For a week in January, 60 students trekked around Karnataka in search of their leadership potential. This was LEAD PRAYANA. A major initiative of the Deshpande Foundation’s LEAD PROGRAM, LEAD PRAYANA was an eight day, 2000 kilometer, journey that introduced students to leaders and exceptional organizations. PRAYANA’s mission was to inspire in the youth population the courage and confidence to become leaders and change their society for the better. This year, participants of PRAYANA have been to 12 destinations, including Agumbe, Manipal, Dharmasthala, Mysore and Bangalore. They met and interacted with ROLE MODELS, such as Veerendra Heggade, Narayan Murthy and Gururaj Deshpande and learned how successful organizations, such as ARRS, Agastya and Infosys, operate.  These students made the choice to unleash their leadership potential on LEAD PRAYANA. 


On PRAYANA, the participants received valuable advice from all the speakers and Role Models.  Here are some examples:




Dr Veerendra Heggade : Always act natural. Don't pretend to be the person other people think you should be. Being natural will lead to success. 

• To help people you can't do a task for them. You have to teach them how to do that task, so they can continue to support themselves when you are gone and don't become dependent. 

N.R. Murthy: Failures allow you to learn and change your strategy to succeed later.  

• Education is not about knowing the right answer. It is about learning how to learn. 

'Desh' Deshpande: Passion drives success. Passion will lead to the ability to find solutions to problems.

• A good idea is a product plus services. 
• Social reliance has to be low affordability and on a large scale. 
• A solution is to empower the individual.