NEW YORK CITY, NY (TIP): Fifty-Two Indian Americans have adopted their native villages to turn them into smart villages. The venture was the result of a 15,452-km road journey taken by Jagat Shah, an Ahmedabad-based trade and business consultant, from June to September this year. The aim was to connect entrepreneurs of the two countries with each other in a bid to encourage investments and create jobs.

Shah traveled across 35 cities in 24 states of the U.S. in 78 days as part of his multi-nation mission called Mentor on Road (MoR). The marathon, which had the theme Great America–New India, started on June 4 and ended on Sept. 17.

“Even former Indian Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who interacted with us at one of our events in the U.S., has adopted his native village,” Shah was quoted as saying at the concluding ceremony of his journey held at New York on Sept. 19.

“When the foundations of the way and ease of doing business started changing since 2014, it was the call from the nation that change and awareness at grass-root level is a must. With the new vision of “Digital India”, “Stand Up India – Start Up India”, “Skill India”, “Smart Cities” and “Swacch Bharat (Clean India)”, I decided to go to the grassroots of India to realize this audacious dream gifted to us by Hon. Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. I have completed the India tour of 35 cities in 25 states driving 9500 KMs and met 10,000+ companies to understand their challenges & offer solutions on a global scale”, he wrote on Mentor on Road website.

The initiative was undertaken with the sponsorship of the US Commercial Service (USCS); Startup India, a mission of the Indian Ministry of Commerce; the US-India Importers’ Council; and Etihad Airways.

During the journey, Shah interacted with nearly 4,400 small and medium entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs and startups in the United States to make them aware of business opportunities and ease of doing business with India in different sectors.

His presentation included the following topics:

Firsthand information on Indian market dynamics

Best prospect sectors in India for a U.S. exporter

Impact of Demonetization and Goods and Service tax (GST) on the U.S. exporters

Jagat Shah studied MBA (International trade) graduating from Delhi University & is a certified cluster development practitioner, trained & certified by United Nations – UNIDO at Turin, Italy. He has additionally graduated in Diamond technology from Indian Diamond Institute (IDI), Surat. He is a certified management consultant (CMC) from ICMCI, USA.