A New Look

When you enter the office of Revive Enterprise, Mumbai, what you see is a scene totally different than the usual one at a company office. There is the same
hustle-bustle in the office with everyone running around with some chore or the other, but when you look closely you will notice the minute differences
between a normal office setting and this one. A quirky receptionist asking you to wait around, the phone ringing and the click of the computer keys, but
what is different is that the computer keyboard is in Braille, the phone ringing has Braille writings on it and the receptionist asking you to wait is
vision impaired. Surprised? Don't be as this is just one example of the new ventures that a daring set of entrepreneurs are taking up.

Karan Thakur, founder of Revive Enterprise, Mumbai says, "At Revive, we hire only visually-impaired people to work as our front line as well as back line
staff. When I wanted to start off with this business idea, I can't name a single person who supported the idea or didn't scoff over it. However, I was
adamant to prove them all wrong and went ahead with my plans. Even if these people are vision-impaired, they have immense potential and with the right
kind of training, they can be absorbed into the mainstream professional world instead of pushing them to sidelines and treating them as 'disabled' people
with no sense of the real world." Revive is like a recruitment service for the visually impaired, kind of like a one stop for openings in big organisations,
wherein their candidates can be recruited.

Thakur, who recently quit his job with a leading HR firm in Delhi and came to Mumbai to set up this venture feels that the glass ceiling when it comes
to breaking the biases against differently-abled people are being taken forward by many people and organisations today. "I get call-backs from people who
have recruited someone from our company and they say that they are glad that they joined hands with us. Not only are these people hardworking as you or
me, but their shortcomings give them an unnatural sense of humour and zest for life; they take that to their jobs, thus also creating a friendly environment
all around where they work," says Thakur.

Another entrepreneur, Dhruv Lakra, quit his job at Meryll Lynch, Mumbai, to ultimately start off the business model of 'Mirackle Couriers'. The USP of
Mirackle is that there are only hearing-impaired people hired who work as delivery boys and at various other posts. Ask Lakra, if Mirackle is a social
entrepreneurship venture and he is pat to reply, "I don't get the distinguishing factors between entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship; I am running
a successful business model, which works on the same mantra of profit and loss, as any other organisation. So, no, I wouldn't call myself a social entrepreneur,
but an entrepreneur definitely.

The idea of starting this venture came about when I was sitting next to a hearing-impaired boy in the bus and he was communicating so beautifully by writing
and using sign language, so I thought, why not? That is the difference any which way between that person and me, and infact, he knows sign language and
I don't, so the idea of Mirackle took root." Today, Mirackle, even though it is a relatively new company, has a big portfolio to boast of with many biggies
believing and relying on the Mirackle boys to deliver their packages on time and aptly.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/Honing-the-skills-of-the-differently-abled/articleshow/5790048.cms