Talked with Ranjan Mistry, a Social Entrepreneur with a vision to provide a world-class platform for every village

Meet Ranjan Mistry, a Social Entrepreneur with a vision to provide a world-class platform for every village. His journey as an Entrepreneur began back in 2016, with a little hope to bring a ground level change in the society.

Established own organisation named as 'Plant Eco Circle', a platform where villagers are empowered and motivated for improving their living standards through environmental and educational means. The motive is to impart the basic knowledge of life skills for a better living. The three platforms under Plant Eco Circle are Vriksh, Aadhyan and teach2learn program.

Under Vriksha, launched India’s second project in Gaya for developing an Eco-Tourism Village with the help of Jeevika under the supervision UNDP India’s head representatives. Teach2Learn is one of most influential and powerful platforms to change the destiny of Villagers. Under this platform, they have launched three programs like Education for Village; Code For Village & Entrepreneurship in My Village. Currently, they have impacted more than 10 Villages in Gaya and approximately 1500 people. Beside this Startup.

Also, They have built their own entrepreneurial ecosystem in Patna named as ‘Startup-City’. Under this ecosystem, more than 17 startups have joined hands. As of now, we don’t provide any financial assistance to any but we help each other by sharing a common mission to make Bihar an Entrepreneurial Hub in the Country.

We fired few Questions to him:

What ignited the spark in you to be a Social Entrepreneur?
I have seen that 90 per cent of students are wasting their time in getting a job, that's why I always think that one day I will create jobs. I think that, starting a new venture is the great and amazing solution to eradicate poverty and it has been in my gene from my ancestor.My father(Gopal Sharma) is a small business in furniture and he gave jobs more than 15000 people in his entire life. I have seen that a large number of people were working under him. Also, I have learned business strategy from my father and my brother(Gunjan Kumar) who is also businessman. Both of them taught me, how to do business. 

What motivates you?
Learning from my failure and abusing of family member on failure inspire me that some day I will do something. Beside this, a large number of friends and mentor inspires me. Especially, Vipul Sharan(Co-founder of Plant Eco Circle), Kumar Deepak(UNDP, Representative) and Prerna Mukharya(Founder, Outline India) supports me lot and always ready to guide me. Kumar Deepak is the first person in my life who told me that you can do more than me, please go ahead.From the first day, he play a vital role in my life as a elder brother. After that, Prerna mam, who is data lady in India is the first one who guided me time to time. She gave me an opportunity to work with her team and inspire me a lot. 

How do you find people to bring into your organization that truly care about the organization the way you do?
I find Vipul Sharan as a co-founder from the event organized by Indian Chamber of Commerce in Sep'2016. 

Where did your organization’s funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? 
We create money from our platforms. We sells plants at minimum prices and also we get money from Teach2Learn Platform by teaching students.

How many hours do you work a day on average?
15 hours

How has being an entrepreneur affected your personal life?
Its change my life whole. I can't go for college but learns a lot from day to day stuff. People treat me as a special everywhere that inspires me a lot. My brother always force me to take admission even my father as well, but now after one year no one told me to take admission, when they see my work. If I seriously told you that my mother is unhappy because from the last six months I only reside approx. 35 days at my residence.

What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I would like to read novel and Blog . When I free then I always spend my time with my family especially my elder brother, who always teach me something new. I loves to do coding and learn from Edx and Khan Academy.

Where do you see yourself in next 5 years?
I want to see myself on the Ground after 5 years. I always wish to connect with my people. I have achieved little in the last few months and hope to achieve more in the next upcoming years. Currently, few of my friends told me that I can't talk with you, that you are big or something or something. That's hurt me a lot. I am doing all these things for them expectation.

What the pieces of advice would you give to college students who want to become entrepreneurs?
If you want to be an Entrepreneur, then just believe in yourself. Don't expect from Government and someone will come to help you. They only come when you initiate something by yourself.

Thank you Ranjan for Awesome responses!

Recently, he got selected to attend the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Youth Exchange (APYE) program, which will be held in Manila, Philippines from 11-22 July, 2017. It is initiated by the Urban Youth Academy, Asian Development Bank, United Nations and several other partners. This program aims to bring together 150 delegates from Asia and the Pacific region to critically solve the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) by simulating policy formulation and project execution.

He got a 50% scholarship of Rs. 32,000 which covers half of the expenses for Manila. The scholarship has reduced some burden of my fees. However, unable to pay the rest of the amount and flight fare.

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