When you start a company in response to a challenge thrown at you by the erstwhile President of India, it speaks volumes about your entrepreneurial zeal and focused mindset. That is Ravi Machani, director of IndiVillage, the rural BPO, for you.

Machani, a mechanical engineer from Bangalore, decided to start IndiVillage after APJ Abdul Kalam asked him what he, as a corporate honcho, was doing to touch the lives of the less privileged. Kalam told Machani that if he could spare 5 per cent of his time and give something to any one of the 600,000 villages in India, he could truly fulfill his corporate responsibility.

That set the ball rolling. Machani was a third-generation businessman in the auto components manufacturing industry with experience in design and development of auto engines — a far cry from IT set ups. However, he had affinity for information technology and its related services.

He picked up the workings of a services company during his stint at Delphi Corporation's Global Competency Center in the US. In 2009, he connected with his family's charity initiative MG Charity to start IndiVillage, a rural BPO in Yemmiganur village in Andhra Pradesh, where he has his roots.

“I decided to look at this small village in Andhra Pradesh because my ancestors came from there and I felt that I need to start from where my story began. I strongly felt that if I can do something for the youth in the villages I would be able to uplift rural society better, as they will have something to look forward to and be motivated to do something good,” he says.

Machani feels a strong connect with youth in general and feels that to uplift rural areas one needs to work with the youth so that they can be constructive. He also does not like youth of villages being forced to come to cities in search of dreams and being disillusioned. He, therefore, wanted to give the young people of his village the option of a good lifestyle without having to move out. This led to the birth of IndiVillage.

Today, Machani has 40 young people from the village working for the company and delivering world-class service. He is proud that in the 11 months the company has been operational, it has got four clients who are happy with the services.
It is not just the youth of the village that he is looking to help. He has also helped the weavers by setting up the BPO unit at the struggling YWC (Yemmiganur Weaver's Co-operative) building and paying the association rent that goes towards supporting the weavers.

Machani might be a Good Samaritan, but he is also a shrewd businessman. IndiVillage was started as a part of a charity initiative. However, today it has the mandate to become a business house with set revenue targets.

“I don't keep any of the profit generated from the business and reinvest the whole thing in bettering the set up, but the employees of IndiVillage know that they have to meet their targets because the company has to be self sustaining," he explains.

Machani, who is the joint MD of his family's auto spring manufacturing company Stumpp, Scheule and Somappa, is also passionate about taking forward this initiative of establishing rural BPOs across India. He is already on his way to setting up his second rural BPO in the much ignored northeastern part of the country.