While spending his summer vacations at a Karegaon village near Pune, Santosh Ostwal used to accompany his grandfather, who was on crutches, walk a distance of one kilometer to the farm at unearthly hours.

They undertook the walks to switch on and off the pumps that irrigated the farmland. This had to be done because power was available only during nights.  Even as a child, Santosh felt a deep desire to help his grandfather and the farmers in that region to make irrigation operations run smoothly.

Santosh was seven when his father, a well-to-do businessman suffered a big financial loss. It had such an impact on the family that his father never tried getting into business again and took up clerical jobs with his relatives and friends. Santosh was good at studies and after completing his engineering he got a Government job and got posted in Mumbai. It was a golden event in the Ostwal family as no one in the last twenty years had achieved so much, at such a young age. Everybody kept saying that his father’s troubles were now over, but Santosh had other plans.

Santosh’s inner voice kept plaguing him “Are you going to do this forever?” He wanted to make his knowledge useful for the needy and even saw a window to make money through it, a ‘win-win’ situation, is what he knew was brewing in his mind. After much deliberation, he quit his well paying Government job and came back to his family in Pune. The family was devastated, but he could not offer any explanations; all he said was that he wanted to set up his own business.

When Santosh visited the village again, the situation was still the same. Farmers were still making trips to the farms to switch on and off the water pumps and were faced with difficulties like distantly located water pumps, broken roads, wild animal attacks, shock hazards etc. Due to these conditions and to avoid the frequent trips, there was a tendency to leave the pump on even after the needs were met. The farmers needed a simple remote control solution. He knew he had to now work on his eureka moment, the product that would give the farmers the means to use mobile phones to remotely monitor and switch on irrigation pumps when required.

He called it Nano Ganesh.

Santosh got into discussions with the farmers regarding their current methods of irrigation, wastage of water, financial affordability for switching over to new technology and possible challenges. After assessing the technical requirement, he started building the prototype in the laboratory keeping in mind the hazardous rural conditions, irregular electricity and illiteracy of the users. He had an inside edge, he was not just a developer who had been served a list of issues that needed to be solved through this innovation. He was an inside man, aware of every little problem the villagers had been going through since years.

After building the prototype, testing it was his biggest challenge. He would travel to the sites on his scooter with all his electronic instruments, but often had to walk several kilometers, as there was no proper road even for a two-wheeler. Sometimes there would be no electricity for the whole day and he would have to wait until late at night to carry out the testing.

Santosh worked on over 2400 sites in the first twelve years. His loan for funds to develop this agricultural electronic was denied by the bank. He raised the finances from his friends and relatives on monthly interests. People mocked him for his irrationality and commented that taking up a new job would be the wise thing to do, but Santosh stood by his passion to develop rural e-irrigation.

He started working on small urban irrigation projects, which became the source of meager earnings for the next few years. But his efforts started paying off when in 2009, Nokia selected Nano Ganesh as the best mobile application in the world in the ‘emerging market category’ with a cash prize of USD 35000. This news spread across the world and Santosh became a coveted name overnight. Prestigious publications like ‘The Economist’ and ‘Gartner’ carried stories on Nano Ganesh. Santosh was invited to participate and learn from institutions like World Bank, Santa Clara University, Tech Museum, and Institute of Texas. With this success, telecom giants started seeking him to partner in his efforts.

About two years ago he made a business model to install one million units and is now aspiring for more than five million units. His conscientiousness does not allow him to stop in his endeavor.

It has been a journey over 24 years since Santosh made up his mind to work for the farmers, and he continues to strive for the best without any compromises. He has found peace and prosperity in the rugged terrains of Indian agriculture as opposed to the cushioned jobs with the Indian Government. And yes, he is rich!

This story appeared in the Chicken Soup for the Indian Entrepreneurs Soul