability.

A 16 day road-trip to Bhutan changed his perspective about a lot of things about his life, says Rushabh. He observed that the Bhutanese do not subscribe to the concept of accumulating wealth.

What strikes me is that Rushabh uses words like contentment, transformation , happiness – words which are not very commonly found in the vocabulary of entrepreneurs of today. You would mostly hear businessmen talk about investment, funding, gross sales, Facebook advertising and product updates. But Rushabh is not the ordinary entrepreneur.

Starting since the time he was a high school student Rushabh has worked in the social sector for more than 10 years. It is evident from the number of organizations he is still associated with. He is guided by his mentors like Nipun Mehta – founder of Service Space, Srijan Pal Singh- Adviser to Late Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Jayesh Patel – founder of Manav Sadhana and Amitabh Shah – founder of Yuva Unstoppable.

But what does this young and focused entrepreneur have to teach us about building a sustainable social enterprise?

I tried to understand his approach with a visit to his very lovingly created workshop – The Paper Ashram in Vadodara.
I had first met Rushabh when he visited my college as the media team member of the What Can I Give Mission – a mission undertaken by Late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

Image : Rushabh Gandhi when he was working with Dr Kalam’s team.

His simple goals and efforts to make a sustainable and socially responsible business is what motivated me to take a short trip to Vadodara to visit his workshop.

How did it all start?
I met a young boy called Rahul at Fatehsingh Ashram, Vadodara, an orphanage. Rahul was a creative young spirit. A few Sundays later, I found Rahul missing from the Ashram. I met him a few days later to find that he had been selling cigarettes and tobacco products to pan shops to earn a living.

A dilemma faced me, as I wanted him to leave selling cigarettes but I also understood his need to earn money. Rahul promised me to never tread path of cigarette selling again, if provided with an income source. After putting in a lot of thought, an alternative solution began taking shape in my mind.


We met after a week and asked if he could make greeting cards. Always eager for new things, Rahul expressed his wish to learn making greeting cards. He was taught by a friend, who was an expert at arts and craft.

5000 greeting cards were created and were sold within a span of two months. During this phase, Handmade Hope was born to plug the lack of proper space and a channel to fulfill their need of self sustenance. A well planned, organized, set up that helped people to achieve economic independence.
“Wherever I have been, people ask me this question about the challenges that I faced. I believe one faces challenges when one is going beyond his/her capacity of growth.

Can you tell us about the products?
We started with Paper bags made of used newspaper. We have close to 50 different sizes and types of brown paper bags today. The second category is stationery of different types like diaries, notebooks.

In the process of community building, we come across as many individuals and organizations who are highly skilled craftsmen at creating artistic souvenirs. We are currently working with Manav Sadhana Foundation, the only organization operating out of the Gandhi Ashram to bring out their hand embroidered diaries.

Can you tell us a bit about the business model of handmade hope?
We work on an order based system. Every month we try to tap in new retailers who would make the shift from plastics bags to paper bags.
Then the production responsibilities are distributed amongst the artisans at the Paper Ashram. From the very beginning I have tried to make this a sustainable model. So that even if I am not here to handle the operations the team should continue growing. Right now we have trained our first level of members who are either families or individuals who make the paper bags and stationery. They have also been trained to take orders and distribute it in their localities and then collect back the produced items and deliver them.
We pay them a salary decided on the per bag rate. In our organization we also have students from various colleges who regularly work/intern with us.
I am slowly starting to move towards the marketing and partnerships side and let my people handle the operations.

Thursday 14 January 2016

Blind Indian rejected by IITs will now study at Stanford



Visually impaired Delhi student Kartik Sawhney has repeatedly been denied permission to appear for the IIT-JEE in the past three years because of his disability. However, in March 2013, he was awarded a fully funded scholarship to pursue engineering at Stanford University in the US. This is his story.

On May 27, 2013, when 18-year-old Kartik Sawhney scored 96 per cent in his Class 12 CBSE examination, he became the country's first ever visually impaired student to have achieved the feat in the science stream.

Appearing from Delhi Public School, RK Puram, he scored 99 in computer science (his favourite subject) and 95 each in English, mathematics, physics and chemistry; his total is 479 out of 500.

Recalling some of the challenges, he says, "Studying with normal students wasn't easy, and neither was choosing a stream of my choice."

Determination and perseverance are the key factors to his success -- he simply would not take no for an answer.

"A lot of people think that disabilities limits you from doing certain things. But I think success comes to those who believe in their strengths," he states.

Sawhney, who comes from a middle class family -- his father Ravinder Sawhney is a businessman and mother Indu Sawhney a homemaker -- confesses that aiming high and making tough decisions at every stage was still easier than executing them.

For three years in a row, he has been denied permission to appear for the IIT-JEE; he was told that there is no provision for blind students to take the competitive exam. But he did not lose hope and applied to universities abroad.

And in March 2013, Sawhney received a fully funded scholarship to pursue a five-year engineering programme at Stanford University. Once armed with this degree, he intends to "improve the condition of visually impaired back in India".

In this interview, the inspiring young man discusses the many challenges he's faced to come this far, what miffs him about the Indian administration and tells us what keeps him going.

Wednesday 13 January 2016

Success Story of an Indian College Drop Out

Senthil Nayagam, co-founder of RailsFactory, a premier Ruby on Rails application development company, is the epitome of the new 21st century Indian entrepreneur – a college drop out. In 1999, having started his first business, an Internet center, to mediocre success, Senthil taught himself an assortment of other skills such as troubleshooting, Linux and eventually Perl, php, python and mysql, to help supplement his income and support his family.

Senthil Nayagam
Co-Founder & CEO of Railsfactory 
Not disheartened by his first relatively failed business attempt, Senthil moved to Bangalore in 2004 to try his hand at a software career. It was then that he discovered the potential of Ruby and Ruby on Rails to explode onto the software scene. It was also here that Senthil met Dinesh Kumar, who shared Senthil’s passion for business. Two years later and with the help of his newfound friend and co-founder, Dinesh, RailsFactory was born.

Think of RailsFactory as your extended team, or in the spirit of NBA playoff season, your 6th man on the court, designated to accelerate your current development by hiring additional developers to meet your company’s tight deadlines.

RailsFactory focuses on consulting and delivering cutting edge Ruby flavored solutions to its global customers. In the last seven years they have gained over 150 employees, completed over 200 projects and over the past five years they have maintained an enviable 100% year-over-year growth.

And RailsFactory can deliver these solutions without putting a hole in your pocket, too. While big tech companies in the Silicon Valley are “acqhiring” most large US Ruby consulting firms (i.e. Groupon acqhiring Obtiva), which keeps rates high for their services, RailsFactory remains a volume player with the freedom to work with both small startups and enterprise businesses.


RailsFactory does this by utilizing two different billing options; fixed price and the elastic staffing model, both designed to provide the most bang for your buck. The fixed price option is geared toward start ups and small companies that need additional short term help developing a specific product, whereas elastic staffing gives businesses the opportunity to hire their own team of Ruby developers to work side by side with their staff for as long as they are needed.

Whether a company needs iPhone or Android apps, complete eCommerce solutions, or even long term partnership for IT projects, RailsFactory can deliver quality, cost-efficient services with minimal turnaround time. Their expertise in Ruby on Rails and adoption of strictly agile development principles makes RailsFactory one of the premier end-to-end RoR (Ruby on Rails) solutions development companies.

Although RoR was practically unknown in 2006, now all major companies in India, such as TCS, Infy and HCL, as well as companies around the world like Amazon, Cisco, NASA, BBC have dedicated teams to work on their RoR. With the RoR demand dramatically increasing and the availability of RoR resources much slimmer than the resources for, say, Java, or .net, RailsFactory has an unparalleled advantage in the market.

In fact, the Ruby programming language is now being used in more ways than ever before. Whereas Ruby is gaining in popularity with companies such as global code sharing fulcrum, github, which is built on it, a language like Java is now only more useful as the JVM than the language itself. Plus, there is Jruby, a Ruby implementation in Java, which allows for the combination of Java’s good parts with the greatness of Ruby. Software synthesis at its finest.


So how did RailsFactory, originating in the humble region of Chennai, India, grow to become a global player in RoR solutions? With determination, creative problem solving and the desire for solidarity amongst fellow Chennai based software techies.

Chennai is a close knit region that has received major visibility and funding over the last two years, but back in 2006, when RailsFactory began, there were no role models or mentors to turn to for guidance. So Senthil took it upon himself to create his own network within Chennai’s software ecosystem so that he could ask crucial questions regarding RailsFactory’s growth spurts.

Transforming from a self proclaimed “lone wolf” to an inspiring leader in software services was no easy feat for Senthil, but with power comes great responsibility and he hasn’t shied away from moving his company forward with authority.

Senthil’s keen eye for identifying and capitalizing on growing industry trends has helped RailsFactory stay afloat during this age of ever evolving technological capabilities, one trend of which is particularly important; polyglot programming.


Polyglot programming allows for developers to combine the most advantageous aspects of any programming language so that they can use the best tool for the technology being produced. For example, end users on a mobile phone or browser don’t give a hoot what technologies are used in the server; they just want a fast, responsive service, am I right?

And although RailsFactory prefers Ruby, what is best for the customer comes first. RailsFactory uses other languages and components built on these other languages all the time, ensuring customer satisfaction regardless of programming language prejudices.

Gee, if only every company had our best interests in mind instead of forcibly trying to sell a label to us lowly consumers.

But the reality is this; with more companies turning to polyglot programming, as well as the addition of yearly UI paradigm changes causing many startups to desire mobile play along with their web app rewrites, and on top of THAT start ups are exploring new ways to monetize using big data, a software service and consulting specialist like Senthil must keep pace in order to continue enjoying success and growth.

And this is where Senthil’s inherent curiosity, passion for all things software and desire to transcend conventional industry limitations separates him from the pack.

Senthil and Dinesh have made RailsFactory a prototype for what they call “Centers of Excellence.” They have started developing new business units in the form of independent COE’s for various technologies and they operate under the umbrella firm, Sedin Technologies, Pvt. Ltd.

As of now, Sedin Technologies has RailsFactory, MobileTechFactory andPHPFactory, each dedicated exclusively to help clients manage the global convergence of software, mobile applications, Web applications, big data and cloud services.

So what’s next for RailsFactory? Naturally, they want to be the world’s largest RoR development company in the world.

With over 150 developers growing and counting, an office in Chennai and the Silicon Valley, RailsFactory is determined to set up operations in every global region that brings in more than ten percent revenue. That leaves Senthil contemplating a physical presence in Australia, the UK, as well as other additional locations in India for starters.

Not too shabby for a guy who dropped out of college, flopped on his first start up venture and got fired from his job in Bangalore in 2004.

Moral of the story: India needs to start thinking outside of the box and let its youth take more chances, fail more often and chart their own courses.

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Meet the world's youngest CEO

When 14-year-old Suhas Gopinath started Globals Inc ten years ago from a cyber cafe in Bengaluru, he didn't know that he had become the youngest CEO in the world.

Today, Globals is a multi-million dollar company with offices in the United States, India, Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Singapore and the Middle East and has 100 employees in India and 56 abroad.

Among the several honours that have been bestowed upon this young man, the most prestigious is the invitation to be a member of the Board of the ICT Advisory Council of the World Bank..

Suhas Gopinath
In 2007, the European Parliament and International Association for Human Values conferred 'Young Achiever Award' on him. He was also invited to address the European Parliament and other business dignitaries assembled in the EU Parliament. He is also recognised as one of the 'Young Global Leaders' for 2008-2009 by the prestigious World Economic Forum.

Suhas is the youngest member ever in the World Economic Forum's history. The other members include the Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, musician A R Rahman, Prince of Brunei, etc.

In this interview from his office in Bengaluru, Suhas Gopinath talks about his decade long journey and his dreams for the future.

Monday 11 January 2016

Yogendra Singh, 'My father was a rickshaw-puller'

"Why would you want to feature me in your magazine?” asks Yogendra Singh incredulously. The 28-year-old IIM Lucknow student has a dilemma: should he continue with his studies or resume working?

“Your story is about people who have succeeded in life, isn't it? But if I quit IIM and go back to my village, that would make me a failure, right? Koi successful person ka story chaapiyega to woh theek rahega,” says the young man from a village near Daltonganj in Jharkhand.

But Yogendra is already a success. He remembers the time he went off with his neighbour to get admitted to the nearest government school in his village. He studied there till class 8 and then moved to a school in a town eight kilometres away. “My father was a rickshaw-puller and my mother a homemaker. But they never had to pay for my education.” The pride in his voice is unmissable.


Being the eldest of seven siblings – four sisters, and three brothers – Yogendra's struggles started early. He would graze cattle and soon after his class 10 Board exams, he started giving tuition to younger students. “I began making enough money to take care of the household expenses.”

That was when he met his future wife. She was one of his students before his prospective father-in-law, a primary school teacher, decided to make him the offer that would change his life forever.

Yogendra was juggling his life as a student and a teacher. But someone suggested that he should take the Polytechnic Diploma exam. He did and was selected too. “Suddenly I was famous in my gaon. That's when my to-be father-in-law proposed to fund my education on the condition that I marry his daughter,” he says. He did.

Yogendra discontinued his coaching classes, but worked for a few years while finishing BTech from BIT Sindri in Dhanbad, to be able to support his family. While his job took care of the household expenses, he took coaching for a few months to crack the CAT exam. “My happiness knew no bounds when I got a call from IIM Lucknow,” remembers Yogendra.

Walking through the gates of one of India's most reputed and toughest B-Schools is a dream come true for any student. But accepting the offer from IIM Lucknow has given Yogendra sleepless nights. He can't stop wondering if he made the right choice. “There is no one to support my family right now. I spent all my savings on my sisters' weddings. My younger brothers are in school. I am contemplating quitting and going back to my village,” says Yogendra.


Saturday 9 January 2016

8 inspiring lessons I learned from street food vendors

As I travel across Bangalore and other cities attempting to discover interesting street food and local eateries, I am often struck by the creativity, innovation, and business sensibilities that some of the owners exhibit.

From humble tea stalls catering to actors and politicians to trained fine dine chefs, many owners bring extensive knowledge and an inspiring spirit of entrepreneurship to their eateries.

Here are some of these inspiring stories and what they've taught me.

#1. Don't let the world dictate what you can do 


Daniel D'souza, the owner of Sharon Tea Stall in Bangalore, didn't want to run just another tea stall. 

So he decided that there was no reason why the more exotic teas should be available only in fancy tea parlours and out of the reach of an everyday person on the road. 

Sharon Tea Stall in Indira Nagar is a full-fledged tea parlour in the garb of a small street-side shack that serves a wide variety of interesting teas. No wonder then that his clients include actors and politicians from across the state, something he proudly displays through photographs at the tiny stall. Try stuff that hasn't been done before even if you're unsure of succeeding. 

#2. Do something unexpected.

Then expect it to create stickiness Simple creative differentiators can be used to transform products from also-rans to pack-leaders, and often a small tweak within existing boundaries can result in starkly different products that are bound to attract attention. 

One momo vendor decided that plain white momos are passe. So she transformed them into colourful bites using natural food extracts from beetroots, carrots and spinach. Now that's creative! 


#3. Where there's a will, there's a way 

A vendor selling sundal, the popular South Indian snack made with chickpeas, wanted to ensure that the food is both moist and steaming hot. Not an easy task to achieve, given the push-cart he was selling out of. 

So he built a simple section below the cart to house a pot of water on a stove. The steam from the boiling water comes up through the holes on the cart platform. 

When a customer draws up, he simply spoons the required quantity of sundal onto the holes so that it is infused with steam making it moist and piping hot. 

A similar example is of a chicken seekh kebab stand at 27th Main Road, HSR Layout. 

Here's a photo shot of the crank-shaft-operated open grill that he conceptualised to keep the coals fired. Indian jugaad at its best! 


#4. Limited variety, unbeatable quality 

Just recently, I was introduced to small bhajji or pakora vendor in a popular market in Gandhi Bazaar, Bangalore. 

He sells a simple variety of bhajjis made out of capsicum, raw bananas, potatoes and green peppers. 

At the cost of pricing his bhajjis 50 per cent above market rate, the vendor, Praveen ensures that he only uses the best vegetables. 

Each of the bhajjis is the same size and each vegetable he uses is fresh. 

That's also the case with many other street food vendors -- they do not compromise on quality, which explains why they have stayed popular for decades. 

#5. Service with a smile, always 


With the crowds that Ravi's Gobi van attracts, it could be easy to be a little impatient at times. But the one thing that regular customers love about Ravi (pictured above), apart from the delectable Chinese fare he churns out of his food van at one corner of the Banashankari BDA complex in Bangalore, is his constant smile and polite demeanour even when he is answering irate customers. A perfect example of winning service orientation. 

#6. Apply existing concepts differently 

Who said pizzas are to be eaten only in fancy chains or that soup can be had only at sit-down restaurants? 

Kumar, an erstwhile chef with Little Italy, has designed a pizza van which sees regular crowds relishing pizzas and garlic bread. 

Meanwhile Vallarmati serves three different soups everyday complete with condiments, from her simple soup cart in HSR Layout, Bangalore. 

#7. Choose a niche and be the expert in it 


Revathy, a food and nutrition student, realised that street food hardly catered to people with health issues such as diabetes

So she developed special recipes using sprouts, green gram and bitter gourd (pictured left)which she retails from her small eatery in Malleshwaram, Bangalore. 

#8. Build something that customers love.

And then sit back to enjoy it. More is not always better.This was a recurrent theme across Goa where work takes on a different meaning altogether and living a good life is about having the bandwidth to do the things one enjoys and spending time with friends and family. 

Sushma Verma, 'I didn't even know what the Boards meant'

Sushma Verma has always been filled with a deep sense of wonder at how life exists beyond what the naked eye recognises. This prompted her to take up microbiology for her post-graduation from the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) in Lucknow. 

Her scorecard shows a first rank in her first, second and fourth semesters. She has now enrolled in a PhD course. And Sushma is all of 15 years!

When she was just two-and-a-half years old, Sushma recited Ramayana 'chaupayis' at a local function. She considers that the first proud moment of her life. 


Born in the outskirts of Lucknow, Sushma's father was a daily-wage labourer, and mother, a homemaker. "Our home comprised of a single room with a leaking ceiling. The main thought in my mind then was that all I have are my brother's books. So I have to study with his support." She was not even three years old then! 

When she was five years old, looking at her prodigious memory and skills, Sushma's family suggested she take the Board exam. Finally, she enrolled at St Meera's Inter College in Lucknow, in class 9. "When we submitted my application form, the principal thought there had been some mistake, that my application was for nursery," laughs Sushma. She had to take a test which covered the entire syllabus from class 1 to 8 to check if she was eligible for class 9. She was. 

The first few days in school left her tired. It was a task explaining to her classmates that she had not entered the class by mistake or that she didn't study 20 hours a day. 

In June 2007, Sushma created history. Limca Book of Records recognised her as the youngest student, aged 7 years, 3 months and 28 days, to pass the class 10 Board exam in the country. "At the time, I didn't even understand the significance of Board exams. This was only the second time in my entire life that I was taking an exam!" 

She was also the subject of a documentary film by a Japanese television channel. "It was a matter of great pride. We thought, why would they want to film us of all the people in the city," she says. 

Sushma went on to graduate in Botany from Lucknow University at the age of 13, and finished her MSc at 15. However, she doesn't think of this as a feat. "Most people think that only after the child turns 5-6 should s/he be taught to read and write. But it's important to pay attention to what he or she learns even before that." 

What makes her achievements special is that her father was appointed as a sanitation assistant at the same university she graduated from. Besides, just by being around the Verma siblings while they study, her mother today can read basic Hindi and English. 

What does the future hold for Sushma? "It's impossible to know ki hum life mein kya banenge. Maybe my life will take a new turn."

Thursday 7 January 2016

Shalini Arnugam, 'I didn't want anyone's pity'

"Forgive me, my English is very poor,” says 17-year-old Shalini Arnugam. But for someone who has gone from a Tamil-medium to a Kannada-medium school, and is in an English-medium engineering college – Bengaluru-based Shalini has caught up pretty well.

She was the school topper in class 10 and scored 84.8 per cent in class 12. But while students took breaks from their exam routine, Shalini shuttled between houses, doing household chores to keep her family afloat. 

Shalini’s father, who used to paint hoardings, has been bed-ridden for over a decade after he fell off a building. Her mother began working as a domestic help. But they were hit by another tragedy: Shalini’s brother was diagnosed with blood cancer earlier this year, just before her class 12 exams. 


Immediately after the exams ended, Shalini took over her mother’s part-time jobs, while her mother stayed with her brother at the hospital. 

Shalini wakes up at 4:30am – finishes chores at home, draws rangolis at five different houses, scrubs floors, washes utensils and clothes – her day passes by in a haze, with college classes in between. She studies late into the night, sitting at the entrance of her house and reading in the orange of the streetlamps. “Tuitions cost no less than Rs 60,000 a year. We don’t have that kind of money. But there's no point brooding over that.” 

Despite the setbacks, Shalini never thought of giving up her studies. “Everyone around me was from ICSE, CBSE schools. They would talk in perfect English. I was from a Tamil-medium government school. But gradually I realised, now that I have joined college, I have to study.” 

Shalini’s mother never asked her to give up studying despite their financial problems. “Maybe because I was juggling work and my studies. But she's been a huge moral support,” says Shalini. 

Eventually Shalini made friends in college. But she didn’t let anyone know about her struggles: “I didn’t want their pity.” 

Shalini did well in the Common Entrance Test (for admissions in medical, dental and engineering courses) and got herself a seat in REVA University, Bangalore, where she's studying BTech. 

But right now she has another pressing matter to think about. “My brother is at the end of his third course of chemotherapy. They'll soon start with the fourth. Let’s see how we manage in the times to come.” 

She still hopes to do a Masters abroad, though she’s also considering the civil services. “I’ve made it this far with others’ help, so I too want to help those who’ve been struggling in life.”

Wednesday 6 January 2016

Beehive Fences in East Africa Protect Farms from Elephants

All photos courtesy The Elephants & Bees Project / Lucy King 
When trying to protect farms in east Africa from elephants, it would seem that nothing short of a giant reinforced fence or a chasmic ditch could safely keep the largest land animals on Earth away without causing harm. Unfortunately, building such barriers around every field is impractical, and the interactions of people protecting their crops frequently leads to accidents or even death of both farmers and elephants. But zoologist Lucy King had a much smaller idea: bees. 


It turns out elephants are terrified of bees because when the insects sting the inside of their trunks the pain is excruciating and there’s little they can do about it. The sound of buzzing alone is enough to make elephants leave an area immediately. King wondered what might happen if a string of suspended beehives at every 10 meters around a field might be enough to keep elephants away. A pilot program in 2009 proved widely successful and soon The Elephant and Bees Project was born.


There are now active beehive fences in Kenya, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Sri Lanka. Not only do the fences help pollinate crops and safely deter elephants, they also become an additional revenue stream for farmers who harvest honey and sell it locally, a fascinating example of interspecies landscape engineering.The Elephant and Bees Project is currently trying to raise funds to greatly expand the program.


Tuesday 5 January 2016

तुराखिया ब्रदर्स : इनसे सीखिए दुनिया में छा जाना

कॉलेज की उम्र होती है अपने सपनों को सही दिशा देने की। दोस्तों के साथ मौज-मस्ती करते हुए करियर की राह चुनने और उस पर आगे बढ़ने की। ऐसी ही एक राह तुराखिया ब्रदर्स ने भी कॉलेज की पढ़ाई के दौरान जब चुनी तो उनके दोस्तों को अजीब लगा। लेकिन अपनी मेहनत के बल पर तुराखिया ब्रदर्स ने कामयाबी की नई इबारत लिखी। उन्होंने एक वेबहोस्टिंग बिजनेस शुरू किया। कुछ ही दिन में उन्हें अमेरिकाचीन और ब्राजील समेत दुनिया के कई देशों से कस्टमर्स मिलना शुरू हो गए। इसी साल उन्होंने अपना बिजनस नैस्डेक पर लिस्टेड एंड्योरेंस ग्रुप को बेच दिया। इसके बाद भी उनके पास इंटरनेट एडवर्टाइजिंग बिजनस और press, website और space जैसे टॉप लेवल डोमेन हैं। दिव्यांक तुराखिया (32) और भवीन तुराखिया (34) की सफलताओं का यह सिलसिला किसी को भी प्रेरणा दे सकता है.
भवीन तुराखिया
Co-Founder and CEO of Directi
Co-Founder of Media.net and Founder and
CEO of Radix and Riva
भवीन डायरेक्टी ग्रुप के संस्थापक सीईओ हैं और 1998 से लेकर अब तक डायरेक्टी की अभूतपूर्व प्रगति का श्रेय इन्हीं को जाता है। जिसमें छह व्यवसायों के साथ एक ग्लोबल वेब प्रोडक्ट कम्पनी, 20 से ज्यादा उत्पाद, आठ सौ से ज्यादा कर्मचारी और लाखों वैश्विक ग्राहक भी शामिल हैं। इनके कुशल नेतृत्व में रिसेलर क्लब और लॉजिक बाक्सेस इंडस्ट्री लीडर बनीं जिन्हें उनके संबंधित कार्यक्षेत्र में और डायरेक्टी को लगातार एशिया में तेजी से बढ़ती टेक कम्पनी के रूप में डेलाइट और टच ने रखा है। भवीन लगातार अपने विजन, स्ट्रैटजी, इजीनियरिंग और आपरेशन्स से रिसेलर क्लब, लाजिक बाक्सेस, .pw, answerable.com webhosting.info को ऊंचाइयां प्रदान कर रहे हैं।
रिसेलर क्लब और लॉजिकबाक्सेस के जरिये प्रदान की जाने वाली सेवाओं और तमाम अन्य उत्पादों जैसे orderdox, .pw एक सोशल मीडिया के मुख्य आर्किटेक्ट हैं। उन्होंने तमाम तकनीकी पेटेंट्स को लिखा है। उन्होंने एक प्रमुख कोडिंग और प्रतिस्पर्धी मंच codechef  जन्म दिया। उन्होंने डायरेक्टी के सामुदायिक टेक कैम्प की भी शुरूआत की।
1998 में मात्र 18 साल की उम्र में जबकि वह कालेज में पढ़ते थे, उन्होंने डायरेक्टी की स्थापना की जो दुनिया भर के लोगों के लिए वेब प्रोडक्ट और सेवाओं पर आधारित बिजनेस का मंच था। अपने स्कूल और कालेज के सालों को साफ्टवेयर बनाने में, वेब एप्लीकेशन्स के विकास और कम्पनियों से बातचीत में बिताकर वह इस डायरेक्टी को लाए। जिसके पीछे थी वेब इंडस्ट्री के बारे में उनकी गहरी समझ, मजबूत तकनीकी आधार, व्यापारिक कुशलता की चाह और सबसे ज्यादा महत्वपूर्ण बात विकास की पीछे हटने वाली महत्वाकांक्षा।
भवीन वेब 2.0 लैंडस्केप की महत्वपूर्ण शख्सियत हैं। वह तमाम कालेजों और तकनीकी सेमिनार्स आदि के मुखर वक्ता भी हैं। स्थानीय साइबर क्राइम सेल के वह तकनीकी सलाहकार हैं। उन्होंने कई अवार्ड भी जीते हैं। जिसमें साल के उद्यमी का अवार्ड भी शामिल है। वह ग्लोबल आईसीएएनएन के लगातार दो कार्यकाल तक चेयरमैन भी रहे हैं।
दिव्यांक तुराखिया
Founder & CEO of Media.Net
Founder of
 Directi
Founder & CEO of Skenzo
दिव्यांक तुराखिया डायरेक्टी के संस्थापक है। उन्होंने डायरेक्टी को एक वैश्विक उद्यम के रूप में खड़े होने में मदद की है। उन्होंने डायरेक्टी के सतत विकास, नवाचार और विस्तार के पीछे असली ताकत के रूप में काम किया है। इन वर्षों मेंवह सक्रिय रूप से डायरेक्टी के तेजी से विकास को बनाए रखने के लिए जरूरी कॉर्पोरेट बुनियादी ढांचे के निर्माण में और पैमाने के प्रबंधन के लिए आवश्यक साझेदारी में लगे रहे हैं। डायरेक्टी को लगातार 2005, 2006, 2007 और 2008 के लिए एशिया में शीर्ष 500 सबसे तेजी से बढ़ते प्रौद्योगिकी कंपनियों के बीच बनाये रखने में उनका अहम योगदान है। 2005 मेंदिव्यांक ने Skenzo की स्थापना की और डायरेक्टी समूह के भीतर एक स्टार्टअप के रूप में और एक वर्ष में दुनिया भर में # 1 सबसे तेजी से बढ़ते डोमेन पार्किंग कंपनी के रूप में उसे स्थापित किया। Divyank डायरेक्टी के मीडिया कारोबार के सभी Media.Net, Skenzo और DomainAdvertising.com आदि की स्थापना की है। वह इन सभी व्यवसायों के दिन-प्रतिदिन के वैश्विक परिचालन की देख रेख करते हैं।
दिव्यांक को ऑनलाइन विज्ञापन और वेब सेवाओं के क्षेत्र में एक प्रर्वतक के रूप में सम्मान दिया जाता है। उन्होंने कहा कि ऑनलाइन विज्ञापनइंटरनेट यातायात मुद्रीकरणवेब और ईमेल होस्टिंग,एंटी स्पैमऔर डाटा सुरक्षा के क्षेत्र में सबसे उन्नत उत्पादों को सफलतापूर्वक बनाने में महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई है। उनके पास कई पेटेंट हैं। उन्होंने तकनीकी पत्रिकाओं और उद्योग पत्रिकाओं दोनों के लिए लेखों के रूप में योगदान दिया। वह उद्योग के अग्रणी सम्मेलनों और व्यापार शो में एक सफल वक्ता है।
दिव्यांक ने 9 साल की उम्र में प्रोग्रामिंग शुरू कर दी थी। उन्होंने इंटरनेट के शुरुआती दिनों में एक नि:शुल्क डायल-अप बीबीएस ( बुलेटिन बोर्ड प्रणाली) की शुरुआत की। 1996 में, 14 साल की उम्र में  बड़े कारोबार के लिए इंटरनेट परामर्श के माध्यम से अपना करियर शुरू किया। 1998 में, 16 वर्ष की आयु में उन्होंने डायरेक्टी की स्थापना की। आज उनके नेतृत्व में डायरेक्टी $ 350M का एक उद्यम है। दिव्यांक नियमित रूप से अमरीकाभारत और चीन भर में विश्व प्रसिद्ध विश्वविद्यालयों में उद्यमशीलता के बारे में बात करने के लिए आमंत्रित किये जाते हैं।
2010 मेंब्लूमबर्ग ने दिव्यांक को एकजीतने वाले योद्धाके रूप में पेश किया। 2008 मेंफाइनेंशियल एक्सप्रेस ने उन्हें भारत के ‘न्यू बिजनेस लीडर्सके रूप में और 2007 में सोसायटी पत्रिका द्वारा यंग एचीवर्स सूची में चित्रित किया गया। 2006 में,दिव्यांक बिज़नेस पत्रिका द्वारा एशिया के शीर्ष युवा उद्यमियों की सूची में शामिल थे। इसी तरह से बाद के सालों में सीएनबीसीउद्यमी पत्रिका बिजनेस स्टैंडर्ड,मनी टुडेडीडी मेट्रोनवभारत टाइम्सटाइम्स ऑफ इंडियाइंडिया टुडेएजुकेशन टाइम्सइंडियन एक्सप्रेस, Rediff.com, कंप्यूटर एक्सप्रेस आदि ने भी उन्हें प्रमुखता से जगह दी।