Tinytech Plants, founded in 1982 by Veljibhai Desai, focuses on creating affordable rural machinery influenced by Gandhian philosophy. The company, along with its associate Aadhunik Global Energy, manufactures and exports agricultural and renewable energy equipment, aiming to promote decentralized industries and self-reliance among entrepreneurs. This case study serves educational purposes in entrepreneurship, highlighting social entrepreneurship, frugal innovations, and the principles of Gandhian economics.

1. TINYTECH PLANTS: IS SMALL BEAUTIFUL?*
TinyTech’s story is about creating an affordable ecosystem making a difference to the people at the Bottom
of the Pyramid applying the Gandhian philosophy. TinyTech Plants was established in 1982 by Veljibhai
Desai, a mechanical engineer and a law graduate.The motive behind startingTinyTech was to develop and
manufacture affordable rural machineries. Desai a fervent Gandhian, imbibed Gandhian ideology on
industrialization in the conduct of his day-to-day business. Today, TinyTech is engaged in manufacture,
export and supply of a wide range of affordable agricultural process equipment. Another firm associated
with TinyTech is Aadhunik Global Energy, established in 2002, basically engaged in manufacture and
development of low-cost renewable energy technologies. The annual turnover of TinyTech in 2013–2014
was 4 crore (including the export business of Aadhunik Global Energy).
A strong belief in Gandhian philosophy of industrialization had inspired Desai to promulgate the Gandhian
idea of industrialization emphasizing on appropriate technologies. Desai had been sharing his views through
publications, speeches and seminars at educational institutions, especially in engineering colleges across the
country. Desai soon realized that it is a herculean task to effectively convince young engineering graduates
that – small family-owned techno-enterprises can compete and co-exist with large companies.
Desai’s conviction about small scale, decentralized rural industries is strong enough; yet he recognizes that his
intended thoughts on small industries, rural economy and family-owned organizations, perhaps, needs to be
more widely propagated in India so that more and more people can be self-reliant, independent entrepreneurs.
While Desai is contemplating on a few options, what are the other options to institutionalize Gandhian
philosophy of manufacturing?
Pedagogical Objectives
• To introduce students with the concepts of social entrepreneurship, Gandhian economics, frugal
innovations and advantages of decentralized industries
• To understand the differences between the traditional entrepreneurial process and the social
entrepreneurial process
• To draw attention towards various challenges faced by social entrepreneur
Case Positioning and Setting
This case study is fundamentally designed for a bachelor or master course in entrepreneurship, where social
entrepreneurship is included in the program. However, this case can also be used for teaching importance of
frugal innovations, importance of small scale industries, and Gandhian economics.
ABSTRACT
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Global Summit on
Management Cases
GSMC 2014
* Award Winning Case, GSMC 2014, IIM Raipur