Journey from Trash to Treasure ….
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Nishank, bubbling with energy, oozes an amazing enthusiasm that leaves an
indelible impression on anyone he connects with. A true blue entrepreneur, he
is today living his dream.
Nishank, born in Jalna, Maharashtra and brought up in Ahmedabad grew up
being hailed as a ‘solution boy’ by his friends. He had solution to every
problem and was the ‘go-to’ person for his friends. Nishank was appreciated
for his innovative ideas and approaches to almost everything involving
complex issues to day-to-day matters.Nishank’s father is in real estate business. He was always enamoured by his
father’s way of working and approach to business. Nishank recalls his father’s
words which he calls his business mantra – Always find your own unique way.
Do not be a sheep; instead be a lion and find your own path. He continues,
“Starting your own business is not a tough job but building that business into a
lasting and profitable one, is challenging and a tedious task.”
Nishank always wished to set up his own business as he believed this would
help him vent out the ‘urge to prove himself.’ He wanted to do something of
his own. Nishank looked for challenges in life as this was the only way, he said,
one could imbibe a never-say-die attitude and think differently. He wanted to
sharpen his skills and reached out to his father for advice. His father
researched and gathered details on various entrepreneurship courses and its
curriculum. Eventually, Nishank finalised EDII’s PGDM-BE course after
reviewing the mandates which matched his goals. He cleared the exams and
got admission at EDII. Nishank says quite excitedly, “I got the best here in terms of entrepreneurship enthusiasts, faculty and alumni. Everything around
me echoed entrepreneurship and I got consumed by the idea of becoming an
entrepreneur, even more. I got a chance to participate in many conferences,
seminars, workshops which helped me gain exposure and expand my network.
I could see the difference in myself.”
During his first year at EDII, Nishank scanned the environment for
opportunities and settled on Importing & Trading of reprocessed plastic
granules, in partnership with his friend. But very soon they had to give it up as
they realised that the business was not scalable and margins were too less.
Nishank learnt his lessons. This incident was a reinforcement of the importance
of extensive research before taking the plunge.
“Breaking down of my first venture, was a setback for me. But I analysed the
loopholes and decided to move ahead with the same enthusiasm. For this
venture, I had sought financial help of 3 lacs from his family . I had never
thought that my first venture would be so short-lived. But to keep myself
motivated, I shifted my focus on plan B after consulting EDII mentors”, shares
Nishank.
Nishank reminisces, “During my first year at EDII, I got selected for an
internship at Sintex Industries Limited where I got the golden opportunity to
work with Mr. S.B Dangayach, Managing Director of Sintex Industries Limited
who eventually became my mentor. The hands-on experience during the
internship not only helped me learn the valuable skills but also gave me an
opportunity to network and build professional relationships.”
During the internship, Nishank was assigned the task on “Researching various
business models around waste.” The assigned task aroused his interest in waste management and he started his research work on waste management.
He finally outlined his plan of action for establishing his business in this field.
Nishank was convinced that his idea would fit the demands of the time and the
world. As Nishank shares, “The first challenge was to encourage and train
society members to segregate their waste into different categories such as dry
and wet waste so that dry waste can be recycled and wet waste can be
composted.
Nishank even interacted with rag pickers, recycling companies and waste
management related organizations and tried to understand their work as
against his business model. After the final R&D survey, Nishank carried out a
pilot testing covering around 35 households.
Nishank’s hard work finally got paid off and he established his solid waste
management company under the name of Duro Green in 2014. Soon after
establishing the company, it started manufacturing cost effective composting
machines and started giving services like mobile waste management,
operations & maintenance and consultation on waste management. Nishank
developed a client base of 200 plus over the period of 5 years and has
processed 10000 tons of food waste into manure uptil now. His company
employs 25 people. Nishank’s company collects wastes from educational
institutes, households, industries, corporates etc. The company treats solids in
such a way that even the by-products have high utility. Solid wet waste is
converted into manure.
Today, Nishank’s company not only solves the garbage problem but makes
sure that waste is processed through different services offered by the company
which helps contributing to the cause of green environment.
The day Nishank started giving talks regarding waste management at various
different forums and received an appreciation letter & Certificate from Surat
Municipal Cooperation, he felt he had come a full circle. The letter says,
“Durogreen is doing a very innovative and efficient work. We vouch for their
services and would recommend Duro green for better waste management
services.”
Nishank is the messiah we need today in these times of environment
degradation. We wish him all the best. May he blossom every day, in this
meaningful journey!!!