The Rise of Dalit EnterpriseThe Rise of Dalit Enterprise

Source: Economic TimesUnder the guidance of: Prof. Chowdari Prasad (TAPMI)Presented by: Fenella Andrade

Masters in European Studies and Management (MESM) 2010-2012Manipal Centre for European Studies Manipal University, Karnataka, India

Harsh Bhasker (2005) – Kota tutorialsHarsh Bhasker (2005) – Kota tutorials

• Not a rag to riches story

• Hailing from Jatav caste, had an option to join family leather shoe making business

• Rebellious streak, always set his thoughts high

• 1995 – focus led him to gain admission in IIT Roorke

• Shy, small town boy transformed into a young man

• 1999 – completed engineering and joined HCL in Noida as a software developer, job was too routine and mind-numbing

• Year later, got together 7 colleagues to start a software firm out of Katwaria Sarai near IIT Delhi campus

• Due to technology meltdown the company folded up

• Returned to Agra to start a franchisee of Kota – based Career Point in engineering and medical coaching

• Three years later, launched his own coaching centre and christened it Kota tutorials as people already knew it as Kota Institute

• Three storey building was not sufficient• Owns two structures, 11 air conditioned classrooms with a

capacity to teach 2000 students, two hostels to accommodate 250 students

• Building a new brand coaching centre was not easy, educated Agra on career options

• Students were from under privileged backgrounds• Earned respect• Kota tutorials is now in 12 cities, including Aligarh, Dehradhun,

Bhatinda through franchisees• Disclose revenues, but estimated around 10 crore

CASTE ASIDE

• Achieved his father’s dream – “Son is an engineer”• Compared to earlier he has gained a lot of respect• Obsessed with work• He works with professionals but doesn’t trust them and feels

that he can do the work better• Keen watch on whatever happens in the building – LCD screen

streaming live feeds from 16 close circuit cameras from reception lobby to office cabins and classrooms

• See main job as motivation and counseling• He says, “I can walk into any classroom and start teaching, in

business you have to be hands on. If there is no teacher, become one and if there is no peon, become a peon.”

• 2007, enrolled for IIM Calcutta, distance learning MBA programme for working executives. When he started he thought he arrived but then he realized he had just started

• 250 employees across Kota tutorials plan to grow the business further and promote it across India, 15 marketing executives who help him in expanding the industries footprints

• Instead of engineering/MBA, he started with polytechnic

• His wife ( MBA) plans to join him next year• Next big idea: To start with an agricultural industry, he

needs 35 crore funding and eyeing international markets like Malaysia, Mauritius and Dubai

Balu (1995)Balu (1995)

• Hails from lower middle class family• Family was against him starting a business but he was determined• 1995, with a meager capital of Rs 18,000 he could not even

purchase a wire-drawing machine• Two years later, he assembled his first machine using parts of

herald car from the grey market, stripped the car of its gear box and assembled the machine

• Decided to set up his own unit but money and discrimination came into picture, required finance, but bank rejected because he was a dalit

• Received two lakhs through a family friend and repaid it in 2001• 2004, SBI initiative for entrepreneurs yielded Balu a loan of Rs 20

lakhs which he repaid in three years

YES TO RESERVATIONS• Serious problems for marriage, 32 girls rejected him• Fortunately his father in law who was a commercial tax collector

saw beyond that and supported Balu• Was diversifying into manufacturing organic pesticides and

agrochemicals• Paperwork for new company was ready and factory was about

to come up in Ramnagar, outskirts of Bangalore within a year• Favors reservations for dalits as the economic conditions in rural

areas hasn’t improved• He realizes the importance of affirmative action not just from

the government but also from successful people like him to improve community development

• Future dalit entrepreneurs are hiding their identity because of the dalit tag attached to them

• Aim is to create more dalit entrepreneurs

Ashok Khade (1995) – DAS offshoreAshok Khade (1995) – DAS offshore

• Comes from a native village in Sangli district, was a bright student despite limitations like lack of electricity and nutrition

• Hunger was an everyday reality for him and his 5 siblings• He may be an over achiever but has his quirks too – Fountain

pen• His circumstances were far from being amusing or romantic, he

recalls how his background was a stumbling block in his education

• Brahmin boys in his class had an upper hand over him in Sanskrit because of the rituals

• 1972, during the famine met some good Samaritans• After school, went to Mumbai to live with his uncle, ended up

working at Mazagon Dock

• Financial constraints cut short his desire to pursue medicine• He says, “I went crying to the docks”• Worked at Mazagon from1975 to 1992 building a career as

well as evitable networks• Was sent to West Germany in 1984 for an assignment related

to submarine, quality control and married shortly after returning home

• Managed to complete part time diploma in mechanical engineering along side his job

• 1992, Khade’s uncle passed away and this gave a trigger to his entrepreneurial ambitions

• DAS offshore came into being named after the initials of the 3 brothers established in 1995 without announce of external capital

• Did not have investors and did not want to start with bank loan

• First project came from Mazagon Dock, their former employer• P V Nair retired Indian Navy Officer and former Chairman of

Mazagon Dock recommended DAD to complete the project• Awarded a contract worth 1.82 crore• Khade battled against both financial and social odds, did not

have positive discrimination towards dalits• Strong believer in merit and believes that only those who

deserve should get the job• Have trained more than 1000 employees• Sitaram Agarwal proprietor of Shri Shiv Enterprises which

supplies steel to DAS has known Khade since 1991• DAS maintains ISO standards of quality and meets timelines,

payments are always on time barring ups and downs during market fluctuations

• DAS Offshore clients include ONGC, Leighton Australia, Essar, Hyundai and British Gas Exploration and Production India

• Khade brother’s have their respective strengths:– Elder brother Datta overseas goal management– Ashok Khade looks after quality control because of his experience and skill

in design drawing– Younger brother Suresh handles labour issues

• Last year DAS deployed 1760 workers at Bombay High and finished the work without LTI (Loss of Time and Injury)

• Company completed skywalks at Sion and Ghatkopar in Mumbai and is currently building two more in Airoli and Kurla

• Khade plans to launch the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2012

• He purchased 140 acres of land near Murud – Janjira fabrication yard. India’s first private yard, project to be in operation by the end of the year

• Intends to build a school, hospital and engineering college there• Khade does not give preference to Dalits but his family gives back to

the community• Although he doesn’t like to quanitify, he estimates he has given

almost 50 lakhs to the community

Pravin Meshram (2007) – Bharat ElectricalsPravin Meshram (2007) – Bharat Electricals

• Coming from a lower middle class family in Nagpur• From young age, wanted to do his own business rather than work

under someone• Earned a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Nagpur

University in 1998• Joined his father’s small electrical repairing shop where he

mastered electrical repairs and equipment installation and formed networks

• One of the shop’s clients was MSEB ( Maharashtra State Electricity Board) which outsourced small repair and installations for its plants and offices

• Hand to mouth existence• Booked advertisements for publications, dispatched plastic boxes

for nearby factories and after the last failure, went to work as a electrician for a salary of Rs 2000

• He wanted his own business and this time he chose electrical• 2006, happened to visit’s his friends transformer factory,

worked there for six months and understood the manufacturing process

• Late 2007, he borrowed two lakh from his father and one lakh from his friend to set up a small transformer manufacturing unit

• First transformer built was rejected by MSEB• After two months it got approved, first transformer supplied

was 25Kv• Within a year Bharat Electricals crossed one crore in turnover• Public did not believe in him and it took years to build the

reputation• Today in his one acre plot he has the capacity to manufacture

3000 transformers of 25 – 1000 KV capacity• About 80 per cent transformers are supplied to MSEB and the

remaining to the SEB’s in Chattisgarh and MP

• Two intermediate goals: – Foreign travel for his parents– Rs 100 crore turnover for Bharat Electricals

• Seting up capacity to manufacture larger transformers of 2000 – 5000 KV which could increase the revenues to Rs 50 crore in 2 years

• Wants new recruits from backward classes and is willing to train them

• Trying to talk a Chinese company to partner him in this new upcoming project

Sushil Patil (2003) - IEPC (Indo – Engineering Project Cooperation)

Sushil Patil (2003) - IEPC (Indo – Engineering Project Cooperation)

• Setbacks were not new for Patil, from an early age he witnessed financial strain and prejudice

• The day he saw his father bow down, he made up his mind• He saw the discrimination his father went through when he was

a laborer in an ordnance factory • 1995, after completing civil engineering, worked for several

construction firms, but he soon quit as he did not want to work under anyone

• 1996, borrowed one lakh from a friend and started a stock broking firm, but the venture failed as he knew very little about the job

• 1999, started cleaning overhead tanks but went into loss again and lost Rs one lakh and was saddled with Rs seven lakh liability

• 2000, he sunk one lakh in poultry business

• Returned to his calling: engineering, this time he played safe, worked for a small firm for six months and learned project implementation strategies

• 2003, used last Rs 5000 of his savings and started IEPC (Indo – Engineering Project Cooperation)

• Today the company provides engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to companies – basically assembling power plant and handles projects worth 2000 crore

• Beginnings were small, started with engineering and designing feasibility project for a 8MW plant in Rayapati, Chattisgarh through a friend’s reference

• 2008, big break, when he was asked to do a techno feasibility project for 108MW, gas based power plant of NDPL (North Delhi Power Limited) jointly commissioned by the TATA Group and Delhi Governement

• Initially getting work done from big companies was a big ask• Did not believe in him as he was a Dalit• At times projects were denied because of caste2003, people

from the upper caste were reluctant to work with him • To break this system he offered them concessions• Earlier 1 to 10 MW projects came his way, but now he handles

100 MW projects• Hires engineers who have retired from state owned or private

companies and offering them with a 50 per cent mark up in salary over the market and other incentives

• IEPC deals only with those companies who are capable of paying the money on time and not scrimp on consultancy fees

• Aim is to provide clients with the best service in the shortest period on time

• Projecting revenue of 380 crore this year

• Biggest plan for them is to run power plants• ISPC wants to set up 5000MW of capacity across coal, solar,

hydro and thermal• They are trying to collaborate with German and Spanish firms• Patil makes sure he gives back to the community, out of 480

workers 150 are dalits• He says, in the next five years, staff strength will be 1000 and

we will try to get many needy people on board, irrespective of caste

• Another dream is to construct a hospital in his hometown Nagpur where the poor and needy will be treated for free

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