MBA Dropout Zeeshan Khan working towards sustainable development of society

On June 20, 2019, while addressing a joint session of the Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind had set a goal for the government to have 50K start-ups operating in the country by 2024. He probably had in mind young Indians like Zeeshan Khan.

Born on October 30, 1990, Zeeshan is an environmentalist and CEO of a multi-venture organisation, Beyond Smart Group, which is dedicated to working for sustainable development.

A resident of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Zeeshan decided to drop out of a coveted MBA course with a vision to do something that can make a difference to the society. He even worked in a call center before becoming a millionaire. Being really concerned with the environmental issues and upon realising that plastic was causing havoc in his state in 2017, he executed his vision into the state’s first waste plastic crushing centre. But he didn’t stop there. This dynamic young man went on to do several other activities that are helping to sustain our environment and are also making our cities more inhabitable.

One of these is again associated with plastic – that inevitable bane of modern life!

Zeeshan has introduced Plastic Donation Centers, with the first being launched in Bhopal, where it was inaugurated by Shri Jitu Patwari, Minister of Higher Education, Government of Madhya Pradesh. What makes this initiative more praiseworthy is that these centres will run as a charity. Zeeshan explains, “It will not only help us in recycling the plastic but will also work for employment and revenue generation by which the deprived sections of the society will benefit.”As per Zeeshan’s plan, these plastic donation centers will be established all over the country. At these centers, people can donate their plastic waste, which will be sold to these recycling centers. Some of the waste will also be used to create art installations for beautification of the city. 

One more step taken for improvement of Bhopal city’s ranking in terms of cleanliness and hygiene is the sensor-based “Smart Restroom Monitoring System”, introduced to monitor public toilets in real time. The sensors for this project have been developed by Beyondsmart Technologies Pvt. Ltd. During the first phase, the system would monitor 100 toilets in Bhopal.

In addition to this, Beyond Smart Group is active in a variety of industries like Infrastructure, Manpower, Automobile, Technology, Medical, Food & Art. Through Beyond Smart Group, Zeeshan wants the business to contribute through sustainable growth, knowledge excellence and exemplary governance practices.

In the present times of COVID-19 pandemic, Zeeshan has also started #DisposeSafely campaign to make people aware about the safe disposal of mask and gloves after using in order to prevent the spread of virus.

Today, Zeeshan works in affiliation with the state government on a variety of projects, which has brought him a lot of recognition, including being awarded by a number of organizations. Some of these are -

1. MP Ratna Award-2018
2. World Environment Day Hero-2019
3. India Leadership Award 2019
4. Raja Bhoj Udyog Ratna Award 2020
5. Swachhata Brand Ambassador of Bhopal 2020

Due to his innovative thinking and caring nature for the environment, Zeeshan is quite popular on social media too. His presence on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

On the business front, Zeeshan is all set for a big, million-dollar investment in India & UAE along with his Dubai-based Venture partner in the field of Technology, Art and Private Jet travel industry. He is going to begin work on the same after the lockdown is over.

All we can say is that our country needs motivated and inspiring youngsters like Zeeshan Khan to take it into the future!

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Forbes India journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.