Rikin gandhi biography scandal

How Indrajit’s Simple Innovation Is Changing The Way Ginger And Turmeric Is Planted In The Country

These seven first-generation farming entrepreneurs believed in revolutionizing agriculture in India. A random discussion on agriculture problems of India ended up in the ground-breaking idea of Bombay Hemp Company. From shattering perceptions to bringing hemp into the mainstream crop market, there is a lot this team has done to innovate in the agriculture sector."We’re a bunch of daydream-loving, science-fiction-believing and utopia-yearning change makers; we literally think we can change the world, well, at least for many people." One fine day in 2010, seven students from Mumbai University started a discussion on the need for innovative solutions to the myriad problems that plague agriculture in India. One of those friends stumbled upon the Australian industrial hemp ecosystem and the wonders it has done for local economy and communities.

That is when they were convinced that the hemp super crop has immense potential, especially in a country like ours.

[caption id="attachment_20751" align="aligncenter" width="640"]The BoHeCo team. Top row left to right: Chirag Tekchandaney, Jahan Peston Jamas, Sanvar Oberoi, Delzaad Deolaliwala. Bottom row left to right: Yash Kotak, Avnish Pandya, Sumit Shah.[/caption] They set out on a three year long research stint involving extensive farm visits and explorations to uncover Indian agriculture’s fundamental problems, and a skill building spree of attaining real world experience and learning by working with some of the best Indian enterprises so as to make themselves capable to achieve their dream. The Bombay Hemp Companywas then started by these seven first-generation agriculture entrepreneurs with a vision to unleash the potential of natural fibres to sustainably strengthen rural economy, transform Indian agriculture, provide livelihood opportunities, enable human development and innovate models of sustainable natural resour

All of this has been made

An aerospace engineer from

Rikin Gandhi, John Garrity, Diari-

Rich Interactive Narratives

P. Anandan, Gordon Bell, Steve Drucker, Rick Szeliski, Curtis Wong

Technology

Core Platform and Data Model

Naren Datha, Joseph Joy, Eric Stollnitz

Interaction Design and Visual Layout

Kanchen Rajanna, Jatin Shah, Sujit Warrier

Player UX and Experience Providers

Nikhil Arjunagi, Joybroto Banerjee, Pushkar Chitnis, Naren Datha, Aldo John, Tanuja Joshi, Joseph Joy, Vinay Krishnaswami, Aditya Sankar, Eric Stollnitz, Anand Tekaday

Authoring Tools

Joybroto Banerjee, Naren Datha, Tanuja Joshi, Saurabh Kothari, Chinmay Kulkarni, Ajay Manchepalli, Gautham Mudambi, Poornima Rajagopal, Gopal Srinivasa, Sujit Warrier

Media Collections and Hosting Infrastructure

Robert Eberl, Joseph Joy, Gopal Srinivasa, Anand Tekaday

Program Management

Nikhil Chandran, Ajay Manchepalli, Sujit Warrier

Content

Kapil Chandran, Nikhil Chandran, Naren Datha, Rikin Gandhi, Mohit Gupta, Joseph Joy, Prasad Naldurg, Niti Madhugiri, Ajay Manchepalli, Archana Prasad, Ria Rajan, Kanchen Rajanna, Tim Robinson, Lisa Sertec, Prashant Sharma, Beatriz Stollnitz, Eric Stollnitz, Sridhar Vedantham

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Here’s how Digital Green is enabling farmers to become video filmmakers, which is turning them into more productive farmers and more confident human beings. All of this has been made possible by Rikin Gandhi, an Indian-American aerospace engineer, who had not even seen a village before 2006!

“Agriculture is the only thing we do for income generation and if we are not even doing it properly, how will we survive? I got associated with a local self-help group (SHG) in my village and they connected me to a team which taught us amazing things through videos. Right from guiding us on farming techniques to irrigation, Digital Green has helped us a lot. You won’t believe that earlier I used to get 50-55 kgs harvest in my farm, but after learning from the videos, I now manage to harvest around 70 Kgs,” exclaims Snehlata Sinha, one of the beneficiaries of Digital Green in Sardar Bigha village of Nalanda.

All thanks to Rikin Gandhi and his NGO Digital Green, many villagers like Sanehlata are following better farming practices.

Gandhi, an Indian-American who had never seen a village till 2006, is now reaching out to over 6,000 villages through his organization and working to improve the lives of thousands of farmers.

Digital Green is a platform which is enabling villagers (especially women) in some of the remotest locations to produce videos using camcorders with help from local NGOs and government agencies. These videos promote best practices in agriculture and livelihoods and typically feature local community members, thus, increasing the credibility of the videos in convincing the farmers.

“I feel technology can provide some of the most advanced solutions in the simplest ways. And we are using technology to help the most important people of the community, who provide us food,” says Gandhi.

Agriculture was not what Gandhi always had in mind. This aerospace engineer from MIT wanted to be a pilot. A minor eye problem came in his way when he applied

Digital Green. January 2007. Rikin Gandhi.