Chairman's Message

HARI OM,

It gives me immense pleasure to introduce you to my brain child, the SRK Institute of Management & Computer Education.

It has a sprawling campus spread over a stretch of 18 acres of undulated land between Sapeda and Ratnal, and equidistant from Bhuj and Gandhidham. Its awesome buildings beckon you like a magician’s hub from a long distance. It has beautiful interiors, state of the art equipment and apparatus electronic and gadgets an in depth scenario where eyes can rest in peace. And here you will spot jubilant youths walking firmly on their feet, jumping and frolicking , brimming with confidence and opening their eyes to an era of wisdom. The wisdom that they are taught to acquire at the Institute is aimed not only to equip them with the technical know-how of an ever-expanding world of trade, industry and technology, but also to mould them into conscientious, discriminating citizens of resurgent India that expects them to contribute their mite to its emergence as a superpower in the comity of advanced nations. The gen next we are training to take over from the current pool of experts and ideologues will have a vision in their eyes to look beyond the horizon into infinite and an urge to reach the moon and pluck the stars from the blue firmament.

Arjanbhai – As an Industrialist and Entrepreneur.

• Change your effort if success does not come your way.
• Avail yourself of opportunities.
• Aim high.
• Always be innovative.
• Entrepreneurs are born not made.
• Humility and Liberalism.
• Maintain your dignity.

There is a saying that the seeds betray how tall a plant would grow. That Arjanbhai would grow into an industrialist was reflected in the very child like activities he indulged in. He would dig pitches on road sides and in fields to store rain water in them, monitor water turning into vapour depositing silt on the base and later solidifying in the shape of loose salt. He would cleanse the dirt on them to taste edible. The entire process was very crude, and could be even called ludicrous as if he were trying to pump the ocean dry. But it was the endeavour in manufacturing salt in this incredible manner that was remarkable. When engaged in this indigenous manner, Arjanbhai betrayed a rare interest and dedication, not commonly found in children of his age.

Making salt was, off course, Arjanbhai’s primary interest but as the Karmaniketan Trust expanded it incorporated a number of other industrial activities in all of which Arjnabhai left in delible mark of his genius. Some of the major industrial activities with which Neelkanth group is associated are:

1. Neelkanth Salt Supply Co.
2. Neelkanth Enterprise.
3. Patel Construction Co.
4. Jai Jogni Salt Industries.
5. Shree Ram Enterprise.
6. Ahir Salt and Allied Prod. Pvt. Ltd.
7. Neelkanth Coal Mfg. Pvt. Ltd.
8. SRK Chemicals.
9. Neelkanth Infrastructure Ltd.
10. Mihir & Co.
11. Gujarat Solar Salt.
12. Kandla Packaging Pvt. Ltd.

Arjanbhai has been a strong believer in inculcating entrepreneurial skills among the people around him, students or farmers or milkman. He organizes demonstrations and seminars and workshops to instil among the people entrepreneurship skill, so they could stand on their own and set up industries or micro enterprises profitable living.

The above miscellaneous industries that the Neelkanth Group set-up over the years have been making steady progress and are contributing significantly to the industrial growth and prosperity of the State. The driving force behind all of them is not to mint money as is the natural propensity of most industries, but to bring about social welfare and prosperity to the nation.

Arjanbhai – A Philanthropist.

• Materialise your dreams.
• Stick to your words.
• Dedicate yourself to service of humanity.
• Cooperation is key to success.
• A secularist to the cane.
• Humility and Liberalism.
• Change world around, howsoever small your arena be.
• Be charitable and never seek return.
• Be helpful to one and all.

Social Entrepreneurship commonly connotes pursuit of opportunities, innovation and change agency, discipline and accountability with notion of value, and resource fullness, if we were to combine the basic concepts of Peter Drucker, Schumpeter, Say and Stevenson to comprehend a full understanding of the term. The issue here where to fit in Arjanbhai. The extraordinary thing about him is that he imbibes in his personality all the four traits, which is a rare phenomenon to come across. He is a social entrepreneur with a difference. He has an urge to transform the society in such a way that none of its sectors may look lop-sided in development as compared to other sectors. This explains his emphasis on girl education. Educating girls of a particular community, Macchoya Ahir community for example, is not by itself going to bring about any up liftment of the women foke in general; but a beginning has to be made somewhere, and it is in this light that Arjanbhai's effort to educate girls of his community through establishment institutions like KVM is to be viewed.

Arjanbhai's long term mission is to promote female education centres for girls of other communities as well, but since a number of agencies have to be involved in such a massive drive. The spate of growth will naturally be slow. What is important is not how slow or fast a transformation is taking place – the most important thing to decipher is whether the drive, the spirit to sustain the moment and keep it going is intact. Arjanbhai didnot want that the benefit of female education should not permeate to other sections of the Ahir community. He has been a champion of female education, perhaps as much as Mahatma Phule was, but a start have to be made at the modest level. He had planned that the seats tha twould remain vacant would be offered to students of other Ahir community girls. However the craze was so big that no seats ever remained vacant at entry levels at the KVM, resulting in the door for entry of other Ahir community girl to school being closed. The KVM has earned repute for itself for its high standard of education, its discipline and performance at secondary and higher secondary examination levles.

Arjanbhai's effort to engage as many people in the massive task of social change and transformation as possible is reflective of his cooperative spirit. Once he sets a goal before himself, there is no going back, whatever the hurdle. The small village of Nagavaladia where grew up is not a place where people have distinguished themselves in education, social and charitable work, medical service or hi-tech areas. But it presents a wonderful spectacle of a group of people having combined together to make life easy and comfortable to them. It has a Seva Sahakari Mandali, a Milk Producer Co Op society, a Saving and Credit Co op Society, a Gaushala Panjarapor Charitable Trust, and a Amul milk distribution centre. The inmates of the village hardly ever need to go out for any banking and economic empowerment chores.

At Jogninar a village on the sea cost not far from nagavaladia, Arjanbhai has set up a Sarvajanik Rural Vikas Trust under whose aegis a primary level school for the children of the salt pan workers with a provision for free mid day meals is run. The complex has a temple of Mata Jogni where thousands of devotees from from all over the district flocks in for the deity’s blessings and have meals for prasad. The whole tract of land has been developed as an oasis in a desert where all round the year people gather in large number with the children to spend their leisure time under shady trees making revelries in the amusement parks.

It appears nature had earmarked a role for Arjanbhai to play in the field of rural up liftmen. A massive earthquake of a magnitude of 7.2 on the rector scale literally dazed the district of Kutch on 26th January 2001 to shambles. The entire village of Nagavaladia, like other big and small villages in Kutch and semi urban and urban area like Anjar, Gandhdihdam, Bhachau, Rapar and Bhuj had been dashed to the ground with colossal loses of life and property. The devastation was so extensive that it appeared it would take years to restore the district to its original shape. Help rushed in from all quarters in the world. But the initiative for the reconstruction had to emerge from among the affected people themselves.

It was at this Juncture that Arjanbhai jumped into the arena to start rehabilitation and reconstruction of his damaged village. He ran into one Mr. Prem from Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief (Eficor) who had descended on the ravaged village from down south of India to help reconstruct the damaged country side of Kutch. Arjanbhai and Prem took liking to each other and moved shoulder to shoulder in not only restoring the village to its original frame but also providing it with new amenities like earthquake proof structures, open playgrounds, clean and vide roads and alleys etc. Mr. Prem found in Arjanbhai's eyes a flame that could dispel darkness and lead to bright prospects ahead.

26th January, 2001 earthquake, particularly the burying of around 400 school kids shouting victory to the nation under the debris of houses along road side as projected on the TV screens all over the world brought in innumerable agencies and leaders and philanthropies to bring succour to the affected people. It was in connection with whirlwind tour to the damaged villages in around Nagavaladia that Arjanbhai happened to meet reverend Rameshbhai Oza reverentially addressed as Bhaishree, from Porbandar. Bhaishree had felt the pang of affected people of Kutch and had come to see what relief his Sandipani Trust could organize for the affected. He found in Arjanbhai's eyes a true concern for ameliorating the sufferings of the people and entrusted him with a task of organizing relief for the quake – affected on his behalf. It did not long for reverend Bahishree to judge the kind of dedicated person Arjnabhai was.

This trust forged an everlasting relationship between Bhaishree and Arjanbhai which has been going stronger and firmer as time passes on. Arjanbhai has over the years emerged as one of the Bhaishree's truest torch bearers and lieutenants in spreading his message of love and compassion among the people in Gujarat. Bhaishree entrusted Arjanbhai with the reconstruction of villages like Radhanagar, Gopalnagar etc which he executed marvellously, successfully, earning a profuse words of praise the Bhaishree.

Arjanbhai strongly believed that for industries to grow, a viable stock pile of technically trained man power had to be provided. In addition, there were large public sector undertakings like the Kandla Port Trust and the Indian Farmers Fertilizers Co Op Society (IFFCO), where trained personnel at managerial and other higher executive levels were dearly needed.

Arround this post earthquake period the Government came forward with a number of schemes to set up industries in the district, so as to boost the speed of economic reconstruction and rehabilitation of the quake affected people. An important motive behind it was to provide jobs to the sons of the soil for menial and semi skilled jobs. There weren't enough technically qualified young boys in the district to mend even semi skilled jobs. This prompted Arjanbhai to set up an institution where training could be provided to young boys and girls at lower and middle management levels with some computer expertise. In course of a discussion with the author, Arjanbhai revealed that he had acquired the land at Sapeda before the earthquake 2001 with a view to setting up a secondary level school for his community children. In view of the urgency to provide semi technical personnel for the industries around, Arjanbhai changed his mind and decided to open a management cum computer education institute, the SRK Institute of Management and Computer Education, in memory of his father Sadhabhai Ramjibhai Kangad at graduate/ post graduate level so that students of the huge hinterland arround may not have to go to far off places like Rajkot or Ahmedabad. The foundation stone of the institute was laid by reverend Bhaishree Rameshbhai Oza on ____________and the institute started functioning in full swing from session 2006-07 under the Kranti Guru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kachchh University, Bhuj. With passage of time and in compliance of some technical requirements, the institute also got simultaneously affiliated to Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad and the Bhimraou Ambedkar Open University.

Arjanbhai has always been a dreamer with a different kind of vision. Had he just thought of minting money, he would have ranked amount the most affluent people in the state. The NEELKANTH group of industries which he had a total turnover of approximately Rs.______________which would easily placed him as among the richest of man in the state. However Arjanbhai was always stirred by a message which his father had left him that he had to pay back to the society for what he had received from it in double the measure. Arjnabhai's social entrepreneurship rests on this plank. Like a magician who has many tricks to entertain people with, Arjanbhai perhaps has many missions up his sleeves which only time will reveal.