World was blind to see tech entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla's vision, but he had other ideas

Meet 27-year-old Srikanth Bolla. This Hyderabad native undertands the value of coming up the hard way. He was shunned as a child for being visually impaired. His teahcers had no faith in him, and would make him sit on the last bench; the establishment asked him to take arts because he was not 'good in maths and science'.

Yet Bolla, despite all that he endured, took it in his stride, and started Bolla Industries.

Bolla, who was born in 1992, to a family whose livelihood depended on farming, wanted to pursue science for Class 10+2, but wasn't permitted to do so because of his medical condition. He then filed a case and after six months, the court granted him permission to study science 'at his own risk'. He scored 98% in Class XII, but was denied entry into IITs.

Bolla then applied to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he became that college's first blind student.

“When the educational system in India rejected me because of my disability, MIT welcomed me with open arms. I will always be grateful to them," he said while speaking to The Times of India.

In the initial days after completing his graduation from MIT, he was given corporate opportunities in America, but he was looking for some innovative idea in India.

In 2012, Bolla started Bollant Industries, which manufactures Areca based products and provides employment to several hundred people with disabilities, with funding from Ratan Tata.

In April 2017, Bolla was named by Forbes magazine in its list of 30 under 30 across all of Asia, one of only three Indians in that list.

He also started a Braille printing press in the Samanvai Center for children with multiple disabilities in Hyderabad, India, which provides accessible educational material available to disabled students.