Graminno Core Team

Graminno Core Team
The core team consists of workshop coordinators in the village and volunteer coordinators from the city. Both groups meet twice a month at the village workshop to plan and coordinate the activities.

Graminno Workshop Coordinators

The Graminno Community Makerspace Workshop is managed by a team of six to seven village youth. The team is led by Tushar and Avinash. For the workshop is located in a remote village with no connectivity, Tushar and Avinash work closely with the Graminno Volunteer Coordinators from the city.

Tushar and Sapna Karavade


Tushar, born and brought up in Atale is a role model for the residents of Atale. He is an all rounder, with skills in farming, animal husbandry, furniture design, home construction and rural development. Tushar is also an entrepreneur and has proven that rural entrepreneurship is economically sustainable and has beaten the norm of youth migrating to urban areas for earning a living.

Tushar's life partner Sapna is an expert cook and seamstress. She handles the meals for the team during workshops and also handles hospitality for all guests to the Graminno workshop. Sapna also designs and stiches hand made products such as cushions and covers for the Graminno furniture products.

Tushar leads the on-site team of Graminno in Atale.

Avinash Karavade

Avinash is the expert woodworking artist of the team. He has an eye for detail and every piece he works on is built with love and care. He does not mind spending hours on getting just the right finish on a piece of wood. He has a unique perspective on design.

Avinash is the son of one of the most talented and experienced farmer and animal rearer in the village - Gangaram Karavade. Gangaram is a personification of the adjective "green thumb" and anything he touches grows and thrives. Though Avinash has inherited these skills from his father, his favorite is still wood working.

Sakharam Mhabdi


Mr. Mhabdi is one of the senior most members of the Atale Gram Sabha. He is one of our primary advisors based in the village, and provides both moral and operational support to the team. He has years of experience in farming, animal husbandry, water management and other activities in the village.

Mr. Mhabdi also is an encyclopedia of stories about the village, the origins of the families, the animals and plants that form the rich biodiversity of the region, and traditional skills and techniques that have been passed on from generation to generation in the village.

Graminno Volunteer Coordinators

To support the Graminno initiative, a team of volunteer coordinators works to handle the technology training, fund raising, marketing and promotion and other activities that connect the Graminno team to the outside world.

Ashutosh Bijoor

Ashutosh is an adventurer by nature, mathematician by education and technologist by profession. Ash believes that technology is be an important lever for creating social impact. Ash was deeply inspired by his association with Vigyan Ashram, and took the opportunity to initiate Graminno as an important social impact initiative as CTO of Accion Labs.

Ash provides technology, strategic and operational guidance to Graminno.

VK Bharadwaj

VK, as we all refer to him, is a hard core techie, having played senior technical (VP/CTO/Consultant) roles in various organizations such as indya.com, ITNation, Urja Communications, id8labs, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Accion Labs. His journey in the last decade has been towards sustainable living and environment technologies. VK was a co-creator of the Sustainable Living Indians (Sulins) project, co-founder of Suryagram Eco-Village and is a core team member and advisor for Graminno. VK has also formally trained in permaculture and is a Fellow of Anant National University, having participated in their Built Environment program.

VK is an all round guide and mentor to the Graminno team!

Hemani Pandya


Hemani is a language expert, and is a teacher, translator and interpreter. Hemani teaches Russian as a foreign language to Indians and English as a foreign language to Russians. Hemani is also a practicing Yoga teacher. Hemani's endeavour is to grow a food forest. She and her son Dev, have built their home on a beautiful spot in Atale, the location of Graminno project. She is experimenting with natural farming techniques and has several experimental plantations around her home. Her home overlooks a stream that provides fresh spring water to nurture her and her plantations.

Hemani is a guide, ward and teacher for the children and women in the village, and they relate to her as a friend, philosopher and guide. She plays an important role of engaging the children and women in Graminno initiatives.