When Prashant Garapati (23) was a third year engineering student in Hyderabad, his view was materialistic. “I wanted to start a business, but all I thought was how to make more money from that.”
He went on the Jagriti Yatra during his fourth year in 2013 after hearing about it from some friends, and the journey and the things he saw changed his life.
“I was shocked to see the poverty in villages in Bihar and UP. Some of my family also live in a village in the south, but those places are better off. It was then that I started thinking that I should run a business, but it should have some sort of social impact, even if it’s in an urban context.”
Mr Garapati says he gained a lot by interacting with his peers on the train as well as the role models that the Yatra visited. “For the first time I met people who worked in development or people who already ran their own companies at a young age,” he says. “And what I noticed about each model is that they took the plunge and started working for a cause rather than just talking about how to make things better.”
When he returned from the Yatra, he decided to contest the student body elections in his college, III-T in Hyderabad, and work on governance issues in whatever small way he could. He attended a public policy workshop at IIM Ahmedabad, which he says gave him some focus as to the area he should tackle.
That area for him turned out to be urban transport and what he set out to do, specifically, was to address one important gap. “The problem that people in cities face is during peak hours, public transport is crowded and cabs are highly expensive. I wanted to start a company that addresses this problem and provides easy-to-use and cheap transport during peak hours, particularly to office goers.”
Mr Garapati’s company Commut launched its android app on November 2 last year and what it does is to organise air-conditioned minibus shuttles that operate at a rate of Rs 3 or Rs 4 per kilometre. As of last week it has already received over 2,000 bookings.
“Our buses operate on four of five routes and there are pre-decided pickup and drop points. About 65 to 70 per cent of our customers are women because they find it a much safer option than the share-cabs that they have to use every day,” Mr Garapati explains. “And the rates at which we operate are comparable to maybe a government AC bus.”
In setting up his own business he says he has received a lot of help from his fellow yatris as well as people connected with the Jagriti Yatra eco-system. “They have not only helped with legal and taxation issues, but also with marketing the concept and the company.”
He went on Jagriti Yatra during his fourth year in 2013 after hearing about it from some friends
