Social
Planet Leaders
Under Social Planet Leaders, we share following people
(individuals or life partners)
1) Nobel Laureates, Magsaysay Awardees or global award
winners in any social issue or Ted speakers
2) National Award Winners : Winners of National Awards
like Padma Shri or Padma Bhushan or Padma Vibhushan
or Bharat Ratna in case of India or any national award
similar to Padma Award in India
3) Scientists or Innovators (Global discovery or invention)
(These greats may not have NGO of their own)
4) BIG Philanthropists : Philanthropists who donate
minimum 1 Billion in their national currency and they
may be celebrities or corporate chairperson or investor
in corporates or investors in listed companies...
5) Celebrities : National or global level (Not State
/ UT / County level or local level)
6) Ashoka Fellows or Fellows who are recognised by organisations
which help fellows from more than 10 countries and more
than 3 continents)
We will approach
CSRidentity.com will approach well known organisations
(Donors, NGOs, Celebs, Award giving organisations) to
recommend names of social planet leaders. We will study
their profiles and then decide whether to share them
as social planet leaders. If the organisation is ok
of sharing their name of sharing social planet leader,
we will share that so that if anyone has any query,
they can directly contact them.
Awards
On CSRidentity.com which is a public portal free
for all visitors, we do not recommend any particular
name of social planet leader for any award because while
we know we can not be biased, we are driven by humans
and not robots, so we may make mistake and want to avoid
that.
CSR Consulting which is a parent organisation of CSRidentity.com
is a social enterprise and can suggest / recommend names
as consultancy for cost with condition of privacy (which
means that no one should know that name is suggested
by CSR Consultancy and yes, our parent organisation
is careful of its credibility, so we can not be biased
and give reasons of suggesting to client so that client
decides, we only recommend). And we can not recommend
to organisations which are consultants but only to award
giving committes and do this only for national and global
awards and not municipal or state or UT or county awards.
Country PM / President visits
When PM or President of a country visits other country,
she or he meets political leaders, business leaders,
industry associations. But most of them do not meet
social planet leaders and if they meet these leaders
are just a part of gathering of all greats in that country.
Agreed that they find it difficult to get an hour in
their already tight schedule to meet 5 or 10 social
greats who helped development of that country or addressed
social challenges from which visiting person's country
can benefit. But the PM or President must have someone
of their team (at minister level) to meet the social
doctors for an hour or so, understand their work. Its
not photo session. Its learning, understanding and appreciating
session. And they will be from many social issues together.
The names of social planet leaders is accessible free
for all so they can select the greats without us or
our consultancy because if we select only 5 of say 20
social planet leaders, it may not be right because our
thinking is different. In Olympics, they rank gold,
silver and bronze medalists, but we think all participants
are almost equal so all participants are winners. We
think so not because we do not have money for committee
but because of our thinking
Not
just living greats but greats who have expired are also
listed
Great persons work hard (intelligently) and think
that the challenge they addressed expires.
But if we dont share names of great persons who have
expired, we will make unpardonable mistake.
Every country has greats who left mother earth long
time back but people remember and repect them.
People think God lives eternally. We think Social Planet
Leaders may leave mother earth physically but their
contribution has eternal existance. e.g. In Social Planet
Leaders in Agriculture if we dont include Norman Borlaug
and M S Swaminathan who were global leaders of the green
revolution but left mother earth (Norman Borlaug on
September 12, 2009 and M S Swaminathan on 28 September
2023) , it is not right. So we share present as well
as past social greats and may not write Late M S Swaminathan
because he exists in his contribution form.
Bhau
Founder exists to share social planet leaders only
because Bhau and others postponed his death on 28.08.2013
Norman Borlaug
Known as the Father of the Green Revolution
He developed high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties
that saved over a billion people from starvation and
earned him the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize.
M
S Swaminathan
Swaminathan was a global leader of the green revolution
in India for his leadership and role in introducing
and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat
and rice.
Padma Shri (1967), Padma Bhushan (1972), Padma Vibhushan
(1989), Bharat Ratna (2024)
Ramon Magsaysay Award (1971), Albert Einstein World
Science Award (1986), World Food Prize (1987)
Global leader of the green revolution
M S left mother earth on 28 September 2023
Founder Sanjay Kumud Moreshwar Bapat had the opportunity
to meet him in Chennai
George
Washington Carver
An influential American agricultural scientist and inventor
who promoted alternative crops like peanuts and sweet
potatoes to restore depleted southern soils and uplift
impoverished farmers.
Jethro Tull
Invented the seed drill.
Fritz Haber
Co-developer of the Haber-Bosch process for synthesizing
ammonia fertilizer, which dramatically scaled global
food production.
John Deere
Invented the self-scouring steel plow in 1837, making
it possible to cultivate the tough root-bound soils
of the American Midwest.
Ram
Saran Verma
A celebrated progressive farmer from Uttar Pradesh awarded
the Padma Shri for pioneering high-tech commercial cultivation
of bananas, tomatoes, and potatoes on a large scale.
Rahibai Soma Popere
Known as the "Seed Mother," this grassroots
conservationist from Maharashtra has preserved hundreds
of traditional, indigenous seed varieties and empowered
rural women farmers.
Khemaram Choudhury
An innovative farmer from Rajasthan who transformed
his region into "mini-Israel" by successfully
implementing high-return protected polyhouse farming
and modern water-saving tech.
Social
entrepreneurs in Agriculture in India
1.
Shashank Kumar and Amrendra Singh – DeHaat
DeHaat
provides farmers with farm inputs, crop advice, financial
services, and market access through one platform. This
helps reduce the need to depend on different providers
for each service.
DeHaat
combines digital technology with a large physical network
of DeHaat Centres. It also provides AI-enabled crop
advisory for multiple crops in regional languages.
The
company’s growth from Bihar into multiple agricultural
states shows how a technology platform can be built
around the practical needs of Indian farmers.
Shardul
Sheth and Sitanshu Sheth – AgroStar
AgroStar uses technology to help farmers access agricultural
inputs and crop-related knowledge.
Thirukumaran Nagarajan – Ninjacart
Thirukumaran Nagarajan is one of the founders behind
Ninjacart, a company that has worked on one of India’s
biggest agricultural challenges—the fresh produce supply
chain. Fruits and vegetables can travel through several
intermediaries before reaching retailers and consumers.
This fragmented system can create delays, inefficiencies,
price uncertainty, and food wastage. Ninjacart
uses technology and logistics to create a more organised
supply chain connecting farmers, traders, retailers,
and other businesses.
Karthik
Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari – WayCool
WayCool, an AgriCommerce company working across the
food and agricultural supply chain. WayCool
has developed operations connecting farmers with retailers,
processors, traders, and other buyers. The
company has also worked on farmer services through its
Outgrow platform, which provides agricultural advisory
and technology-based support.e
chain.
Krishna
Kumar – Cropin
Krishna Kumar is the founder and CEO of Cropin, one
of India’s best-known agricultural technology companies
in the global enterprise AgTech space. Cropin uses technologies
such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, satellite
information, and digital farm management tools.
Anilkumar
SG – Samunnati
Anilkumar SG founded Samunnati to address another major
challenge in Indian agriculture—access to finance and
markets. Agricultural
finance is complicated because farming income is seasonal
and crop performance can be affected by weather, prices,
pests, and other factors. Farmer
Producer Organisations (FPOs) have become an important
way for small farmers to work collectively.
Prasanna Rao and Chattanathan Devarajan – Arya.ag
Prasanna Rao is a co-founder of Arya.ag, a company tackling
one of the biggest post-harvest challenges in India.
Farmers
do not always have to sell produce immediately after
harvest. Arya.ag works across grain commerce, warehousing,
and finance. By
connecting storage with financial and market services,
the company helps create a more organised post-harvest
ecosystem.
Ranjith Mukundan – Stellapps
Ranjith Mukundan is associated with Stellapps, an Indian
AgriTech company focused on the dairy industry. Dairy
is a major part of rural India. For millions of households,
milk provides regular income alongside crop farming.
Stellapps
has worked on digitising different parts of the dairy
supply chain using technologies such as IoT, data analytics,
cloud systems, and digital platforms.
Nukul Upadhye – Bijak
Bijak was developed as a technology platform for agricultural
commodity trading. Its work focuses on bringing greater
organisation, transparency, and digital processes to
agricultural transactions. In
India’s traditional mandi and trading ecosystem, trust
between buyers and sellers is extremely important. Technology
can support this by improving records, payments, and
communication.
Devendra Gupta – Ecozen
Ecozen has developed technologies such as solar-powered
irrigation solutions and solar cold rooms. Both solve
practical problems. Irrigation
requires reliable energy, while perishable crops require
proper storage after harvest. For
farmers growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other
high-value crops, a lack of cooling can result in significant
post-harvest losses.
Vivek Pandey – Ecozen
His role highlights the engineering side of India’s
AgriTech revolution. Agricultural technology must work
reliably in rural areas, where electricity, internet
access, weather, dust, and maintenance can create additional
challenges. uilding reliable agricultural hardware therefore
requires deep engineering expertise. Ecozen uses IoT,
energy technology, and data to improve irrigation and
cold storage solutions.
Prateek Singhal – Ecozen
While technology development is important, an agricultural
hardware company also needs manufacturing, distribution,
installation, servicing, and operations. Scaling physical
technology across rural markets is very different from
scaling a purely digital application. Ecozen’s expansion
demonstrates the importance of building both technology
and the operational systems required to deploy it.
Kaushik Kappagantulu – Kheyti
Kheyti
is known for its “Greenhouse-in-a-Box†approach designed
for smallholder farmers. Protected
cultivation can help farmers reduce exposure to some
weather risks and create a more controlled environment
for growing high-value crops. However,
conventional greenhouse systems can be too expensive
for many small farmers.
Sathya Raghu Mokkapati – Kheyti
His work has focused strongly on improving farmers’
livelihoods and creating agricultural models that can
generate more dependable income. AgriTech should not
be judged only by how advanced the technology looks.
For farmers, the real question is whether it improves
productivity, reduces risk, saves money, or increases
income.
Sateesh Nukala – BigHaat
BigHaat provides farmers with access to agricultural
inputs, crop guidance, and other services through technology.
Its platform covers the agricultural journey from pre-harvest
decisions to post-harvest market connections. Digital
agricultural marketplaces are particularly useful in
India because farmers often have limited access to a
broad selection of specialised products through nearby
physical stores.
Sachin Nandwana – BigHaat
Together with his team, he has built a platform that
connects farmers with agricultural products, expert
guidance, and essential services. BigHaat is another
example of how Indian AgriTech companies are moving
away from solving isolated problems. The
future of AgriTech lies in helping farmers manage everything
from choosing seeds and crop inputs to receiving advice
and selling their produce.
Agam Khare – Absolute
Absolute, a bioscience company applying science and
technology across agriculture and other sectors. Absolute’s
agricultural activities include biological farm inputs
and technology-driven agricultural value chains.
Nidhi Pant – S4S Technologies (Science For Society)
S4S works at the intersection of agriculture, food processing,
technology, and rural livelihoods. The company uses
technology-driven farm-gate procurement and food processing
to connect farmers with the food and beverage industry.
In
rural India, agricultural innovation can create an impact
beyond crop production by generating processing and
entrepreneurship opportunities closer to the farm.
Anu
Meena – Agrowave
Anu Meena founded Agrowave to address problems around
agricultural supply chains and market access. For
many Indian farmers, growing the crop is only one part
of the challenge. Getting produce to a profitable market
can be equally difficult.
Small
farmers may have limited transportation options and
may depend heavily on local traders.
Agrowave
has worked on using technology and logistics to improve
farm-to-market connections.
Anu
Meena is also notable as a woman entrepreneur building
solutions in a sector where both technology startups
and agricultural businesses have traditionally had lower
female representation.
Company:
Agrowave
Focus: Farm-to-market supply chains and agricultural
logistics
Why she stands out: Building market-access solutions
around the practical needs of farmers.
24.
Rajamanohar Somasundaram – Aquaconnect
Rajamanohar Somasundaram founded Aquaconnect, bringing
AgriTech principles into aquaculture.
India’s
agricultural economy includes much more than fields
of wheat, rice, cotton, and vegetables. Fish and shrimp
farming are important sources of income in many coastal
and inland regions.
Aquaculture
farmers face challenges related to feed, water quality,
farm management, market access, and supply chains.
Aquaconnect
uses technology and data to support this ecosystem.
Its
inclusion demonstrates the increasing breadth of Indian
AgriTech, which now covers crops, dairy, livestock,
fisheries, storage, finance, and food distribution.
Company:
Aquaconnect
Focus: Aquaculture technology and supply chains
Why he stands out: Bringing data and digital services
into India’s aquaculture sector.
25.
Praneeth Kumar – Vegrow
Praneeth Kumar is one of the co-founders of Vegrow,
a B2B fruit marketplace.
Fruit
supply chains are particularly challenging because quality,
grading, timing, storage, transportation, and market
demand all influence the value of the produce.
Vegrow
uses technology to organise different parts of this
process.
Its
services include farmer advisory, grading, packaging,
logistics, and sales support.
For
Indian fruit growers, better supply-chain coordination
can reduce uncertainty and improve access to larger
markets.
Company:
Vegrow
Focus: Fruit marketplace, grading, logistics, and agricultural
supply chains
Why he stands out: Using technology to organise India’s
fragmented fruit supply chain.
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