Irfan Alam is a 30-year-old social entrepreneur and founder of SammaaN Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to help rickshaw pullers in India. He graduated from IIM-Ahmadabad and founded SammaaN Foundation in 2007 with 100 rickshaws and pullers, and it has now grown to over 3 lakh registered pullers across 7 Indian states. SammaaN Foundation provides services like affordable rickshaws, loans, insurance, and skills training to improve the lives and incomes of rickshaw pullers. Irfan Alam has received many awards and accolades for his work in transforming and modernizing the rickshaw pulling

1. Founder and Chairman of SammaaN Foundation®
My Favourite Entrepreneur Mr. Irfan Alam.
Age – 30 Yrs.
Alumni of IIM-Ahmadabad.

2. Why Mr. Irfan Alam is My Favourite Entrepreneur?
I used to get teased about my name in my teenage by my mates and
acquaintance. My name is Abdul Sharique, if you pronounce it in Hindi it
will become “Sharik”, and if you try to speak my name repeatedly it will
sound “Rik-sha” which is alike “Rickshaw” in Hindi. I used to be bright,
enthusiastic, optimistic and sensitive person, so whenever they tease me
by calling “Rik-sha” I try to correlate it with something positive.
It was a summer of 2005 or 06, I am not sure. I was heading towards
my home on rickshaw from bank. I was bit upset because of spat with my
family member on mundane matter. Suddenly I heard someone is calling
me. It was one of my alumni of Zila High school, Purnea. I told rickshaw-
wala (rickshaw puller) to park aside for a few moments. My friend told me
“Where Rick-sha is going on rickshaw”. After telling my friend goodbye,
I started thinking about his remarks. Suddenly an idea popped in my mind
to do something good for the sake of rickshaw pullers, and it will be a slap
on face of those who keep teasing you. I started thinking about the welfare
of rickshaw puller and opportunity to give and earn status and money.
In this process what I planned is quite exact as the concept of IIM
Ahmadabad alumnus and social entrepreneur Mr. Irfan Alam the founder
of “Summaan Foundation” a non-profit organisation. When I read an
article about him, I felt disheartened for an interval. However, after a
while started to think positively. I consoled myself “It’s nice that someone
is implementing idea which is similar to yours. Two people can think in
same way. You have an innovative brain and ideas always pop out of your

3. mind. Ideas and opportunities are like buses, there is always another one
coming. Thinking and implementation are to different thing. So, hats-off
to Mr. Irfan Alam”. From that very day he became my favourite
entrepreneur and decided to complete my remaining studies to uplift the
condition of poor fellows of our society with tons of innovative ideas. I
have a mantra think about others and success will be yours.
Mr. Irfan Alam popularly known as the “Rickshaw man of Bihar”. A
IIM-alumnus and Economics graduate from Begusarai district of Bihar.
After completing his education he could have earned a lot by taking up a
job as a manager in any good company but he founded SammaaN
Foundation to work on his innovative idea. His idea was to systematize the
working of all rickshaw pullers by bringing them under one roof.
On 25th
January 2007 he founded “SammaaN Foundation” with
around 100 rickshaws and pullers and today he has around 3 Lakhs pullers
registered under him. According to him, in India there are unions for
everyone except rickshaw pullers, so he took their cause and modernized
rickshaw pulling sector (rickshaw pullers comprise 30% in urban
transport). His efforts bared fruit and rickshaw pullers started to earn more
due to his efforts.
Active in seven states and growing. The states are Bihar, Jharkhand,
Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. He wants
to cover 10 million rickshaw pullers, who in search of employment come
to cities and start pulling rickshaws. He wants to cover 10 million
rickshaw pullers, who in search of employment come to cities and start
pulling rickshaws. He wants to uplift the condition of these poor fellows.

4. Irfan Alam provides Rickshaw-pullers with the following services –
1. He offered them rickshaw at a nominal rent (Rs. 10 -20 depending
upon cities). Earlier these pullers used to pull hired rickshaw for Rs
50 per day. Now by paying a nominal amount they started saving a
large amount.
2. He got banks to offer them loans, initially he invested 10 lakh rupees
to start this and as he became popular, funds started to flow. As
pullers started to earn more they are now in a position to pay their
instalments.
3. He designed new rickshaws which have shelves which can carry
newspaper, mineral water, and other small items for sale such as
mobile recharge coupons, courier collections, bill collections and
payments, etc. To make the ride more comfortable and entertaining he
provided them with music, magazine, and first aid kits and thus
transformed this into a marketing engine.
4. He provided rickshaws with advertisement. He designed the rickshaw
in such a way that it provided ample space for ads. The revenue of
which is divided equally between the puller and SammaaN. This adds
to the income of the rickshaw puller who earns from ads and the
sales.
5. For purpose of designing, he established a fully fledged R&D center
in Patna, for this purpose he has employed 3 engineers and more than
15 workers who work so as to bring innovation in rickshaw models so
that they become more profitable and user friendly.
6. Besides these benefits Sammaan provides free uniform to all
registered pullers, and a saving banks account from the day they are
registered.
7. They cover accidental insurance amounting to Rs 1 lakh to pullers
and the commuters.
8. Provides books to their children and conducts evening classes for
pullers and their children under the social program “Sammaan
Gyaan”.
9. Gives training in occupational skills to the wifes of operators, such as
embroidery, stitching and tailoring.
10. They share a part of the income earned through value added services
with the pullers, thus maintaining ethics.

5. Awards & Acclamations achieved by Mr. Irfan Alam:
 HHee aatttteennddeedd mmaannyy sseemmiinnaarrss aanndd lleeccttuurreess iinn vvaarriioouuss
uunniivveerrssiittiieess aaccrroossss tthhee gglloobbee lliikkee JJoohhnn FF.. KKeennnneeddyy
SScchhooooll ooff GGoovveerrnnmmeenntt,, HHaarrvvaarrdd bbuussiinneessss SScchhooooll aanndd
SSttaannffoorrdd UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, IInnddiiaann IInnssttiittuuttee ooff TTeecchhnnoollooggyy,,
IInnddiiaann IInnssttiittuuttee ooff MMaannaaggeemmeenntt,, MMaannaaggeemmeenntt
DDeevveellooppmmeenntt IInnssttiittuuttee eettcc....
 MMrr.. IIrrffaann AAllaamm hhaadd bbeeeenn iinnvviitteedd ffoorr PPrreessiiddeennttiiaall
SSuummmmiitt,, 22001100 aatt WWaasshhiinnggttoonn bbyy tthhee UUSS
PPrreessiiddeenntt BBaarraacckk OObbaammaa..
 WWiinnnneerr ooff BBuussiinneessss WWoorrlldd’’ss ““MMoosstt pprroommiissiinngg
EEnnttrreepprreenneeuurr AAwwaarrdd””..
 WWiinnnneerr ooff ““YYoouunngg IInnddiiaann lleeaaddeerr”” aawwaarrdd bbyy CCNNNN--IIBBNN..
 HHee hhaass bbeeeenn sseelleecctteedd aammoonngg ::
oo ““4400 YYoouutthh iiccoonnss ooff IInnddiiaa”” bbyy IInnddiiaa TTooddaayy,,
oo ““2244 YYoouutthh iiccoonnss ooff IInnddiiaa”” bbyy IInnddiiaa TTooddaayy AAssppiirree
oo IInnddiiaa’’ss BBeesstt 3300 YYoouutthhss”” bbyy TTiimmeess ooff IInnddiiaa..
 FFeeaattuurreedd iinn tthhee TThhee GGuuaarrddiiaann,, LLoonnddoonn aanndd TThhee
EEccoonnoommiisstt,,
 HHee iiss aa ffiinnaalliisstt ooff TTAATTAA NNEENN ““HHootttteesstt SSttaarrtt--uuppss
AAwwaarrddss””
 WWiinnnneerr ooff ““WWoorrlldd IInnnnoovvaattiioonn AAwwaarrdd””..
 HHee iiss tthhee wwiinnnneerr ooff BBuussiinneessss WWoorrlldd’’ss ““MMoosstt PPrroommiissiinngg
EEnnttrreepprreenneeuurr AAwwaarrdd””..
 HHee wwaass sseelleecctteedd aass aann ““AAsshhookkaa FFeellllooww iinn 22001100””..

6. Organisations run under the umbrella of SummaaN Foundation:
 SammaaN Women Association- Which provides education,
training and employment opportunities for women.
 MATiNS Enterprise - An interactive outdoor advertising,
marketing and portfolio management company.
Ambitions of SammaaN Foundation:
 As per the statement made by the chairman of SammaaN
Foundation, “We see ourselves becoming the first social enterprise
to go public, and we've set the clock for 2012. By 2015, we aim to
become a globally listed company.”
 Next in line is low cost housing for rickshaw operators, carbon
trading opportunities. The company is expecting 400 per cent
growth this year which will increase its turnover manifold from the
current Rs one million.

7. Model Rickshaw of SammaN Foundation
With fellow members of the foundation (Rickshaw-pullers)

8. Partners of SammaaN Foundation

9. CONCLUSION
Now with his hard work and dedication this 30 year old, young
entrepreneur has showed the world that if you have vision, you
can achieve the unachievable. Now as he is reaching heights his
clients are also increasing and big names such as Punjab National
Bank (PNB), HT, Bisleri, Bharti Airtel, Dena bank etc are joining
his corporate social sustainability model.