The slow discovery that giving back is not a chapter of a life, but the thread that stitches all the other chapters together.
Snapshot
- Not just a philanthropy platform, but the home of happiness!
- Pahel was formalised as a philanthropy platform in 2019 – after years of discretionary community work. Built on the global Pledge 1% commitment. Renamed Ignite
- Three pillars: Learning, Skill Development, and Sustainability
- Making a difference through grassroots action, community service, and funding
- Ahaan Learning Centres — 3,000+ children across 25+ centres
- Ahaan Vocational Centre — 2,500+ trained, with 3× to 5× documented household income increases
- Ahaan BFSI — 500+ youth trained; 77% placed at HDFC Bank, SBI Card, and Bank of Baroda
- Happy Periods — 10,000+ women reached; 1 million+ sanitary pads distributed
- Sabarmati Saheli — 60+ women inmates trained and manufacturing biodegradable pads inside Sabarmati Jail
- Movember — global men’s health campaign across all Infostretch offices
- Breast Cancer Awareness, Habitat for Humanity, and Food Bank drives — community action across US and UK offices
- Paint the School — one of India’s most loved volunteer activities
- Senior Empowerment programme across India and the US
- IndiaShield COVID engagement — 200,000+ lives supported
- 20,000+ trees planted globally across 10+ cities
- Ignite later expanded to lead the company’s ESG agenda. Rated B+ by CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project); ISO 14001 and ISO 14064 certified
- Slow Fashion Week – One of the most unique initiatives to promote sustainable living
- 300+ Ignite volunteers across India, the UK, and the US; 500,000 lives touched across the full arc
- Recognition: ICC Award for Social Impact; Best Skill Development Programme of the Year; 1st Runner-Up, Doing Good For Bharat Awards
The Journey
मंज़िलों की नहीं चाहत,
चिंगारी जलाना, रास्ते बनाना और राह दिखाना ही हमारी क़िस्मत है
We do not crave destinations. To kindle sparks, build roads, and show the way — this is our destiny.
I sometimes joke that I did not choose philanthropy — I was wired that way.
I was born into a Jain household where seva is at the heart of faith. My mother had a line she used often: Mandir jaana achha hai, daan bhi achha hai — lekin sachchi bhakti gareeb ki seva mein hai. Visiting a temple is good, donating is good — but true devotion is in serving the poor. From Deepchand Gardi, I absorbed another line that quietly became a rule: eat only after having fed one life. My godmother Prof. Manjiri Gondhalekar gave me the operating principle. Every time I thanked her, she would say: If A does good for you, don’t return it to A. Give it to B. And B will give it to C. That is how the world works.
Pay it forward. Three words. A life’s instruction.
Over the years, this calcified into something I now find I cannot unthink: my joy comes from service, my meaning from impact, my identity from giving. Philanthropy is not a chapter. It is the thread.
The founding question
At Magnet, we gave back through Utkarsh and GujaratiLexicon. At Infostretch, the commitment to community began on Day 1 — the Gandhian poster at the reception was one of the reasons I joined, and our first NGO collaboration was with Manav Sadhana, with our first event held at Gandhi Ashram.
For many years after that, we did meaningful work in children’s education, senior citizen care, and women’s empowerment — but all of it was discretionary. That was the beauty of Infostretch: beautiful minds coming together for great causes, without being asked.
When I returned from London, we decided to give the work formal shape. The founders of Infostretch — Rutesh Shah and Manish Mathuria — committed the company to the global Pledge 1% movement: 1% of time, product, profits, and equity to charitable causes.
I sent an internal email asking for volunteers. Looking back, that email probably changed my life more than any business announcement I have ever written. Geetanjali Sahni replied first. Then Zil Shah. Then Krunal Sagan. Then others. Log saath judte gaye aur karwaan ban gaya. People kept joining, and the caravan was formed.
The founding principle was stated simply and meant exactly: No official group. No mandate. No rewards. Pahel is a happiness project that brings the amazing goodness that lies within us. Seeds never see the flowers.
Pahel itself was born in a car driving through Ahmedabad. Children came to the window at a traffic signal. Rutesh turned and said: We see these kids every day. We feel bad, we give some coins. But what if we actually did something meaningful for them?
That single question became Pahel — first step in Hindi and Gujarati.
Pahel became Ignite — keeping the spark metaphor that runs through every programme name. Three pillars: Learning, Skill Development, Sustainability. Three modes of action: Funding, Talent, Community Service. One aspiration: don’t just do acts of charity. Build a culture of giving.
Ahaan — the first ray of light
Ahaan — अहान — means the first ray of light. It was the right name.
The first centre opened at Shivranjani in Ahmedabad, with Geetanjali leading the build-out and our NGO partner Shwas on the ground. The children were the very ones we had driven past for years — at traffic signals, construction sites, and migrant settlements. The first weeks were hard. They were not used to chairs. They were not used to being asked questions.
Then we brought them to the Apexon office on Thursdays. They saw the air conditioning, the coffee machine, the laptops. One child asked me: Yahaan kaam karne ke liye kya karna padta hai? Kya main yahan kaam kar sakta hoon? What does it take to work here? Can I work here?
That question was the exact mindset shift we had been working toward — from Is this world for people like us? to How do I enter this world? The same children who had been involved in petty theft at traffic lights began helping senior citizens into auto-rickshaws. Their posture changed. Their language changed. Their trajectory changed.
As of the end of 2025, Ahaan runs across 25+ centres with 3,000+ children, a curriculum that includes STEM Labs, Bridge Courses, and Life Experiences — first metro rides, first cinema halls, first airport visits. One child at a time.
Ahaan Vocational Centre and Ahaan Sangini
The Ignite work never happened in isolation. Alongside educating children, we recognised an equally urgent need to equip young people and women with skills for the real world. We introduced Ahaan Vocational Centre to provide skill development and create economic opportunities for the youth from less privileged areas. The idea is to empower them to gain financial independence, support their families and rise above their current socio-economic environment.
Through a mixture of theoretical and practical education, extensive training is provided on emerging vocational and marketable skills. Industry interactions, field visits and soft skills training are an integral part of the course design.
2,500+ women and men got trained, with 3× to 5× household income increases documented. The beauty parlour programme produced remarkable entrepreneurs, with mentors like Archana nurturing budding business owners through challenges that were often as much about confidence as craft.
The results were amazing. The first thing one woman bought with her new income was a washing machine. A husband who had not previously noticed his wife’s contribution began to notice. The respect inside the household shifted.
Three women — Kusum, Rita, and Sejal — walked into the centre, learned beauty techniques, and two years later opened their own parlour. They called it Ahaan Sangini. Each now earns ₹15,000–20,000 a month.
Skills. Courage. And a little spark.
Sabarmati Saheli — dignity inside the wall
The most singular Ignite initiative unfolded inside Sabarmati Women’s Prison — the historic jail in Ahmedabad where Mahatma Gandhi was once incarcerated.
In partnership with the Karma Foundation, we established a biodegradable sanitary pad manufacturing unit inside the jail. Women inmates are trained, paid, and integrated into the Happy Periods supply chain. The curriculum expanded to include beauty, computer training, fashion design, tailoring, and soft skills. Convocations were held with the same pride and ceremony found at any educational institution — certificates awarded, families present.
One trainee — KP — said what has become the soul of the entire programme:
Sir, aaj main sirf jail ki bandi nahi — ek student hoon. Ahaan ne mujhe student ki identity di.
Sir, today I am not just a prison inmate — I am a student. Ahaan gave me the identity of a student.
That sentence is what dignity sounds like.
Ahaan BFSI & Digital Skills — the newest chapter of Ahaan Vocational Centre
In October 2023, we took vocational training to its next level with the launch of Ahaan BFSI — preparing youth from underserved backgrounds for careers in banking and financial services, with exposure visits to GIFT City, BSE Institute, and major banks. Within its first year: 500+ youth trained, 77% placed at HDFC Bank, SBI Card, and Bank of Baroda. It won Best Skill Development Programme of the Year at the 2024 national industry awards.
A young man came to me at his bank orientation. Sir, pehli baar mera apna ID card bana hai. Sir, for the first time, I have my own ID card. To most people, a small statement. To him, it was belonging.
As the programme matured, Ahaan skill centres expanded into digital skills — coding literacy, digital financial tools, and computer fundamentals — and wherever possible, vertical integration was built in, connecting training directly to placement pipelines and self-employment opportunities.
Happy Periods, IndiaShield, and the trees
Happy Periods was an idea from the Ignite Team. They wanted to promote menstrual wellness and period positivity among girls and women in underserved schools and communities. Everyone brainstormed and we created a unique approach – workshop, interaction and fun!
The delicate topic of menstruation is discussed through a mixture of fun activities, experience sharing, open Q&A and distribution of ‘Happy Period’ kits.
Happy Periods reached 10,000+ women directly and through Sabarmati Saheli association, we distributed 1 million+ sanitary pads — but the real achievement was conversation. When stigma is replaced by understanding, empowerment follows.
The IndiaShield COVID engagement — deploying engineers and infrastructure to a citizen-led volunteer network across 150 cities — touched 200,000+ lives. That engagement has its own dedicated page.
And quietly, in the background of all of it: 20,000+ trees planted globally across 10+ cities. A healthy future requires healthy communities and a healthy planet.
The ESG chapter — planet as stakeholder
As Ignite matured, environmental responsibility became its own serious programme, led with conviction and rigour by Dr. Heli Patel.
Apexon’s environmental disclosures were submitted to and rated by the CDP — the Carbon Disclosure Project, the global gold standard for corporate climate transparency — with a target of achieving an A rating by 2027. The company committed to Net Zero by 2050, set hard targets on carbon footprint, water consumption, e-waste, and paper consumption, and earned ISO 14001:2015 certification for Environmental Management Systems and ISO 14064 for Greenhouse Gas accounting.
The Green Office programme was specific and serious: solar panels, rainwater harvesting, food waste management, minimal single-use plastic, e-waste management, an EV charging facility, and a tree-embraced office environment. New offices in Hyderabad and Chennai were specifically selected for their renewable energy infrastructure.
But the most memorable ESG initiative was one nobody expected: Slow Fashion Week. In a world where fast fashion generates more carbon than aviation and shipping combined, Slow Fashion Week asked Apexers to wear, swap, repurpose, and celebrate what they already owned — making conscious consumption a lived experience rather than a lecture. The response was enthusiastic in ways that sustainability campaigns often are not, because it asked people to participate rather than abstain.
On Earth Day 2025 — under the global theme Our Power, Our Planet — Ignite renewed its public commitment to renewable energy and climate action. The planet was not an afterthought. It was a pillar.
Movember — men’s health, worn with pride
One of Ignite’s most joyful campaigns was also one of its most global. Movember — the international movement where participants grow moustaches through November to raise awareness about prostate cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention — arrived at Infostretch and immediately became something larger than a campaign.
It went genuinely global. Santa Clara competed with Ahmedabad. The East Coast competed with Pune. Bangalore competed with everyone. 700+ Infoneers participated. 300+ posts were shared on internal channels, read approximately 75,000 times, and liked around 3,000 times in a single month. Female Infoneers participated as enthusiastically as the men — which was, in the end, the real point.
Men’s health is still underloved as a cause in India. Ignite Movember was a small, memorable act of attention.
Movemeber became an annual tradition across our offices.
The wider canvas
Special initiatives ran alongside the flagship programmes throughout the years: painting schools, food distribution at construction sites, bag distribution drives, Run/Walk for a Cause events, field visits, and buttermilk distribution in summer. ACE running club. Painting competitions. Paint the School became one of the most beloved activities in India — volunteers transforming bare walls into bright, story-filled spaces that children walked into differently the next morning. Across the US and UK, the canvas widened further: Breast Cancer Awareness campaigns, Habitat for Humanity builds, and Food Bank drives wove Ignite into local communities far beyond India’s borders. Each one small in isolation. Collectively, the texture of what a volunteer culture looks like when it is genuinely alive.
The people who were Ignite
“Movements are never built by founders. They are built by believers.”
Ignite was never one person’s project. It was its volunteers.
The senior citizen programme — visiting old-age homes, spending Diwali and Christmas with residents who no longer had families nearby — was carried with particular love in the US by Mona and Ketki, the spouses of founders Rutesh and Manish, working alongside Padmini, Avani, and the US Ignite team. This was the quietest Ignite programme and in many ways the most tender. No metric captures what it means to sit with an elderly person during a festival and simply be present.
Happy Periods found its energy in a remarkable group of volunteers who showed up for women’s health without being asked twice. Zil Shah wPahel was formalised as a philanthropy platform in 2019 – after years of discretionary community work. Built on the global Pledge 1% commitment. Renamed Igniteas the key driver with active and equal support of Krunal in shaping the program. Mansi and Ashwani brought their own drive and networks. Pooja, Rashmi, Chinar, and Kavita carried the work across workshops in schools and villages, pad kits assembled and transported, and conversations that broke silences which had held for too long. When the numbers reached 10,000 women and 1 million pads, every one of those hands was behind the count. Krunal and Zil spearheaded the Movember campaign as well.
Kashish and Charu played key roles in holding Ignite’s operational fabric together — the coordination, the logistics, and the hundred small things that never appear in impact reports but without which nothing ships.
Our location leaders were the rockstars – Venkat, Smita, Sejal, Mahima, Divya, Nitin and so many others.
Shaping Ignite’s future: Pravin — our rock, dependable, calm, precise, whose return to Ignite felt like a quiet blessing — and Dr. Heli Patel, our force of nature, who took the ESG and sustainability dimension to an entirely new level of rigour and ambition. Together, they are not maintaining what was built. They are building the next version of it.
The NGO partners who carried more daily weight than anyone inside the company: Anjali Tai and Rohiniji at Swadhar, Prakashbhai at Karma Foundation, Kanika and Puja at BharatCares, Kinjal at Shwas, Venkatji at MV Foundation, Raju and Deepti at Jeevan Tirth — and many more. The names belong on the wall.
And Geetanjali Sahni. She was there from the first reply to that founding email. She built the vision alongside me, elevated it with her change-the-game mindset, and when I stepped back in August 2025, the programmes did not stop, the budget did not shrink, and the volunteers did not drift. She had been ready for longer than either of us had said aloud.
None of this happened from a distance. Rutesh Shah, Sriniketh Srinivasan, and the full CXO leadership were present — not as patrons, but as participants. When leadership shows up with their hands in the work, it tells every volunteer that this is real. That signal mattered.
A platform that depends on its founding team is not a platform. Ignite passed that test.
What it taught me
Philanthropy is a discipline, not an emotion. Heart is the starting point. Process is what makes it scale.
The volunteer is the true unit of impact. More than 500,000 lives were touched because over 300 people showed up—repeatedly, on their own time, without being asked twice. Every volunteer who stepped in changed lives.
Seeds never see the flowers. Most of the children who asked Can I work here? have not yet arrived at the answer. Most of the flowers from the work done across these years have not yet bloomed. The volunteer who planted the seed will likely never know. The flower blooms anyway.
हमें शोहरत की ख़्वाहिश नहीं, बस रौशनी की है किसी को मत बताना, ये दिए हमने जलाए हैं
We do not crave fame, only light. Tell no one — these lamps were lit by us.
Years from now, I may not remember every meeting I attended or every target I achieved.
But I will always remember the child who asked if he could one day work in our office.
The woman who bought her first washing machine.
The inmate who became a student.
The volunteer who quietly planted a seed.
That is what remains.
Living is giving.
— Ash