RAJESH SOLANKI : IMPECCABLE
It starts with a dream, add action and perseverance, and it ends up becoming a reality. A little boy from Vangaon, a village in Palghar, with dreams in his eyes to start a business, set up his own company, fighting all odds and rising strong to make it big in life.
Rajesh Solanki spent his impressionable years in Vangaon and then moved to Ambernath, courtesy of his father’s transfer, who was a government employee.Hailing from a typical middle class, Rajesh always wanted to start his business. He did not have a business background as such apart from his maternal uncle, who was self-employed. “My father believed that Business Symbolizes Progress,” says Rajesh.
He completed his Diploma in Instrumentation from VPM Polytechnic College in Thane and soon after that started working as an apprentice. “I worked for a big company, everything was good there, but the only drawback was that I hardly got an opportunity to learn. My main aim to do a job was to gather as muchknowledge as possible. Since I was not learning anything there, I quit in one and a half months,” he adds.
After that, Rajesh was again looking for a job. He went to a company however there were no immediate vacancies there. When he was there, he saw a consignment of goods, which was apparently required to be transported to Mahad& for some reason, the person, who was responsible for the transportation was not available. Grabbing this opportunity with both hands, Rajesh offered to do the needful. The interviewer agreed and the next day Rajesh transported the goods to Mahad. He not only transported the goods but also started working on the site. “I worked with this company for close to two and a half years”. I learnt many things therealso I did different jobs which helped me to gain an all-round perspective of things,” Rajesh explains.
In that company, there were some senior people who wanted to start their own business. They knew about Rajesh and his desire to do business. They approached him and Rajesh agreed. It was decided that the senior people would join the business as soon as they get their first project. Meanwhile, Rajesh had quit his job and was full-fledged involved in the business. After close to six months, when Rajesh could not bag a project, the senior people from his former organization, gave up the idea of business and started working for big companies. The business which was going to be a four-person game ended up being a sole proprietorship.
In 1995, the founding stone of Miraj Instrumentation Services (I) Pvt. Ltd. was laid. The first few projects helped Rajesh to breakeven. For a couple of years, he could only manage to get small jobs.Finally, all is effort and hard work paid off when he bagged the Reliance Jamnagar Plant Project. Though Reliance had its contractors for the plant, the cyclone caught them off guardand none of the workers are ready to work because of the fear of deadly cyclone and the giant corporation was looking for a new contractor. Balaji, who used to be Electrical and Instrumentation Head at Cadbury in Thane referred Rajesh to Reliance. Rajesh had worked on a Cadbury project in his previous job and during that time he gotto know Balaji.
Reliance was just the start. It was followed by L&T and Kellogg’s. Rajesh struck lucrative deals with these companies. After working a fair bit in India, Rajesh started getting global opportunities.
“It was L&T again. The company wanted a contractor for its work in Sri Lanka. During that period LTTE was active in Sri Lanka, and because of this reason they could not get the required personnel. L&T approached me and with no hesitation I decided to pounce on this opportunity. I submitted a tentative budget, and the company was happy that it was half of its expectations,” recollects Rajesh.After Sri Lanka, Miraj Instrumentation conducted successful projects in Dubai, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Libya, Iraq, Sharjah, Oman, among other countries.
With a workforce of close to 1000, clients in excess of 100, and projects over 200, Miraj Instrumentation is going from strength to strength. It has served various industries like Oil and Gas, Power, Fertilizer, Chemical, Water, Life science, Refineries, Steel Plants, LNG Terminals, Cement Plants, FMCG & Manufacturing Plants, Agro-based Industries, Beverages & Distilleries etc. Its reputation is backed by a high level of commitment towards its customers. This is continuously sustained by great efforts made by its highly qualified and trained team of professional engineers and managers. In a span of 25 years, it has become one of the leading companies providing Electrical and Instrumentation Services across India and GCC countries.
Social initiatives of Ek Udaan
Under the umbrella of ‘Ek Udaan’, Rajesh Solanki and Jayashree Solanki have formed a trust to provide capital to the budding and upcoming businessmen and businesswomen hailing from financially humble backgrounds. The objective is to provide encouragement to the entrepreneurs and offer wings to their dreams to fly high. ‘Ek Udaan’ is currently in the lookout for such budding entrepreneurs whom they can help.
The other social initiative that Solankis are working on is empowering domestic help. At present, there is no fixed wage structure for people working as domestic help in our households. In pursuit of streamlining this otherwise unorganized employment, Ek Udaan is working towards a proper salary structure for domestic help and conduct programmes and workshops for the overall development of them, among many other things.
Read E-Magazine : Rajesh Solanki – March 21
