Lakshmi Venkatesan, Founding Trustee of BYST, on how the JRD Tata Awards 2025 are spotlighting Grampreneurs—rural innovators transforming India’s economy through mentorship and enterprise.

Lakshmi Venkatesan, Founding Trustee of BYSTIn an era obsessed with unicorns and startup valuations, it is easy to overlook the quiet revolution brewing in India’s hinterland. The 2025 edition of the JRD Tata Awards, organised by the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) on July 29, turned the spotlight toward a different kind of innovator — the Grampreneur. These are micro-entrepreneurs from rural and semi-urban India who, with modest resources and immense resolve, are redefining what it means to build from the grassroots.At the heart of this movement is Lakshmi V. Venkatesan, Founding and Managing Trustee of BYST, who left behind a career in science and corporate world to mentor a generation of young Indians into self-made job creators…read more