A sweet beginning

When 8-year-old Harsh tried his hand at cooking for the first time, he knew this is what he wanted to do. He started to sneak into the kitchen to imitate the dishes his mother cooked for him. Over time, he preferred playing with flavors instead of playing cricket with friends. But at the age of 14, when he accidentally discovered he had Type 2 diabetes, a lifestyle disease, his world tumbled. The budding master chef who loved to cook and eat had hundreds of restrictions put on his diet.

Turning tragedy into a trademark

Harsh knew there were thousands like him suffering from diabetes who could not enjoy brownies, cookies, chocolates, and more. He knew he had to do something about it.

While he went to study economics at Symbiosis, he took with him his culinary skill too. There he saved up to buy an oven from a friend and continued experimenting with new diabetic-friendly food. He participated in a college fest where his sugar-free brownies sold like hotcakes. He even enrolled his name at the Symbiosis School of Economics’ B-Plan competition, where he presented “A Diabetic Chef” — a restaurant that sells diabetic-friendly sweets. To his utter astonishment, he won INR 3 lakhs and even got angel investors to fund his entrepreneurial food business. In 2017, A Diabetic Chef was born!

In October 2020, A Diabetic Chef introduced Indians to the best Belgian dark chocolates infused with stevia’. These chocolates and more are available across 30+ stores in major metropolitan cities and sold online through 40+ eCommerce websites.

Desserts are not bad, food habits are! 

Harsh believes the key to good health, especially for diabetics, is portion control. According to him, eat everything but in moderation. He says, ‘Incorporating more fruits, nuts, vegetables, and eggs in your diet is essential. One shouldn’t go too heavy on refined carbs such as rice, bread, or pasta. Also, keep either a bar of dark chocolate, protein bar, some digestive biscuits, or even roasted nuts like almonds on with you at all times. Sometimes, when the blood sugar drops, eat a little chocolate to stabilise your blood sugar. Don’t go to sleep just like that.’

The rising star

Harsh has never looked back since his first love – food. He founded other startups with new ideas and grit but continued to invent, improve and invest in A Diabetic Chef. In 2021, Harsh Kedia appeared in the prestigious 30 under 30 list by Forbes India. 

This young lad definitely has his plate full!

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In every part of the world young people work as the catalysts to bring change to the areas of education, technology, and economy. DivyaPriyadarshni, a 24-year-old chemistry postgraduate from Bihar went the extra mile to provide education to the children of extremely underprivileged backgrounds in her nearby localities.

Learning from life’s catastrophes, Divya was well aware of the struggles faced by the girls of lower-middle-class families. Born in a patriarchal society, from an early age, Divya faced all those difficulties that are encountered by any other girl in Indian society. However, she did not lose hope and continued fighting for the rights of every child – the right to education for a better life. Her struggles gave her the strength and compassion to strive for girls with a similar fate.

At the early age of 12 years, Divya started educating extremely underprivileged children living around her residential area and continued that for the next three years. Her zest towards social work that started with that initiative brought her the overwhelming satisfaction of helping the unfortunate with something as basic and important as education.

Being a bright student from her child, DivyaPriyadarshni has achieved various awards throughout her academic journey and was awarded the PratibhaSamman after completing class 10th.

Hailed from a lower middle-class family, Divya was not much willing but continued higher studies with science, so it can help her to build a secure career in the future. However, Divya’s brilliance was not restricted inside her academic grounds.

She started working for a project called ‘Nirman’, under which she has identified the problem within a community and led many projects like English Literacy and Wall Kalakaar. Nirman signifies positive structuration and Divya aimed to build skills like leadership, critical thinking, collaboration, and teamwork in students through this project.

She understood that student can achieve their goal of life through a collaborative voice and set up a student council for that purpose.

She believes in skill-based education and is trying to develop under the Life and Entrepreneurship Skill Enhancement Program in Secondary education. Even during the Covid 19 pandemic, she was committed to spreading awareness to the areas with no or limited internet access. She has put in her best efforts to bridge the communication with one student to another and provide the accurate information that she can by grass root level community immersion.

During the introduction of the National Education Policy (NEP) in July 2020, Divya organized an online session based on the vital roles played by teachers in creating an overall impact in the student’s life with improved pedagogy and innovative way of teaching.

NEP is the first education policy of this century that is focused on the rising developmental imperatives of our country and is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Divya’s initiative to strengthen this policy is supported by teachers as well as Gandhi fellows and student leaders. Apart from that, Divya also organized a workshop where she discussed making the schools of the Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan ready for innovation based on life and entrepreneurship skills.

Divya is currently working on a project named SPOT-ON with two of her friends – Ankit Pandey and Abhay Kumar Ojha.

The mission of this project is to help existing SHGs (Self Help Group) to produce sanitary napkins in micro-units and providing them the required raw materials, access to finance and subsidies, and maintenance services for that purpose.

This project received instant appreciation in the neighborhood and by govt. The efforts and enthusiasm to bring a positive change in society are applauded with an award at the Festival for Change contest in Promoting Economic Pluralism. She is also working as a policy enthusiast with a group associated with the public policy domain.

Divya believes that “The idea which is going to nurture a community is the best possible gift you can return to your community”.

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Back in 2017, EV was an upcoming trend, but consumers were reluctant yet to opt them over ICE-based cars. Over a late-night conversation, on the terrace, the dynamic twins, Nikita and Nishita Baliarsingh, (23years), struck a brilliant idea and the seeds of Nexus power were planted in their innovative minds. While discussing and analyzing the pros and cons of electrical vehicles, they realized the need to address the ine?ciency and life of lithium-ion batteries. With some research and digging into the subject and with the help of an old biochemistry book of their grandfather, they got a breakthrough to innovative technology. There was a statement that said “proteins may have potential bene?ts in electrolytes” and that was the turning point.

Also though EV is effectively pollution less, but the mining and sourcing of lithium, used in the batteries, cause great damage to the environment. “The EV industry lacks efficient batteries as most take about four to six hours to charge… hence, only a strong charging infrastructure would quicken the adaptation,” says Nishita Baliar singh, co-founder and CEO of Nexus Power.

Nexus power batteries are biodegradable and support two-way sustainability. The crop residue used in making the batteries is actually an agricultural waste, which when burned during reaping festivals creates a lot of environmental toxicity. The company buys this residue from the farmers, providing an extra income to them along with saving the environment from harmful smog. The cost-effective battery’s current charge time from 0-100 is 50 minutes, which the team aims to bring down to 25-30 minutes.

This innovative technology, brings together a multifaceted sustainability drive, promoting a circular economy as well.

#1 The batteries are completely lithium-ion free, thus ecofriendly

#2The supply of primary raw materials (crop residue) are in abundance, so production friendly

#3 The raw material is cheap which subsequently makes the price of the end product much cheaper than its counterparts, hence affordable

#4 Upcycling is a key to a circular economy and with every 100. battery, the farmer raises an additional 25000 rupees.

Nexus Power aims to help eradicate 7 billion tonnes of carbon emission by the next century. The amazing sustainable chain doesn’t stop there, the company also aims at placing back the by-products ethanol and biogas, in the market to facilitate a more efficient agricultural yield. They have done intensive research and finally created a technology that is like a full circle towards sustainability and no element is exploited.

At the moment, the company’s core product focuses on eco friendly, batteries for 2wheelersand 3 wheelers in the EV sector. Though Nexus sees a huge potential in other consumer electronic products and solar storage, but they keep it on their future agenda list.

Nexus Power, the Bhubaneswar-based company is mostly bootstrapped and targets sales by 2022. The sisters received a grant of ?4 lakh from the government of India under its TIDE programme. A successful test pack made to power a two-wheeler, shows a significant difference, in charging time, energy density and driving range.

The market seems quite promising. The twins are in talks with many EV manufacturers as partnering for battery supply and also exploring packaging and other finishing requirements. The sister’s dream of a greener planet and with nexus power, they aim to bring in a sustainable outlook in the E-mobility industry.

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The young Satya 

Satya Narayana Nadella was born on 19 August 1967 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. His younger sister passed away only when she was 5 months old. His father Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandher was an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who held distinguished positions like secretary of PV Narasimha Rao, the 9th Prime Minister of India, member of the Planning Commission under Manmohan Singh, the 13th Prime Minister of India Among several others. His mother Prabhavati Yugandhar was a teacher of the Sanskrit language. Satya Nadella’s father being a civil servant with a transferable job, Satya grew up between Srikakulam, Tirupati, Mussoorie, Delhi, and Hyderabad. However, since the family was for a longer time in Hyderabad, Satya was schooled at the Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet. As a school kid, Satya was interested less in studies and more in cricket. 

With a keen interest in science and technology, Satya decided to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) where he passed out in 1984. After completing his degree, Satya Nadella moved to the US to do his master of science in computer studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which he completed in 1990.

Satya began his career with ‘Sun Microsystems’ as a member of their technology staff.

Satya Nadella @ Microsoft

Satya Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992 when Bill Gates was the CEO. He began his first project in Microsoft developing an unsuccessful interactive-TV product and an operating system called Windows NT.

At Microsoft, it was a steady rise.

• In 2000, he became the vice president of Microsoft bCentral, which was a set of web services for small businesses that included hosted website-hosting and email.
• In 2001 Satya Nadella became the corporate Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions.
• Within the next six year in 2007 he rose in ranks an took over as the senior Vice President of Microsoft Online Services, in charge of Bing, Microsoft Office and Xbox Live.
• By 2011 he was promoted as the president of the Server and Tools Division, where he was responsible for bringing Microsoft’s database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azure cloud. Under his leadership, the revenue the company earned from Cloud Services jumped from USD 16.6 billion (2011) to USD 38 billion (2019).
• Finally on February 4, 2014, Satya Nadella is appointed as Microsoft CEO.

While still working at Microsoft, Satya earned his Master’s in Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago.

Microsoft Acquisitions

With Satya Nadella at the helm, Microsoft has had some successful acquisitions. These include: –

• The USD 2.5 billion buy-out of Mojang, a Swedish game company well-known for the game Minecraft.
• The purchase of Xamarin and LinkedIn in 2016.
• The acquisition of GitHub in 2018.

The Transformation at Microsoft

Satya Nadella has transformed more that the stockpile the culture of Microsoft. While he steered Microsoft’s stock to rise more than 40% in 2019, he also made it all about the customer. The annual growth rate also stood at a healthy 27%. According to the majority of employees at Microsoft, Nadella ranks among the best CEO’s of a large American corporation. His leadership in tech combined with business acumen, helped him sail through various positions witnessing the exponential growth of Microsoft.

In the six years of being CEO Microsoft, Satya Nadella changed Microsoft’s agreements with Apple, Salesforce and Box putting an end to lawsuits. He also became the more friendly public face of Microsoft with a fresh way of doing business. Under his leadership, the company,

• Released iPhone and Android apps like Microsoft Outlook.
• From Windows 8 went directly to launch an extremely improved Windows 10.
• Introduced the company’s first laptop (Microsoft Surface Book).
• Lead towards major transformation towards cloud computing via Azure platform.

Satya Nadella with his new mission, has helped Microsoft become a PART of the larger ecosystem.

Satya Nadella awards and recognition

Satya Nadella’s notable awards include :-

• 2020, received the Global Indian Business Icon at CNBC-TV18’s India Business Leader Awards, Mumbai.
• 2019, named Financial Times Person of the Year and Fortune magazine Businessperson of the Year.
• 2018, featured in Time Magazine’s top 100.
• 2014, CNN-IBN Indian of the Year.

Satya Nadella is also on the board of trustees of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is a director on the board of Starbucks and a member of the board of trustees at the University of Chicago.

The other side of Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella is voracious reader devouring books and enjoys reading American and Indian poetry. He lives with his wife Anupama who was his junior at Manipal University studying B.Arch at the Faculty of Architecture. They have a son Zain, who is severely disabled and two daughters Tara and Divya. They live in Clyde Hill and Bellevue, Washington. Anupama and Satya Nadella jointly own the group Seattle Sounders FC, a Major League Soccer club.

In 2017 Satya Nadella released his first book, “Hit Refresh.” The book is based on his life and career. According to Satya, the author, “At the core, ‘Hit Refresh,’ is about us humans and the unique quality we call empathy, which will become ever more valuable in a world where the torrent of technology will disrupt the status quo like never before.”

Satya Nadella the CEO of Microsoft is not just transforming Microsoft but transforming lives for a better tomorrow.

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