Madurai :

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to wean international manufacturers from China with his ‘Make in India’ campaign, in Madurai an entrepreneur has made the first inroads, albeit with a humble battery-operated cart.

Tejus Motors, a firm based in Thirumangalam here, will supply indigenous battery carts to FreshWorld, a start-up venture in Bangalore that supplies vegetables to households directly from farms. FreshWorld has been importing battery-run cars from China but has now ordered 20 such vehicles from the Madurai firm. Tejus will supply the first lot of carts in a month, its managing partner P Girithar Raja said. “Our vehicles are fully indigenous. We make our own batteries and mould the chassis of the vehicles too,” he said.

Raja, at a session organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said time had come to prop up green technology and provide impetus to the industry such that it could manufacture vehicles that could readily ply on roads. The symposium – entitled ‘Clean Tech – Problems and Opportunities’ — pitched for use of green technology in new-age entrepreneurship.

In her keynote address, Mridula Ramesh, executive director of Sundaram textiles, said ‘clean tech’ provided several opportunities. And Tejus, which was put in touch with FreshWorld by Nativelead Foundation (a non-profit organization), wants to explore those as it has plans to manufacture battery-operated tractors which Raja says would help farmers in cutting costs incurred in transporting their produce.

Saying that entrepreneurship was the way forward, P Vasu, chairman, CII Madurai zone, noted: “It is predicted that India will have the largest employable population in the world by 2020. Entrepreneurship is the best way to utilize this resource.”

Shyam Menon, investment director, Infuse ventures (IIM-A), echoed similar sentiments and said start-ups were no longer limited to urban centres and could be initiated in villages too. “It is no longer related to IT and providing solutions to somebody sitting elsewhere. Now, you can become a start-up by finding solutions in water, energy and waste management in your own backyard and also help others in the process,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by Padmini Sivarajah, TNN / March 22nd, 2015