Videos
Akash Bhatia, Alumni
- Year
- 2010-2011
- From
- India
- Sector
- Energy; Waste Management
- Location
- India
- Degree
-
2012 MBA, Sloan School of Management
“The transformation of waste to energy in a rapidly urbanizing India – a country which currently has very little waste management – is essential for it to move forward in the 21st Century.”
I am the co-founder and President of KyaZoonga, India’s first and largest ticketing solutions company. It has always been my dream to be a successful entrepreneur. Even as a child, I would come up with numerous ideas to launch a business. For instance when I was nine, I noticed an abundance of sap from trees in my backyard, and decided to launch a small enterprise producing glue, with some help from my grandfather. While everyone was amused at my attempts, the entrepreneurial bug had bitten me as a child.
In 1997, I participated in the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition. With help from local business leaders, my team and I were able to develop a solid business plan to participate. Our limited success at the competition put a dampener on our enthusiasm and we gave up the thought of implementing it. As my career progressed, my confidence in my convictions grew. I was pleasantly surprised to have my views validated when a few years later, someone associated with the same industry mentioned that had we implemented our business plan, he would have invested in the venture. The next time I had such an idea, I gave up my career in Silicon Valley, moved back to India to start the venture and grow it. While setting up the company, I realized that rapid urbanization of India due to the opening up of the economy has brought with it various problems; one of which is effective waste management. Mumbai alone generates 8000MT of municipal waste daily. I believe that a solid waste management company is a great need in India.
My idea is about managing waste that rapid urbanization has brought about in India. Door-to-door collection is unheard of. Limited revenues earmarked for often ill-equipped civic bodies are insufficient to meet collection costs, storage, treatment and disposal of this waste. With the government now making a concerted effort in funding waste-to-energy projects, this idea has every chance of being successful.
