As the world is recovering from the impact of the COVID and looking for green shoots of hope and optimism, Jagriti creates the world’s largest digital entrepreneurship program – Jagriti Digital Yatra 2021 (JDY). Building upon the success of the last year, JDY brings 850 digital Yatris – 50% women – this year from different corners of the country, selected from a pool of 20,000 registrations. Inspired to ‘build India through enterprise’, these Yatris are youth, aged 20-35 year, from the Tier 2 and 3 districts of India, who are passionate to become entrepreneurs.

Jagriti Digital Yatra begins on 24^th Dec 2021, carrying the Yatris on a journey of national exploration through digital means for 15 days. The Yatra is conducted through the Facebook Workplace platform. Yatris will interact with role models – social and business entrepreneurs of India – and will undertake business plan competitions. The Yatra will have reputed speakers like Vivek Chand Sehgal (Chairman, Motherson Group), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Padma Shri; Founder, Naukri.com), Makrand R Paranjpe (Author, Swami Vivekananda: Hinduism and India’s Road to Modenity), and Dr. Vikram Sampath (Biographer of Savarkar). The Yatra will host panel discussions on six key topics relevant for smaller towns and districts – Health, Women Empowerment, Digital, Urbanization, Agriculture, Apparel and Handicrafts. The Yatra will have 90+ hours of content andengagement with 150+ speakers over 15 days. Peer to peer interaction with participants forms the core of the digital learning process, with online learning-by-doing.

At the core of JDY 2021 is the belief that entrepreneurial energy in ‘Middle India’ (Tier 2 and 3 districts) has to be mobilized for revival and growth. Properly supported, leaders in the middle can create local enterprise and local employment helping revive the country as a national movement.

The partners for Jagriti Digital Yatra 2021 are ICICI Bank, HSBC, Tata Steel Foundation, Tata steel, UP state startup, Tamilnadu state startup, Hindalco, Aditya Birla, HSBC, HPCL, Virgo foundation, Atmaja Foundation, NYEF, Vignan University, SNDT university, Manipal university, Digital Impact Square (DISQ), BAIF, NSRCEL, Govindalaya, Stree Udyami Foundation.

Shashank Mani (Founder Jagriti Yatra, Jagriti Enterprise Center – Purvanchal) said, “The Digital Yatra illustrates how much innovation this crisis has created. We were always wary of doing something innovative in an already operationally difficult and innovative 15-day train journey. But the crisis made us rethink and change the Yatra fundamentally. With this Digital Yatra, while the experience of a physical journey and the proximity it creates will be missing, we believe that this format can be added to a physical journey every year, expanding the reach and visibility to the Yatra manifold.”

Sharat Bansal (Chairman, Jagriti) said, “Before 2020 when the COVID pandemic hit us, we had successfully run the Jagriti Yatra in its physical format for 12 years. The COVID pandemic posed insurmountable challenges in doing the same yatra in 2020. However, we were not deterred and we put on our thinking caps to ensure there is no gap in our annual journey. Eureka! This gave birth to the Jagriti Digital Yatra and an opportunity to make the yatra bigger, better and accessible to more participants.”

Sunil Pangarkar (Board Member, Jagriti) said, “The spirit of learning, collaboration and co-creating one’s future, is the essence of Jagriti Yatra in any avatar. We found that the Digital format is not just a modification or a new avatar, but a new-solution to serve a new segment of our nation. A segment of participants who for many reasons, would not be able to avail the physical Yatra.”

About Jagriti

Jagriti is a nationally renowned charitable organization, with the mission of ‘Udyam se Desh Nirman’ or ‘Building India through Enterprise’. Its flagship program Jagriti Yatra (JY) has taken 6000 youth over the past 13 years, on a national train journey to explore, understand and learn from ‘Middle India’. Jagriti is building Jagriti Enterprise Center–Purvanchal (JECP) in Deoria, UP, a Tier 3 district for enterprise incubation and regional innovation, as the first of four such enterprise centers in the four corners of the country. JECP has worked on a 3 x I framework for its activities that link Inspiration, Incubation and Innovation in Tier 2, Tier 3 districts.