 Welcome you all for the leadership program organized by Ministry of Education Innovation Cell jointly with AECT and CBSE. Myself Dr. Ilangovan Karyapan, Assistant Innovation Director, Ministry of Education Innovation Cell. Today we have with us Mr. Estraaj Bharatwaj an young entrepreneur who started his company when he was in the eighth grade of school. I welcome you Mr. Estraaj for this leadership program. So, before we start the program a brief profile about our expert today. Mr. Estraaj is a co-founder of Motionic India and IDEX Solution a group of company based in India, UAE and Hong Kong. He owns 36 research projects and 15 publications to his credit. He has been honored with the prestigious Karma Veera Chakra award 2016 and he is named among the top 10 young entrepreneur of 2016 across the globe by Success Magazine. He was also the proud nominee of Padmasri in 2018 one of the IS Civilian Award in India. So, he is in probes list under 30 and youngest only Indian in God fellow in University of California Berkeley. With this small brief I once again welcome our chief guest and expert for the program today. So, yes we had a lot of questions raised and been asked by the teachers and students across the country. We have shortlisted few and I will be on behalf of the teachers and students I will be asking you. So, which is be a learning for the students from the successful entrepreneur. The first question which I will play is please share your journey as an entrepreneur and what motivated or inspired you to become an entrepreneur. So, I think first of all thank you so much Dr. Elan for having me here. It feels great to be always at the AICT headquarters. I think when we talk about my entrepreneur journey to be honest with you maximum of it it really relies and the credit of it goes to my twin brother Yogaj who is five minutes elder to me and of course my boss who signs my paycheck. So, my brother and me we were I think around 12 years old when we used to play cricket and we of course we wanted to be cricketers and I was slightly better than you while playing that. But coming from a family which is a traditional Indian middle-class family and my parents who had an experience of being in sports especially my dad he was a national gold medalist and swimming. They knew hardship vintage sports and end of the day every parent in India they are so caring towards their children that they want their children to do something which gives them stability in the light you know and that's what our parents wanted us to do and that was absolutely right I mean because they were thinking totally good for us. So, we had to leave cricket at that point and we were just like normal kids we would go to school in the morning come back watch a few cartoons shows like Doraemon Jetsons in the afternoon have a tuitions at home and that's all we were doing. At the same time my brother you he was really you know I would say was hands-on on physics so he wanted to study particle physics wanted to understand space and so slowly and steadily he actually wrote me in I don't know how much of the audience is from Delhi but every Sunday in Delhi there is a book market that takes place at Darya Ganj where in you can actually go and buy all these international journals all these expensive books at per kilogram basically these are basically second hand books and my dad especially used to take us there every week wherein we would go and we would you know buy a bunch of books and we started reading different journals science fictions if I would say that when while being in class 4th and grade 5 we were actually studying concepts like quantum mechanics you know particle physics and we wanted to get into into more of that so I would say that was an initial phase and the reason why I said I we did that is because you need motivation you need anger if I'm not hungry I'm not going to eat something if I'm not thirsty I'll not have water but when you have hunger and we had hunger at that time because we saw that we left cricket because we wanted economic stability in the family so if that financial conditions would have been so upright right would have been I mean we have we have been really fortunate but if you would have been even more fortunate then I would not have been leaving cricket aside so we said that okay now what we need to do is that the goal of our life is to remove this this block that we have and we started working towards it and to be honest with you when we started we had no clue that I'll end up here okay yes but I think it's just that you have to be determined you have to be really persistent that's what an entrepreneur's mind is you have to be 20% if you're looking for a comfort then do a 9 to 5 yes but don't don't get into business because business is 24 hours nothing is wrong everything is absolutely right but it is about what excites you and what drives you and what your hunger is so that's what it is yeah it was really amazing to hear that today because without any persistent or hard work we don't get anything you're right so as I said as an entrepreneur 24 bars on we can see exactly that it'd be a it's a good learning for us also so what were the challenges that you faced during your entrepreneur journey so far oh challenges have been many I mean I faced I just faced a challenge today morning while coming out okay and I think life in of an entrepreneur is just full of challenges but even the same thing what gives us a kick for example if I'm not facing challenges that doesn't that is not really giving me a kick to be an entrepreneur yes I want to be an entrepreneur because I like to solve challenges so but naming a few interesting ones which I think the audience would also love to know is that when we both started researching and we were actually reading concepts like you know the particle physics quantum mechanics at an early stage there was a serious issue because we at that time did not have programs like these which could help our independent young researcher without having any professional degree to do intense research in any particular sector so my brother Yuvraj again the credit goes to him he came up with his idea okay what we will do is that let's google the professors so all these authors that are writing books and we're reading those you will literally google those professors scholars researchers take out their emails their skype id's their phone numbers and we literally started spamming them okay this is where I come from I don't have a finance to visit that's a university of Cambridge but I just want your help and your guidance into this particular concept where I'm stuck and I need your help slowly and steadily after six seven months when you do something constantly with a lot of persistence a level a point comes when your level of doubts actually makes sense and at that time we actually got in touch with very good people and they were ready to help us they were helping us they were clearing our doubts and that actually made us even stronger we did everything to clear our doubts okay and we just were persistent to know the knowledge that we wanted to have yes so I think these are two interesting things I would say though in business it's daily life you you you meet different kind of people so challenges are many but it's on your persistence and it's on your ability that you are just not you don't have to dodge to any problem just face it to your head and smash it yeah that's how an auto cleaner that's always the experience gives a lot of learning to us and starting from a cricketer then you want to be interested in quantum care and now computing then writing to different professor because usually always everyone has an accident to write to a seniors or you know scholars feel like they will get a reply or no but still you have you both at work towards to make sure that you write a number of questions and you got a reply and got to replace and I mean in my time what really made me interested into sciences and and made me interested into solving challenges kind of a mindset was cartoon series okay for example there's a cartoon series by the name of Jetsons there is a cartoon series by the name of Doremore okay those cartoon series my mom had a very set routine for us that we would only watch it for a certain time but those really helped me that okay why can't I build something like that okay I cannot I have why I have forgotten a technology like that unfortunately in these times social media has taken over lives of younger generation yes which I see with my own eyes exactly a four-year-old child knows how to use Instagram yeah how to see reels but I think these this this shift is really not helping them to innovate this will not help them to become an entrepreneur because it's our very short duration and everything becomes very fast I know they want everything result to be happen immediately because of the shots and those things yeah it doesn't happen I started business me and my brother we started business at the age of 14 and I'm 23 years old right now nine years and still I've not done anything so it's a it takes a lot of efforts it takes a lot of persistence but you need to have a there has to be a system in your mind that you're able to set your priorities that you're able to have patience you know for example in in Hindi there are two words buddhi and vivek buddhi anybody can have I have buddhi right and you have buddhi anybody younger can have buddhi but vivek comes with age yes experience you know that for that you either have to rely upon your parents if you're studying young you have to rely on your teachers you have to rely on your mentors yeah so I think with this advent of the social media too much into the younger generation that that essence of an Indian culture is is missing wherein children listen to their parents they rely upon their advice and I think that's what we need to really think as a very critical factor going forward for success of entrepreneurship as a culture in India yes you see we always say mata pitta guru which we are supposed to follow the tradition and do that but you say like you have still lot to learn but if you say at 23 years of age you have nine years experience so that's a that's a big achievement and it's I can say a best practice which many should take into it yeah as I said the social media are taken many kids away from their routines because they have been more you know affected and they want immediately to happen everything that's one which we learned and you know we also seen in day today I think some changes will happen yes that's what we are also looking for so next question is we want to know how to overcome the influence of critical condition in ideation innovation entrepreneurship and startup your experience map same thing you if lives are different for example if there are 100 and thousands of entrepreneurs cultivating in streets of India right now yes and each and everybody is life circumstances idea project that they're working on everything is different correct so giving it a a fine case study or convert it into a an algorithm or a statement for me would be would be would be bad okay but what I would say in in context for my journey which might help the audience to learn yes that whether if or if I if I apply to their lives and if I really make some sense to them yeah would be that you have to be persistent dedication yes these are the few only key see for example if I have greatest of ideas and I'm not dedicated I'm not persistent enough to work on those yeah that idea is worth nothing yeah but if I have an idea which was already done before but I'm persistent to do it in a new market to do it in a larger way to do it in a better way it will succeed are you getting me look at startups like Ola Uber was already existing in numbers yes but it was it was Ola which actually said okay we will do this for India it was not in it was not in a new innovation it was not it was something which was already done but the scale they did it the way they did it was exceptionally well so I think being an entrepreneur is is couple of things first of the thing that goes with the definition of entrepreneurship is that solve a problem yes until unless you're solving a pain point you're solving a challenge you're solving a gap in the market you are not really impacting and that's when you will not be able to be an entrepreneur you can't you can't make a business out of by not solving anything you're getting me yes the second reason thing what I would say is being persistent and being dedicated like you should know that you have to be 24 7 if you want something if you want advice just go for it I mean there are I know there are other a lot of kind of people but there are more good people in in in India unfortunately we're in a land of great businesses coming up yes just go out talk to people ask them and even if they're not replying just go to another one but you have to be really persistent while doing it now third which is again the most important point and this is something I realized myself and fortunately I realized it very early age in my life okay is that always stick to your parents yeah there are two people in this world your mom and your dad except these two people nobody else will give you a a true selfless advice yes only your parents your mother and your father will give you an advice which might not benefit them which might harm them rather but they will still give you an advice which is good but is good for you one unfortunate thing that we as a younger generation do is that we think that we are the smartest because we have put the yeah but unfortunately we don't have to make or fortunately yeah for that we need to listen to our true mentors that is our parents a lot of children come to me and tell me okay you know I want to do this but my dad is not allowing me and I tell them boss then don't do it yes if your dad is not agreeing yeah then don't do it because I am sure that if your father is not convinced no other investor would be interested to invest in your company yes a good investor because your our parents know us even before we know each other they know us from the nine months before we were born yes right so these are the two people who know our true capabilities of what we can achieve and what we can not achieve and it happened with me my father comes from a sports background when we started business initially you know I would go to him and me and my brother we would tell him okay we're doing this and he would tell us okay no don't do it that way it might affect you bad and we would be like no but I think we can we failed miserably yeah okay so even now when I take any decision in my in in business even my brother we love to consult with my father because where can where in the world you will find such a fine such an honest a free of cost mayors yes who is there to help you and support you throughout yeah emotionally financially practically theoretically everywhere yes so I think I would say I would tell my friends to always stick to their parents be persistent be dedicated and end of the day solve a problem yes fantastic because we always take our parents as granted because they as easy access to us and you know they are we see them 24 bar 7 so we take them as a granted it was well said I'm I appreciate or say I really worry with that because our parents knows us and they are there our well wishers exactly they will do for our you know good my parents are telling me that okay don't do this I think I should not be doing it yes fantastic it's an they know my true capability of what I can achieve and what I cannot yes it's better I listen to them and I don't base my time yes it's an excellent example I'll say like a and mentor whom we can we always search for mentors outside our house yes because they are we don't take we don't you know estimate their knowledge or we take them granted and we take them easy yeah so and we feel like no we know better than them so you have very nicely highlighted that because it's a big lesson and a story for every kids that know we should listen to our parents and because they are the one who is going to if you are doing good or bad they are the one who is going to be traveling along with that so coming along with this I want also ask you how important a role of mentor in an entrepreneur journey it is it is really important okay see I was the I'm the luckiest one okay and I'll tell you why I got parents at my house which always supported me my my dad and my mother they would always and I think it was it is it's in our blood you know even when I go home today okay or even if I'm traveling we have this habit that I me and my brother we would speak to our parents at least for one hour okay before we sleep excellent and we tell them what we did okay I went to AICT office today I went for this meeting today okay we would tell them the whole calendar that we did it might not make any sense but the thing is the reason we discuss and we talk is that sometimes they would say something which really impacts decisions that I'm going to make tomorrow okay so this is one practice that we we follow and that's why mentorship has been a very critical success factor and the reason I say I have been very lucky is because of my brother is like my father also okay so he's also mentor to you somebody that who has always taught me different skill sets okay how to negotiate okay how to speak okay how to sit okay how to eat okay so I think this is something that I've been really fortunate that I'm the most pampered one in my house that I have elder brother who is teaching me everything and who is taking care of everything the most difficult challenges in the business he takes it all of it on himself okay and gives me slight things to manage because that's why I'm relaxed and I'm having a good conversation with you okay so I would say but my for my brother it's it's my parents okay so it having mentors of course it's very important but but the main question is that how do you identify a mentor how do you choose the right one yes and I tell people that the first mentor that you have is is people in your house that is your parents if you stick to them if you listen to them the guidance and the the the knowledge that will come from their mind to your mind will help you choose the right people outside in the market exactly so I cannot tell you I cannot tell anybody choose this guy and choose that guy yes because that would be stupid of mine I mean my life is totally different the other person life is totally different I cannot judge anybody yeah but your parents can tell you the best way the better than you my parents can tell me better than than myself that whether I should work with this person or not okay so how important the mentor if you get a right set of mentor how it will help you to take your business to next level it does see I'll tell you running a business is about how many good decisions you are able to make in a day okay a great businessman is not somebody who's making good capital no okay a great businessman is somebody who is making good decisions in a day and you have to be mentally stable emotionally stable physically stable okay spiritually stable to take the best decisions and take x amount of x number of best decisions in one day that you're able to be a successful person end of the day but being a being a businessman you don't map your success on a on a balance sheet okay I don't I have never seen an entrepreneur judging their business on a balance sheet they judge their business according to the daily decisions that they're making so every every day decision is been countable to us exactly and every day is is accountable if I take a call today that might affect me three months on the line okay so I should be having that kind of a visibility so decision making is an important in an entrepreneurial role that okay so if you want to be a great businessman you have to make great decisions okay now to make great decisions I already gave you three piece of advice yes which is solve a problem persistence dedication and let's stick to your parents and mentors okay fantastic if we do that we make good decisions and we make good decisions we become successful oh as simple as that great nice to hear about it so how to provide a strength to your idea in spite of limited resource if we take we are talking to the school teachers and the students mainly we are just trying to promote them or create the culture of innovation school so with the limited resource how do they give value addition to their ideas sir two things on this thing I think if I am telling you that I have limited resources and I'm not able to do this x thing that means I'm not hungry enough okay for example if I am extremely hungry and if you give me one grain of rice okay you know one grain of rice I will not crib about it okay I'll consume it and rather than wasting my time in cribbing about it I would go out in the market and look for another grain okay so it can go to my stomach so I think what we need to do as a generation and maybe as a community is to develop hunger yeah the more we are the if we are hungry if the future generation is hungry they would thrive for it they would work for it and I'm not saying that it's it's just business that you should don't know I mean doing jobs running a private sector and public sector jobs is also very important aspect but again you have to be hungry in those also because then only you'll grow okay I have a I have great people working in my team and these people are not somebody who are just working 9 to 5 no okay they are all 27 okay they are not owners of business but still and they are growing in a very in a very you know they're on a trajectory path of success because they they think themselves as responsible enough hungry enough to be able to execute and solve bigger challenges great I'm I'm able to see from the starting of our interaction you have been saying about persistent hungry dedication commitment 24 bar 7 all those things is a like you know best practice as a for an entrepreneur which you have been insisting about we can understand the hungry in you which makes you to know be unsuccessful entrepreneurs so far and all this for your coming years also next question is from my end is how important a digital presence to the startup absolutely it is very important in these days you know digitization has really peeped into the population if I talk about India as a market which is like 130 billion people you know in our country this is the world's biggest market we are sitting right now yes the way our country is you know is is is digitizing in terms of any sector that you talk about that really makes the new ideas new generation to also focus and target on the digital platforms because that's going to be very cost effective at the same time and in effective in terms of the business outreach if I give you an example and you know as we speak of digitization I was reading this article a couple of weeks ago the real-time payments in in in the fintech that China is making right now I think every day is close to 18,000 whereas if you talk about India doing real-time payments in terms of fintech it goes up to 46,000 so the way digitization has peeped into into Indian audience for example if I go and buy anything in the market I go to a barbershop I go to Kiranawala I go to a veritable shop owner now they don't want cash they're fine having a google pay or a or a ptm right so I think now if I'm doing anything if I'm doing a company if I'm doing a startup and if I'm solving a challenge the best way for me to market myself is to get into a digital space because that's when I will be according to me I would be able to reach more people okay and thus it makes complete sense for the business to to do that fantastic that so just want to know what are the important steps to be followed to become a successful entrepreneur there are so many you are talking about persistent commitment dedication 24 we are that you say like no these five steps are these 10 steps which will make me to become an entrepreneur again I would say the same thing okay one I should be solving a challenge okay a problem okay that's the that's the first and the most important thing if I want to second I should be hungry enough okay so when when if I have less resources I should not be craving rather I should be thinking that I'm the lucky one because then God has given me an opportunity to be hungry enough to be able to to execute and to solve that challenge because if I'm full why would I eat yes are you kidding me I'll only eat if I'm hungry yeah so I should be hungry enough yes and take it as a blessing don't take it as something that you have been unfortunate no you have been blessed if you are if you are hungry yes then be persistent be dedicated and last but the most important thing stick to your parents okay listen to their advice if they tell you don't do it don't do it yes doesn't make sense great so you have been very much insisting continuously on being following with parents and absolutely I think that has been most critical part yeah in my journey so I think as a school student who are our audience for this program today I'm sure everyone have been know as I repeat I'm just to repeat again we take our parents granted yes so now we should take from this talk we have been inspired and motivated that we should blindly believe our parents because our parents will give a right direction to us so we should be a successful for our career in the future that's always good and that so are we important is networking in an entrepreneurship journey absolutely important I would say in a market like India networking is 40 percent or 30 to 40 percent of what you do okay because if you have a network you have a market if you have a network you have access to capital if you have network you have access to main doors if you have network you have access to more and more challenges you know sometimes it's also difficult to think what problem am I going to solve yeah but if you have a great network then you know the challenges which are coming around in the market right now and you can prioritize whether I should do this or doing that okay if you have network you can create a great team now the question is how to create a network okay the way you do it so the way me and my brother did it is that we never really stepped out to to make friends in our school life you know we would go to school come back you know we were really we would be we would play but we would only play with each other and just be at home and don't not go anywhere no I haven't been to four three parties I haven't been to the friend parties or the tours and vacations ever in my life okay and I'll not tell you I'm not saying it's wrong it's good but it's just that it was not into my or my brother's priority list but what we did is that we started approaching people through social media and that's how I took use of social media okay I used Facebook okay I used different social media I used e-mail to get in touch with smart people okay if I am trying to do something good in my life then I need to make sure that I sit with the smartest of the crowd are you getting me yeah for example if I am sitting in a room where I am the one giving advice everybody else will gain out of it except me okay are you getting so I should be sitting in a crowd where everybody else is speaking and I am required okay because then I have the most to gain okay fantastic it's not to learn from this actually so now we always you know students of current generation is being more influenced or mean more attracted by this IT profession with so-called white-collar jobs the leadership talk of this kind from Ministry of Education Innovation Cell jointly with AICT CBSE is to promote more entrepreneurs and invite an you know entrepreneurs like you and motivate them to also step into this you know entrepreneurial journey that was our primary agenda of this program if I ask you what is the benefit of being an entrepreneur so that that will motivate them saying that okay so I also want to step into it few thoughts from you a lot of benefits I mean majority of benefits all of us already know about yeah that when you get to be your own boss and etc okay but I'll tell you the important things which give which keeps you going so that when you are into business and when you are an entrepreneur a kick that you have that when you solve a problem if I make five good decisions today you will see a big smile on my face and okay okay I work for that smile I work for that satisfaction yes money is is a very is money is a buy product okay I mean an entrepreneur I have seen great entrepreneurs in my life I've got an opportunity to meet and interact with smart chaps I have never seen anybody chasing money okay great but what I've seen them is I've seen them chasing satisfaction end of the day that they speak okay I built this I created this product I created this community I solved this challenge okay and now people are doing it better okay it's only because of me yes that sense of satisfaction supersedes with everything that comes with entrepreneurship yeah fantastic each and every yes so end of the day why why am I an entrepreneur is because solving challenges gives me a reason to work hard and to live my life okay that's good really and you know motivating factor because as a smile or happiness or satisfaction we always say job satisfaction you are satisfied by solving some problem which is benefiting huge market and the society running a business is is far far far more difficult than getting into a white color job that's a fact and I can say it in any platform it's because that in business you are not only solving a challenge rather you have so many people around you your vendors your employees yes people that you know the landlord that is office you have taken for rent all these people's life depends on your decisions yes yeah so it's a very responsible act yeah running a business is not something I mean look at what reliance industries has created they impact I mean millions of lives yes it's very important I mean forget about the customers I'm talking about the team that they have yes so running a business is a very very responsible act and you have to take it to very that's why I said you you can't run a business with only mind yes you said that satisfaction that's very important and when you do it better you get a great sense of satisfaction that okay I did this yes always we do that when we in the schooling school days are you know when we get a rank or we achieve certain things or we say like no we stand in some sports first so that satisfaction happiness gives so similarly that when you start solve a problem and that problem is benefiting the society you get that satisfaction yes that's what I mean I never worry about finance because I have elder brother who is taking he he signs match like he gets me clothes he gets good food to eat okay everything nice and my focus always is solving challenges yeah the rest I don't have to worry about anything else so happy and nice to hear the last question for you this question is from a ninth grade student he has an idea on automobile engineering he's asking you know how to start my startup so it's very you know blind way question which had been asked but still I want to put forward to understand from you interesting I mean if you have an idea in automobile engineering let's say in any other sector the rule is going to be same as I've been just speaking yes okay that so it's you should not start with the thought that you want to start I mean you should start when you think is the right time to start are you getting me so we both when me and my brother started we never really thought that we were going into business okay our focus was rather something as we wanted to get into a great institute do our phd's and you know do all that but we landed up in a different case all together it's because business was not the interest the interest was solving a problem okay that was a focus and then rest everything especially the money it came around okay with that so I would tell I mean any student who's whoever is thinking that okay I want to start no don't do it for the sake of starting it or doing it do it for the sake that you think that okay I'm done now ready enough and I'll be able to do it okay so when you think is that you are ready and you think you will be able to execute it in the best way and you get that confidence right mean if I'm if I'm if I'm getting out of my house my health is fine so I have a confidence okay I'll reach office I'll work hard yes but if I have a severe headache I'll not be confident to move on yes yes so you need to and that only I can tell and your parents can tell correct that when are you ready yes and the moment you're ready then shoot yourself to the market and okay okay fantastic it was a good uh learning from you also it's uh for sharing your experience like you know you started with we should solve the problem we should be persistent we should be hardworking we should be committed dedication 24 bar 7 these terminologies are you know really inspiring and it'll be uh inspiring I'm sure it'll be inspiring our students uh participants also you know few things which we want to highlight before we close the session the way you come said that you should be following our parents instruction they are the good mentors and you have been started uh everyone has you know buzzer following cricket we are all fan you know we have been more uh towards are you know following or watching cricket matches is a big fan if you see like no there is now T20 World Cups are going on we can see when some important matches no crowds are there in their routes so when the uh day and night matches when it happens starting as an interest towards cricket to want to become an sportsman started your journey you solved a problem then the problem had you know you got a satisfaction from that you followed your parents guidelines and they were the good success story for you to go and uh you said like you know every day night you talk to your parents and yeah list out the activities what you have done so all those things is a good uh learning I'm sure the participants the students across the country who is watching this program would have been inspired motivated we want through this program at least few students to you know step into the startup initiative from all the you know uh pin points you highlighted to become a successful entrepreneur so thank you for sparing your valuable time and uh being with us today uh it was really very much motivating and inspiring I also learned so many things along with this uh interaction so we called you today is to make sure that as an young entrepreneur at the age of 23 you have been able to reach at this height so congratulations and all the best to grow for better heights thank you once again for joining with us with this uh note on behalf of Ministry of Education Innovation Cell uh CBSE and AICT I sign off for uh from today's program myself Dr Ilangovan Ashton Innovation Director Ministry of Education Innovation Cell stay tuned on Ministry of Education Innovation Cell YouTube channel to listen to future leadership talk program thank you