Cool Bihari: The Boy from Siwan..

Its takes courage to break the shackles of inertia and create a new identity for a place like siwan which has been always been notoriously labeled as a badland due to the nefarious deeds of the likes of Shahbuddin.But as they say the lotus blooms in the backwaters of Siwan and the boy has just set the right example for many to emulate.

Telegraph reports about Niraml kumar who dreams of changing the lives of people of his state Bihar with the power of his ideas. Like many at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the 26-year-old doesn’t aspire to a Wall Street job. However, his eyes flash with the big dream he’s nurturing.

A budding entrepreneur, he wants to use advanced technology to create a one-stop provider of basic facilities. The building blocks of his venture — Community Information and Communication Centre — will be in place by September. Over time, the centre will offer health care, education and entertainment in villages.

Nirmal, in the first year of his MBA course after having cleared the gruelling CAT last year, has made up his mind to opt out of placements, due in the spring of 2008. Showing the precision of a corporate strategist, the diminutive student predicts an annual turnover of over Rs 2,000 crore for his centre in 13 years. His aim is to be a globally recognised figure in rural development. That ambition has been emblazoned in red on a chart in his hostel.“I am going to set up a profit-making company that will work in the rural areas. The pilot projects will begin in Chhapra, Siwan and Gopalganj before the experiment is repeated in all Bimaru states,” said Nirmal.

Offers for financial assistance to set up the Rs 5-crore centre have already started flowing from overseas financiers. Nirmal has made presentations on his plan to over two dozen IAS officers, banks and venture capitalists. Three professors, including one from IIT, are helping him take his idea from the drawing board to the dust bowls.

“The profit that I will make will be ploughed back,” says the son of a school teacher, who hadn’t heard about IIM until he graduated.

He was teaching at a private institute in Hyderabad when he learnt that some of his friends were preparing for CAT. The possibility of becoming an entrepreneur excited him, and he realised a degree from the top B-school would stand him in good stead. Kudos …Way to go Nirmal !!!