nagpur the need for going back to villages for the development of the country has been identified even by pm narendra modi following through on this thought process some budding entrepreneurs innovators and engineers visited a village to explore ideas for setting up a villagebased enterprise they came up with several such ideas under the guidance of social entrepreneur pradeep lokhande the annual entrepreneurship summit of visvesvaraya national institute of technology vnit consortium an event titled swades was conducted for the first time this year more than 50 engineering students formed teams and went around panchgaon village in umrer interacting with the villagers to understand their everyday problems from utilizing the abundant wind energy and purifying rain water to provide drinking water to utilizing the human and natural resources available in the village the students came up with some ideas that they assured the rural folk would not change their environment and atmosphere too much theres no point solving rural problems sitting cozily in a city the best part about this event was that all participants not only visited the village but also spoke to the residents the kids no longer see these as problems but rather as opportunities said lokhande he also said what made him extremely happy was that some students came to him towards the end of the visit saying that they now realized the needs of the rural sector and were keen to be of help his team will also help implement the winning ideas in the village the inspiration behind swades was the jagriti yatra on which two of the students from vnit anil kumar reddy and sandeep sharma had gone last year speaking about the villagers reactions to their initiative anil said many of the elders said they didnt want us to bring any change in the village they were not too optimistic about the initiative they actually were scared of the suggested changes as they were happy with their lifestyle he said the students too werent looking towards bringing these changes many of the participants were visiting a village for the first time and their ideas about rural life were based on what popular media depicts several of them said the visit had changed their perspective they see the villages as an economic zone with high potential at the same time they understand the need to conserve things that the villagers hold dear including the ecology and traditions said sandeeprural relations belonging to a small village called wai in satara district pradeep lokahnde could have chosen what most people in his situation would graduating getting a decent job and relocating himself and his family into the lap of urban comforts instead right after completing bcom he undertook a journey that he calls the discovery of real india two decades later he continues this journey even as he contributes to the development of 49000 villages across the country through his venture rural relations he has helped take technology to the villages his team