AHMEDABAD: In 1982, Veljibhai Desai, a mechanical engineer in his 40s, summoned enough courage to leave his job and set up a venture to manufacture miniature industrial machines named Tiny Tech Plants.

Rajkot-based Desai was driven by his dream of following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi in empowering villages. His vision was clear ­ he would only provide machinery for rural areas that would be run by a single person costing minimal investment. For himself, he set a rule -he would never expand out side Rajkot, would never borrow money or go after profits and expansion. Today, 33 years later, Desai's brainchild is not only flourising in Gujarat as a successful model of decentralization but sells in 111 foreign shores -primarily African countries. It is included as a successful case of social entrepreneurship in IIM Indore and Ahmedabad.

Desai, now 73, makes mini versions of oil mills, grinding mills, biogas plant, chaff cutter, potato banana wafer making machine, peanut butter extractor and solar cooker. He has invented specific machines such as palm oil extractor and a ma chine for extracting coconut kernel. All these machines run on half a horsepower to 10 horsepower (0.4 to 7.5 Kw) input. His tiny steam engines run on waste and biomass are lighting up tiny hamlets in India. He was content when his steam engine lit up 200 homes in Dalbhanga village in Naxal-hit Saraikela-Kharasawan in Jharkhand.

"Key issues plaguing India including poverty , unemployment and exploitation are born of unchecked industrialization.Industries fuel urbanisation by breaking villages that are primary growth engine for the country," he says. Desai says he miniaturizes technology used in mega plants and makes it affordable and effective for rural setting. Lathe industry in Rajkot helps him design and manufacture customized parts.

Desai's most successful experiment was with oil mills as it works on principal of scale."Conventional mills require tons of seeds for effective operations while tiny mills can process 50 to 100 kg of seeds at a low investment. We realized scale was not just our problem when we started getting queries from African nations for oil mills and other machines," he says. International business helped Rajkot-based industrialist Veljibhai Desai to sustain his Tiny Tech Plants that manufactures miniature industrial machines.

"The purchase process took months when our price quoted in dollars would go up. This became our profit and kept the enterprise running," says Desai. The firm has exported over 700 oil mills and other machines in two decades, mostly to African countries.

Desai became subject of an award-winning case at Global Summit on Management Cases held at IIM Raipur in 2014 where it was presented by Professor Patturaja Selvaraj of IIM Indore and Malay Patel, academic associate at IIM Ahmedabad.

This year, it has got inclusion in IIM-A as classic case of social entrepreneurship -the case predominately consists concept of Gandhian economics, frugal innovations and advantages of decentralization of economies. "Desai puts humans at the centre of his business. Today we are living in the world where 50% of the wealth is accumulated by 1% of our global population creating disparity and exploitation. What interested me in the case was Desai's idea of tiny machines that can work in Indian context to make self reliant and independent entrepreneurs," he says. Providing context, Patel says that Mahatma Gandhi mentions machines in following words ­ "I hate the passion for machines which work upon diminishing manpower. Some talk about machines which could spare manpower when thousands of people are thrown jobless on the streets. I want wealth to be accumulated not just in a few hands but for all the people in the world."