In India and the world over, life usually presents more obstacles in the path of a woman than her male counterpart trying to achieve similar objectives in life; a number of extra hurdles that she must overcome to reach the same destination. It was not different for Mrs. Vaishali Patil. Born in Dayal Nagar (Wardha, Maharashtra), to a family with limited means, Vaishali’s life was quite difficult from the word go. She had to give up on her studies as soon as she completed her secondary education because her parents would not be able to afford higher education for her.

Hailing from the rural setup of Pimpalgaon village from Gangapur tehsil of Aurangabad district in the State of Maharashtra. I established a company that manufactures a diverse range of agriculture spray pumps. Being raised in a farming community, I witnessed many challenges faced by the farmers. This led me to manufacture the spray pumps for farmers. These pumps were meticulously designed, integrating wheels, making women farmers enable for spray operations. These pumps are eco-friendly as they are not based on diesel or petrol.

Ragu’s mentor Mr. Victor Joseph has been a pillar of support for Ragu right from the beginning. He especially helped him out during the period when the number of business orders Ragu was getting had become difficult for him to handle. His supply chain could not meet the demands of his customers. On Mr. Joseph’s advice, Ragu agreed to experiment with innovation and wanted to invest in mechanising the production process. His research revealed that all units in the market, like Ragu’s, were daily churning out 1000 Cable Turfs manually. He realised that inputs from his local market was not going to be enough for the scale of supply he was seeking. Ragu planned to scale up his production of turfs from 1000 to 30,000 per day. To do this, he travelled to Coimbatore and visited Akshaya Industries, a prominent machinery manufacturer, spent fifty 50 days with their technical team and accomplished in customising a “Cement Turf Manufacturing Machine” that would serve his needs.