Mr. Ganapati H. Bhat a son of farmer Mr. Harishchandra Bhat and Mrs. Jahnavi Bhat born on 22nd February 1980 at Karajagi, a remote village in Siddapur Taluq of Uttara Kannada district. He is associated with social development since 2001 when he was 21 years old! He has done his master’s degree in Political Science. In his early career, Mr. Bhat was associated with TRDC, RUDSET and CLACK where he was instrumental in achieving many key accomplishments like bringing back over 8000 school dropout students to school and mainstream society, dairy farming movement that helped around thousands of farmer families, implementation of ‘Tropical fruit tree conservation project’ in Uttara Kannada etc.

He is passionate about the upliftment of underprivileged. As a result, he has been selected as Paragon 100 fellow from Foundation for Youth Social Entrepreneurship, Beijing. This fellowship was given in 2009 to Asia Pacific’s most inspiring young entrepreneurs and social change makers. Upon gaining significant exposure of social-economic issues, potential solution, and the impact it could create, he was motivated to do it more aggression in his own unique way with unleashing his potential. With this context, he parted his way from Deshpande – R-SETI upon accomplishing many unique initiatives. He started working with MANUVIKASA, a non-governmental and non-profit organization with an intention to make the positive change in the lives of poor, women, farmers, children that are less fortunate but could do well if a helping hand is extended towards them.

Mr. Bhat possesses a sound knowledge on natural resource conservation, bio-diversity conservation, and women empowerment, rural development etc. Currently, he is heading MANUVIKASA as its Managing Trustee since 2010. Under his leadership, MANUVIKASA has developed over 3200 farm ponds, developed over 12000 soak pits at the hilly land to improve the percolation of the rainwater, rejuvenated 280 lakes impacting that collectively impact the lives of over 10000 farmers and 25000 acres of farm and forest land. Further to assist farmer community, he has promoted 1 Farmer Producer Company which assists over 5000 members every year through various service delivery, marketing, and value addition. Women empowerment initiatives have assisted over 30,000 women through collectivization under self-help groups, livelihood training and handholding, financial inclusion to the tune of around INR 52.45 Crore.

Mr. Bhat has the vision to rejuvenate 1000 lakes and assist 50,000 women through MANUVIKASA in coming years. During his stint with MANUVIKASA since 2002 until now, he has accomplished many more unique milestones that are remarkable in the space of grassroot nonprofit organizations working for the benefit of the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid.