Social entrepreneur and a BITSian of 1995 batch, Mr Ajay Chaturvedi who is the Founder and Chairman of the company Harva, was awarded the CNN IBN Youth Icon - Young Indian Leader of the Year Award for 2011 in a function held at Delhi on 30th June 2011. His company, Harva means Green for the villages and it stands for Harnessing Value of rural India focusing on skill development, BPO, Community Based farming and Microfinance in rural India.
HarVa is a unique and first of its kind Rural BPO that focuses on skill development especially among rural women with an aim of creating jobs in rural India. Also it is involved in reorganising traditional agriculture sector into community based farming groups that are run by efficient and stable management system.
Founded in 2009, starting as a small BPO venture in 2010 with just 50 women on its first project in Tikli Akilampur village, a few km from Gurgaon, Harva has so far trained over 500 women and hundreds of farmers. It has centers in Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and Uttrakhand employing hundreds of women. The company plans to provide employment to 10,000 women and affect millions of lives across India by 2015.
Young Indian Leader Award, an initiative of CNN & IBN, is about celebrating the achievements of young Indians who personify the spirit of youth. The website of CNN & IBN says, "It is an effort to identify, honour, and showcase the young achievers, from various fields of expertise, who in turn can be a source of inspiration to the nation's youth". The awards are a salute to the nation's future leaders, the website says.
Award winner, Mr Ajay Chaturvedi is an alumnus of both BITS Pilani and Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. Before starting Harva, Ajay worked in City Bank and IBM.
