Santosh worked in USA, Europe (UK, Poland etc.), South Africa and India for large corporations and start ups such as Citibank, i2 Technologies, Vistaar etc. for more than seventeen years before starting Pipal Tree ventures.
He co-founded Pipal Tree Ventures Pvt. Ltd. in November 2007, to devote his full time for the social cause.
Pipal Tree Ventures focus is on helping rural families to improve their income by way of providing market aligned skill training to rural youth / women with employment / self employment. Pipal Tree Ventures runs 43 residential training schools in villages across 8 states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Most of the training centers are located in Left Wing Extremist (aka naxals) areas such as Kalahandi (in Odisha). Pipal Tree trains school drop outs from these villages for the skills in the construction industry. The skills include Painting, Plumbing, Tiling, Masonry, Steel Fixing, Truck Drivers, Heavy Equipment Operators, Plant and machinery Operators, Toll Operators, Surveyors etc. All these youths are given organized jobs with the large construction companies. Pipal Tree ensures that all its youth get social benefits such as PF, uniforms, medical insurance and good career path after training.
For Girls in Villages, Pipal Tree provides skill training in Retail, Warehousing, Healthcare and BFSI sector and provides them local employment. While for rural women and elderly population, Pipal Tree provide skill training in agri allied domain such as Honey Bee Keeping, Neem oil production, Goat Farming etc. and help them set up their own production units with market linkages.
In last 15 years Pipal Tree has given jobs to more than 200,000 youth and women across India and intends to provide jobs to 1,000,000 youth and women in next five years.
Recognition and Affiliation:
1. Pipal Tree Ventures is affiliated to National skill Development Council (NSDC).
2. Pipal Tree Ventures was covered by CNBC TV18 in an exclusive episode of LIME 2016.
3. Pipal Tree Ventures was featured in various well known magazines and newspapers which include Construction work, Outlook and others.
4. Pipal Tree Ventures has received various awards which include Sankalp Award from Intellecap, UK India skill Forum Award and Jeevika Award from Bihar government.
5. Pipal Tree Ventures has been personally recognized by well known dignitaries such as Hon. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Hon. Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Hon. Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, Hon. Madam Sonia Gandhi, Hon. Mr. Nishish Kumar, Hon. Mr. Akhileshji Yadav, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla and many more
6. Santosh is also invited as a guest lecturer and speaker on various topics related to entrepreneurship at IIM, S P Jain Institute of Management studies, VJTI and various other prominent educational institutions.