In an effort to raise funds for social causes, I embarked upon a cross-country road tour covering a distance of 16000 kms for nearly two months, tracing the boundaries of India, which inspired the name of the initiative — Garlanding India.

The first edition of the initiative in 2014 brought funds of Rs 12 lakhs to 23 partner NGOs as donations from hundreds of folk who tracked the journey on my website. There were no corporate sponsors but along the route, strangers, friends and relatives took me in for the night, provided dinner, bed and breakfast; and set me off on the road the next day with prayers and a packed lunch; Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians my hosts represented every faith.

Inspired by this effort, a number of people expressed interest in being part of a second edition and thus Garlanding India 2.0 was born. The design was tweaked so that other travellers would be involved, and in larger numbers. The country was divided into four distinct segments. Volunteer bike riders would ride each segment, raising funds for social causes. Mimicking the original Garlanding India, the riders would be hosted by volunteer hosts.

The focus of Garlanding India 2.0 is on raising funds for children. Ekjut, an NGO doing commendable work in the areas of infant health and nutrition is one of the beneficiaries. Increasingly, with sports catching on in India in a big way, excellence in the field provides a ray of hope for the youth.

Therefore the other four beneficiaries of Garlanding India 2.0 are wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s Wrestling Academy in his village of Bali in Haryana, track and field athlete PT Usha’s Usha School of Athletics, in Balussery in Kerala, Indian Olympic boxer Mary Kom’s Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation in remote Imphal and Olympic Gold Quest, the organisation founded by sportspersons Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone. The focus was on rural India and on other sports beyond cricket.

Because the emphasis was on youth and sports, and since many of the riders are MBAs from India’s top institutes we got the involvement of universities, IITs and IIMs. The riders of Southern Spin, the southern segment, were flagged off from IIM Bangalore on 19 December 2017. Four bike riders — Ankur, Aniruddha, Shannon and Hemanshu — rode for 10 days across South India.

Along the route they were hosted by strangers, IIM Kozhikode and IIM Trichy. The riders of the Eastern Essay, the north-east segment — Ambika, Arpit, Joslyn, Jayesh and Madhav — all MBA students of the graduating batch of XLRI, flagged off from IIM Kolkata on 8 March.

Over the two weeks of the ride they too were hosted by IIT Guwahati, IIM Shillong and Assam University. The riders of both segments had interactions with students of their host institutions. Through these interactions and other engagements with media and public, the riders spread the message of health, nutrition and sports.

The Northern and Western segments are planned for later in the year. Crowd-funding platform Dreamwallets, on a pro bono basis, is helping us raise funds. Potential donors can visit: www.garlandingindia.com. We have had donations big and small coming in from all over the country. And we had our first corporate supporter— Indiabulls, coming on board during the Eastern Essay.

The writer is professor of finance, XLRI Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur