The son of an NMC peon is today a leading businessman of the city. More than the rags to riches story, Pramod Manmode’s life is inspirational demostrating how hard work and determination are sure to succeed. A swim against the tide, all his life he struggled hard. Not many who see his success realize the sacrifices he made. When children of his age were on playgrounds, Manmode had to do small jobs to support family. being eldest of the five siblings.“The confidence that honesty, sincerity and sticking to right path always yields good results kept me going,” says the 53-year-old Manmode who never gave up. Today he heads an urban cooperative bank, a credit cooperative society with branches across five states, a ginning and spinning factory, real estate business, a retail chain and healthcare unit. For someone doing odd jobs ranging from shop assitant to bartending, today he employs over 5000 people.“ Failures never bog me down. I get up to try harder to succeed,” he told ToI in an interview. Excerpts:Q. As a child did you dream big and who was your inspiration?A. I was the eldest of four brothers and a sister, my father worked as a peon in Nagpur Municipal Corporation and life as a kid was drudgery. Parents were not educated and had meagre resources. A typical day began with milking cows at home, running errands, somehow going to school and again back to work as a kirana shop assistant, pan shop help, waiter at a liquor bar to support the family. I hardly ever got the time to look around for inspiration. So amid all the struggles, I did flunk SSC board exams. There was no question of getting another chance. Dreaming of getting rich quickly never occurred.Q. How did you get out of the rut of poverty and deprivation?A. Having seen harsh realities of life early and from close quarters made me tough. The fact that I had no godfather, I knew only hard work could see me through. I started working as a small savings collection agent for the NMC cooperative bank and cycled through the city to collect savings from vendors and traders. All that earned me a royal income of less than Rs100 a month. But each day I learnt something new. That good service earns goodwill and trust. So, soon I along with couple of friends started a credit society in the informal sector. My earnings funded my further education and that of my siblings too. As I entered college, I got a job as an ad hoc typist in All India Radio. But my entrepreneurial spirit got only stronger with time. Within ten years of starting the credit society, I registered my cooperative society. My goodwill helped in garnering share capital and thus began my journey into banking sector. In 1989 I started the Nirmal Ujjwal Co-operative bank and NCP chief Sharad Pawar inaugurated it at Nandanvan. Today the bank has four branches in the city. The cooperative society with 1.20 lakh members has 70 branches.Q. What made you enter real estate and housing sector?A. I had a chance to bid at a government auction of a spinning mill land in east Nagpur. I bought 21 acres of land for Rs12.5 crore with a plan to build affordable houses for members of Normal Ujjwal Co-operative Society in 2005. By 2012 the housing project was complete and Nirmal Nagri with 1,000 residential units was ready. I sold houses in Nandavan area at low price of Rs1,050 a sq ft. The housing scheme boasts of several new facilities, including a day-care health centre where diagnostic services are provided at 50% of market rates. Then a retail chain of departmental store was launched.Q. Was it a one-way street to success after the humble start?A. I have had my share of failures. Like the Nirmal Ujwal Marathi daily that I had to stop printing within a year because of the inherent problems in the business. A dairy business had to be closed down because of lack of support from the government. What makes me happy is that I never took shortcut as I knew sticking to path of truth and values bring lasting gains.Q. And now a ginning and spinning factory when others in the business were winding it up?A. I had a licence for an agro-processing unit and thought a ginning and spinning factory would be help cotton growers. I offer higher price to farmers and buy from them. The unit was set up in a record 14 months after I acquired 43 acres of farm land at Kondhali on Amravati Road last year. Construction work and installation of latest machines imported from Japan and Germany was completed well before the set deadline and the yarn production started in July this year. It employs 550 people, most of who are ferried from south Nagpur by buses. Till date, I have clocked a yarn turnover of Rs27 crore.Q. What else do you intend to do?A. Providing employment, serving people give me immense satisfaction. I want to do more for the farmers to help them supplement incomes. I have plans to fund a scheme for rural unemployed youth by facilitating setting up of poultries, goat farms and fish ponds. The spinning mill will be expanded to full-fledged textile mill that will produce products with ready market. I want to expand in health care too. I wish the state government is more proactive in encouraging local, home grown investors than scouting for outsiders. There is need to give faster clearances, cheaper power to make industry sustainable. I have also announced plans to contest Assembly elections from South Nagpur. After starting with the NCP from its year of inception 1999, I have shifted to the Congress in 2002. If the party does not nominate me, I will contest as an independent.

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