Jagriti Yatra 2017 – Day 7 – Dec 30: Akshaya Patra and GITAM, Vizag

Akshaya Patra – Feeding millions

Vision: No child in India should be deprived of Education, because of Hunger

Mission: To feed 5 million Children by 2020

Something about the Organization and it’s Founder, Satya Gaura Chandra Dasa

1. He scored 99.9% in GATE and then turned into a Monk, started Akshaya Patra.
2. It’s a Non for Profit and secular entity
3. Focuses on 2 UN SDGs: 2) Zero Hunger 4) Quality Education
4. Provides 17 lakh meals a day
5. Makes 3 lakh Chappathis between 4 am to 8 am
6. Replicable infrastructure and Process
7. Local pallette – To match local food culture
8. Robust use of technology – Made a Machine that can take water, salt, flout as Inputs and make 60,000 chappathis / hour
9. Has 30 different variation of meals. So the kids dont get bored with same meal each day
10. Uses ERP from Microsoft for managing the IT Infrastructure
11. One of their goal is wastage shouldn’t be more than 5% / day and they are achieving it
12. Have biodigesters to convert the wastage to Biogas and use it in the Kitchen
13. Works on PPP Model
    1. Local and Central government support
    2. Rice is provided by government
    3. Half of the money is subsidized through government
14. Of all donations
    1. 10% goes to Management
    2. 84% goes to Meals
    3. 6% for Fundraising campaigns

Some insights based on the talk of Satha Chandra Dass

1. A beaurocrat told, If Rs. 100 is given to feed People via Government, only Rs. 15 will actually reach the needy.
2. 1 Nation: 2 Reflections:
   1. Rich and Growing
   2. Poor and Suffering

Had a chance to go a tour into their kitchen. Met this amazing fellow Stargazer Akshay Wadhwa (Frankenstein). We talked and talked a lot on Orion the Hunter, Voyager Satellite, Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, His Stargazing experiences and many more.

With this we packed up and started to Gitam Institute of Management.

Gitam Institute of Management

The college building looked very good with beautiful Mountain in the backdrop. We entered the grand hall and the session was initiated by Professor Shivaram from the same college.

Loop Reality

We were shown the Demo video of Loop reality by Jignesh Talasila. It is a VR based startup. The idea is to replace traditional interview process with a VR game, which the candidate plays and the game analyses various attributes of the candidates based on the in game actions. Absolutely cool concept!

Rambabu karri, Rythumitra

He is a Pesticide seller turned Natural farmer with an amazing story and loads and loads of achievemens in his belt.

1. His goal is to create Food forests
2. Started kitchen gardening in 2008
3. In 2010, after watching a documentary film by Ram Subash Palekar, closed his Pesticide shop
4. And started exploring into Organic pesticides
5. Inspired by the book, 1 Straw revolution. Yes the same book which Mr. Jayaram suggested me in Bagalore
6. After hearing about Rajiv Dixit and his works, stopped going to Hospital.
   1. Had Diabetes, Kidney stones and more. But stopped taking tablets and started with Home medicinal plants which truly helped
   2. Refined oil to Cold pressed oil

Follow him @ his Facebook profile, where he posts all his activities

J.A. Chowdry, Special Chief Secretary of Andra Pradesh

We had a good lecture by Chief secretary of AP, Mr. J.A. Chowdry

1. The goal is to apply disruptive way of thinking and bring disruptive reforms to the country
2. Plan is to make Vizag, a Fintech Valley
   1. The idea is to make this happen by bringing 5 Pandavas to Vizag: 1) Man power 2) Money 3) Market access 4) Mentoring 5) Meetup events
   2. Created world’s largest Use care repo in Fin tech.

Panel Discussion – Enterprise of food – From Stationary to Mobile

Panelists are

1. Kalyan Karmakar, Finely Chopped
2. Mr. Ajay Koneru, Dosa Place
3. Mr. Mukush Mand, Tinmen
4. Yeswanth Nag, Thickshake Factory
5. Hosted by Ruben Mascarenhas, Jagriti

[Have noted discussion details in my Notebook. Need help in formatting it properly and post it here]

Biz Gyan Tree (BGT) – Initiation – Ramesh Loganation

He excellently gave much needed Insights on how to start with BGT preparation and also explained the Kit provded to us.
[Have noted discussion details in my Notebook. Need help in formatting it properly and post it here]

End of the day

Had a mini running race with Arush, that pumped up the Heart and heated the body. Felt good in the Cold weather. Then had a look into Seed ball preparation by Rambabu Karri’s team. Met our BGT Team and had chit chat. Took Dinner with them and that’s how the day ended with the train setting course to Orissa.

For other day experiences, visit the Summary page.